More Chrysostom on Child Rearing

Go to this pdf for a translation of Chrysostom's An Address on Vainglory and The Right Way for Parents to Bring Up Their Children.   He explains how to tell a bible story to children, compares the child's soul to a city, urges discipline and self sufficiency, and prohibits children from attending the theater among other excellent advice.

He concludes,

"Young men are troubled by desire, women by love of finery and excitement. Let us therefore repress all these tendencies. Thus we shall be able to please God by rearing such athletes for Him, that we and our children may light on the blessings that are promised to them that love Him (cf. I Corinthians 2:9), by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed glory, power, and honor, now and for evermore. Amen."

de Maistre on Mothers

"It is for our sex, undoubtedly, to form geometers, tacticians, chemists, etc.; but for what is called the man, that is to say the moral man, is perhaps formed by the age of ten; and if it has not been done on the knees of his mother, it will always be a great misfortune.  Nothing can replace this education.  If the mother especially has made it a duty to imprint the divine character deeply on the brow of her son, one can be quite sure that the hand of vice will never efface it.  The young man can go astray, undoubtedly, but he will experience, if you will permit me this expression, a returning curve that will lead back to the point where he began."

They have no door to their house

Some brothers were coming from Scetis to see Abba Anthony. When they were getting into a boat to go there, they found an old man who also wanted to go there. The brothers did not know him. They sat in the boat, occupied by turns with the words of the Fathers, Scripture and their manual work. As for the old man, he remained silent. When they arrived on shore they found that the old man was going to the cell of Abba Anthony too. When they reached the place, Anthony said to them, "You found this old man a good companion for the journey?" Then he said to the old man, " You have brought many good brethren with you, father." The old man said, "No doubt they are good, but they do not have a door to their house and anyone who wishes can enter the stable and loose the ass." He meant that the brethren said whatever came into their mouths. - 18th saying of St. Anthony

A Near Perfect Assignment

"The teacher chose a subject taken sometimes from religion, sometimes from moral subjects, or even from fables, and proposed it to his students.  He said, for instance: Midas obtained from the gods the grace that everything he touched would change into gold: amplify, Messieurs, the disadvantages of this mad demand.  Every young man could see them well as a whole, but each put in the degree of imagination with which he had been provided, and became accustomed to seeing an object from all possible angles.  All these amplifications being done and given to the teacher to read, he showed his disciples what grace and richness Ovid had treated that subject, and it was a new lesson."

Literature and the Positively Beautiful

From a letter from Dostoevsky to his niece in 1868:

The main idea of the novel is to present a positively beautiful man. This is the most difficult subject in the world, especially as it is now. All writers, not just ours, but European writers, too, have always failed whenever they attempted a portrait of the positively beautiful. Because the task is so infinite. The beautiful is an ideal, but both our ideal and that of civilized Europe are still far from being shaped. There is only one positively beautiful person in the world, Christ, and the phenomenon of this limitlessly, infinitely beautiful person is an infinite miracle in itself. (The whole Gospel according to John is about that: for him the whole miracle is only in the incarnation, in the manifestation of the beautiful.) But I am going too far. I’d only mention that of all the beautiful individuals in Christian literature, one stands out as the most perfect, Don Quixote. But he is beautiful only because he is ridiculous. Dickens’ Mr. Pickwick (who is, as a creative idea, infinitely weaker than Don Quixote but still gigantic) is also ridiculous but that is all he has to captivate us. Wherever compassion toward ridiculed and ingenious beauty is presented, the reader’s sympathy is aroused. The mystery of humor lies in this excitation of compassion.

John Chrysostom on Priorities in Education

Having children is a matter of nature; but raising them and educating them in the virtues is a matter of mind and will.

Your children will always be sufficiently wealthy if they receive from you a good upbringing that is able to order their moral life and behavior. Thus, strive not to make them rich, but rather to make them pious masters of their passions, rich in virtues. Teach them not to think up illusory needs, reckoning their worth according to worldly standards. Attentively watch their deeds, their acquaintances and their attachments-and do not expect any mercy from God if you do not fulfill this duty.

This is how to discipline and teach your child; this is the greatest of riches. Do not worry about giving him an influential reputation for worldly wisdom, but ponder deeply how you can teach him to think lightly of this life’s passing glories; thus he will become truly renowned and glorious. Whether you are poor or rich, you can do this; these lessons are not learned from a skillful professor but from divine revelation. Do not ask how he can enjoy a long life here, but how he can enjoy an infinite and eternal life in the age to come. Give him the great things, not the little things. Do not strive to make him a clever orator, but teach him to love true wisdom. He will not suffer if he lacks clever words; but if he lacks wisdom, all the rhetoric in the world cannot help him. A pattern of life is what is needed, not empty speeches; character, not cleverness; deeds, not words. These things will secure the Kingdom and bestow God’s blessing. Do not sharpen his tongue but purify his soul. I do not mean that worldly learning is worthless and to be ignored, but it should not be an exclusive preoccupation.

