“If the Challenge Guide has the weekly assignments in it, what do I do all summer?” asked a mom at a Parent Practicum. She had homeschooled her children for years before participating in Classical Conversations and she had recently decided to enroll her youngest child in Challenge I. Previously, she...
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Are you musical? What a question! And the answer will affect so much of what we consider our children and ourselves capable of, much less what we are willing to attempt. As you might have guessed, I suspect that far too many of us consider ourselves unmusical—or maybe I...
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In Genesis 2:2–3, Scripture tells us that “on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had...
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In Part One of this article, we looked at two recent arguments in favor of letting children’s desires dictate what they read. This common contemporary argument is directly opposed to the idea of a classical, Christian education. While the aim of most contemporary educators is to prepare their students for the...
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Recently, an accomplished youth choir participated in a workshop with an internationally acclaimed choral conductor. The workshop was aimed at music teachers and choir directors. The conductor spent several hours working with the youth chorale to demonstrate his conducting principles and techniques. Many of these techniques were highly classical,...
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As part of my Latin background, I have studied lots of mythology. I have studied Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Norse mythology, and a bit of Egyptian mythology. I used to have my students in public school write modern-day myths; thus, they would use the same names and plots, but...
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If a picture paints a thousand words of an idea, then what does witnessing an idea, personally participating in an idea, and talking about an idea provide? It certainly does more than paint words. It creates a multidimensional, multisensory experience leading to dialectic processing. This summer we have the...
Read the Full ArticleThere has been a healthy argument in the news lately about whether or not students should read the classics. National Public Radio (NPR) recently aired a piece lamenting the fact that students no longer graduate to serious, adult fiction because they are reading too many contemporary, insubstantial novels in...
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Independence Day provides an opportunity for us to reflect on our nation’s founding principles. Our government has become so expansive and extensive, we can lose sight of the real purpose of government. I have wondered why humanity creates governments anyway. All governments have the power of coercion and force....
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There are many factors to examine when trying to choose a college. The advent of the internet has made the selection process a lot easier for prospects and their families. Instant access to costs, rankings, and many other vital statistics associated with colleges has helped to make the higher...
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Do you ever wish someone would turn your required reading into a big-budget summer blockbuster? This July Fourth weekend, feeling slightly traitorous to your classical roots, you could sit in an air-conditioned theater, feed your children popcorn for dinner, and watch A Patriot’s History of the United States in a manageable...
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Honestly, who wants to read about work in the middle of summer? Summer is for reading in the hammock, sipping sweet tea under a ceiling fan, and feeling the juice of a homegrown tomato running down your chin. However, when I read that Albert Einstein once posited that there...
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