I read a magazine article recently in which the reporter went to two Christian colleges, one a more standard Christian college, and another with an explicitly classical emphasis. When asked what their objectives were, the first college answered, “To save America.” The second answered, “To save Western civilization.” Why is this significant? It is significant […]
Author Archives: Martin Cothran
My wife and I live on a little hill on a country lane in Kentucky. From my front porch, which is surrounded by trees and flowers, I can see farmland for twenty miles or so. It is my favorite place to be. And my favorite thing to do is to sit there in my oak […]
If you are a classical educator—either a teacher in a school or a homeschooler—there is one question you will be asked again and again: Why teach Latin? This is probably because there seems on the surface to be no practical reason for doing it. Why would we consider studying Latin with so many other priorities […]
…and how to know when you see it. One of the most overused terms in the Christian education lexicon is the expression “worldview.” And although it is frequently used, it is almost never defined. We are told how important “worldview” is. We are supposed to have a “worldview” and make sure we teach “worldview” to […]
In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Mark Schatzker makes an observation that is at once obvious and seldom thought about: There is a natural connection between the good taste of food and its nutritional value. Decades ago, most foods in stores were locally grown, left on the plant longer, and not only […]
Highlands Latin School students have once again taken home a load of awards from the National Latin Exam. Every year, HLS students take the NLE, which is administered by the National Junior Classical League to measure the knowledge of Latin students across the country. HLS always performs well, and this year is no different. Of […]
G. K. Chesterton was said never to have produced a masterpiece. The reason is not because he never wrote a great book, but because he wrote so many. But if we had to pick one of Chesterton’s books as his best, it might be Orthodoxy—his case for Christianity. Chesterton became famous in 1904, when he responded to the provocations […]
In the old natural philosophy, the purpose of inquiry into nature was to better know what creation is. It taught nomenclature (the names of things), taxonomy (how the thing fits in with other things), morphology (how things are internally structured), and scientific method (how to investigate natural things). It was focused on the wonder and […]
My wife and I were staying at a little inn in the mountains recently. We woke up one morning and she opened the window blinds. “Oh!” she said. “A tractor!” There was a parking lot for some cabins next to us and there was a tractor parked there. For some reason at first unclear to […]
If you were looking for the oldest parochial school in Tennessee, you would find it in Jackson, where St. Mary’s School has been operating for over 100 years. Having done it that long, the school can claim to know a thing or two about how to educate children in an atmosphere of faith. The school […]