The Nature of Sin

Sin is primarily a metaphysical phenomenon whose roots lie in the mystic depths of man’s spiritual nature. The essence of sin consists not in the infringement of ethical standards but in a falling away from the eternal Divine life for which man was created and to which, by his nature, he is called.

Sin is committed first of all in the secret depths of the human spirit but its consequences involve the individual as a whole. A sin will reflect on a man’s psychological and physical condition, on his outward appearance, on his personal destiny. Sin will, inevitably, pass beyond the boundaries of the sinner’s individual life, to burden all humanity and thus affect the fate of the whole world. The sin of our forefather Adam was not the only sin of cosmic significance. Every sin, manifest or secret, committed by each one of us affects the rest of the universe.  

(from St. Silouan the Athonite by Archimandrite Sophrony)

Organizing Curriculum – Why History?

“The medieval mind was quite ahistorical.  The study of history did not figure in the seven Liberal Arts of the Middle Ages, neither in the trivium nor in the quadrivium.  And the mentality of the Renaissance too, contrary to general belief, was not very historical either: Certainly it was not historical in the way in which our mentality is accustomed to the past.  The meaning of historical development, of a constant continuity with the past, was alien to the Renaissance mind.”  - John Lukacs, Historical Consciousness

 It seems that virtually all classical curriculum models use history as their organizational principal; typically using a cycle of three to six years to cover the history of civilization over the course of grades K through twelve.  One of the obvious benefits of this type of organization is that it has already been provided to us by many current classical educators and it is an organizational principal that can be used by those who aren't classically educated themselves – like me.   I can take a list of accepted classics and arrange them in an historical order.  But why use history as the organizing principal – especially if it has never been part of classical education in the past?  I've been thinking about this question ever since I read the preface to Norms and Nobility.  David Hick’s writes, “Although in my curriculum proposal I use history as the paradigm for contextual learning, the ethical question ‘What should one do?’ might provide an even richer context for acquiring general knowledge.”   Unfortunately Hicks does not expand on his statement, but it is thought provoking and raises good questions.  Why has the classical education movement stuck with history as the organizing principal?  What does the model itself communicate to students?   What other possibilities are there for organizing curriculum?      

Erasmus’s Advice for Students

1.       Choose a learned Master with the affection of a father.  “For it cannot be, that one that is unlearned himself can render another learned.”

2.       Listen attentively to the Master and avoid too much contention.  “By daily augmentations grows a heap larger than can be thought.”

3.       Mix diversion with study.  “There is nothing more pernicious than to be glutted with any thing; and so likewise with learning.”

4.       On the other hand, the diversions should not be that much different than the studies themselves.  “Nay, there ought to be a continual pleasure in the very midst of studies, that it may appear to us rather a pastime than a labour; for nothing will be of long duration, that does not affect the mind of the doer with some sort of pleasure.”

5.       Quality above quantity in education.  “At the first it is no great matter how much you learn; but how well you learn it.”

6.        “Set apart some certain time for meditation.”

7.       Engage other minds, the “combating of wits does in an extraordinary manner both show the strength of genius’s, rouses them, and augments them.”

8.       “If you are in doubt of any thing, don’t be ashamed to ask; or if you have committed an error, to be corrected.”

9.       “Avoid late and unseasonable studies, for they murder wit, and are very prejudicial to the health.”

What a day may look like:

“The Muses love the morning, and that is a fit time for study. After you have dined, either divert yourself at some exercise, or take a walk, and discourse merrily, and study between whiles. As for diet, eat only as much as shall be sufficient to preserve health, and not as much or more than the appetite may crave. Before supper, take a little walk, and do the same after supper. A little before you go to sleep read something that is exquisite, and worth remembering; and contemplate upon it till you fall asleep; and when you awake in the morning, call yourself to an account for it. Always keep this sentence of Pliny’s in your mind, all that time is lost that you don’t bestow on study. Think upon this, that there is nothing more fleeting than youth, which, when once it is past, can never be recalled. But now I begin to be an exhorter, when I promised to be a director. My sweet Christian, follow this method, or a better, if you can; and so farewell.”

A University Is....

