Tag: ideas

Counsels of the Wise, Part 4: Preliminary Instruction in Prudence

How does a person become wise? What are the proper ingredients in an educational paradigm aimed at prudence? Where would we even begin? So much of K-12 education seems to have nothing to do with practical wisdom, as Aristotle defines it. How do we recover the classical goals of wisdom and virtue in earnest, and not simply as a marketing claim?  So far in this series we have had occasion to develop the Christian underpinnings for prudence. “Be wise [phronemoi, prudent] as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16), Jesus tells his disciples, utilizing the same word for prudence that

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Exploring Our Educational Ideals: Following along Gulliver’s Travels

Since its publication in 1726, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift has been a popular read both for its initial audience as well as for generations of readers since. In my most recent reading of this travelog with our Enlightenment Humanities class at Clapham School, I was struck by Swift’s thoughts on education. Excavating the claim he is making about education can be difficult as the book is an overt satire of English literature and society. Yet, the point he is making can stimulate our thinking about education today, particularly as we think about the values inherent in our educational renewal

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The Counsels of the Wise, Part 2: Why Reviving Moral Philosophy Is Not Enough

In The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education (Version 2.0, Revised Edition), Kevin Clark and Ravi Jain argue for a recovery of the tradition of moral philosophy against the reductionism of the modern social sciences. Their account of the intellectual history that led to the replacement of this classical and Christian paradigm for wisdom in ethics and the humanities, broadly considered, faithfully unpacks the faulty assumptions of this shaky modern and postmodern problem. In this series on replacing Bloom’s taxonomy with Aristotle’s Intellectual Virtues, we have already had occasion to bring the razor edge of their intellectual

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“Education is a Life”: Igniting a Love for Learning in the Classroom

“’Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life’––is perhaps the most complete and adequate definition of education we possess. It is a great thing to have said it; and our wiser posterity may see in that ‘profound and exquisite remark’ the fruition of a lifetime of critical effort (Charlotte Mason, Parents and Children, p. 33). In this series, I have been exploring Charlotte Mason’s notion that education should be approached through a trifold lens of atmosphere, discipline, and life. Stemming from her view of children as persons, Mason argues that we are limited to three and only three tools to

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What is a Learner?: Reading Charlotte Mason through Aristotle’s Four Causes

The goals and aims of our educational renewal movement center not on the quality of our curriculum or the quality of our teacher. Instead, the quality of learning is the true test of whether we are providing something of lasting value and worth. To that end, I have taken a look at the learner and applied Aristotle’s four causes to understand this pivotal aspect of quality education. In so doing, I have turned to Charlotte Mason’s Toward a Philosophy of Education to elucidate the fine points of the learner. The Four-fold Manner of Knowing an Object Among the most important

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Expanding Narration’s History with Comenius: Narration’s Rebirth, Stage 2 – The Great Didactic

If you’ve been following Educational Renaissance for some time, you might remember my history of narration series from last year. During the third article of the series I had a short section on narration in John Amos Comenius’ work, relying primarily on Karen Glass’s brief quotations in Know and Tell. At the time I was only beginning to read Comenius’ The Great Didactic in full, and I had not yet procured his Analytical Didactic. Now I have read and digested both, coming away with more narration gems to add to the history. Even then I wrote that “more remains to

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Discussion Group at the Educational Renaissance Symposium August 4, 2021

The Educational Renaissance Symposium 2021: A Digest

On Wednesday, August 4th we had our first annual Educational Renaissance Symposium hosted by Coram Deo Academy in Carmel, Indiana. It was exciting to welcome over sixty participants who heard keynote addresses from Educational Renaissance authors as well as attended great workshops by a variety of guests. The Symposium is a different kind of convention, intentionally small and focused on pedagogical practices. This means our keynote addresses, for instance, while aiming to be inspirational emphasize pedagogy. Breakout session then aim to apply ideas, which then lead to small group discussions during which participants can consider practices within their particular school

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Exploring Educational Alternatives: A Comparison of Charlotte Mason and Maria Montessori

The early 1900s was a watershed moment in education. The second wave of the Industrial Revolution brought about what we might call the educational-industrial complex. Here I intentionally draw upon Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1961 Farewell Address when he warned against the disastrous potential of the military-industrial complex. Looking back over the previous decades of global warfare, he saw how the industry-fed war machine would never be satiated. Something like this happened in the field of education. Industry, an expanding economy and globalization demanded of education a new kind of production-line format. School buildings began to resemble factories graduating a populace

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Rest for the Weary: On Cultivating the Intellectual Life

As the pace of our modern world grows busier and busier, spurred on by the services of smartphones and laptops, people need somewhere to turn for relief. Our glowing rectangles promise us conveniences such as efficiency and a life of ease, but for what purpose? More efficiency, more ease. It’s a never-ending cycle. Technology frees us up to consume…more technology.  In order to escape the technological addiction that has mystified the 21st century, it is not enough to take smartphones, laptops, and video streaming services away. They must be replaced with something better. Something deeper. Something more satisfying. In this

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Creating a Culture of Mentorship

In Episode 10 of the Educational Renaissance podcast, we took a deep dive into what Charlotte Mason means by atmosphere, one of the three instruments of education. One of the ideas that surfaced was the concept of mentoring. In today’s article I want to extend that discussion to look at some recent research on student mentorship as well as draw on some biblical concepts to round out our understanding of what it means to create a culture of mentorship in schools. Mentoring as a Program When we think of mentoring programs, we often picture something like Big Brothers Big Sisters

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