Alex Chediak

Helping young adults thrive at college and beyond

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Alex Chediak

Focus on the Family and TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie

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Sarah Pulliam Bailey of Christianity Today has the latest on Focus on the Family's interview of TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie.  Summary: 1. Focus President Jim Daly recorded an interview with Mycoskie in front of about 1,500 people on June 30 in Orange County, California at a "Style Your Sole" event. 2. After groups that disagree with the ministry over same-sex marriage and abortion criticized Mycoskie for appearing at the event, he apologized, saying, "Had I known the full extent of Focus on the Family’s beliefs, I would not have accepted the invitation to speak at their … [Read more...] about Focus on the Family and TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie

Learning to Thrive at College

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I wrote a guest post for the Desiring God blog about Thriving at College. Here's how it opens: College should be a temporary season of academic preparation and personal growth to propel a lifetime of effective service to God and neighbor. It should be a launching pad into all that goes with responsible Christian adulthood. Yet for some, it’s a time when they abandon the Christian faith, displaying that they never really belonged to Christ (1 John 1:19). For others, their faith remains intact, but they waste their college lives with video games, partying, and other frivolities—an expensive … [Read more...] about Learning to Thrive at College

The Education Reform Movement

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Great NYT article by David Brooks on the education reform movement, and how complaints that charter schools "only teach to the test" fall short: Teaching is humane. Testing is mechanistic. This is true, but look at which schools are most distorted by testing. As the education blogger Whitney Tilson has pointed out, the schools that best represent the reform movement, like the KIPP academies or the Harlem Success schools, put tremendous emphasis on testing. But these schools are also the places where students are most likely to participate in chess and dance. They are the places where they … [Read more...] about The Education Reform Movement

Loneliness and Social Media

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Great article by Tim Challies on how social media can supplant true friendship and  mask loneliness.  He writes of a study on a sort-of digital fast: Could you go just one day without checking e-mail? And without logging in to Facebook? And without using a cell phone? And without turning on your television? Could you go 24 hours without using any media at all? This was a question put forward by the International Center for Media and Public Affairs and a challenge accepted by 1,000 university students worldwide. An excerpt: Removing media exposed the tenuous nature of relationships in a … [Read more...] about Loneliness and Social Media