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Boys, Men, & Poetry

Amid the bustle of boys just released from school, I searched the crowd for my 12-year-old son, Louis. He approached me with tears in his eyes. Both he and his younger brother, Ben, had competed as finalists in their school’s poetry recitation competition that day. The previous year, the boys had won first place together. …

By Guest June 14, 2018 SCJ Summer 2018, Simply Classical Journal No Comments

A Communal Feast

In some circles the word “curriculum” is anathema. It is far better, this thinking asserts, to take a relaxed approach to education, to teach a la carte, or to let the child decide what and when to study. We must not be “dogmatic.” Different children must study different things—or so we begin to believe. We …

By Cheryl Swope June 13, 2018 SCJ Summer 2018, Simply Classical Journal No Comments

Simply Classical Journal Letter from the Editor: Summer 2018

Years ago my curly-headed, blue-eyed little boy toddled downstairs one morning in footed pajamas. He watched Daddy fill his briefcase and leave for work. Climbing atop the sofa to wave through the window, he turned to me and said with authority, “Daddy go to work.” He slipped back down the sofa and went about his …

By Cheryl Swope June 11, 2018 Letter from the Editor, SCJ Summer 2018, Simply Classical Journal No Comments

The Myth Made Fact

Though most readers are aware that C. S. Lewis spent many years as an atheist before becoming a Christian at the age of 32, fewer know that his conversion occurred in two distinct stages. Before embracing Christ as the only-begotten Son of God, Lewis spent over a year as a theist, believing in the existence …

By Louis Markos June 7, 2018 Classical Education, Summer 2018, The Classical Teacher No Comments

So What if Beethoven was Deaf?

People often tell me they are teaching classical music through “Composer Studies,” choosing one composer at a time, listening to his music, and reading about his life. But are biographies necessary or even a good tool for teaching the arts? Let me offer an example to explain why I am likely to say “no.” Almost …

By Carol Reynolds June 6, 2018 Art, Summer 2018, The Classical Teacher No Comments

Wardrobes are for Grown-Ups Too

By any stretch of the imagination, and by any criteria, the Chronicles of Narnia are among the most popular books ever written. Several major surveys of the bestselling books of all time place The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the Top Ten, a few places below The Lord of the Rings by C. …

By Joseph Pearce June 5, 2018 Literature, Summer 2018, The Classical Teacher No Comments

Evangelium Aeternum

One evening my son came to me beaming: “Mom, you have to read this!” Earlier he had been “in a mood,” so I had sent him to his room with clear instructions: “Do not to speak to anyone the rest of the night until you have read two chapters of your C. S. Lewis literature …

By Cheryl Swope June 4, 2018 Special Needs, Summer 2018, The Classical Teacher No Comments

Humanism Is Not the Problem

What precisely is Western culture? In a nutshell, it is the civilization that derives from the cultures of Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem, that was conquered and transformed by Christianity, and which has been handed down through the centuries by an education system which in more recent times has been referred to as “classical education.” These …

By Martin Cothran June 1, 2018 Classical Education, Summer 2018, The Classical Teacher 2 Comments

Athens & Jerusalem

In God’s providence, Christianity was born at a time when Greek and Roman thought dominated the ancient world and influenced everyone and everything—including the Jews and Judaism. Christendom, the culture of Christians after Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, was the product of Christians making sense of both Greek and Jewish heritages. Christianity in the East …

By Guest May 31, 2018 Classical Education, Summer 2018, The Classical Teacher No Comments

Why Caesar?

Why is reading Julius Caesar‘s account of his conquest of Gaul the next logical step for a student who has completed a study of grammar forms and basic syntax? There are sound reasons that Caesar’s Commentarii De Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War) has traditionally been the preferred choice for the first immersion in …

By Guest May 30, 2018 Latin, Summer 2018, The Classical Teacher No Comments