Research On Religion » Massachusetts

Thomas Kidd on the Pilgrims (Encore Presentation)

tonygill — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 09:00:13 +0000

While Tony is on a short break, we dip into the archive to bring you an encore presentation for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, Prof. Thomas Kidd (Baylor University) returns to our podcast series to cover the history of a group of religious dissenters known as the Pilgrims. After Tony attempts to recite a rather famous poem about the Pilgrims, we explore the roots of this group dating back to the English Reformation and how dissent within the Church of England in the 16th century set a group of individuals from Scrooby, England on a journey that would eventually land them on Plymouth Rock. We follow the Pilgrims to the Netherlands and talk about their experiences there and discuss the reasons why they were able to obtain a charter for settlement in the North American colonies of Britain. Prof. Kidd details the importance of the Mayflower Compact and what life was like for settlers in a new land, including a tangential discussion on the importance of beer to the Puritans. (You will want to hear how brewing was beneficial to the Puritans and why the Puritans were not as prudish as one might think.) We finish our podcast with Prof. Kidd’s thoughts on the legacy of the Pilgrims for American development and a brief history of the holiday we have come to know as Thanksgiving. This podcast serves as a great introduction or review of the Pilgrims for high schoolers and homeschoolers and we encourage you to bring it to the attention of all those who might be interested. Prof. Kidd is associate professor of history at Baylor University, senior fellow at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and co director of Baylor’s Program on Historical Studies of Religion. Recorded: October 5, 2010.

Mike Donnelly on Homeschooling

tonygill — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:00:01 +0000

Mike Donnelly, adjunct professor of government at Patrick Henry College and a staff attorney at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), joins the podcast to talk about homeschooling. We begin our discussion with a brief history of the homeschool movement back in the 1950s and ’60s, noting both its secular and religious origins, and how the movement expanded rapidly in the 1980s. Prof. Donnelly provides some demographic context to our discussion by telling us who is most likely to homeschool and the reasons these families choose to do so. Our converstation covers the concerns over academic achievement (on standardized testing and college performance) and socialization. As for the latter, Mike reveals that homeschoolers are not any less well socialized than their peers in public or private schools. The latter half of the podcast focuses on various legal hurdles facing homeschoolers and Mike recounts several of the specific cases that he has litigated, including one involving a German homeschooling family that sought asylum in the United States. We finish with a brief discussion of the HSLDA and Patrick Henry College, a recently-created institution of higher learning that caters to homeschoolers but also accepts students educated in public and private schools. Recorded: February 23, 2011.

Thomas Kidd on the Pilgrims

tonygill — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:00:15 +0000

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, Prof. Thomas Kidd (Baylor University) returns to our podcast series to cover the hsitory of a group of religious dissenters known as the Pilgrims. After Tony attempts to recite a rather famous poem about the Pilgrims, we explore the roots of this group dating back to the English Reformation and how dissent within the Church of England in the 16th century set a group of individuals from Scrooby, England on a journey that would eventually land them on Plymouth Rock. We follow the Pilgrims to the Netherlands and talk about their experiences there and discuss the reasons why they were able to obtain a charter for settlement in the North American colonies of Britain. Prof. Kidd details the importance of the Mayflower Compact and what life was like for settlers in a new land, including a tangential discussion on the importance of beer to the Puritans. (You will want to hear how brewing was beneficial to the Puritans and why the Puritans were not as prudish as one might think.) We finish our podcast with Prof. Kidd’s thoughts on the legacy of the Pilgrims for American development and a brief history of the holiday we have come to know as Thanksgiving. This podcast serves as a great introduction or review of the Pilgrims for high schoolers and homeschoolers and we encourage you to bring it to the attention of all those who might be interested. Prof. Kidd is associate professor of history at Baylor University, senior fellow at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and co director of Baylor’s Program on Historical Studies of Religion. Recorded: October 5, 2010.