Posted By David Thompson
“Charity”: from the French word charité, in turn derived from the Latin caritas, meaning preciousness or dearness. But the Latin caritas served also as a translation for the Greek Αγάπη (Agape), an unconditional love for others.
With Christmas — and the end of the tax year — encroaching upon us, so does the influx of charitable organizations beseeching donations. (Before I continue, I must be upfront and tell you that is what I will be doing by the end of this post.) Inevitably, these requests become white noise lost in the matrix of the Internet. Many pressing issues deserve attention and many quality organizations that aim to tackle these issues need funding. But how do we parse the pleas that most appeal to us from all the white noise? How do we choose where the expression of our unconditional love for others will land?
My suggestion for this dilemma is to focus your attention, choose an issue you care about, and don’t let the white noise drown out the inner voice that calls you to action.
My passion lies with education, with making it easily accessible, and with the belief that education can be the tip of the spear in the fight against poverty, oppression, and war. If you feel as I do and you believe that Saylor Academy and its goal of being a leader in the free and open education movement is something that you want to support, then we at Saylor would be very grateful for any help you can give us.
If a fraction of you donated $25 we could fund updates for ten Saylor Academy courses. An even smaller fraction donating $10 could pay for an independent expert to review a course for college credit recommendation. And if everyone visiting Saylor in the final weeks of 2015 donated just $3, we could keep all of our servers running for an entire year and fund updates for all of our courses.
Your support, large or small, helps us grow and continue to be advocates for open education.