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Thinking Logically About Logic

You’ve heard the word before, but what does it mean? Here’s the lowdown on the second leg of the trivium. Introduction The best way to answer the question, “What is logic?” is with a definition. But that is easier said than done. Throughout history, many people have thought and written about the subject of logic, …

By Martin Cothran September 19, 2016 Logic No Comments

Wisdom and Happiness: What Classical Education can do for your soul.

One of the measures of how hard it is to articulate the case for the value of a classical education is that you have to use the assumptions of those who don’t value it in order to persuade them that it has value. That’s a mouthful, I know. But what I mean to say is …

By Martin Cothran August 11, 2016 Classical Education 2 Comments

In Defense of Latin

Some critics have said that the value of Roman literature is that it has been the vehicle which conveyed Greek ideas to the world. The Romans took their art and, as far as their civilization rests on these, their civilization from Greece. Why, then, do we study Latin? Some of the reasons are given by …

By Guest July 24, 2016 Latin No Comments

Light to the Darkness

Narrative accounts and musical commemorations follow in the wake of every disaster. From the Iliad and the Odyssey, written about events related to the Trojan War, to Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” literature and music have dealt with destruction and death. What great crime doesn’t have its own documentary? What great disaster …

By Martin Cothran July 23, 2016 Literature No Comments

7 Principles for Teaching Latin

There are a lot of good reasons for thinking that Latin should be restored to its former place of honor as the basic subject in the elementary years. In previous issues of The Classical Teacher, I talked about some of these. But knowing that you should teach it and knowing how to teach it are …

By Cheryl Lowe July 22, 2016 Latin No Comments

A Language-Centered Education

My brother and sister and I all received a classical education, way back in the 1970s, because my mother homeschooled us the same way she’d been taught at home. Our education was language-centered, not image-centered; we read and listened and wrote, but we rarely watched. She spent the early years of school giving us facts, …

By Susan Wise Bauer July 21, 2016 Classical Education No Comments

How to Teach Logic

Every subject that is systematic has a certain inherent order to it that dictates how it should be approached. In some subjects this order is more explicit than in others. In mathematics, for example, there is a widely acknowledged sequence of what should be learned and when it should be taught. In other subjects, however, …

By Martin Cothran July 20, 2016 Logic No Comments

2016 Sodalitas Gathering in Review

Reflections on the Sodalitas Gathering by Jessica Phillips Last week in Louisville, KY, over 60 Memoria Press homeschoolers from across the country gathered for the second annual Sodalitas Gathering at Highlands Latin School. Sodalitas is a one-of-a-kind experience of learning, encouragement, connection, and inspiration, all within the context of cultivating a classical homeschool using Memoria …

By Ryan Grigsby July 15, 2016 Classical Education No Comments

20 Ways to Calm a Wiggly Child

Teach him to read well. Stop his body from moving before giving a verbal direction. Give clear, short directions he can follow. Minimize auditory and visual distractions during work time. Provide headphones or earplugs and a supervised “office” area for independent work. Teach in a small, contained area with clear physical boundaries. Provide a visual …

By Cheryl Swope July 12, 2016 Special Needs No Comments

Shadow & Substance: Why Read Shakespeare

The contrast between shadow and substance singularly interested Shakespeare, as did the very nature of things themselves. He even makes use of profound concepts in logic, such as difference, property, and essence. In rhetoric, these are the topics of invention, for they concern the act of defining. So then, let us define why we should …

By David M. Wright July 6, 2016 Literature No Comments