Glad I found this forum

[mythopoeic]

Salvete omnes,

I've been interested in a classical education for a long time and started learning Greek and Latin about 5 years ago. I took classes to get up to a high level and am considering grad school in the near future. While the benefits of learning the languages were great (the benefits of Latin in particular have been tremendous), it meant not doing very much reading in the Great Books of Western Literature. This summer I hope to change that and a few friends from church will begin Susan Wise Bauer's Well-Educated Mind curriculum and after that move on to Mortimer Adler's book list. I hope to find encouragement and good ideas from this forum and to contribute to it as much as I can. Perhaps over time this community will grow large and vibrant as many Christians who lament their education will return to an old way and begin repairing their own ruins.

ab imo pectore,
Vilhelmus (Will)

[geann.amore]

hello,i feel for you.. im also glad i got to search this forum..

[Yabusame]

My education in 1970s & 80s England was terrible. I'm slowly trying to educate myself. I've always had a love of history and reading so a classical education seems perfect for me. Not doing anything official (as in recognised classes), but I am trying to read through Susan Wise Bauer's 'The Well-Educated Mind' reading list along with one or two other classics from other lists. In addition, I'm also working through The Teaching Company's 'Basic Mathematics' DVD course because I tried to help my step-son with his basic maths and found that I'd forgotten how to do the basics and I'm also watching The Teaching Company's "Foundations of Western Civilisation' DVD course too.

I'm currently reading 'Consolation of Philosophy' by Boethius at the moment. Very interesting. I'm only halfway through it though.

One final question, are the the Memoria Press classes appropriate for adults too? Not looked at any Memoria Press stuff but I'm here because I stumbled onto the site from elsewhere.

Keep going with your studies and keep us informed of your progress, I certainly feel lonely working away here on my own.

[tanya]

The Memoria Press online classes are not open to adults. The only adult classes offered are in the summer. There is a teacher training class for Logic and one for Latin. You can get more information about dates and times for those in May on our website.

I'm sorry we don't offer more for adults at this time. But keep reading! And good luck with your project of self-education. It sounds like you are making good progress.

Tanya

[mythopoeic]

My reading group is currently on Moby-Dick from the fiction list of The Well-Educated Mind. This year I started Traditional Logic I for myself - I'm on Chp. 3 at the moment.

The latin study improved my understanding of grammar considerably. That and reading ancient mythology from the sources has been extremely helpful for my own reading.

[Myhriah Young]

I have been teaching in a co-op Classical Academy for 3 years now. Teaching has actually opened my eyes to how terrible my own education was, and has been making want to continue my own education. I'm very excited to see others are wanting to educate themselves using this wonderful method as well. I'm curious how you have scheduled yourselves, and what you are all doing.

[mythopoeic]

I figured Greek and Latin would be the hardest for me to do on my own, so, since I had the opportunity, I took classes to get to an advanced level. For a diligent and organized person, I think the language study can be done without taking courses; I just didn't know if I could be that diligent and organized.

Now that I'm at a comfortable reading level in the languages and the grammar has really improved the way I think about things, I've decided to learn logic on my own using Traditional Logic. I could do it in less time, but I'm happy to take a year to go through Books I & II.

At the same time I'm working through various reading lists. I have a book club that's reading The Well-Educated Mind's (Susan Wise Bauer) novel list at a pace of one book every one to two months. My ultimate reading goal is to complete Mortimer Adler's Great Books list, but I'm sorting that into smaller lists or milestones. My first milestone is to complete Anthony O'Hear's short list, all of whose authors are in Adler. So I have the 18 works on the short list and and the Bauer Novel list that I'm working concurrently. When I finish the O'Hear list, I'll start reading the Adler books on Martin Seymour-Smith's Top 100 list.

I have yet to decide what rhetoric program I want to work through, but I have a couple of years before I need to decide that.