By Devin O'Donnell The use of Fashions in thought is to distract the attention of men from their real dangers. We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is least in danger and fix its approval on the virtue nearest to that...
Originally published in Classis Volume XXVIII, No. I By Louis Markos The founding mission and vision of most, if not all, classical Christian schools includes a commitment to Goodness, Truth, and Beauty—not the man-made, relativistic goodness, truth, and beauty taught...
Originally published in Classis Volume XX, no. 3 By Trenton D. Leach Aristotle stands in between two giants of history: his teacher, Plato, and his student, Alexander the Great. As both a student of a great teacher and a teacher of a great leader, Aristotle’s insights...
Imagine three schools serving different neighborhoods in the same community. Each school has a competent teacher taking 10th graders through Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. Upon closer inspection, we will see that the students in these classrooms, though working...
Discussions about what “canon” of books a school should read often focus on theoretical topics such as the purpose of reading, the criteria that define a “great book,” and how we should think about whether the standards for a book’s canonicity are universal or...
Let us now tackle how best to create a great discussion. How can a discussion leader build an environment where participation is encouraged and the three main obstacles to student participation are overcome? Leaders can adopt certain behaviors that will go a long way...
Classroom teaching falls into two categories: active and passive. Both are necessary, but research and experience suggest that active teaching is more effective and provides important benefits. For high school and college classes, the two approaches to teaching are...
Originally published in Classis 2011 Volume XVIII, No. 1 By Ben House Only twelve percent of adult Americans read poetry, according to a recent statistic.1 Several of my students, my eleven-year-old son, and I fit into an even smaller minority: the number of Americans...
Originally published in Classis Volume XVI, no. 3 By Eric Indgjerd In an address titled, “The Greatest Single Defect of My Own Latin Education,” Dorothy Sayers confessed the lamentable fact that, although she had started upon Latin at the ripe young age of seven—her...
Originally published in Classis Volume XXXII, no. 1 By David Seibel In Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of Education, Stratford Caldecott (1953-2014) shines a fresh light on the classical Trivium to remove the fog hanging over schools today. This is not...