"A University is, according to the usual designation, an Alma Mater, knowing her children one by one, not a foundry, or a mint, or a treadmill."  John Henry Newman

David Hicks, author of Norms & Nobility, The Interview

David Hicks, author of Norms & Nobility, was the guest on Leigh Bortins, Leigh at Lunch internet radio show.  The first half of the show was plagued by phone line problems, but it is still worth a listen.  To listen go here, for notes from the show go here.

How to Change Your Husband or Another Winner from Norms & Nobility

My long-time favorite book on education is David Hick's Norms & Nobility.  There are many things I like about it, not the least of which is a wonderful proposed curriculum; basically a list of great books to be studied from grade seven to twelve.  Though my oldest son is still a year away from seventh grade, that hasn't stopped me from collecting the books and dipping into them when I can.  I have yet to be disappointed.

In the tenth grade list is a mention of Erasmus' Colloquies.  I had never heard of the work and didn't even know what a colloquy was.  The book is actually somewhat difficult to find, but I did acquire an inexpensive reprint.  It turns out that a colloquy is another name for a dialogue and Erasmus' Colloquies is a rather large book filled with dialogues on a variety of subjects.   I flipped at random to one titled The Uneasy Wife and began to read.  The dialogue is between two women, one godly and wise and another who is complaining about her husband.  What follows is a delightful, wise, and quite funny discussion about how a wife should live with and "reform" a difficult or troublesome husband.  It may not be honey to a modern readers ears, but I say give me more of Erasmus the Wise.  

Here is an online version of The Uneasy Wife for your enjoyment.

Current Events and Classical Education

Over at the Circe Institute podcast, Andrew Kern answered my question about the place of current events in the classical school.  To hear his answer go to about the 11:20 mark in the podcast.

The Lost Arts of Civilization

The Lost Arts of Civilization is a testament to the notion that small is beautiful.  The little hardcover book, composed of seven chapters, uses classic literature to illustrate the arts that have been lost to our modern mass and technologically driven society.












The lost arts include:

1. Hospitality
2. Letter Writing
3. Conversation
4. Enjoying People
5. Pleasing Others
6. Courtship
7. Tasteful Dressing or Proper Attire

A book truly worthy of contemplation (and action).

Nothing New Under the Sun

“But the greatest drawback of our educational methods is that we pay an excessive amount of attention to the natural sciences and not enough to ethics.  Our chief fault is that we disregard that part of ethics which treats of human character, of its dispositions, its passions, and of the manner of adjusting these factors to public life and eloquence.  We neglect that discipline which deals with the differential features of the virtues and vices, with good and bad behavior-patterns…and with the art of seemly conduct in life, the most difficult of all arts.” - Giambattista Vico, in the year 1708

Maxim for the Instruction of the Over-Educated

To be Greek one should have no clothes;

to be medieval one should have no body;

to be modern one should have no soul.

                  - Oscar Wilde

A Classical Education in Letters

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) is known for his Letters to His Son, instructing him in worldly wisdom and manners.  He actually began to send his letters when his son was only five years old and these letters are a classical education in themselves.  Go here to read the Juvenile Section and see the knowledge of the classical world passed on from father to son.

Thomas Young (1773-1829): A Genius With Childlike Faith

"Although I have readily fallen in with the idea of assisting you in your learning, yet [there] is in reality very little that a person who is seriously and industriously disposed to improve may not obtain from books with more advantage than from a living instructor... Masters and mistresses are very necessary to compensate for want of inclination and exertion: but whoever would arrive at excellence must be self-taught" - Thomas Young, letter to his brother, 1798

At age two he could read, and by age four he had read through the Bible twice. While a teen, he could read Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Persian, Syriac, and Chaldean. At 14 he was tutoring others on the classics. By age twenty he had also learned French, German, Spanish, Arabic and Italian.

While a teen he also taught himself calculus, studied the sciences, learned how to construct his own optical devices, and learned medicine. He also studied art and learned to play the flute. He was not a complete nerd, either; he could also ride horses, sing, and dance. Once he walked over 170 miles to see an art exhibition.

Please go here to read more about this remarkable scientist and Christian.  

