Every year we celebrate the birth of our nation on the Fourth of July. The date of the document that secured our freedom, however, is of equal importance. September 17, 2012 marks the 225th anniversary of the Constitution. Our friends at The Heritage Foundation have launched a new website that...
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Remakes are wildly popular. This is true for the viewers, as well as the producers, of both books and movies. How many Batmans have there been? Spidermans? Even Homer’s Odyssey was remade as O Brother, Where Art Thou? Glenn Beck rewrote Thomas Paine’s classic, Common Sense, as a treatise of liberty for modern readers. To...
Read the Full ArticleSo, there I was, standing at the top of an 8% grade, about to go screaming down with all the protection between me and the scary pavement biking clothes can afford. Helmet and fingerless gloves on, check; odometer set to zero, check; final yes-I-want-to-do-this to my family, check. They...
Read the Full ArticleThanks to radio, television, the Internet, and ubiquitous mobile devices, Americans appear to be more connected, more informed, and more in touch with one another than ever before. I was reflecting on this while listening to terrible music on my way to work. The song had a familiar beat...
Read the Full ArticleI often hear from Classical Conversations families that there are not many family-friendly movies these days. So when one comes across my desk, I like to tell you about it. I recently received a screener’s copy of a new movie, Last Ounce of Courage. It was not produced by one of...
Read the Full ArticleIf you have read my short biographical description or visited my website, you probably know my leanings. For many of the ‘X’ generation, college was just what we did after high school. College opened up the spectrum of jobs available to us. College ensured we would earn higher wages...
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Sharpened pencils, new markers, clean binders, shiny new timeline cards, colorful math bears to weigh and count . . . I smile happily as I gaze at our homeschool shelves filled with supplies for the new school year. Next, I turn my start-of-the-year zeal toward our schedule and curricula....
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All good classical educators know about Susan Wise-Bauer’s book, The Well-Trained Mind. We would love to do everything she recommends, but before we can achieve a well-trained mind, I propose we begin with The Well-Made Bed. I mentioned this at dinner with some fellow Classical Conversations moms. Everyone was talking about...
Read the Full ArticleCan an education be both classical and Christian? Many parents ask this question every year, unknowingly echoing an age-old query. Parents often associate a classical education with “non-Christian” content such as Greek mythology or philosophy. Naturally, they then wonder how these studies can be Christian. Tertullian, an early Church Father, was perhaps...
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Dr. Glen Arbery may well be right when he suggests in his book, Why Literature Matters: Permanence and the Politics of Reputation, that “of all the poems in the history of the West, actual scripture aside…. God loves the Iliad most.” But if so, Homer’s other poem, the Odyssey is a close second. To...
Read the Full ArticleTo those of you who submitted Latin questions I say, “Thank you.” Here are some answers to some frequently asked questions: What is the difference between the dative and the accusative plus the preposition ad? The dative is used as the indirect object with verbs of giving, showing and telling,...
Read the Full Article“Tell me why I am the greatest teacher that has ever lived.” We laughed when Andrew Kern stood before us asking something so ridiculous. He is a deeply modest man, and we knew it. He knew we knew it. We knew he knew we knew it. He gave us...
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