Author: Patrick Egan

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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Wisdom from the Heights of the Mountain Top: Inspiration from Thomas Aquinas

Onlookers viewing the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris might experience something similar to what onlookers in the 1200s had when the original construction of Notre Dame was still underway. Having begun in 1163, it was not completed until 1345. The site of its construction rests upon an island in the middle of the Seine. Crossing the Seine, one can make their way to the Latin Quarter, where one finds the medieval University of Paris. The Rue Saint-Jacques cuts through the Latin Quarter, aiming at Notre Dame on Seine. It was the street Thomas Aquinas daily walked

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Three Key Skills to Develop during High School

For high school students, college looms large in the mind. Frequently, the focus is on grades and graduation requirements. But the most effective way to become optimally prepared for college is to delve into concepts surrounding human learning. In particular, students who gain a sense of themselves as learners who can manage their own learning gain a master skill that will put them in the driver’s seat of their college career. In this article we will dive into a few areas where students can optimize their understanding of themselves as learners through practical tactics. Each of these skills is backed

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Gifted to Serve: Spiritual Gifting and High School Students

The Via Sabaste was a Roman road that cut through the heart of Asia Minor, bringing traffic of all sorts through the small town of Lystra. Well-formed routes such as this enabled the rapid expansion of the church in the first century. Despite the ease of travel, Paul’s first visit to Lystra could not have gone worse. When Paul and Barnabas healed a crippled man, the locals insisted that they were Zeus and Hermes (Acts 14:12), offending the two missionaries and inciting the local Jewish population to stone Paul (Acts 14:19). Undeterred, they continued to preach the gospel, making many

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Ancient Wisdom for the New Economy

Our educational renewal movement comes at a peculiar time in history. Classical education around the globe plugs us into something the predates many of the movements that shape the conventional educational assumptions of our day. One could identify the Enlightenment as the starting point of conventional education, largely because of the empirical epistemology that championed scientific fact over religious faith. Surprisingly, the classical educational renewal movement has not attempted to rewind the clock to take us back to a world before modern plumbing let alone the internet. Instead, it has called out today’s conventional education for selling short our view

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Learning to Appreciate Beauty: A Deep Dive into Picture Study

Amongst the subjects that epitomize Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education, picture study – otherwise known as artist study or art study – offers so much scope for us to consider how classical education can benefit from a deeper understanding of Mason’s methods. When we think about the classical tradition, we often focus on the great books, from the classics of the ancient world to the literary and philosophical masterpieces down through the ages. Yet, the tradition of the visual arts has generated masterpieces of a different sort, and in some cases of greater esteem that the written tradition. The Visual

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How to Teach Grit and the Growth Mindset

Over the years we have written about grit and growth mindset here at Educational Renaissance. These are important areas of recent research that align well with the aims of our educational renewal movement. But one of the really tricky issues is whether we can teach grit and growth mindset. Is it the case that children are either gritty or not? What do we do when a child comes to us with a fixed mindset? We might be committed to the ideas of grit and growth mindset, but to really have transformative classrooms, we need to consider the question of how

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Goal Setting and Habits: Starting the New Year SMARTer

It is the start of 2024 and I return once more to the topic of habits. There is an ancient tradition associating habits with virtues. It was Aristotle, for instance, who wrote that “moral virtue comes about as a result of habit” (Nichomachean Ethics 2:1 or 1103a15-b25, trans. W. D. Ross). At the beginning of each new year it is worthwhile to take stock of the virtues we would most like to cultivate and then set out a course of action for how we plan to grow in that virtue. It takes a certain amount of creativity and advance planning

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The Incarnation of Jesus and Incarnational Ministry in the Classroom

During a recent podcast recording session, I developed a theological argument about the incarnation that I think it worth unpacking in greater detail. The episode will be released during Advent, so be on the lookout for our next podcast, coming December 10 at 4:00 p.m. It’s at this time of year that we cultivate a sense of the incarnation with the buildup to the Christmas holiday. We see lots of decorations. There are school performances and church pageants. Our routines change to accommodate a plethora of Christmas parties. Despite the celebrating and decorating, there’s a deep concern about the commercialization

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Miss Stacy and Miss Shirley: Three Characteristics of an Effective Teacher

Set amidst the idyllic scenes of Prince Edward Island, one of Canada’s eastern most provinces, the story of Anne Shirley serves up excellent reading for Middle Schoolers. The first in a series of short novels written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables tells the story of an orphan girl, Anne Shirley, who is adopted by the aging brother and sister, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. Through Anne, we are introduced to the community of the fictional town of Avonlea. Anne’s coming of age story is shaped by the people and countryside of this small community. And yet her arrival

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