The Fables of Aesop is out now!

Joshua Gibbs

Joshua Gibbs teaches online classes at GibbsClassical.com. He is the author of How To Be Unlucky, Something They Will Not Forget, and Blasphemers. His wife is generous and his children are funny.

10 Years/10 Articles: A Brief Look at My Decade Writing for CiRCE

As of today, I have been blogging for The CiRCE Institute for one decade. My first article (“Are Democratic Ideals Compatible with Classical Education?”) was published on November 21, 2013, less than three weeks after I met Andrew Kern under a concrete gray sky in Grand Rapids. At that time I still considered myself a […]

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Let’s Talk About Dark Music, Dark TV Shows, And Whatnot

Since it’s Halloween. Student: I see that we’re reading Frankenstein this year. Gibbs: That’s right. Student: I’m excited for that one. Gibbs: Great. Why? Student: It’s a horror story, right? Horror stories are usually pretty dark and I like dark stuff. Gibbs: What kind of dark stuff? Student: Dark music, dark books, dark clothing. Gibbs:

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Choosing Books And Movies For Kids And Teens (With A Little Help From Socrates)

Socrates didn’t care much for worldview analysis. I am currently teaching Plato’s Republic for an online class (late enrollment is still open) and am freshly impressed by how utterly exacting Socrates is when describing the kind of stories that ought to be handed out in school. Early in the Republic, Socrates asserts that children should

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A Lively But Pointless Conversation About Literature

I would first like to offer you a lively, robust classroom conversation about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and then I’d like to explain why the conversation is nonetheless rather pointless, and what the conversation needs in order to be productive. Teacher: So, do you think Frankenstein’s monster has a soul? Is he a real human being?

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Specials and Regulars: What LEGO Taught Me About the Classroom (And Life In General)

I had a lot of LEGO as a child, as did my friends, and we all knew there were two kinds of blocks: “regulars” and “specials.” Regulars were the kind of blocks you used to build a wall, a floor, a hull, a wing, a fuselage, or a roof. Most were solid, symmetrical, and they

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