This meant that, in his education, a great man must not only study the rules and principles of eloquent expression, but he must know and do the good; he must not only have mastered certain techniques, but he must be familiar with the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. The discipline that taught a man […]
Author Archives: Martin Cothran
In Pearl S. Buck’s short story, “A Field of Rice,” Wang Sun, a Chinese villager in the early 1950s, is in a situation in which he is told to do something he knows won’t work. Mao Tse Tung has taken over China, and he has sent functionaries out to every village to tell the farmers (who […]
Have you ever found yourself having a hard time responding to someone in an argument and not exactly knowing what the problem is? Many times, the problem is that your opponent is making an assumption that you have not identified. And many times, it is this very assumption that is at issue. If you knew what it was, you could attack it and […]
The 5 Little Lashbrooks And How They Grew by Martin Cothran Once upon a time, in a beautiful valley in central Pennsylvania, there lived two young girls who loved animals, flowers, cooking, gardening, painting—and books. And writing. And music. Oh, and also sitting around having deep conversations with friends and going on walks in the countryside. At least […]
When Robinson Crusoe finds himself marooned on a desert island, he is left with few of the necessities of life. What he needs is on the wreck, and he returns to it several times to salvage the provisions. He builds a raft and brings back food, tools, clothes, and fresh water. It is from the ship that he gets cheese, rice, and […]
If colonial America was suffused with classicism, what of Puritan New England? Was the pervasive influence of the classics and classical languages seen as a hindrance—or as a help—to those who labored in the Lord’s vineyard to establish a Christian government and culture in early America? It is an easy question to answer. Not only […]
Mrs. Hogue is standing at the front of the room reading a story from her copy of The Golden Children’s Bible. Every student has a copy open and is reading along with the teacher. She stops reading and looks around the class: “Why did Pharaoh fear the children of the Hebrews?” Every hand in the room […]
I went to my hotel after a long day at a homeschool convention. It was late, and I was hungry. So, after checking in, I decided to walk to a Subway I had seen to get a sandwich. By the time I walked out of the hotel lobby, clouds had moved in, and the rain […]
If I see my logic program listed in the math section of catalogs one more time, I’m going to pull out my hair! Not that they’re trying to make me mad or anything. In fact, they’re just trying to sell my book, and they probably think that ought to make me happy, and they’re right. […]
We have a tendency to put academic subjects into separate and unrelated categories which have little to do with each other. We have our curriculum chart where we put things such asReading, English, Math, Science, each one dealing with a different skill and a different body of knowledge. Logic seldom finds a place in our lists, although it may be […]