Professor, School of Education
Director of Secondary Social Studies Education
I have been married to my wife, Heather, since 1995 and we have two children, both named after historical figures.
I graduated from PBU in 1994 and then served as a high school history teacher in Central Virginia for twelve years.
In 2005 I was awarded the Lynchburg City “Teacher of the Year.” I am thankful for the impact my students
have had on my career and on my family. While living in VA I became an avid mountain trail runner, enjoying over 20
extreme ultra-running races (distances of 30+ miles on trails and mountains). The experience of being alone on trails
with breath-taking panoramas makes it a very spiritual endeavor! Recently, I ran my annual birthday run (38 miles)
on the trails at Bald-Pate Mountain Nature Preserve and the Delaware-Ruritan Canal Path in New Jersey.
January 31, 2010
Oration on the Dignity of J-Term
The title of this entry comes from the speech written by the Renaissance philosopher named Giovanni Pico della Mirandola called The Oration on the Dignity of Man. This speech was one of the first primary sources required for my World Civilizations II class.
However, the title echoes the sentiment in which I shared with the class on the last day. The members of the class truly had joined “The Great Conversation”. They read the works of the great thinkers (e.g. Galileo, Locke, Calvin, Luther, More, Darwin, Robespierre, Smith, Owen, Wollstonecraft, Shelley, Voltaire, Rousseau, Copernicus, Montaigne, Rabelais, Bruni, Rand, Erasmus, Wordsworth, Marx) of the last 500 years and wondered, as they had, about humanity, government, theology, authority, freedom, money, genetics, tabula rasa, the arts, music, architecture, literacy, technology, nature, poetry, innovation, work, war, exploration, astronomy, biology, time, among many others. They invested in the class and in each other and ultimately joined one another in our journey through time.
Below is a response to an assignment from one of the students. I think he puts to words our two weeks together. The questions he is responding to precede the response. Enjoy!
Out of all the discussions, questions, and/or processing activities, which one intrigued you the most and altered or challenged your thinking?
I guess I can’t say all of them. I might lean toward the discussion I had with Holly after the movie night for Contact regarding dogma’s reliance on inquiry for validity and, well, existence, but I’ve referred to that already. Mr. Caminiti’s (symphony director and professor in the school of music) lecture wasn’t so much challenging as it was elating (and encouraging; I loved seeing “non-musicians” getting engaged and excited). Perhaps then our discussion of greed in society, which led me to further consider whether my ideals are really in line with American ideals whatsoever. But, I’ll entertain my fancy for broader questions.
In Swing Kids, Herr Knopp says to Peter, “It’s better to know what you’re agreeing to Peter, before you become part of something.” This caused me to wonder, by accepting life, aren’t we all agreeing to a part of the human race? Of course, as life continues, we may accept membership of a nation, a religion, a relationship and countless other things, but at this fundamental level of humanity I see reason and charge for every person who is able to study world history. As Dostoevsky stated, “Mankind as a whole has always striven to organize a universal state.” Perhaps that is not completely true, but I do believe that mankind generally desires to see conflict resolved, truth sought, and borders obsolete. For such desire to be pursued, mustn’t we all understand the state of the world, and to understand the state of the world at present mustn’t we give thorough consideration to what man comes from and what he has done?
January 20, 2010
The Met
Back in December a dozen students, my daughter, and I traveled to Manhattan to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Rockefeller Center. Most of us had never been to the Met before. We all knew they had an amazing collection but our jaws dropped when we actually were able to walk among the works of art. Here are some of the student summaries of the day:
It was great just getting to hang out with other social studies majors. Who else could play Famous Painting Charades on the train? And the paintings and mass WOW! They were awesome.
Our trip to the Met in NYC was such a great cultural experience! I got a chance to see some artists that I would have never expected to see. Georgia O'Keeffe and Jackson Pollock were the most outstanding. There were also paintings there that are usually overlooked by art books like "The Cathedrals of Wall Street" by Florine Stettheimer which represents great American economists as gods in a Pantheon. It raised so many good questions about how Americans view economics and capitalism."
On our Saturday trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York we saw The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David. When it was first unveiled it inspired thousands of Parisians to stand up for freedom of thought and inquiry in the face of traditional authorities like the French Monarchy and the Catholic Church (which had for centuries dictated what was and what was not acceptable forms of thought). Creative and thoughtful individuals like David gave flesh to ideas, and ingrained Enlightenment values in the subconscious of society through his paintings. He helped prepare a generation for revolution, and the world would never be the same. I cannot help but look at it and consider the transmission of ideas through the arts, and the power of those ideas to mold and shape the progression of human history, to shape us as humans.
