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 […]
Category Archives: The Classical Teacher
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 […]
Everyone agrees that education is a good thing. Unfortunately, the agreement pretty much ends there. Although almost everyone agrees that education is good, there is wide disagreement on what education is. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, there has been a sometimes heated debate, not only about what schools should do, but what they should be. Generally speaking, there are […]
Shining Like the Stars Forever and Ever In the book Simply Classical, I share how my two children, despite their significant special needs, benefit from a classical Christian education which not only strengthens their minds, but also impacts their souls. One recent event underscored what this kind of education can do for our children, and what it can […]
The United States is in the midst of a presidential election. Like all such elections, it involves two, sometimes three, major candidates, each of whom tries to persuade the voters to vote for him or her. Some candidates do this well and others don’t. But they could all do it better if they knew Aristotle’s principles of rhetoric. Classical rhetoric is […]
Because of the education meltdown in the twentieth century, the art of teaching Latin—and nearly everything else—has essentially been lost. As we work to restore the content of the classical curriculum, we must also strive to resurrect the art of teaching it. Latin, as it was taught in the second half of the twentieth century, was a two-year ordeal—grammar in the […]
In classical rhetoric, the divisio is the section of a persuasive speech that presents the division, the point at which the topic is divided into two opposing perspectives. Granted, many differences exist between traditional and modern education, yet where do the most fundamental of these divisions lie? What is the divisio when it comes to the topic (or “issue”) of education? I […]
In two previous articles, we have explored the question: What is the classical approach to phonics? I have shown that Orton-Gillingham phonics, which is designed for students with dyslexia, is in every respect a classic traditional phonics program. I have also shown that Romalda Spalding, in The Writing Road to Reading (WRTR), though she used the Orton phonograms, created a totally different […]
The education we now call “classical” is our heritage as human beings. With roots reaching back to the greatest teachers and philosophers of all time, a classical education forms the student’s mind, character, and tastes by inclining him toward truth, goodness, and beauty. We trace classical education to the ancient Greeks, who prized wisdom and […]
Over the last several years, I have planted a number of trees in my yard. I notice that when I plant a tree, it takes a year or two in order for its root system to become established. Only when this happens does it start growing in earnest. A plant has to grow down before it can grow up. […]