“I’m bored!” The words have barely left the lips of my seven year old son and I’m already lecturing him against such profanity. I’m by no means a legalistic parent, but those words are anathema to me, and I have specifically forbidden them from our home. I loathe this treacherous phrase, believing it to be a destructive deception of the Evil One. In my position … Continue reading “I’m Bored” vs. the Cultivation of Wonder
By Steve Turley, Tall Oaks Classical School and Eastern University TurleyTalks.com There is no doubt that the 1940s constituted a most historically formidable decade: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, WWII, the advent of the Atomic bomb, the transformation of the U.S. into a global super power, the establishment of NATO, and the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Yet among these notable events … Continue reading The Abolition of Education: A Warning from C.S. Lewis
A nexus is a series of connections linking two or more things. These notes are dedicated to linking us to great content elsewhere out on the web. Socratic Teaching – Dr. Grant Horner displays a great example of Socratic teaching within the classroom. The Power of Story: Perfect for Children, Dangerous for Adults – Matt Bianco on the power of storytelling. Geronimo, Amen – … Continue reading Nexus Notes–October 13, 2017
Twenty-three students from the School of the Ozarks Lower School participated in the Create! contest sponsored by the Classical Thistle this summer. In order to enter a submission, students were asked to create a project in response to a summer read, exploration, or journey. Students’ submissions were plentiful and varied; projects took the form of journals, posters, sculptures, paintings, mobiles, and more! In addition to … Continue reading Create! Contest Winners
This is the launch of a news series of blogs called “Tread the Dawn”. The blogs in this series are inspired by C.S. Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Have you ever hung upside down with your feet attached to the floor? What about straight sideways, yet maintaining a standing position? What about an angle somewhere between upside down and straight out? These may sound … Continue reading How to Walk Upside Down, Sideways, and at an Angle (Tread the Dawn Series)
By Jenni Carey, School of the Ozarks I am currently taking a class over the writings of Herodotus and Thucydides.[1] Along with the enjoyment of reading Herodotus’s unique narrative style (a delightful mix of literature, poetry, geographical description, and historical events) I am finding nuggets of wisdom and truth, quite valuable to those of us trying to survive in the world of classical Christian education … Continue reading Loosen Your Bow Strings
Back in the spring I had an excellent conversation with another classical Christian educator who asked whether we were right to define our endeavors along the lines of John Milton’s idea that we were repairing the ruins of Adam and Eve so that we might love and imitate God. This educator proposed that, as Christians, although this was our goal in the Christian life, our … Continue reading Is Repairing the Ruins Our Goal?
A nexus is a series of connections linking two or more things. These notes are dedicated to linking us to great content elsewhere out on the web. Vision of the Good Life – Great video from Craig Dunham of Petra Academy addressing human flourishing and what the vision of the “Good Life” is. K-12 then to College – Who made this up? Does it even … Continue reading Nexus Notes–October 6, 2017
This blog will serve as the introduction to a new series of blogs that I will be producing over the next several weeks. The series is called The Regime[1]. It will be focused on applying the dialectic of Socrates in Plato’s Republic to classical Christian education. For those familiar with the Republic, you may see how the below relates to the allegory of the cave. … Continue reading Burn Before Reading (and Other Activities to do with History Textbooks)
The past several weeks I have been exploring the notion of meditation,[1] first upon Scripture, but then suggesting that this could apply to the Great Books as well, albeit with a different authority. One of the ways we can meditate on the Great Books is by recognizing that we are not passive recipients of the Great Books but actually active participants in the same story … Continue reading Monday Musings (October 2, 2017): Meditating on the Great Books—Some Practical Steps
By Dan Snyder, Classical School of Wichita Hateful Achilles When we talk about prospects of life for a student who has chosen the humanities as a course of study, we always fight the headwind of pragmatism that pushes toward the question “but what will they do?” Most young people are concerned with joining the adult world, whatever that may be, and they covet the signs … Continue reading Hateful Achilles
Last week I considered how we have tamed God’s Word instead of eating it. This week I continue the theme of meditating on the written word. One of the better insights of Eugene Peterson’s excellent book, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading, is his proposal that spiritual reading is “participatory reading.”[1] He uses the illustration of a period of life … Continue reading Monday Musings (September 25, 2017): Meditation as Participation
The Classical Thistle 