One of the foundational aspects of classical Christian education is our commitment to reading the Great Books. But many students, despite an increasing number of them growing up in classical Christian schools, find the jump from what they read in the earlier grades to the Great Books themselves to be a difficult and daunting task. How do we help them take this next step in … Continue reading Four Questions for Reading the Great Books
The first lecture in this series was “Life Lessons from The Oresteia.” This book was impactful to me during my college years, so I was excited to revisit it and introduce it to our students. Below you will find links for the written transcript, the audio, and the video. Please keep your eye out for further videos in this series. “Life Lessons from … Continue reading Life Lessons from The Oresteia
This fall at School of the Ozarks we launched a “Life Lessons from the Great Books” Humanities Lecture Series for our 7-12 grade students. You can learn more about the series in this short, 8-minute video. Continue reading Life Lessons from the Great Books
The following is one of the sessions from our 2019 Conference co-hosted by School of the Ozarks and held at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, MO. Why the Great Books Are Classical And Christian (And Therefore Why You Should Read Them) This presentation will explore the related origins and overlapping aims of the modern classical Christian education and Great Books movements, arguing … Continue reading Why the Great Books Are Classical And Christian
Part 1: Lessons from Dolores, Dumbledore, and More Part 2: Private Christian Schools and Government Involvement Part 3: Meaningful Teacher Evaluations Part 4: Student Organizations Part 5: On the Integration of Subjects/Arts Censorship: Educational Decree #27 In this sixth installment we will explore Educational Decree #27 in which Umbridge bans The Quibbler after Harry gives an interview about what really happened on the night of Cedric … Continue reading Censorship and the Great Books (Educational Insights from Hogwarts, Part 6)
Few things create anticipation and excitement in my youngest child quite like a monthly book order. In his pre-school mind, the opportunity to choose a book from the flyer is the highest form of reward. He lights up at the sight of the order form, carefully combs it over through numerous viewings, carries it around with him for days, and then asks with increasing urgency when … Continue reading Engaging Young Readers: Building a Healthy Diet of Good Books
The Classical Roundup is a group of worthwhile articles, videos, and podcasts that I have found helpful on our journey of exploring classical Christian education in the 21stcentury. Awake. Love. Think. Speak. – “To do this we must get out of ourselves and into books. Not just any books, mind you – great books. Books that have stood the test of time. Books that are imbued … Continue reading Classical Roundup – August 10th, 2018
The Classical Roundup is a group of worthwhile articles, videos, and podcasts that I have found helpful on our journey of exploring classical Christian education in the 21stcentury. Screentime Is Making Kids Moody, Crazy and Lazy – “Chronically irritable children are often in a state of abnormally high arousal, and may seem “wired and tired.” That is, they’re agitated but exhausted.” Great Books…Great to Whom? Why It … Continue reading Classical Roundup – July 27th, 2018
The Classical Roundup is a group of worthwhile articles, videos, and podcasts that I have found helpful on our journey of exploring classical Christian education in the 21stcentury. WHY USE GREAT BOOKS & WHAT ARE THE GREAT BOOKS Simple answers to great questions in the classical landscape. THE POETIC BEAUTY OF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE Whether it’s through story, song, or artwork, I’m thankful for the … Continue reading Classical Roundup – March 9th, 2018
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
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
By Josh Dyson, Classical School of Wichita In Doug Wilson’s June 15, 2017 “Content Cluster” email blast he shared a link to the video of Bob Dylan’s 2016 Nobel Lecture in Literature. Just this last year Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature. As you may or may not remember, the Nobel committee could not get in contact with Dylan for some time. Apparently, even … Continue reading The Myth of Bob Dylan
The Classical Thistle 