It is planning time for Classical Conversations three-day Parent Practicums. I look forward to learning something new and getting inspired for the next school year, but most of all, I look forward to three days of adult conversation. The word “conversation” can be overlooked during Practicums because we work...
Read the Full ArticleFor the 2012-2013 school year and for the first time, the Advanced Placement Latin Exam is going to include the works of Julius Caesar. In the past, there were two Latin exams: AP Vergil and AP Latin Literature (Catullus and Ovid, Cicero or Horace). In 2009, the AP Latin...
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Think about community. The word “community” comes from the Old French word communité, which, as you Latin students know, is derived from communitas (cum, “with/together,” plus munus, “gift”). In short, community is the gift of being together with others. This statement raises a couple of questions: Do we see the communities in which...
Read the Full ArticleI am seriously messed up. I am reading books that are messing with my mind and my soul. First, I read Radical, by David Platt. Now, I am in the middle of The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Stearns. Now understand, I have always taken kooks with a grain of...
Read the Full ArticleWe tend to think the purpose of education is to provide answers—the information needed to function productively. On the one hand, this is true. But, on the other hand, as with all important human activities, it is not the only purpose. In fact, this pragmatic view is simultaneously the...
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This school year God moved our home school into the desert. The breast cancer I thought I had successfully battled last school year spread, as triple-negative breast cancer is notorious for doing. As a result, I was forced to make adjustments to my homeschooling plans for the year again. Though...
Read the Full ArticleThere are certain terms that can only be used in an absolute sense. Take, for instance, the word “pregnant.” A woman either is or is not pregnant. She cannot be really pregnant, very pregnant, or more pregnant than someone else. She is just pregnant or not pregnant. Another word...
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In 2012 Leigh stepped away from the leadership of the program she had created 15 years earlier, and it was Classical Conversations’ very first student, her oldest son, Robert, who became the new CEO.
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Ah, springtime—warm breezes, daffodils, sunshine, and among Classical Conversations families, practicing for “Memory Master”! “Memory Master” is an honor bestowed on Foundations students who have mastered all of the memory work during the twenty-four weeks of Foundations class. We define “mastery” of the information as having committed the information...
Read the Full ArticleLast month, I had the pleasure of being interviewed on Leigh! @ Lunch concerning the National Latin Exam. Since there was so much interest in the information, I thought I should spend a little time discussing some of the things that need to be reviewed before your child takes the National Latin...
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In the introduction to her book, The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education, Leigh Bortins makes a radical and disorienting statement that makes the book worth reading. She says, “This curriculum works for a student of any age, but that is a hard idea to digest because...
Read the Full ArticleOne of the goals of classical Christian education is to train students to see relationships between ideas. This is an analytical skill as well as a philosophy. Everything that exists shares a common creator who is still active in His creation. It is our job as educators and Christians...
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