My nine year old daughter enjoyed the museum especially the Egyptian and Classical Greek and Roman collections. She had an extra incentive however. Two blocks away from St. Patrick’s Cathedral is the famous American Girl Shop.
We had an additional bonus for the day as well. As we were leaving the museum it began to snow.
November 29, 2009
Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
The November book club met last Saturday evening. My wife and I knew there were going to be a few more than we normally have hosted, and were a bit nervous about whether we would have enough food. More people just kept coming and fortunately the food too! We had 25 adults attending the discussion of C.S. Lewis’ book. Our group consisted of PBU students, alumni, professors, spouses of students, and local church attendants. The diversity around the table in ages and backgrounds enlightened the conversation tremendously.
The discussion was stimulating and after touching on topics such as education, theology, biblical interpretations and scholarship, history, and literature we found ourselves in the parking lot having a discussion about the discussion, planning on meeting again to delve deeper.
The next discussion will be on Friday December 11 at 5:30 pm in the basement of Newtown Community Church. We will be reading John Krakauer’s book Into the Wild. If you are interested in joining us please email me at cpalladino@pbu.edu.
November 19, 2009
Growing Up: Making a Difference
Several times a semester at PBU, we divide into majors and schools for chapel. This semester I volunteered to share some thoughts in one of these gatherings. Here are some highlights:
Have you ever wondered if you are fulfilling your true goals, objectives, and ambitions? Or has life been some quixotic chase of an impossible dream? When you were a child were you ever asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” How did you answer? I am in my 39th year and I have often wondered how close I have come to my childhood target. As I ponder the question, my wonderment returns and transcends time to a classroom in the distant past, to a person who thought seriously about his future.
Many years ago, my teacher asked the class, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” This question resounded in my mind. Having five older siblings, I witnessed people going off to college or work, so I knew this was serious. I racked my brain for ideas. I wanted a career that would make heads turn! Someone who can make a difference. What could I be?
We would share our ideas with the class. As a shy kid, I felt even more pressure. I began writing feverishly. One occupation after another crossed my mind. Astronaut? Policeman? Fireman? President? Doctor? Newsie? Even the earnest desire of many school-age children, Professional athlete, was examined and dismissed. Nervously I glanced at the clock with sweat dampening my palms. A-HA! I got it! Why didn’t I think of it first? A superhero!
Now that I was moving in the right direction, I was immediately confronted with another dilemma … Which one? How do I choose? I wanted to be the good guy, fighting crime, helping out, being strong … That’s it! Superman! This guy had a lot going for him. He could fly, was impenetrable, had laser vision, and was the leader of the Superfriends. However, I had to reconsider this option when I remembered he’s not even human. Plus most of the time he just solved crimes with brute strength. Who else could I be?
Aquaman! I have always wanted to be an able swimmer. Living in northeast Philadelphia I could become the neighborhood champ of underwater tag in our three-foot round above ground pools and a lifeguarding job in Wildwood looked like a sure thing. I was feeling proud until his weaknesses began glaring like the sun in the Gobi Desert. He had no means of transportation, and what was I going to do during the winter? How would I stop crime in the middle of the city? I would have to stay in Love Park! Disappointed, I wished I could just run … run??? The word sparked a hero … Flash!
Yes, this was the one for me. I would be unstoppable on the playgrounds and I could probably be a pro-athlete if I wanted. Wait! I could see it now. I think I would end up being the Errand Boy as I was asked to run down to the store for some butter before the toast popped. And what if I tripped? That would be one nasty scrape. I frowned. Another possibility blown away by inconvenience, earthly pride, or the lack of precipitation. I peered out the window and was instantly reassured. The web glistened and my hope returned.
Spiderman! He can swing through the air and has the strength of 20 men. Besides, he lived in a row home in the big city … I could relate to that. I always admired his witty charm, his work-ethic, and his Uncle Ben’s adage, “with great power comes great responsibility.” I smiled but only briefly. What about his spider disease? Let alone his archenemies the Scorpion, the Chameleon, and the Vulture? Too many animal nightmares for me!
