Since today is the feast day of St Gregory… “…for there are certain things derived from profane educataion which should not be rejected when we propose to give birth to virtue. Indeed, moral and natural philosophy may become at certain times a comrade, friend, and companion of life to the higher way, provided that the […]
St Gregory On Learning Pagan Philosophy. Read More »
On: Gregory of Nyssa; muggles actually exist; the extravagant wake of St Antony of Egypt; a short history of hermits; St Augustine on the contemplative life; misreading Dillard and Chesterton; the word “quiddity” and whether you should use it; wanting something more than Mumford and Sons. Book One of Gregory of Nyssa’s The Life of
Do Muggles Exist? Part Two: The New Christian Anti-Intellectual Aesthetic Read More »
To begin, a bold claim: So far as movies go, you’ll not find a better investigation of education than the eight films in the Harry Potter franchise. No filmed story better elucidates the paradoxes and trials of being a teacher or a student. The Potter films uncomfortably confirm fears that at least a few teachers
Do Muggles Exist? Part One Read More »
I would really like to hear more from your son during class discussions. For years, I have written this in report cards and spoken it at parent-teacher conferences. For years, little has come of it. I explain to parents that over the high school years more and more is gradually required of students. If students
Though I Give My Mind To Understand Augustine, But Have Not Love, It Profits Me Nothing Read More »
“My son likes your class, but what he really loves is soccer.” From time to time I hear a parent make this remark during a parent-teacher conference, although it never comes as a surprise. Sports are on the hearts of the students. Students have taught themselves sports diligently. Students talk of sports when they sit
Is Your Sports Program More Classical Than Your Academic Program? Read More »
I saw Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood in a theater with a friend who occasionally wrote movie reviews for Credenda/Agenda. The experience was nerve-wracking, and not for the plot of the film. At the time, I also wrote movie reviews for a blog I kept which took in around 200 hits a day.
The Tyranny of Finding Something Clever to Say Read More »
In a recent piece for First Things (“The Impossibility of Secular Society”, October 2013), Remi Brague suggests that a purely democratic society is incapable of discerning between government and game. What is a purely democratic society? It is a society which conceives of itself after the fashion of Rousseau. First, there was man, and then
Are Democratic Ideals Compatible With Classical Education? Read More »
