child coloring with crayons

Educating Future Culture Makers

An experienced educator once taught me that every pedagogy, or method of teaching, assumes a particular view of students. Each view, in turn, is founded on premises about the nature of these students, their capabilities, and, perhaps most broadly, their purpose for existence. It is these driving premises that subconsciously guide the hand of the teacher, including how to use class time effectively, what skills to focus on, and which curriculum to implement. As classical educators seeking to retrieve the treasure trove of wisdom and insights about education from the western tradition, we do well to proclaim the Judeo-Christian view

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ancient Greek goddesses of memory

The Flow of Thought, Part 2: The Joy of Memory

In my last article “The Flow of Thought, Part 1: Training the Attention for Happiness’ Sake” I drew a connection between Aristotle’s view that happiness is the chief goal of education and the findings of modern positive psychology. In Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, he reports his findings that people report being most happy when in a state of flow. Flow is his term for the experience of focused effort at some worthwhile pursuit at a level of challenge commensurate with one’s skills. Whether a hobby, work or a meaningful conversation, the experience of flow is immensely rewarding,

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new guy name tag

New to School: 5 Principles for Starting the Year Well

Have you ever been new to a school? Often there are awkward days trying to find new friends. You feel like there’s an opportunity to turn over a new leaf. Every school has its own culture that needs to be learned and navigated. Whatever succeeded at your previous school might not work here. The temptation to be something you are not is a serious pull.  I am joining a new school this fall, moving from Providence Classical Christian Academy in St. Louis to Clapham School in Wheaton, Illinois. Truth be told, it’s not exactly new to me. I will be

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Girle reading Oxford English Dictionary in the flow of thought

The Flow of Thought, Part 1: Training the Attention for Happiness’ Sake

It may seem strange to look to modern psychology for support of classical education. After all, it’s the vagaries of modern thought that have got us into this educational trouble in the first place. The abandonment of tradition, the scientism and revolutionary overhaul of religion have all taken their toll on the proper training of our children. However, there’s always a diamond in the rough, a silver lining to every “sable cloud”. I recently found such a rare jewel in the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Besides being one of the best written books I’ve read,

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classroom waiting for students to return

Back to School and Back to Educational Renaissance

Welcome back to a new school year and to a new year of Educational Renaissance! The back-to-school sale shelves are probably already picked over and disheveled, but Jason, Kolby and I are planning a whole series of great posts that will last you the whole school year. Look for our first post to drop next weekend! Welcoming Kolby to the Team We’d like to welcome Kolby, the newest member of the team! You can read more about Kolby on our bio page. After getting to know Kolby over the years, I knew that there was a likemindedness that made him an ideal contributor to

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last day of school on calendar

End of the 2018/2019 School Year

It’s the end of the 2018-19 school year. Most of you are on vacation now, or at the very least your work at the school can be done without students present. That said, a good many of you will roll right into summer school, or you’ve taken on a summer job, because – let’s face it – teachers just don’t make enough. This is an excellent time, no matter what your situation, to take stock of another year done and to look forward to next year. For Jason and Patrick, this will be the last post of the school year.

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Bible on a Stand

Easier Than You Think, Yet Harder Than You Think: Teaching the Bible to Children

The Bible ought to be taught to children. This should be self-evident from a theological perspective, given that the Bible is God’s authoritative self-revelation to mankind. “Let the little children come to me,” Jesus says, “and do not hinder them.” From an educational perspective, though, we do well to ask ourselves what it means to teach the Bible in the school classroom. How might this differ from teaching in a church context or in a Christian home? What consideration do we give to the age of the child and their stage of cognitive development? The Bible is simultaneously so precious

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Plato and Aristotle in the Lyceum

Why Study Western Civilization?

The classical Christian movement has at its core a commitment to teaching Western civilization. Even though we teach Western civ, its distinctive qualities are not always clear. As a result, many educators (even within the classical movement) question why we would teach Western civilization. Here I will lay out what I think are the three key pillars of Western society. My hope is that with greater clarity about what Western civilization means, there will be deeper conviction to instruct our students to promote and defend its values. So what do we mean by Western civilization? Today we equate the “West”

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Aristotle close-up as famously portrayed by Raphael with arm stretched forward indicating his engagement in the human world of moral excellence, virtue and habits

Excellence Comes by Habit: Aristotle on Moral Virtue

All too often we are inclined to think of excellence as the product of good genes and good fortune rather than our personal habits. The fates bestow their blessings indiscriminately and haphazardly, and the talented and successful are the lucky recipients of excellence, while the rest of us are mired in mediocrity. Those who rise to the top, the outliers, as Malcolm Gladwell calls them, were born that way, or else became that way because of a combination of heredity, privileged upbringing and opportune circumstances. As we’ve mentioned before (Aristotle and the Growth Mindset), while the great philosopher Aristotle doesn’t

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civic building with classical style of architecture

Educating for Moral Character and Civic Duty

There was a fascinating set of papers delivered at the recent Education 20/20 Speaker Series presented by the Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank addressing education policy. Living in a private school world, I have been largely out of the loop on public education policy debates. So I was intrigued to learn more about the state of the discussion. The February 12 session featured two papers. Eliot Cohen made a case for teaching history from the standpoint of patriotism as a means to promote civic and moral virtue. Yuval Levin traced the utilitarian policies of the 90s and 2000s and

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