The teacher brought me back to my senses, “Five Minutes!” What was I going to do? I wrote and crossed off hero after hero. Hawkman? The wings! Beast? The fur! Nightcrawler? Too blue! Magneto? He is a villain! Atom? Too small! Underdog? He’s an animal! I heard the teacher again, “One more minute …”
Today, I reflect on the choices I made and the aspirations I envisioned. When I think back on the days I dreamed of being a superhero, I realize my childhood idealism and quest to make a difference hasn’t faded. As I grew older I recognized that I do not need to be able to fly, breathe underwater, run like lightning, or shoot webbing from wrist apparatuses to make a difference.
You see, I am a teacher! Now, I cannot envision myself doing anything else. The intangible rewards of teaching, maybe like a superhero, are unequaled. So, if you want to make a difference in people’s lives, if you want to see a gleam in a student’s eye, if you want to assist others in reaching their fullest potential and help them find their own calling, if you want to cry along with and celebrate others, if you want (as the peace corps says and in some ways the description of a hero) to have the toughest job you’ll ever love, then you have chosen well!
November 15, 2009
Field Trip!
Over the summer, a former student, now a youth pastor in New Jersey, came over for dinner with his fiancé, a social studies education major. We met several semesters ago when he took my History of American Pop Culture class. Since then we stayed in touch and have worked together on a few ideas. During the meal, we hatched a plan to combine his youth group with PBU social studies majors and a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In early November our plan finally came to fruition.
I led a group of students from my Life and Calling class along with five social studies education majors to mass at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul and then to the Museum of Art. There, we met the youth group from New Jersey. We broke up into groups with each of the undergraduate social studies majors leading a group of students through the museum discussing questions about beauty, worship of God through art, the need for man to create, and realism, among many others. That evening one of the teens from the youth group, due to the experience, declared that she was moved to worship Christ through her art and decided to paint a canvas.
I was pleased with the entire experience as several of my students saw new value in the use of art in the social studies and were able to gain experience leading tours of art museums. I was delighted that one of our former students was willing to think outside of the normal “youth group” experiences for his group. I was also excited for the possibilities that lay ahead for us as we continue to look for ways to engage God’s world.
November 12, 2009
Image of God: Out of the Dust
Last week, I shared in a three-way chapel presentation with Drs. Putnam and Toews revolving around the idea of the Image of God. Here are some thoughts from my address.
- The Holy Scriptures tell us that Man is made in the image of God. In the book of Genesis we read of man’s creation in chapter 1:
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,” … And shortly thereafter, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”.
But MAN is also made out of the DUST. In chapter 2:
“the LORD God formed the man [e] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being”.
So, the Bible clearly states that we were created by God, in his own image, out of the dust. Funeral services based on the English Book of Common Prayer contain the familiar phrase: - “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust” Even the line “All we are is dust in the wind” became a haunting metaphor sung by the classic rock group Kansas. But what is this DUST?
In Sunday school, I memorized the patented answer to the question What is man? “He is made in the image of God: Man is made with Intellect, Emotions, and a Will.”
But … what does that mean? What do these questions mean as it relates to other questions? I wondered how these questions have led to other questions and what those questions would be. How has man approached these paradoxes in the past, and how did the answers shape periods of time, philosophies, works of literature and art, and relationships in society. How did man address this mystery … What is man?
I was quickly drawn to Shakespeare’s tragic play Hamlet. Talking with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet asks:
What a piece of work is a man,
how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties,
in form and moving how express and admirable,
in action how like an angel,
in apprehension how like a god!
the beauty of the world,
the paragon of animals—and yet,
to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
Again we are reminded of our creation in the image of God and our relationship to dust.
The more I pondered this, the more I read, the more I realized how many books, how many paintings, how many works of music, operas, and ballets beg the question. How man’s exploration in science, mathematics, and technology, how his architectural endeavors and even his leisure time can be shaped by the answer to these questions … What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
The Psalmist writes:
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [c]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
One of my favorite primary sources of The Renaissance was a speech written by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola called The Oration on the Dignity of Man. In this 15th century piece, the author refers to this same Psalm in addressing the question about man and the result of his origins, that the origins (image or visage as he calls it) begets.
Listen to how Lord Byron echoes the sentiments of Mirandola and Shakespeare in his dramatic poem Manfred,
“How beautiful is all this visible world! How glorious in its action and itself! But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we, Half dust, half deity, alike unfit To sink or soar …”
Despite the many questions raised by this … and there are many, I find encouragement and optimism as I return to the words of the Psalmist
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well…
November 2, 2009
A Wisconsin State of Mind
Over the last couple of weeks I have been feeling sick in addition to a bout with the flu. The last time I felt well was when I was teaching at the Wisconsin Wilderness Campus and running the nearby trails. Being under the weather caused me to reminisce about the experience.
