I loved my college and my Latin education. However, the education classes were not as fruitful as I had expected. I really did not learn what I needed to know about teaching techniques until I was out in the trenches. All the theory in the world does not really...
Read the Full Article
Classical Conversations is a Christian homeschool provider. If you look at our About page, you’ll discover that we focus on three primary domains: Classical, Christian, and Community. But what does that mean? What is a Christian education? And what is a Christian curriculum? And what should a Christian curriculum...
Read the Full Article
Over the course of the 2015-2016 academic year, both the Challenge II and Challenge III programs will be incorporating an original work of Plato into each curriculum. Challenge II students will be reading the Gorgias dialogue, and Challenge III will be reading the Meno dialogue. If you rejoice to hear this, then you...
Read the Full Article
In the early 6th century, the philosopher Boethius answered the question “What is a musician?” For Boethius, a musician’s task was to go beyond the ability to perform an instrument or compose a song. A true musician was one who was able to judge music for its appropriateness. Therefore, a musician’s...
Read the Full Article
The Conversation Monthly Growing Deep Roots for Speaking and Writing “Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that’s the whole art and joy of words.” —C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Leigh...
Read the Full Article
I admit that the first time I watched the video “Don’t Stay in School,” I felt incredibly irritated. In an edgy rap, David Brown recites facts and skills he was required to learn in school instead of useful information he thought would have more effectively prepared him for life...
Read the Full Article
“Inquiring minds want to know!” Does anyone else remember that advertising tag line? It was the slogan for one of the lurid tabloid gossip magazines that plastered the checkout lines of my childhood. When I was very young, just learning to read really, I would try to decipher what...
Read the Full Article“If we want them to become lifelong learners, we should encourage them to begin having conversations with the author” (Leigh Bortins, The Conversation, 61). Even though my son is in high school and a full blown teenager, I still read to him every night at bedtime. Part of me loves this...
Read the Full Article
‘Tis the season of expectation and searching, of hope and wonder. ‘Tis the season of Advent. Our English word advent comes from the Latin word advenio, which literally translates “to come to.” It is made up of the preposition ad and the verb venio. One of my favorite things about studying Latin is the richness...
Read the Full Article
As an author of the Introductory and Intermediate Logic curricula, and now of the forthcoming rhetoric textbook Fitting Words, I sometimes ponder the relationship between logic and rhetoric, the last two parts of the Trivium. What do they share? Where do they diverge? How can our knowledge of one illuminate our understanding of the...
Read the Full Article
I have a confession to make: I LOVE HISTORY! As a high school student, my favorite subjects were history and English. I am particularly fascinated by stories about brave souls who lived bold lives following Christ. When I hear about one, I spend hours scouring various resources to learn...
Read the Full Article
When medieval knights wanted to insult someone, they threw down a gauntlet, challenging him to a duel; in Shakespeare’s England, a man might bite his thumb at someone to insult him. We southerners prefer a more devious method: the “bless your heart—.” This stereotypical southern slogan is meant to...
Read the Full Article