Technology dominates our lives. Most of us walk about carrying supercomputers with more processing power than NASA had for the Apollo 11 mission. These labor-saving devices promise freedom, but we are more enslaved than ever. Eliminating communication barriers means that we may be interrupted at any moment by a call or text. Constantly dinging notifications […]
A common theme I encounter in conversations with other home educators each spring, and often into the summer months, concerns preparation for the upcoming year. I’ve been classically homeschooling for over twenty-five years, and the liturgy of this assessing and planning season is an integral part of my own life, too—as fundamental to it as
Inside the Outside: Tactical and Strategic Planning Read More »
Reading is a complicated activity. Sometimes we do it for edification, other times for pleasure, sometimes simply to fulfill an assignment. Sometimes a combination of all three. Some of us mark up our books; others long for the pristine unmarked pages of a brand new edition. Some of us take pride in our personal libraries
How the presuppositions underlying modern science cause us to claim a kind of knowing that is not warranted
How an eighty-year old children’s book offer hope and peace in a lonely world
The humanities matter in a world dominated by scientific thought and technological advances because without the humanities we can’t think about science and technology properly
With 2016 behind us, now is a good time to reflect. So we asked several of our staff members and contributing writers to share their favorite book that they read for the first time last year. Here are choices from Josh Gibbs, Brian Phillips, Lindsey Brigham, Matt Bianco, Brian Phillips, and David Kern. PARADISE LOST
So your students can give the right answers with deference and aplomb. They can promote with articulate clarity the correct worldview. And when they graduate, top of the class, their erudition will no doubt attract the most selective colleges. But what about their habits and tastes? What happens when our students end up listening only
The Real and the Fake (Or Why Rhetoric Schools Matter) Read More »
In the world of classical education, we talk about “Great Books.” However, other than a handful of obvious works (those by Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, and a few others in particular) there is much debate about which books should actually fall in the category of “Great Book”. Which raises the question: what does it mean
Which is more formative for our students: what we teach, or how we teach? That question has been swirling through classical education circles over the past few years as educators and researchers shift their focus from classical curriculum to classical pedagogy. The conversation may focus on anything from reviving the art of commonplacing, to practicing
Classical Pedagogy and Poetic Tradition: Manner or Message? Read More »
Some musical works, especially classical ones, resemble Mr. Darcy at the Netherfield Ball: they require a formal introduction for proper acquaintance (and woe betide the Mr. Collins who thinks otherwise). But other works, like other people, welcome strangers. It is sometimes possible to love a person before you learn his name and to understand a
The Music in the Water: How Bedrich Smetana’s “The Moldau” Makes Us More Human Read More »