I want to thank Mark and Dana, Seth and Suzanne, Paul and Abigail, Alyssa Travis, and the students of WWC for making the week one we will never forget.
Below is a list of highlights for our family from our week:
The community atmosphere and spirit
The Autumn foliage
Digging for worms in the compost pile
Fishing with Seth Fisher and our children learning to bait their hooks and cast their lines
My children kayaking while tethered to the shore of Lake Owen
Gazing at the stars and seeing the Milky Way
Seeing a badger at Mirror Lake State Park near Wisconsin Dells
Jumping into the cube pit
The eerie cry of the loons
Watching the morning mist roll off the lake
Famous Dave’s night at dinner
Thursday tea time
Rollerblading in the side gym
Running each day with students, several of whom set personal distance records
Rock Lake Trail, Ojibwa Trail, Birkebeiner Trail
Game of spoons
Family night and milk shakes
Manly Monday and American Eagle 1,2,3
Dining with the students and the deep conversations
Learning alongside and being inspired by the students and staff at WWC
October 18, 2009
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Last night several students, colleagues, and my wife and I met for dinner and to discuss this 1968 novel by Philip K. Dick. The choice of this book was to begin thinking about technology and its impact. On November 7, the university will be hosting iChristian: How Technology Impacts a Biblical Worldview conference. The novel was appropriate for the questions technology poses. We had to contend with the questions What is a human? Can a person be a human with android qualities? Can the idea of death make us more aware of our humanity? Does technology dehumanize us? Is electronic or virtual beauty any less beautiful than beauty produced by a living person? Can it be more beautiful?
Our next meeting will be on November 21. We will be reading and discussing The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis. You’re invited!
October 12, 2009
Leif Erikson Appreciation Day
During the spring semester I taught geography, in which one focus was the “power of place” and the questions that stem from where we are raised. I later received an email from a student, explaining how her summer cross- country travels brought a greater understanding of the conversations we had in class. She wrote, I drove across the corn fields of Kansas thinking about how vast the prairies must have seemed to all the families on the Oregon Trail. The storms in the distance were sobering as I tried to think of being in one of them with no protection. As I entered the state of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains began appearing in the distance I thought of Lewis and Clarke and their first discovery of the mountains. Whoa, how overwhelmed they must have been. I was overwhelmed driving up into them and I had already lived in them for years.
I replied to her that when we travelled to and from Wisconsin I would also be looking out the window with new lenses due to the same conversations in class. Since fall break extended our weekend for travelling home, we decided to go around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and through Ontario, Canada.
Here are some of our traveling highlights. Each of these enhanced our understanding of the diverse topography and culture of the US and Canada. If you ever have a chance to take the same course, we highly recommend it!
Northeast Wisconsin – isolated and beautifully wild, incredible foliage, cheese curds, driving through snow squalls in early October, and seeing a snow plow for railways
Rural Michigan – getting gas alongside a motorcade of four-wheelers, colorful foliage
Upper Peninsula, Michigan – fall foliage on the left and expansive Lake Michigan on the right … absolutely stunning, picturesque lighthouses dotting the shoreline
Norway, Michigan – Leif Erikson Appreciation Day (instead of Columbus Day) and the Viking ship to welcome visitors
Mackinaw City, Michigan – the bridge connecting the two parts of Michigan … an engineering marvel.
Frankenmuth, Michigan – Bavarian culture and architecture, Oktoberfest, Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland
Thanksgiving Day in Canada- Enjoy the holiday, eh?
Niagara Falls, Ontario – being soaked by the mist, the thunderous noise, tremendous power
Upstate New York and Pennsylvania – foliage, foliage, foliage!
Home, sweet Home- Journey’s End, at last
October 7, 2009
An Encore of “To Autumn” by John Keats
Last year I titled my fall break blog “Reflections on To Autumn by John Keats”. Last year I spent fall break admiring the changing colors in around the tri-state area of Philadelphia.
This year the poem was intensified as we spent the last several days in upstate Wisconsin. On Wednesday, I spent the afternoon circling the trails around Lake Hildebrand and Rock Lake, trail systems several miles from campus, with Mark Jalovick and six of the WWC students. As we ran the trails, we couldn’t help but celebrate God’s creation and artistry. I am amazed by the multi-faceted explosion of the colors that seem to have peaked in just a few days. The sun, glistening off leaves, enhanced the experience. I was reminded of Keat’s poem and thought it needed an encore reference.
SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
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