Author: Kolby Atchison
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Three Key Strategies to Excel in Math and Science
For many students, both today and in the past, learning math and science can be an intimidating endeavor. While subjects like history and literature are more story-based and not as dependent on the accumulation of prior knowledge, learning math and science is sequential and problems are either “right” or “wrong.” In addition, the need to…
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On the Benefits of Camping
Earlier this fall, we packed up our van and went camping. There were six of us in total: my wife and I, and our four kids, ranging in age from 8 months to 7-years-old. As you can imagine, the kids were ecstatic. Other than the oldest, my kids had never been camping. But the longing…
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Mastery over Speed: The Lost Art of Cultivating Virtue
It has become a truism that we live in a fast-paced world. In less than a century, modern technology has enabled us to convert a planet with a surface area of 197 million square miles into a global neighborhood. In 1750, for example, it took 4-6 weeks to sail by ship from New York to…
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To Belbury or St. Anne’s? A Vision for Moral Education in C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength
Note: This article contains spoilers from C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength. In the final book of the Ransom trilogy, That Hideous Strength (Scribner, 1945), C.S. Lewis presents his readers with a stark contrast between two communities: the residents of St. Anne’s on the Hill and the conspirators of the N.I.C.E. in Belbury. In doing so,…
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The Story of Civilization: The Golden Age of Greece
If someone were to stop you on the street and ask, “What is classical education?” I might have just described a nightmare scenario for a classical school parent. “Umm,” you begin. “It’s the trivium—grammar, logic, and rhetoric.” “It’s…classical art and music. Like Beethoven and Mozart. Plus math and science.” “It’s the pursuit of goodness, truth,…
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On the Beginning…and End of Civilizations
“Civilization is social order promoting cultural creation. Four elements constitute it: economic provision, political organization, moral traditions, and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. It begins where chaos and insecurity end. For when fear is overcome, curiosity and constructiveness are free, and man passes by natural impulse towards the understanding and embellishment of life.” …
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The Great Cause of Teaching
In Aristotle’s writings, the philosopher famously articulates four causes, or explanations, for why a thing exists: Together these causes serve as the foundation for whatever knowledge we can know about anything that exists. In this article, I will explore the final cause, or purpose, of teaching. It practically goes without saying that there is great…