“Are you a man or a mouse?” Perhaps C. S. Lewis had that question in mind when gave form and utterance to one of the most regal and noble of beasts in all of Narnia. No doubt when the Lion of Aslan came bounding in to his mental landscape, so too followed gallant Reepicheep, swinging …
Yes; in spite of the contrasts that are as conspicuous and even comic as the comparison between the fat man and the thin man, the tall man and the short: in spite of the contrast between the vagabond and the student, between the apprentice and the aristocrat, between the book-hater and the book-lover, between the …
Last time I wrote I considered how Jesus was, by contemporary standards, a bad teacher. His disciples didn’t always immediately “get it,” and at times his public lecturing seemed to drive away more students than it attracted. His ability to properly “motivate” students could potentially come under scrutiny as well. And Jesus seems quite content …
We Don’t Get It, Part II: Why Speakest Thou in Parables? Read More »
You knew it was coming. It comes every quarter. But predictability doesn’t make it any easier. Every time we approach grades, I often end up asking myself existential questions. Why? What’s it all for? What do grades mean anyway? The wherefore hits home when one considers that although we classical educators philosophically oppose scienticism and …
We moderns seem to question the identity of all the bards. Shakespeare. The scop of Beowulf. Or the skáld of the Eddic sagas. But the question of Homer’s identity seems to be a field of study all to itself. We shouldn’t be surprised to find academic journals entirely devoted to positing new theories of who …
The Rhetoric of Homer: Finding the Bard in the Poetry Read More »
We often hear childhood described as a “time of innocence.” But it would be misleading to compare Adam and Eve’s situation with that of children. The words of Genesis 2:25, “they felt no shame,” don’t express a lack development, but a fullness. They indicate that Adam and Eve had a full understanding of the meaning …