The Freedom of the City of Books

“ The teacher who allows his scholars the freedom of the city of books is at liberty to be their guide, philosopher and friend; and is no longer the mere instrument of forcible intellectual feeding” - Charlotte Mason (quoted here on page 15)

The Purpose of Literature and List Making

For the end of great books is ethical: that is, to teach what it means to be fully human.  Every major form of literary art has taken for its deeper themes the norms of human nature.  What my old friend T.S. Eliot called "the permanent things" - the ancient standards, the norms - have been the concern of the poet ever since Job and Homer.  Until recent years, critics took it for granted that literature exists to form the normative consciousness - that is, to teach human beings their rightful place in the scheme of things.  Such was the endeavor of Sophocles and Aristophanes, of Thucydides and Tacitus, of Plato and Cicero, of Hesiod and Virgil, of Dante and Shakespeare, of St. Augustine and St. Thomas More. - Russell Kirk in Educating For Virtue

Over at The Imaginative Conservative, there is a blog symposium being conducted on books that make us human.  If you like lists of great books, head over and check them out.

The Way Great Books Ought to Look

Take a look at this beautiful handmade version of the Silmarillion and the interview with it's creator.

Definitions by Chesterton

Children: human beings who are allowed to do what everyone else really desires to do, as for instance, to fly kites, or when seriously wronged to emit prolonged screams for several minutes.

Family: the thing on which all civilization is built; the idea that a man and a woman should live largely for the next generation and that they should, to some extent, defer their personal amusements, such as divorce and dissipation, for the benefit of the next generation.

Gratitude: happiness doubled by wonder.

These and so many more can be found in Dale Ahlquist's new book The Universe According to G.K. Chesterton: A dictionary of the Mad, Mundane and Metaphysical.

You can get the book free with a membership to the American Chesterton Society if you join by the end of the month (Sept 2011).

Gilgamesh and the Textbook

Years ago I taught an eighth grade class on ancient history.  The school used one of those giant Western Civilization textbooks.  There was a page on the Epic of Gilgamesh recounting the details of the story and a little text box with a paragraph or two from the epic.  Students were able to get their points on the test by identifying Gilgamesh and his hairy friend Enkidu.  My guess is that this memory has long since faded and it really wasn't worth saving anyway.  How I wish that I had been able to have those students read the tale itself or a superb retelling like Gilgamesh the Hero and skip the textbook altogether.

I've now read Gilgamesh the Hero twice, once on my own and once with my 10 year old son.  We will never forget the friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the humor of Gilgamesh's refusal to marry the goddess Ishtar, the heroic feats, and the anguish over death and the search for immortality in this ancient story.
   



And just for fun (beware, this tune will stick with you for days):

Free Classical Education Media

The Society for Classical Learning has a huge list of free audio talks by the likes of Andrew Kern, Brad Birzer, and Christian Kopff.

 

G.K. Chesterton on Mothers

It is not difficult to see why . . . the female became the emblem of the universal… Nature… surrounded her with very young children, who require to be taught not so much anything as everything. Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren’t. It would be odd if she retained any of the narrowness of a specialist.

Now if anyone says that this duty of general enlightenment… is in itself too exacting and oppressive, I can understand the view. I can only answer that our race has thought it worthwhile to cast this burden on women in order to keep commonsense in the world. But when people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge at the Cathedral of Amiens or drudge behind a gun at Trafalgar. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless, and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean. How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.

The Dot and the Line - A Romance in Lower Mathematics

This fun video about geometry turns out to be a parable about the ends of classical education as well.  The book is also worth finding.  It is by the author of The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster.

Fermi Problem Update

My ten year old has been doing Fermi problems since I posted here and he continues to request more.  A few problems done so far include:

1. How much paper would you need to make a stack that would touch the den ceiling?
2. How many hairs are there on one of your arms?
3. How much unpopped popcorn would you need to fill your sister’s closet with popped corn? 
4. How much does it cost your parents to feed you for a year?
5. Ignoring Oceans and such, how long would it take you to walk entirely around the world?
6. How many sheets of paper would you need to cover the largest wall in your room?
7. How many revolutions will a car tire make on a drive to Grandma's house?
8. How many pairs of shoes are there in Dallas?

We've also been using problems in the book Guesstimation.

The Habit of Perfection - Gerard Manley Hopkins

ELECTED Silence, sing to me
And beat upon my whorlèd ear,
Pipe me to pastures still and be
The music that I care to hear.
Shape nothing, lips; be lovely-dumb:	5
It is the shut, the curfew sent
From there where all surrenders come
Which only makes you eloquent.
Be shellèd, eyes, with double dark
And find the uncreated light:	10
This ruck and reel which you remark
Coils, keeps, and teases simple sight.
Palate, the hutch of tasty lust,
Desire not to be rinsed with wine:
The can must be so sweet, the crust	15
So fresh that come in fasts divine!
Nostrils, your careless breath that spend
Upon the stir and keep of pride,
What relish shall the censers send
Along the sanctuary side!	20
O feel-of-primrose hands, O feet
That want the yield of plushy sward,
But you shall walk the golden street,
And you unhouse and house the Lord.
And, Poverty, be thou the bride	25
And now the marriage feast begun,
And lily-coloured clothes provide
Your spouse not laboured-at, nor spun.

