To know God and to make Him known
Oct 07, 2014

The Power of Yes

I felt like an alien in my own home, teetering on the verge of tears. Just days before, I was melting in the hot Guatemalan sun, mosquitoes attacking my shins. I could not have been happier. How I longed for that now as I felt the busyness of the...

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Oct 03, 2014

Can My Child with Autism Succeed in Challenge?

Socks worn wrong side out, tags cut from every piece of clothing, food which mustn’t touch and must be of similar consistency and color. Odd questions at odd times on odd topics, usually in public from a tiptoeing, finger-waving, beautiful enigma. No eye contact. No hugs. This is an...

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Sep 30, 2014

Crooked Sticks and Straight Lines

Tools are not perfect. Anyone who works with computers knows this. Experience has led me to this conclusion: technology is great, except when it is not. Printers mysteriously go offline; no one knows why. Browsers and word processors flow like molasses and sometimes reach the solid state, freezing entirely....

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Sep 29, 2014

CC Dads: Become Memory Masters

Hey, CC Dads. Once a week, our wives and kiddos load up in the van and head to our local Classical Conversations campus for their community day. Their summer schedule has ended and their school schedule has begun, but as dads, our work schedules continue unabated. We go to...

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Sep 24, 2014

What Are We Afraid Of?

Your spirit has been bruised by cowardice, Which many a time so weighs a man’s heart down it turns him from a glorious enterprise- as shadows fool the horse that shies away.                  (Dante, Inferno, Canto II) In this early scene from...

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Sep 23, 2014

The Life of Memory

Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis… Cicero (De Oratore, II. ix. 36)* The experience of listening to a Classical Conversations Foundations student recite the History Timeline is more than memorable, it is impressive. I will certainly never forget the first time I heard my...

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Sep 22, 2014

What Can Lost Tools of Writing Offer the IEW Writer?

A dear friend of mine prefers Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Elegant Essay to CiRCE Institute’s Lost Tools of Writing (LTW) for high school students. “It teaches a mature essay, while LTW just gives a formula. It seems like a step backwards after Teaching Writing: Structure and Style,” she said. So, I thought for...

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