Classical education cultivates wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, free citizens required an education that enlarged the mind and cultivated the soul. They believed… Continue Reading
The movement to recover the insights of classical pedagogy is one of the most encouraging cultural phenomena of our time. While many parents may choose classical schools because they provide a wholesome moral environment and seem to equip… Continue Reading
At its core, classical education is about asking questions. David Hicks in, Norms and Nobility, states: Classical education is not, preeminently, of a specific time or place. It stands instead for a spirit of inquiry and a form of… Continue Reading
Classical education provides both information and formation. The latter is primarily about developing habits of thought that make it possible to use information rightly. An intellectually well-formed man is able to think about any subject… Continue Reading
A common problem of education in postmodernity is that of “fragmented knowledge.”1 In most schools today, subjects are taught as discreet units. Literature, history, science, and philosophy (when it is taught at all) are treated as… Continue Reading
Revolutions tend to be noted for radical breaks with tradition and bold new courses set. However, the term “revolution” can also mean a return to an earlier position. Perhaps then, the most radical of revolutions combine elements of both… Continue Reading
A number of years ago at a meeting of Classical Lutheran educators a pastor spoke up. He was clearly somewhat overwhelmed by the discussions of theory and curriculum we were presenting to our audience, most of whom were newcomers to the… Continue Reading
In the contemporary discourse about education, discussion of virtue as the goal of education is strikingly absent. If “virtue education” is mentioned, it is generally treated as an add-on to the curriculum, not as the overarching goal of… Continue Reading
It is a sad thing that our modern world has redefined virtue in negative terms. Rather than define a virtuous man as someone who actively practices the positive virtues of prudence, courage, justice, and temperance, we turn things on their… Continue Reading
100 years ago, Europe began its long, slow suicide in The Great War. It may well have been the greatest tragedy of the last millennium. A year earlier, Vienna, capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was shocked by the treachery of one of… Continue Reading
At the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the four children, now mature rulers in Narnia, are hunting a White Stag which leads them to the lamp post where all their adventures in Narnia began. In spite of their foreboding that… Continue Reading
When I settle down for bedtime reading with my boys, we frequently return to one of our favorite stories from Frog and Toad Together, in which Toad, after admiring Frog’s garden, plants seeds of his own. Eager for his seeds to grow, Toad… Continue Reading