Defending the Liberal Arts through Bumper Stickers

Source: The Imaginative Conservative: Defending the Liberal Arts through Bumper Stickers...:

"Keep your laws off of my Great Books"

"Down with the Servile Arts"

"My liberal arts kid beat up your vo-tech kid"

"The Liberal Arts: Earned, Never Given"

"Honk if you love Socrates"

"If you enjoy your freedom, thank an ancient Athenian"

"Better Read than Dead"

"Yo' mama ain't nothin' but a Carthaginian Witch"

"8/24/410--Never Forget!"

"It's All Greek to Me"

"Don't Blame Me.  I voted for Cicero."

Fantasy before Tolkien

Before J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings created a whole genre known as "fantasy", there was Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany.  Lord Dunsany wrote several fantasy novels and many short stories.  I've been reading his Wonder Tales, actually a compilation of two books of short stories.  The stories are strange, wonderfully atmospheric, and compelling reads for such short pieces.  One  of my favorites so far is  "The Hoard of the Gibbelins", a fantastic fantasy demonstrating the follies of avarice.

"very near to learning"

"For the one who recognizes with prudence what ought to be investigated is very near to learning, and the one who begins to understand what he is unaware of is not far from knowledge."  John Cassian, The Conferences, number 10 On Prayer

... never having to say you are sorry.

Asking for and granting forgiveness should be two of the most common activities in the Christian home.  This concept is generally lost on the world and the church seems to have a hard time with it as well.  What are the typical responses in our culture?  First we usually say "I'm sorry", which more often than not means "I wish I hadn't been caught".  I usually hear responses like "It's OK", "No harm done", or "No problem".  However, its not OK, harm has been done and there is a real problem that needs to be addressed by both parties.  The need to sincerely ask for forgiveness and the great gift of bestowing that forgiveness on the other is one of the chief callings of the Christian.  The Apostle Paul calls all Christians to be "Ministers of Reconciliation"- what is this if not granting forgiveness to others and restoring communion.   Jesus made this astounding statement:  “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."   

So, in our home we have developed a simple little "liturgy of forgiveness".  We don't allow the word "sorry" to be used. It goes like this:

  

The asking:  "[Name] will you please forgive me for [the specific offense committed]."

The response:  "I will forgive you"

Pretty simple, but it is amazingly effective.  The offender must own up to what he or she did, and the offended gets to bestow the blessing of forgiveness and reconciliation.  Here is the real key however; mom and dad must do this in front of the children as well as to the children.  The real blessing occurs when dad says to the six year old "Please forgive me for raising my voice to you" and his son says "I will forgive you."     

Teaching History Backwards

Years ago I took a course at the Institute for Christian Studies on Christian worldviews. The Instructor, Dr. Kenneth Hermann, also taught college level history courses. I still remember his intriguing idea of teaching history backwards. Through the wonders of the internet, I found an article by Dr. Hermann in which he explains the idea.  What do you think?

Here is another article on teaching history backwards.

What Should Be Done? Create silence.

If I were a physician and someone asked me, "What do you think should be done?" I would answer, "Create silence, bring about silence." God's Word cannot be heard, and if in order to be heard in the hullabaloo it must be shouted deafeningly with noisy means, then it is not God's Word; create silence!  Ah, everything is so noisy; and just as strong drink is said to stir the blood, so everything in our day, even the most insignificant project, even the most empty communication, is designed merely to jolt the senses and to stir up the masses, the crowd, the public, noise! And we humans, we clever fellows, seem to have become sleepless in order to invent every new means to increase noise, to spread noise and insignificance with the greatest possible ease and on the greatest possible scale. Yes, everything is soon turned upside down: communication is indeed soon brought to its lowest point with regard to meaning, and simultaneously the means of communication are indeed brought to their highest with regard to speedy and overall circulation; for what is publicized with such hot haste and, on the other hand, what has greater circulation than -- rubbish! Oh, create silence! - Soren Kirkegaard 

All Things Tolkien

I've been listening to some of the lectures from The Tolkien Professor.  What a great resource.

Learning Formal Logic the Natural Way

My ten year old, eight year old, and I have been slowly working our way through Harry Stottlemeir's Discovery for about two months (one discussion per week).  I continue to be amazed at the effectiveness of this simple story to communicate formal logic and critical thinking to my children. The best part is seeing them discover the logical principals for themselves, many times anticipating the discoveries made by the story's protagonist.

