Learn more about Memoria Press...

    Memoria Press is a family-run publishing company that produces simple and easy to use classical Christian education materials for home and private schools. It was founded by Cheryl Lowe in 1994 to help promote and transmit the classical heritage of the Christian West through an emphasis on the liberal arts and the great works of the Western tradition. Memoria Press is currently developing a K-12 classical curriculum at Highlands Latin School in Louisville, Kentucky, where its popular Latin, logic, and classical studies courses are developed and field-tested.

    Memoria Press’ educational philosophy can be best described as classical Christian education. Classical Christian education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue through meditation on the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. This is accomplished in two ways: first, through training in the liberal arts; and secondly, through a familiarity with the great books and the great thinkers of the Western tradition.

The liberal arts are the generalizable linguistic and mathematical skills that enable a person to excel in every academic area—as well as in the practical activities of life. In classical and medieval times, there were thought to be seven of these arts or skills: grammar, logic, and rhetoric (the “trivium”), as well as arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music (the “quadrivium”). The first three were linguistic arts, and the last four were mathematical. We would probably say today that there are more than just the four mathematic skills worthy of mastery, but the liberal arts remain the greatest summary of the skills a person should be expected to know in order to be accounted an educated person.

Through the study of the greatest that has been thought and said by Western writers and thinkers, we pass our cultural heritage on to our children. Western civilization is made up of three elements: the Greeks, the Romans, and the Hebrews—and the coalescing of these three cultures into what later became known as Christendom, the Christian civilization that remained the dominant cultural force in the West until the early 20th century. A familiarity with the Greeks, the Romans, and, most importantly, the Christian Bible is essential to understanding our culture.

The liberal arts are the “how” of education, and the study of Western culture is the “what”. A mastery of both of these is the best way to prepare a child, not only for college, but for life.

    Memoria Press products are characterized by three things: simplicity, quality, and affordability. They are designed to be accessible to homeschool families who have no familiarity with the subject being taught. This makes them not only ideal for homeschool parents and their children who may be getting their first introduction to a subject, but also for experienced teachers in the classroom who appreciate the ease of use and comprehensiveness of their presentation. Many homeschoolers have a tendency to buy more programs than they actually use, or try a program and get frustrated with it. We all have more of these on our shelves at home than we would like to admit. Memoria Press, however, takes pride in the fact that the vast majority of people who buy our programs use them —and finish them.

While our products are readily accessible to amateurs, they are also designed with the highest academic standards in mind. Latin, logic, and rhetoric are difficult subjects that few people are qualified anymore to teach. While no one can promise you won’t have to work hard to learn them, what we do promise is that our programs always avoid needless complexity and bring a clarity of presentation to every subject.

Memoria Press programs prove that ease of use and academic rigor are not mutually exclusive.

In addition to simplicity and quality, Memoria Press programs are also designed with the budget of a homeschool family in mind. We invite a comparison of the price of our programs with those of any other programs currently available. In some cases, our programs are a quarter of the cost of similar programs on the same subject. We want to help you educate your child, not drain your bank account.

    Cheryl Lowe, owner and publisher of Memoria Press, became interested in Latin and classical education while homeschooling her sons 20 years ago. After studying and teaching for several years, Cheryl wrote her first Latin book, Latina Christiana. The course is an introductory Latin course for parents with no Latin background. For the last 10 years, she has been teaching Latina Christiana and developing her line of thoughtfully prepared Latin courses, which now include Latina Christiana II, Lingua Angelica, and a soon to be released comprehensive program called First Form Latin. Cheryl also directs the vision for all of the Memoria Press courses.

Cheryl, who is also a former public school teacher, started Memoria Press to serve parents and schools who seek excellence in education by developing and publishing classical education material. Unlike many textbook publishers that "write by committee," Memoria Press is unique because all of its courses are developed in the classroom.

Cheryl's teaching experiences include college, high school, homeschool, and cottage school environments. She has taught hundreds of homeschooled and classroom students and feels that her greatest teaching accomplishment is that her students master Latin grammar before high school. Cheryl is a former homeschool mother, and her education includes a B.A. in Chemistry and an M.S. in Biology. She is also a certified teacher in chemistry, biology, math, and history.

Martin Cothran is a writer and teacher, living with his wife and four children in Danville, Kentucky. Author of Memoria Press' Traditional Logic, Material Logic and Classical Rhetoric programs, he is an instructor of Latin, Logic, Rhetoric, and Classical Studies at Highlands Latin School.

Martin holds a B.A. in philosophy and economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an M.A. in Christian Apologetics from the Simon Greenleaf School (now a part of Trinity University). He currently serves as senior policy analyst with The Family Foundation of Kentucky. The Lexington Herald-Leader has described Martin as "a master of the 30-second sound bite, and the Associated Press has called him "articulate and relentless," although he is not entirely sure that they meant it as a compliment, since his views on policy issues are often at variance with those of the liberal media. He practices the art of rhetoric in frequent articles on public policy issues that have appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Louisville Courier-Journal, and various other newspapers, as well as on radio and television. He has also served as a registered agent (or “lobbyist”) at the Kentucky State Capitol for over 12 years and has served on various state committees that oversee education policy, where he continues to be an influential voice on education policy issues.

Martin is the managing editor of “The Classical Teacher” magazine, which also serves as Memoria Press’ product catalog.

Leigh Lowe, author of Memoria Press' Prima Latina beginner Latin program, is a writer and curriculum developer for Memoria Press and was one of the founding instructors of Highlands Latin School. She currently teaches Latin, classical studies, mathematics, American studies, and English to 3rd-5th Grade students while developing curriculum in these courses for future teachers.

Leigh holds a B.A. in business with a minor in computer science from Transylvania University and an M.B.A. from the University of Louisville. She received the Newkirk-Moore Award for Female Entrepreneurs in 2000 and the Landrum Rotary Fellows Award for Leadership in 2001. Leigh also started her own business, Campus T-shirt Quilt Company, which was featured recently on NBC’s The Today Show and the Rachael Ray Show. She is a popular teacher of elementary students at Highlands Latin School, where she continues to help in the development of Highlands rigorous Latin program. (Leigh also owns Brightside T shirt Quilt, and the Quilt Loft.)

Brian Lowe, Cheryl's son, manages the business side of Memoria Press and helps in the development and planning of new programs and projects. Brian graduated cum laude from Transylvania University with B.A.s in physics and mathematics and graduated from Vanderbilt Law School, summa cum laude. Brian's thesis law school research project on the Supreme Court entitled, "The Most Powerful Justice" was recently cited by Paul Edelman and Jim Chin in an article in a 2001 edition of the Minnesota Law Review. Brian was classically educated by Cheryl Lowe as she developed many of the courses that are carried by Memoria Press today.

Highlands Latin School is a private classical Christian school for K-12 students founded in 1998 and based on the Oxford model in which highly-qualified teachers help develop and implement an academically rigorous program.