We classical educators are well known for our love of books. Whether it’s the good old-fashioned hard cover book that smells like moth balls and winter sweaters or a brand-new e-reader that keeps our spouses up at night, we tend to consume literature of all kinds like children consume candy on Easter. Many of us […]
Favorite Reads of 2014 Read More »
In his recent book, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, Dr. Anthony Esolen, a noted literature professor and translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy, wrote this: If we have children around, and we let them be children, they will not miss entering our world. That will come soon enough, and indeed their play
5 Ways to Develop Healthy Imagination in Your Kids Read More »
President of St. John’s College discusses the future of the American university, the ideal St. John’s student, and his favorite reads of 2014.
Words of Wisdom: Dr. Christopher Nelson Read More »
When book five begins we find ourselves in the same place where book one began: Olympus, where the gods are in session. And, as in book one, we listen as Athena pleads Odysseus’ case. “Father Zeus . . . “ she says, “be one whose thought is schooled in justice.” And justice, she claims, demands
What I’m Reading: The Odyssey – Book 5 Read More »
When last we rode with “thoughtful” Telemachus, he and Peisistratos, Nestor’s son, were on their way to the home of “glorious” Menelaus and Helen (she for whom his father was fighting when he went missing). As book four begins – and we come to the end of the portion of the Odyssey typically known as
What I’m Reading: The Odyssey – Book 4 Read More »
Towards the beginning of his book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, Michael Pollan notes that Henry Fielding once referred to The Odyssey as “Homer’s wonderful book about eating”. As a wannabe chef I love this; as a literature enthusiast and student I’m intrigued by it. And I think we get our first glimpse of
What I’m Reading: The Odyssey, Book Three Read More »
The coming of age tale is, I suspect, as old as coming of age itself. Many of our most beloved books and stories reveal what Dr. Eva Brann aptly calls “a trip towards . . . identity.” Consider: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, David Copperfield, Treasure Island, Candide, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, To Kill a
What I’m Reading: The Odyssey – Book Two Read More »
In the forward to her book, Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey, Eva Brann wrote that “reading Homer’s poems is one of the purest, most inexhaustible pleasures life has to offer – a secret somewhat too well kept in our time.” If this is true, and I suspect that it is, then
What I’m Reading: The Odyssey, Book One Read More »
It’s conference time. It’s really truly conference time. Everybody panic. We’re in the throws of preparation. The conference notebooks are printed and ready to go into the welcome bags. The Paideia Prize is in-hand and stored somewhere safe. I dropped my blazer off at the dry cleaner (and here’s to hoping they can actully clean
Last Call for the Conference Read More »
We’ve known Dr. Anthony Esolen for quite some time, since he spoke at our 2008 conference in Houston, Texas. Noted author of 10 Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child and Ironies of Faith, and translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Dr. Esolen has long been a committed defender of the classics and of classical
Anthony Esolen on Common Core, Dante, and more Read More »
Reflections from an attendee
2014 CiRCE Summer Institute Day 2 Read More »
Well the 204 CiRCE Summer Institute is now upon us. Today is day one and it’s been grand so far. I’ll do my best to post an update each day, complete with grainy iPhone photos and all. But the thing that’s stuck out to me early on is how different everyone’s motviations are in coming
2014 CiRCE Summer Institute Day 1 Read More »
