Petrus Paulus Vergerius, (1370-1444) educator, doctor of medicine and canon law wrote what has become known as the preeminent Renaissance treatise on education wherein he asserted that "what can we do better than gather our books around us... to see unfolded before us vast stores of knowledge, for our delight, it may be, or for our inspiration." Every educator has bemoaned the struggle to fill heads with knowledge and to that end, in my English composition class this term, the students worked on deciphering the rhetorical devices of John F. Kennedy's Inaugural speech. Most had never been taught about communism so they could not understand Kennedy's exhortation to the newly independent African and Asian countries not to fall prey to "a far more iron tyranny" and seek "power by riding the back of the tiger" only to end up inside the beast. Thus, I exposed them to the real-life stories of people who lived under communism. These poignant and...(Read Full Article)