Tag: renaissance

The Virtue of Art: Leonardo da Vinci and Renaissance Apprenticeship

It just might be an apocryphal story, but the mastery Leonardo demonstrated early in his apprenticeship to Andrea del Verrocchio foretold the eminent career of one of the greatest minds of the Italian Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 near Florence in the small Tuscan town of Vinci. The illegitimacy of his birth – the brief fling between his father and mother seems to have occurred while his father was betrothed to another woman – meant that Leonardo received little attention which resulted in a very basic and informal education. He learned the rudiments of reading, writing and

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Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 5: Structuring the Academy for Christian Artistry

In the previous article we explored the need to counter the passion mindset of our current career counseling by replacing it with a craftsman mindset drawn from a proper understanding of apprenticeship in the arts. Apprenticing students in various forms of artistry (including the liberal arts) constitutes the role of the Academy that is most intimately connected to the professional working world. By making real these connections through actual relationships with the practitioners of arts (whether in athletics and sports, common and domestic arts, fine and performing arts, the professions and trades, or the liberal arts themselves) classical Christian schools

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Renaissance Children: How Our View of Children Shapes Our Educational Aims

Perhaps no figure in Twentieth century America captured the idealization of childhood innocence better than Norman Rockwell. His paintings, appearing regularly on The Saturday Evening Post, often included children who evoked an innocence untouched by hard realities that grown ups experienced through the Great Depression and two World Wars. Consider the painting Marble Champion. This 1939 piece features three children, one girl and two boys. It is painted in such a way that one only sees the children and the marbles. There is no physical context given. The viewer is drawn into a world solely inhabited by children at play.

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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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After the Black Death . . . What?

It was a little over a year ago that I wrote “The Black Death and an Educational Renaissance” about how the Black Death serves as an analogue to the Coronavirus. In that article I argued that the Black Death initiated a series of societal changes that eventually led to the Renaissance. I particularly noted how education took on a more prominent role broadly in society. Despite a general decline in population, universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris saw an increase in enrollment. In light of potential parallels between the transformative effects of the Black Death and Coronavirus, I put

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Why the History of Narration Matters, Part 4: Charlotte Mason’s Practice of Narration in Historical Perspective

In this series I have contended that the history of narration should bring Charlotte Mason educators and classical Christian educators together. That is because narration’s use as a pedagogical practice in the classical tradition illustrates vividly the connection between the two. When we know this history and turn to Charlotte Mason’s advocacy for the practice of narration as a central learning strategy, we see her not as a scientific modernist, intent on casting aside the liberal arts tradition of education, but as a renaissance-style educator. Mason was seeking to revive the best of ancient wisdom about education, even as she

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Renaissance

Why the History of Narration Matters, Part 3: Narration’s Rebirth

In my previous two articles I framed my discussion of the history of narration with the controversy between Charlotte Mason and classical Christian education advocates. I suggested that narration’s history may be a fact that puts to rest the false dichotomies of either side. While Charlotte Mason did claim discovery of certain principles related to the nature of mind, narration itself is one of the many things she owes to the tradition. As she said of her philosophy and methods, “Some of it is new, much of it is old.” (Toward a Philosophy of Education; Wilder, 2008; 29) As we

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“Teach Like a Champion” for the Classical Classroom, Part 1: An Introduction

As classical educators look for tools and resources to strengthen their teaching practices, it can often be difficult to know where to turn. While the classical education renewal movement has led to a resurgence in a fresh vision for the purpose of education and even suggestions toward an ideal curriculum, the movement has not always been clear regarding method. We have the “why” and even the “what,” but the “how” remains uncertain. Some, no doubt, will respond to this critique with raised eyebrows. After all, the movement has unlocked a rich treasure chest full of wisdom and insight from master

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scientist performing experiment in laboratory

The Problem of Scientism in Conventional Education

Scientism is precisely not a focus on the importance of learning all that we can about the natural world in school. This we applaud, and classical education has a lot to tell us about how we can teach our knowledge about nature, our scientia nātūrālis as the medievals would call it, better than we currently do. Instead, scientism is the trend in the social sciences, like the field of education, to conform to the pattern of the wildly successful hard sciences by proving themselves through data and pure reason alone. If we can prove it through an experiment and logic

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The Black Death and an Educational Renaissance

An infectious disease causes a pandemic that decimates the major urban centers in northern Italy. Doctors are recognized by their masks. The economy is disrupted through the loss of a workforce. The social order is overturned. Many turn to religion as a response to the pandemic, yet dogmatic norms are questioned. The pope issues indulgences for both those who must practice social distancing as well as for those who are deceased.  The parallels are stunning. It’s truly hard to tell if we’re talking about the 14th century or the 21st century. The parallels, though, enable us to comprehend our own

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