Earlier this week I shared a summary and handout from my ACCS presentation on June 20 entitled, “Theological Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts.” On June 21, I also had the opportunity at the ACCS Repairing the Ruins conference to present on “Poetry as Pedagogy.” My goal in that presentation was to convince attendees that poetry is not simply content to be taught, but in fact … Continue reading Poetry as Pedagogy
On June 20, I had the opportunity to present a workshop at the annual ACCS Repairing the Ruins Conference entitled “Theological Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts.” The design of the talk was to help educators think about the importance of teaching students HOW to read the Bible, not just what to believe about the Bible. In an educational model so often prioritizing teaching students the … Continue reading Theological Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts
I’ve just returned from two wonderful weeks at SCL in Washington, D.C., and ACCS in Atlanta, GA. And, I started the month (May 31-June 1) with the Central Consortium of Classical Educators Conference here in Arkansas. It truly was conference season, and I’m better for it. (Note: I’m reminded of an article Carrie Eben wrote for The Thistle about why you should attend conferences, so … Continue reading Conference Season
Atwood, Preston. Cantate Domino: A Liturgical Songbook for Classical Christian Schools. Hymnworks. We live in an age of ugliness. Certainly, much remains beautiful and beauty is still all around us, but the world at large has failed to distinguish between the truly, objectively beautiful and that which the masses deem to be beautiful–which is often ugly. Beauty can be in the eye of the beholder … Continue reading Review of Preston Atwood’s Cantate Domino
This past year has been a busy one, and a year of change for The Classical Thistle. In the summer of 2023, Dr. Scott McElvain, co-founder of The Classical Thistle, decided to hand over his role and responsibilities to me (Kyle Rapinchuk) as the sole owner and operator of the website. One of our biggest activities together, however, was planning the March conference at School … Continue reading What’s New?
By Christine Norvell, Guest Author Since we’ve moved to Siloam Springs, I’ve spent plenty of time watching my cat happily climb the old dogwood tree by our garage. Bark chips off as he climbs higher. He often looks back at me as if he wants to know whether he should jump or keep going on his elevated scratching post. It brings to mind the wonder of tree … Continue reading Climbing Trees
By Jenny Crockett, Guest Author “Pupils develop a well-disciplined attitude toward the ‘hard work principle’ in terms of heavy, energy-output type of activities.” This is a quote from Stan LeProtti’s program guide for the La Sierra High School PE program. He expected his students to do hard things. He took a whole man approach to physical education to produce students who were both physically and physiologically fit, … Continue reading The Case for Classical P.E.: A Practical Application for Upper School
By Dr. Brad Dolloff, Guest Author As head of a classical Christian school, I could not be more thrilled my oldest child has started a career as a classical Christian school teacher. He graduated from School of the Ozarks, the school I helped found on the campus of College of the Ozarks, went on to study at John Brown University (where he studied under Jessica … Continue reading Letter to a First Year Teacher
I’ve found that life presents a series of bizarre paradoxes. One of the more profound of these paradoxes is the desire of everyone to fit in. We all want to belong to something, to feel at home in it—whether it’s a family, a group of friends, a club. But simultaneously, we each like to conceive of ourselves as unique, not like anyone else. We want … Continue reading On Rearranging My Classroom (Mundane Meditations Series)
By Christine Norvell, Guest Author I confess. I have asked students to make revisions to their essays. In fact, I may have casually said, “You just have some light revision work,” or “This needs heavy revision.” It sounds flippant to my ears now. Trite. But those comments all beg the same question—what does it really mean to revise our writing? One of my former students … Continue reading Re-Visioning Our Writing
By Sara Osborne[1] As a college writing instructor, I have noticed a disturbing trend in my students’ ability to choose and use words appropriately. These same students also appear increasingly unable to comprehend critical vocabulary used in non-fiction writing. The unfortunate result of these challenges is an inability to contribute to class discussions on important ideas and the inevitable struggle with articulating a coherent response … Continue reading Fighting “The Death of Words” (Explorations in the Art of Grammar Series #3)
I was reading an article earlier this spring[1] that talked about literacy and the importance of content knowledge and vocabulary for understanding. The article revisited a 1988 published study by Recht and Leslie, oftentimes referred to as “the baseball experiment.” In short, the article, and the study by Recht and Leslie, addressed how after reading a passage about a half-inning of baseball, “good readers” who … Continue reading Words in Context (Explorations in the Art of Grammar Series #1)
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