My mother was a quiet person. Her childhood copies of Heidi, Little Women, and Anne of Green Gables became mine. As an equally quiet child, such books gave me courage. I felt like Clara but admired the sturdy legs of Heidi. I sympathized with Beth but thrilled with Jo. I held the tenderness of Diana […]
Children’s literature could save the world. I believe that. Stories and books are the primary means of passing culture on to children and have been for countless generations. If we claim to want authority over our children’s education we should refuse to relinquish the privilege of educating them to technology in our homes, cars, and […]
In 1946, for the preface to How Heathen Is Britain?, C. S. Lewis shared this observation: Education is only the most fully conscious of the channels whereby each generation influences the next. It is not a closed system. Nothing which was not in the teachers can flow from them into the pupils…. A man whose […]
What is the classical view of literature? In his great book on literature, The Mirror and the Lamp, M. H. Abrams observes that there are four elements to consider when discussing the different ways of viewing any kind of art, including literature. First, and most obviously, there is the artistic work itself; second, there is […]
There is a very good reason for every Christian to know the great works of literature—and that is because the great works of literature help us to know ourselves. This is the reason that we should learn the humanities—because the humanities teach us about humanity, both our own humanity and the humanity of our neighbors. […]
The following is an essay featured in Tracy Lee Simmons’ On Being Civilized from Memoria College Press. Once a common possession of the well educated,classical knowledge now bobs like flotsam amid the wreckage wrought by a century of educational scuttling. And with the passing of Greek and Latin we have lost part of the soul […]
A number of years ago, a pastor friend of mine told me that he only read nonfiction and did not read fiction at all. I told him I was considering doing something similar. “What’s that?” he asked. “I am thinking of breathing with only one lung.” It took him a few seconds, but he got […]
Lucius Junius Brutus Long before the Roman Empire, and before even the Roman Republic, Rome was ruled by “Rex Romae” – the King of Rome. And in 534 BC it was Tarquin the Proud who ascended the throne as Rome’s seventh and final king. Soon enough, his reign would become a tyranny – a tyranny that […]
He’s called “the Great”…the first Christian emperor…and the bridge between ancient history and the Middle Ages…but whatever you want to call him, Constantine remains a legend amongst the Roman emperors of history. And yet his path to power was not just given as birthright, but born from chaos. Civil wars, invasions, disease, corruption, and would-be […]
It is now the case, as it has always been the case, that it is by exposing our children to good character and inviting its imitation that we will help them develop good character for themselves. This means our schools must have what the ancient Greeks would have called an “ethos”—that is, our schools themselves […]