Book covers, first impressions and all of that.

Yea, yea, I know. The old adage goes, “Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover.” And overall in the library, 40 years ago, that was probably a good idea. My son recently rejected the book “Red Badge of Courage” because the copy I found at a yard sale was old, smelly, and the print was rather small. Still when we finally did get it he enjoyed it.

I don’t think the adage is quite as true today. If you pick up a modern book, with modern illustrations and jacket covers you have a good idea what’s inside. A Stephen King novel with his eerie jacket is just a precursor to the scary stuff inside the story. A romance novel with a hunky Fabio and lots of cleavage on the damsel is just a glimpse of more of the same inside in my opinion.

I think the same can be true with web pages and brochures, particularly from schools and universities that want to project a certain image. For example, my old high school, is obviously going for that ambiguous, “Are they Catholic or not” look. Their alumni newsletter is about the same. This didn’t really bother me until I started getting news letters from the state homeschooling association. All of their literature was steeped in faith, and the name of Jesus was mentioned throughout. NACHE (National Association of Catholic Home Educators) also has a very faith-friendly feel about it both on its website and periodicals.

This brings me to my main point. I had a tiff on Friday with this blogger alumni of Loyola University. By their fruits you will know them. I am definitely looking for institutions that are going to produce faith-filled adults, who know, love, and live their faith. My first impression of Loyola is that that ain’t it.

As my previous post indicated, we’ve had great experiences at the Franciscan University Youth conferences. I’d love for my children to go there if we can work it out. I can’t help but note the strong statement of faith on their web page. If this blog is any indication the University bears good fruit.

Please feel free to leave a comment under the posting, or sign my Spiritbook (guestbook). You can chat with me on the tag board to the right!