By Nathan Carr Tim Wu, a Columbia professor who has written an editorial or two for The New York Times, is concerned that America is losing her hobbies—more alarming, leisure altogether. To blame: “We’re afraid of being bad at them….if you’re a jogger, it is no longer enough to cruise around the block; you’re training for the next marathon. If you’re a painter, you are no longer … Continue reading Mere Mediocrity
I’ve been reflecting recently on the essential work of storing up language in children. I don’t mean merely learning individual phonics sounds or word families or even isolated vocabulary words. No, this important exposure to words is deeper than that. In her book, Proust and the Squid, author Maryanne Wolf highlights the significance of a child’s exposure to the language of ideas at a young … Continue reading Storing Up Treasures in the Grammar Stage
By Jenna Carey, College of the Ozarks freshman and 2018 graduate of School of the Ozarks Coming from a classical education background, universal truth was ingrained in me as a foundational reality. When people ask if truth changes based on perspective, my initial reaction is to reply, “Of course reality doesn’t change. There’s only one truth and whether or not you accept it is up … Continue reading The Reality of Truth
For all of its incredible benefits, classical Christian education can be dangerous. If we educate students to be excellent thinkers and communicators but they fail to learn virtue, we have created monsters. Among these dangers, I think two lie before students in classical Christian education with special respect to their faith. The first danger is that students learn a lot of truth about God but … Continue reading Bringing Christ to Class (Reflections on B. B. Warfield’s The Religious Life of Theological Students #4)
By Jessica Burke Veith, Gene Edward, Jr. Loving God with All Your Mind: Thinking as a Christian in a Postmodern World. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2003. When I graduated from college, a sense of finality and relief washed over me. That stage of life was finally over. My education was done. Except, by the grace of God, it wasn’t. Shortly after my graduation, my husband started … Continue reading A Review of Gene Edward Veith’s Loving God with All Your Mind
By Nathan Carr Conversion being a central tenant of the Christian understanding of salvation, Plato’s description of the “repentance” of the darkened eye of the soul leading to its intended ability to later discern the world outside of the cave has the overtones that make for easy employment in the service of the church. The paideia kyriou (“instruction of the Lord”)[1] places Christ as the … Continue reading Paideia
In the previous post in this series (The Character of the Teacher) we considered the high calling of the classical Christian educator. In this post we focus on the character of the student. Many students at classical Christian schools still struggle with the sacred and secular distinctions that are so stark in government education. Despite being told that their faith informs every aspect of their … Continue reading Faithful Learning (Reflections on B. B. Warfield’s The Religious Life of Theological Students #3)
My son received a Rubik’s Cube this last Christmas, but it wasn’t the first one he had received. We had given him one the year before, but it ended up slipping through a worm hole shortly thereafter. This year a second cube appeared around Christmas (whether it be a new one or the old one re-emerging from the alternate dimension, I cannot say for certain). … Continue reading What a Rubik’s Cube Taught Me About Teaching
Classical Christian education is, and ought to be, a rigorous endeavor. And not just for the student. Teachers, too, have a high calling to be learned. I remember when we first started our school nearly seven years ago—I was halfway through my PhD in Old Testament, and one of my first realizations was how much I didn’t know. The more that I learn, the more … Continue reading The Character of the Teacher (Reflections on B. B. Warfield’s The Religious Life of Theological Students #2)
By Christine Norvell James V. Schall, S.J. “The Metaphysics of Walking.” The Life of the Mind: On the Joys and Travails of Thinking. Wilmington: ISI Books, 2006. Our society is completely dependent upon not only technology, but also the quickness and ease with which we get what we want —information, entertainment, things. Within most of us, the natural consequence is a pervasive impatience, a quickness … Continue reading Walking with James Schall
In response to Ian Mosely’s recent blog post, I agree that with older students, question-asking and roundtable discussion are indispensable methods for learning and important preparation for what lies ahead. As a college writing instructor, I often lament the inability (or disinterest) of students to participate in discussion of the main ideas and key questions of a text. They simply want me to disseminate the … Continue reading A Few More Thoughts on Classical Pedagogy: A Response to Ian Mosley and Joshua Gibbs
As a new parent of a child who is attending school, I have noticed that I ask my child the same questions everyday in pursuit of how things went. I tend to ask similar questions at school of the students I sit around the lunch table with or pass in the hallway. Questions can reveal quickly what we value as parents, and unfortunately in my … Continue reading Worthwhile Questions
The Classical Thistle 