Thursday, October 26, 2006

A Christian World View Wikipedia ?


Anyone interested in starting a Christian World View Wikipedia ? One of Wikipedia's co-founders just started Citizendium -- basically Wikipedia with editing. Citizendium as a Wikipedia knock off with editing might provide an interesting model for such a project.

I note that the domain name christianpedia.org is available so far !

Christianpedia.org would require editor control to keep vandals out. My thinking is you could start the project with a dozen editors. Just take then content from Wikipedia and start cleaning it up.

Articles would be Non-Certified prior to editing and Christianpedia-Certified after editing.

Think of the possibilities if every school kid or or teacher at a Classical Christian School could make contributions to this Christianpedia, which would post subsequent to editorial review. Now there's a Christian Army !

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Teaching Logic to my kids

My children attend public high schools here in Williamson County.

My wife and I are seriously considering moving the youngest into a Classical School next year -- where they teach the old "trivium" of grammar, rhetoric, and logic.

We've decided to make a "dramatic" family change. TV is GONE for the next 3 months while we spend one evening a week -- are you ready for this -- studying LOGIC as a family. My wife is not sure it will work, but I think it will.

We will be using Doug Wilson's Introduction to Logic. Anyone have any ideas ?

Thinking of a 2 hour session on Wednesday nights.

15 minutes of "MindBenders" , followed by an hour of one of the 36 lessons with exercises in Wilson's book followed by 45 minutes of .... well not sure, maybe reading the classics ? The Bible ? De Toqueville's Democracy in America ?

Stay tuned.

Random Comments About the Writing Process


My friend Keith Raffel provides an excellent example of how to complete the process of being a first time writer with style and class.

I mention him because his new book, a mystery titled "Dot Dead" , has gotten rave reviews. His website has a blog of his activities related to promoting the book, so I think I will model my blog on his.

But in my blog, you will see the writing process at an earlier stage.

My novel, "Fort Desperate", is at the second draft stage. I've gotten through my first twenty agent rejections, and have decided to send a query letter to a regional publisher -- Pelican -- that I think will have an interest in the book. We'll see.

More details on the book can be found at my web site: www.michaelpatrickleahy.com