I asked the boys last week, who is the teacher in our weekly discussions?  They both immediately said that I was.  Then I asked them what I had taught them?  An interesting discussion ensued where they quickly abandoned the idea that I was the teacher and discussed the possibility that either the book was the teacher, the author of the book was the teacher, or whether they were the actual teachers.

The range of ideas in this very short text is vast, we only discuss a page or two per week.  You do need the teacher's guide (it seems expensive but is well worth it).  One chapter takes us 2-3 weeks to cover.  Here are some of the leading ideas from chapter four:

1. Are thoughts real?
2. What is ambiguity?
3. Vagueness
4. How thinking leads to understanding
5. The role of thinking in knowing oneself
6. Three types of quantifiers
7. Accepting reasons as proof
8. Harry's inference that Tony tried to hit him with a stone
9. What is accidental?   

    

  

Epizeuxis, Polyptoton, and Hypophora - Oh My!

Ward Farnsworth's beautiful book, Classical English Rhetoric, provides copious examples of eighteen rhetorical figures in the English language.  The examples start around the year 1600 and end around 1950; the height of English rhetoric.  It includes Chesterton, Churchill, and Burke; Dickens and Melville; Emerson and Thoreau; Samuel Johnson and many many more.

The examples by themselves are simply fun to read, but could be aptly used for imitation in a writing or rhetoric study.

Ancient Writing Texts

I've been thinking some about writing instruction, looking at various books and curricula, reading reviews, etc.  In the process I came across Progymnasmata: Great Textbooks of Prose Composition and Rhetoric.  The book consists of English translations of four ancient Greek composition textbooks.  In each, the progymnasmata is explained and in some of the texts examples are provided.  Most of the greatest authors (or just about any writer or speaker) from before the time of the New Testament until the modern period would have used one of these texts or one similar.

Here are a couple of quotes from The Exercises of Aelius Theon.  First on the progymnasmata in general:

These things are, as it were, the foundation of every kind of discourse, and depending on how one instills them in the mind of the young, necessarily the results make themselves felt in the same way later.  

And this good advice on making corrections to a student's writing:

The making of corrections (by the teacher) in the early stages of study is not aimed at the removal of all mistakes but at correction of a few of the most conspicuos in such a way that the young man may not be discouraged and lose hope about future progress. 

    

A Chreia

Diogenes, on seeing an undisciplined youth, beat his pedagogue and said, "why did you teach him such things?"

Christ as Reading Teacher

In a brief but helpful lecture on approaches to teaching the great books, Dr. Bruce Foltz says that "all authentic learning must be, however tacitly and unknowingly, a seeking of the Creator within the creation, of the Logos within the logoi, of the Truth within the true."  The Logos, Christ himself, shows his contemporaries how to read the Old Testament scriptures.  Explicitly showing his disciples on the road to Emmaus.  When one looks at the writings of the early church, we find them reading secular works with an eye to the Logos. Finding Christ, however obscured, in the writings of Heraclitus, Plato, Homer and Virgil.  

Bonhoeffer on the power of government schooling

In an article by John Taylor Gatto, he makes the following statement about Bonhoeffer:

The famous Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the Second World War was the inevitable product of good schooling.  It's important to underline that Bonhoeffer meant that literally, not metaphorically – schooling after the Prussian fashion removes the ability of the mind to think for itself. It teaches people to wait for a teacher to tell them what to do and if what they have done is good or bad. Prussian teaching paralyses the moral will as well as the intellect. It's true that sometimes well-schooled students sound smart, because they memorize many opinions of great thinkers, but they actually are badly damaged because their own ability to think is left rudimentary and undeveloped.

 I would love to see the original source for this material.

Thinking Mathematically and Fermi Problems

Getting students to "think mathematically" and apply what they have learned outside of the confines of their textbooks can be a challenge.  The problems with the way we usually teach math have been well stated in a long article here and a short video here.  As the video explains, math problem solving becomes something like using a cookbook; a) what kind of problem is this? b) what is the formula or process? c) crank out an answer d) check answer in the back of the book.  While a certain amount of this needs to be done in order to build skill, the student needs to go beyond this kind of math practice.

I have been thinking about this issue for a while, but recently I asked the Headmaster and Math Chair at Coram Deo Academy for some suggestions. He suggested using Fermi Problems.  I took his advice and began to give my 10 year old some of these problems.  Their effectiveness even exceeded my high expectations.  In fact, I told my son that I was planning on giving him one of these problems every week or two and after doing the first one, he said he wanted to do one a day.  Here is one of the problems I gave him:

How much unpopped popcorn would you need to fill your sister's closet with popped corn?

