One of the problems in discussing and debating the right way to educate our children is a confusion about what education actually consists of. We talk about education when we mean training; we talk about the importance of STEM subjects like mathematics as if math has nothing to do with the liberal arts; we talk […]
Many years ago the English writer G. K. Chesterton claimed that the “coming peril” facing civilization was “standardization by a low standard.” Today, almost a century later, Chesterton’s words have something of the mark of prophecy about them. This “dumbing down” is exemplified in America’s woefully beleaguered education system. Standards of literacy and numeracy, to […]
We live in the lake community where my husband spent summers as a boy. He and his boyhood friends built forts, acted out The Hobbit with homemade swords, and tested many brave and boyish notions. Once, after reading about regalia wings, the boys hoped to fly winged bicycles by launching them off a big wooden […]
I was recently asked this question at a conference: “What classical music do you recommend I play in the background for my kids?” Answering it is a bit of a delicate dance because I first need to say that any fruitful approach to classical music needs to place it in the foreground. Any serious art […]
If I were tasked with the composition of a Student’s Handbook for Disrupting Class, I would not spend too many words on trifling matters like technological distraction or destruction of property; such barbarism has long been the natural prerogative of the academically obtuse, for which no formal instruction is required. A truly Machiavellian plot must […]
When you reach the end of this year, will you look back with a sense of satisfaction, knowing you did everything you could and should to pour all that is true and good and beautiful into the hearts and souls of your students? It is a grand and glorious privilege you have been given. As […]
A logic teacher often encounters the complaint that logic is not useful, that being so abstract it is detached from the real issues of life. The student must memorize names (in Latin, of course) for basic patterns, and the examples of these patterns all seem to involve Socrates somehow. Students are made to work through […]
THE KEY TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE The most practical reason for Latin study is that it also teaches English. Over half of our English words are derived from Latin—and it’s not just any half, it’s the difficult half! The common one- and two-syllable words of everyday speech are English, but the big, three- to five-syllable […]
Letter from The Editor Winter 2021: Two Stories When my wife and I visit my mother and stepfather, we often duck out to go for a walk in nearby Holton, a beautiful old town that lies on the prairie in eastern Kansas. We park along the street, walk the neighborhoods, and then poke around in […]