When I was a child, I thought like a child, and since my mother recognized that she read to me from books that did not condescend to me. In my memory, she read to the four boys who were her sons almost every day, usually from the book of Proverbs. Since it is my memory […]
At various times I get the opportunity to speak to groups at the beginning at the school year. I often deliver some variation of the following—especially as it leads to a beautiful picture of what a wise, generous, and truly loving person looks like. There’s a very real question about why we do what we
When can the steady, plodding, often frustrating, and rarely instantly gratifying pursuit of philosophy get a word in edgewise? Where can its spark alight in hearts besotted with flame retardant pleasures?
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
Wisdom is a blindingly good word, but finding it in the Scriptures, we, like Plato’s cave-dwellers, shield our dark-deadened orbs in confusion and consternation. The sound of the word sometimes vexes our sensibilities or even leaves us cold. We do not know the reality behind the word, in the word, so neither are we warmed
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.
The highest high point of classical education was its beginning. There never has been and never will be a poet as perfect as Homer. All of the Greeks acknowledged that he was their teacher. All of them walked down trails he blazed. Nobody compares but Moses and Christ. There were other high points. Socrates and
The harder the reformers try, the worse they make the American school. Why can’t they get it right? Their errors are so fundamental that only a complete rebooting will help. Conventional education is based on three principles and one application. 1. There is no truth 2. If there is Truth, you can’ t know it