I offered no suggestions.  His task was to figure it out and to write down each step he used to solve the problem.  The process is more important than the exact answer.  In fact, the answer is meant to be a rough but logical estimate. Here are some of the things he did:

1. He found the ratio of unpopped to popped corn - he knew how much corn we put in the popper and how large a bowl of popped corn resulted.
2. He then used water in an amount that took up the same volume in the popcorn bowl and poured it into a rectangular container (for easier calculations).
3. He measured and calculated the volume of the rectangular container.
4. He measured and calculated the volume of the closet.
5. He divided the result of step 4 by step 3.
6. Then he converted the result back into cups of unpopped popcorn.

He had to be creative, use several different skills, and engage his mind to solve this problem.  I doubt he will ever forget the concepts he used and he also got real joy out of solving this problem.  Now I have to get busy and come up with more.

Enrico Fermi

A Place Will Not Save Us

The all-wise St. John Chrysostom said: "A place will not save us if we do not carry out the will of God." It is told of a monk who lived in a monastery where five brethren loved him and one brother offended him. Because of this one brother who offended him, he moved to another monastery. However, in this monastery eight of the brethren loved him and two of the brethren offended him. He then fled to a third monastery. But here, seven of the brethren loved him and five of the brethren offended him. He set out for a fourth monastery but along the way he thought: "How long will I flee from place to place? I will never find peace in the whole world. It would be better for me to become patient." He pulled out a piece of paper and wrote in bold letters: "I will endure all for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." When he entered the fourth monastery here also some loved him and others offended him. But he patiently began to endure the offenses. As soon as someone offended him, he would take out that piece of paper and read: "I will endure all for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." So with patience he succeeded and all loved him and he remained in that monastery until his death.

from the Prologue of Ochrid June 14

Nature Deficit Disorder and the Victorians

Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD), a term coined by Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods, concerns the damaging effects of children spending less time outdoors in the modern world.  A hot topic of late, but apparently not such a recent phenomenon.  Victorian educator, Charlotte Mason, recognized the great benefits of spending time out of doors and incorporated it into her educational philosophy.

This post really wasn't meant to be about NDD, however, but about one of the funniest books written in the English language.  Jerome K. Jerome's  Three Men In A Boat.  It's about three nature deprived Victorian lads who decide to take a boat trip up the Thames.  Here you can witness the hilarious effects of NDD in a laugh out loud comic classic.

The Pleasures of Reading

For one who has been drawn to lists of great books, various reading plans, and Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren's How To Read a Book, Alan Jacobs' new book is a fun and challenging read.  As a sort of rejoinder to How to Read a Book, Jacobs extols reading by Whim and serendipity, while at the same time offering some practical approaches to the practice of reading.  His approach reminds me George Grant's idea of "following the footnote trail" of your favorite books or even John Granger's approach to Harry Potter in Harry Potter's Bookshelf.  If you like books or books about books you'll probably enjoy The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. 

Undine - "the most beautiful fairy tale"

"Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale; then read this and that as well, and you will see what is a fairytale. Were I further begged to describe the fairytale, or define what it is, I would make answer, that I should as soon think of describing the abstract human face, or stating what must go to constitute a human being. A fairytale is just a fairytale, as a face is just a face; and of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful."  George MacDonald in The Fantastic Imagination

Many versions of this fantastic tale can be found, however, later versions tend to remove the explicit Christian content.  Here is the online version I recommend.  For a print version go here.

Finally, I recommend reading the entire essay linked above by George MacDonald.  In it he answers questions about interpretation, authorial intent, and the way literature works on the soul.

Socratic Teaching Resources

Socrates

Teaching by Asking Instead of Telling - elementary school math example

A Video example of Socratic Teaching.

A pdf of Socratic discussion principles and practices.

Let the Fairy Tale Study Begin!

I've been putting together a study of Fairy Tales for the whole family to work through over the next few months.  Here are some of the readings and resources we will be using:

We will be reading lots of classic fairy tales (most are available on the web or at your local library).  Here are a few good anthologies in print:

• The Victorian Fairy Tale Book
• The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales
• The Annotated Hans Christian Anderson
• The Annotated Brothers Grimm
• Andrew Lang's Fairy Book Series

Other tales we will read:

• The King of the Golden River
• The Goblin Market
• Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (unabridged, not Disney version)

We will be reading some of the works of George MacDonald:

• At the Back of the North Wind
• The Princess & the Goblin
• The Princess & Curdie
• The Light Princess

I found a great game that we have already tried a few times with fun results.  We'll also practice our story telling by memorizing a story or two to share with family and friends.

