The Classical Conversations Blog - Post Page 89

Oct 21, 2013

The Common Core State Standards Initiative and Centralized Control: An Idea that Simply Won’t Work

“We believe parents are their children’s primary teachers not because parents know everything but because each child is uniquely (and wonderfully!) made and because the people who know and love a child best are the ones most motivated to help that child succeed.” We believed in parents educating their children long...

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Oct 18, 2013

English to Latin… The Most Rhetorical Assignments

When you think about the trivium in any subject, the rhetorical level is the level in which you should show the most mastery of the subject. Latin is no exception. During the grammar stage of Latin you memorize the endings and the vocabulary. The dialectic stage focuses on Latin...

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Oct 11, 2013

The Power of a Question

May I ask you a question? As a mom, I am good at that: “Are you up yet?” “Do you need some help?” “Why did you leave that here?” “Is your throat sore?” “When will you be back?” “Do you call that clean?” As a homeschool mom of two...

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Oct 09, 2013

Thoughts on Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child

InTen Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, Anthony Esolen writes an “indispensable guide to overcoming today’s treacherous trends in parenting and education—and the overwhelming banality of contemporary culture.” Esolen’s scope is broad, but my focus was narrow. I looked for how these cultural shifts, which Esolen strongly...

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Oct 08, 2013

The Two Best Hours of the Week

Feeling guilty seems to be a permanent condition of motherhood. It is often magnified for homeschooling mothers: it seems impossible to finish the “perfect” lesson plans we have made; if we participate in too many activities, we worry that we are overloading our children… if we do not participate...

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Oct 07, 2013

“Silent Cal” Speaks

Calvin Coolidge’s father, a notary, administered the oath of office to our thirtieth president in their home when President Harding suddenly died. They had neither electricity nor telephone, so that night when the news arrived at the telegraph station, the operator had to drive up the mountain and wake...

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Oct 04, 2013

The Common Topics and the Universe

OK, I am like a kid with a new BB gun. I do not really know how to use it, but it looks like so much fun. In that spirit, please allow me to wield Aristotle’s common topics. I just hope I do not shoot somebody’s eye out. Aristotle’s...

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Oct 02, 2013

Peace Talks

We all know, from watching political events unfold as well as from negotiating with our children over school work, bed times, chores, and sibling squabbles, that ‘peace talks’ are a way to resolve conflict. How many of us realize, however, that the activity of conversing in itself teaches us...

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Oct 01, 2013

How Classical Conversations Teaches Us to Communicate Culture

“People and other creatures would be known by their names and histories, not by their numbers or percentages. History would be handed down in songs and stories, not reduced to evolutionary or technological trends.” -Wendell Berry   What is culture, civilization, community? Do we live in a civilized community...

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Sep 30, 2013

Math for Fun: How to Count to Infinity

Infinity is one of those mathematical concepts that seem to befuddle everyone. It is simultaneously easy to understand, but hard to grasp. What is infinity, how do we use it, and why is it important? First of all, infinity is not really a number; it is more of a concept....

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Sep 25, 2013

Shakespeare’s Language and the Evolution of Human Intelligence

I was watching a bit of Brannagh’s Hamlet tonight and luxuriating in the language (some of which I understood) when my dear wife asked for my opinion: “Do you think the groundlings actually understood what was going on in those plays?” I said I thought they did (that is probably a subject for another...

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Sep 23, 2013

Sports Scholarships

We helped some friends of ours find a private college for their son a couple of years ago. I helped negotiate a deal with the Vice President of Enrollment. The school agreed to accommodate the amount the parents were able to spend. All that was left to do was...

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