There’s a dark irony within our current educational institutions. It appears as if the very time in which we began to place a heavy emphasis on test scores and practical skills is exactly when our schools and students started heading downhill. Don’t misunderstand me. I do not mean to imply that there was once a […]
Nautae caelum et terram vident is a humble Latin sentence. It means, “The sailors see the sky and the land.” It’s simple, yet it involves interconnecting thoughts and the ability to organize them in a systematic, coherent manner. This sentence is relatively complex in the knowledge and skills it requires. To translate it, you must
In Defense of Latin: Per Angusta ad Augusta Read More »
Now that we’ve been back at school for several weeks, there is a certain type of Facebook post that has become commonplace amongst my friends whose children go to school: the drop-off and pick-up line angst post. This should really be a Facebook post genre in its own right, up there with posts about politics,
Work Hard. Have Fun. Be Kind. Love You. Read More »
Is Shakespeare a moral enigma? Many critics have thought so. Take the late Anthony Nuttall, who contended that “we have no idea what Shakespeare thought, finally, about any major question”—or Harold Bloom, who has argued that the Bard was “too wise to believe anything.” Such remarks challenge Shakespeare enthusiasts: When a play like Twelfth Night
Can We Know What Shakespeare Thought? Read More »
It is pivotal that we read the right stories to our children when they are young so they will learn three things. The first is to never get involved in a land war in Asia. The second is to never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line. And the third is
Edmund’s Epithumos Read More »
“There was once a little man called Niggle, who had a long journey to make. He did not want to go, indeed the whole idea was distasteful to him; but he could not get out of it. He knew he would have to start some time, but he did not hurry with his preparations”: so
Leaf by Niggle: Virtue as Keeping Time Read More »
On Individualized Instruction and Cultivating Individuals
Your Students Are Not Widgets Read More »
The nature of a child and education come together, either to mar the child or to help the child flourish. When a child is not taught according to his or her nature, it is like cutting against the grain, dulling the knife and marring the wood. Yet when a child’s instruction aligns with his or
8 Reflections on the Nature of a Child Read More »
Plato Meno has set the pattern for us of how to teach virtue: Every second you spend reading this short dialogue to see how he does it will make you a better teacher, parent, or statesman.
How to Teach Virtue Read More »
Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading Chesterton (and John Donne) but I’ve been thinking about paradox–and in particular how virtue is inherently paradoxical. Virtues often–if not always–require a negative, un-virtuous impulse in order to exist most fully and develop into their highest potential. That’s quite a claim, so let me back it up with a
The Paradox of Acquiring Virtue Read More »
The best American schools have yet to remember why western civilization introduced “school” as the foundation of that civilization. Mostly, that is because the more we talk about school, the less we do it. That seems to be the necessary conclusion to draw from a Liberty Fund retreat I attended during which we spent two
Leisure, Plato’s Republic, and American Education Read More »
It was twenty years ago this fall that I plunged whole-heartedly and somewhat heedlessly into Christian classical education when some comrades and I started Providence Academy in Green Bay, WI. Since then, I have been hearing repeatedly the very sensible call for a practical education. In theory, I have no objection to a practical education.
Truth or Consequences: On Practicality Read More »