A few Fairy Tales for Mom and Dad:

• Phantastes
• Lilith
• Undine (George MacDonald said this was the perfect fairy tale)

Some resources for parents:

• Awakening the Moral Imagination
• Tending the Heart of Virtue
• The Golden Key - George MacDonald Resources
• On Fairy Stories by J.R.R. Tolkien
• A Study of Fairy Tales

Cassiodorus on the Trivium

Cassiodorus wrote his Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning around 538AD.  It would serve as a key text copied in monasteries throughout the Middle Ages.  The first half of the work concerns "religious readings" (the scriptures and writing of the fathers of the church).  The second half is about the seven liberal arts of "secular letters".  His exposition of liberal education is both clear and concise.  It was interesting that Cassidorus places the trivium in the following order: grammar, rhetoric, and logic.  He defines each as follows:

• Grammar is the skill of speaking stylishly gathered from famous poets and writers; its function is to compose prose and verse without fault; its purpose is to please by impeccable skill of polished speech and writing.
• The art of rhetoric, as the teachers of secular letters teach, is the knowledge of speaking effectively in civil cases.  Therefore the orator is, as has been said, 'a good man skilled in speaking' in civil cases.  The task of the orator is to speak in such a way as to persuade; his goal is to persuade in a manner of speaking, insofar as the nature of the circumstances and the individuals involved in civil cases seem to allow.
• Logic or dialectic, to the extent that the secular teachers speak of it, separates truth from falsity by subtle and concise discussion.

Teaching and Learning - A Word Picture

I hope this beautiful picture of the task of the teacher and student from Izaak Walton will inspire your teaching:

Come out from under your four walls and roof. Declare a holiday. Take the road with me to Thatch House, that admirable hostelry where good companions gather, where at the end of the day you'll find a good telling of tales, a good singing of ballads, and linen sheets that look white and smell of lavender, and you can listen to the refrain of Coridon's song: "Then care away and wend along with me."
     Stand with me at mid-day, in the open, where the sun casts no shadow, and let us together consider all things concerning our art - that which lies back of us - the antiquity of it, and that which lies close about us and claims our immediate attention.  I would have you know that tingling mood which comes to all who share the best that they have found.  I would have you honor this art, and those who have gone before - who have set it in high places.  Let your eye be single in all that it looks upon.  And let us share that humility which is at once the boon and the true grace of all who learn together.

as quoted in The Way of the Storyteller by Ruth Sawyer.

The Wisdom of Questions

St. John Cassian

It belongs to the understanding to discern the distinctions and the drift of questions; and it is a main part of knowledge to understand how ignorant you are. Wherefore it is said that "if a fool asks questions, it will be accounted wisdom," because, although one who asks questions is ignorant of the answer to the question raised, yet as he wisely asks, and learns what he does not know, this very fact will be counted as wisdom in him, because he wisely discovers what he was ignorant of.

From The Conferences of John Cassian (Conference 4, Chapter IX).

On Fairy Tales

I've been doing some research on fairy tales and came across this helpful site.  It has a page of great quotations.  Here are a couple:

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking."

~Albert Einstein~

"Think what you would have been now, if instead of being fed with tales and old wives' fables in childhood, you had been crammed with geography and natural history!"

Charles Lamb to Samuel Coleridge 

Sir Philip Sydney on the End of Education

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) wrote a spirited argument in favor of poesie (poetry, stories, fables, dialogues) as the greatest teacher of the virtues in his Defence of Poesie.  The work also has much to say about classical education and its proper end.  Here are a few quotes to whet you appetite for the rest of this great book:

On the goal of education:
"the finall end [of education] is, to lead and draw us to as high a perfection, as our degenerate soules made worse by their clay-lodgings, can be capable of."

"...with the end of well doing, and not of well knowing onely. Even as the saddler's next ende is to make a good saddle, but his further ende, to serve a nobler facultie, which is horsmanship, so the horseman's to souldiery: and the souldier not only to have the skill, but to performe the practise of a souldier. So that the ending end of all earthly learning, being verteous action."

"I affirm, that no learning is so good as that which teacheth and moveth to vertue, and that none can both teach and move thereto so much as Poetry, then is the conclusion manifest that incke and paper cannot be to a more profitable purpose employed."

On Aesop's Fables:
"Whereof Esops Tales give good proofe, whose prettie Allegories stealing under the formall Tales of beastes, makes many more beastly than beasts: begin to hear the sound of vertue from those dumbe speakers."