Preparing Students to Engage the World

One goal of a Christian education ought to be to prepare students to engage the world from a Christian perspective. That is, Christian educators should seek to prepare students to navigate life outside the school walls–the ideas, customs, practices, and expectations of the world around them–as followers of Jesus Christ.  Each cultural time period generates new challenges for this objective, and ours is no exception. While classical Christian education emerged in Christendom, an era of western history in which the Christian faith was the cultural paradigm, this is no longer the case today. The “Age of Faith” may continue to

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A Coherent and Holistic Education: Book Review of Elaine Cooper’s The Powerful and Neglected Voice of Charlotte Mason

In this series, I want to review and highlight the Charlotte Mason Centenary Series of monographs released in 2023. The 18 books in this series are brief and readable volumes that encapsulate a diverse range of topics related to the life, writings and philosophy of Charlotte Mason. My intention is to select a few of the volumes to spark your interest in Charlotte Mason as she is studied by modern proponents. Up first is a volume written by Elaine Cooper entitled The Power and Neglected Voice of Charlotte Mason: A Coherent, Holistic Approach to Education for Our Times. Her thesis

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Slow Productivity in School, Part 2: Do Fewer Things

In my last article we discussed the problem of pseudo-productivity in school. Popularly called busywork, this pseudo-productivity of the factory model of education presents a fairly straightforward analogy to the pseudo-productivity of the office. In his book Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, Cal Newport diagnosed the problem of our crazy busy work culture: “The relentless overload that’s wearing us down is generated by a belief that ‘good’ work requires increasing busyness–faster responses to email and chats, more meetings, more tasks, more hours” (7). Then he proposed an altogether different approach to work, characterized by slowness rather

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Slow Productivity in School, Part 1: The Problem of Pseudo-Productivity

Classical educators can often be found touting the Latin phrase multum, non multa, in favor of various revolutionary proposals to adopt quality over quantity, depth over breadth, much over many things. (See for instance this article on Memoria Press by Andrew Campbell, or Christopher Perron’s lecture on Classical Academic Press.) The phrase comes from a letter of Pliny the Younger (7.9.15) and originally refers to his advice for a student to read much, not many things. This could be taken to mean that he read the right books or the best books over and over again rather than simply reading

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A Poem for Advent

With the Christmas season now in full swing, there tends to be a strong focus on the joys of being young. This is notably displayed in the excitement our culture generates around shopping and gift-giving, particularly for children. Movies like Home Alone, Elf, and A Christmas Story feature the idea of youthfulness prominently in their plots, and in some way or another, cast an adult or elderly person as the antagonist. The wonder and joy of Christmas, it would seem, is reserved for a particular age. As Christians, we need to resist this inclination. One way we can preserve the

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Charlotte Mason on Thanksgiving

The tradition of a Thanksgiving holiday has a rich history in Christianity that predates the holiday as it has developed in America. In fact, numerous countries across the world celebrate some form of thanksgiving as a national holiday. The idea of thanksgiving or gratitude stems from a prominent biblical theme, one which calls the Christian to a daily practice of continual thanksgiving. For instance, Paul writes to the Colossians, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances” (Col. 2:6). So while we participate in the community celebration of Thanksgiving for all the God has provided, this article explores

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College-bound Superstars: How Classical School Students Can Cultivate Interesting Lives

Student at classical Christian schools are already on their life journey. The temptation is to think that life only begins once the student goes off to college or enters their career. A student in sixth grade feels like college is so far off that it’s not even worth talking about college. While it is true to say that a student is on the college journey, in reality this sells short what is truly going on for all of our students. Really they are on a life’s journey. The college journey is actually just a small component of the life’s journey.

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Are You Ready to Become a Phone-free School?

The latest catchphrase sweeping the nation is “phone-free school.” In an age where smartphones have become ubiquitous, more and more schools are adopting policies to remove phones from the hands of students. In this article, we will look at the reasons behind this move to create distraction-free environments. Even though many classical schools are already low-tech, it is well worth considering how to approach the role of phones in the lives of students. We will also consider the thesis of Jonathan Haidt in his new book The Anxious Generation to learn more about what we can do to enable our

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The Search for Great Teaching: A Comparison of Teach Like a Champion 3.0 and Christopher Perrin’s Pedogogical Principles

One interesting addition to Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion series in his third edition (Teach Like a Champion 3.0) is his notion of a mental model. He introduces the idea like this: “In a typical lesson you decide, often quickly. Then you decide, decide, and decide again. You are a batter facing a hundred pitches in a row…What do you need to decide quickly, reliably, and well, while thinking about other things under a bit of pressure in the form, of, say, twenty-nine restless students, twenty-five minutes’ worth of work left to get done, and a ticking clock to

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The Narration-based Science Lesson

The method of narration articulated by Charlotte Mason is a powerful tool that involves children retelling what they have learned in their own words. Students tell back the content of what they have read, seen or heard. This actively engages their minds in the process of assimilating knowledge, making connections and cultivating language skills. Narration is dynamic and grows in complexity as students grow, meaning that as students enter higher grade levels and encounter subjects that have dense prose, we need to understand how to modulate our use of narration to fit the needs of the texts they read. When

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