Classical Education in an Economic Recession

In the continuing gloom of an economic recession, it is possible to continue getting a first-rate classical education on a shoestring. Before redoubling your efforts, it might be a good idea to ask yourself some questions -

1. Why am I doing this? There are many possible answers to this question, but some answers we have arrived at are the opportunity for students to develop their worldview beyond the present. In our view, a classical education offers an unparalleled opportunity to look at human events, religious and secular philosophies, crisis, challenge, and progress without a one-sided perspective of the bias of the present time.


2. What do I what my student to get out of this? Again the answers will vary, but some of our answers include: an ability to think deeply, compare, and analyze information, an ability to make and defend decisions, persuade others, and synthesize new ideas or possibilities. No wonder classical-trained individual go into diverse careers as consultants and analysts in business and tech disciplines, law, medicine, politics, and humanities.

One of the greatest opportunities of classically-educated individuals is to make difficult decisions under changing conditions. The time is ripe.

If you find yourself facing new challenges with the economic recession:

1. Find the blessing in your burden: Cultivate more time with your children, discuss with them how you are making tough and prudent choices with changing conditions and an uncertain future. Model resilience yourself. Read biographies and watch inspiring movies together (Denzel Washington's Great Debaters, Pursuit of Happyness, biographies of Alexander Hamilton, Corrie Ten Boom, Eric Liddell).

2.Use Internet Resources - if you don't have access at home, head to the library!
Examples: Ancient Greek History Course by Donald Kagan (Open Yale Courses)
Physics for Future Presidents (more Conceptual) from UC Berkeley
Lists of more University webcasts / podcasts at Stingy Scholar and
Do It Yourself Scholar
Many AP teachers also post all their lecture notes and Powerpoints on the Internet. Some are also developing blog or wikis to make it more interactive.

For Latin (and any other language for that matter), here are extensive resources available - for instance,

KET Distance Learning Latin Courses
If you need to hear it, check out Wheelock's Latin Pronunciation pages.

Many great books are available for free online:
Project Gutenberg
Online Books at Penn
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Baldwin Online Childrens Literature Project

Charlotte Mason Classical Education (Ambleside Online)

Used books can be swapped or bought at used book prices at:

Deep discounts on new or used curricula can be found at Amazon.com

Does your child have a print disability? If so, he or she may qualify for the wonderful free resource Bookshare.org

Photo reference: Laocoon struggling with his children.(Wikipedia)

Classical Education and Satire

"Difficile est saturam non scribere." - Juvenal (It is difficult not to write satire.)

The word satire is thought to originate from the Latin word satura for medley, and possibly influenced by Greek satyr plays. The first recorded Roman satirist was the poet Horace, although he also acknowledges Lucilius before him.

In many classical curricula, explicit mention of satire is absent; it may be because satirical literature is often felt to be a "lower" form of expression, and many works may stray over the line of propriety in their invective or ridicule.

Satire has had an important role to play in every place and time, however, and it often reflects the voice of the outside critique, and so it often reflects an important source of dissent and current for reform or change. It is not by any accident that some of the greatest satirists of the literary world had reasons why they may have felt themselves outcasts of one sort or another (Aesop was a slave, Horace's father was a slave, Pope was a Catholic in a Protestant England with a deformed spine, Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) was an Anglo-Irishman, and Byron and Orwell, Anglo-Scots), and satire with its mockery of power, has always had special appeal among young adults and the mature who might feel they are at the margins.

The boundaries between pure comedy, satire, and invective, are often blurred, but whether the Pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales or the Chancery court lawyers in Dicken's Bleak House, well-directed satire can powerfully convict hypocrisy and deceit, swaying the tide of public opinion, and allowing individuals to see others as well as themselves in a completely different lights.

There is much that is good to be found in curricula such as Charlotte Mason's, but young satirists-at-heart will view some of her proponent's "twaddle-free" lists skeptically. And well they should. There is a lot of disagreement what constitutes Great Books, and much variability among the works of Great Authors, too. Satire has been with us throughout the Western Canon. It's been used for many purposes, to get a chuckle out of the reader, to purge the writer, to convict the guilty, and to rescue the downtrodden.

We haven't even really talked about visual satire like political cartoons or musical satire like Gilbert and Sullivan...we'll add them in some follow-up posts.

References:
Horace Picture

Ancient Greece and a Classical Christian Education

Classical Christian schools are undergoing a revival in the United States, jumpstarted from Douglas Wilson's Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning in 1991 and Susan Wise Bauer's The Well-Trained Mind in 1999. Of course, more continuous history of classical Christian education can be traced from classical Catholic educators.

The question of how to incorporate ancient Greek history, mythology, and philosophy often arises between different groups as well as different parents and educators. Here are some reflections from a book I'm reading by Gilbert Highet: "We read them not because they are "historic," but because they teach us, they make us think. Nowhere else in the entire literature of the world, in any language or any single period is there such a rich, varied, and deeply thoughtful collection of books as those produced by the Greeks and their successors the Romans...A wise man of our own time was once asked what was the single greatest contribution of Greece to the world's welfare. He replied "The greatest invention of the Greeks was (or "on the one hand") and ("on the other hand"). Without these two balances, we cannot think. The Greeks therefore taught one another, by thinking and talking, and writing."

Highet adds, "One of the chief pleasures of studying aesthetic and intellectual history is to see how their ideas...reappear in distant times...If we open Dante's Comedy...we recognize the moral system of the Greek philsopher Aristotle. If we see Shakespeare's Macbeth, we reflect that form of the tragedy and its basic sense were both created by the poets of Greece. The balance of powers on which the American constitution rests was first formulated by a Greek historical thinker, and Greek teachers first stated that lofty ideal, the brotherhood of man..."

And we all live among ancient Greek thinkers, today. One does not have to look far to find Stoics, Sophists, Skeptics, Aristotelians, Platonists, and Epicureans. Recently, John Mark Reynolds posted a rebuttal to a Heart of Wisdom article that suggested "adoption of classical methods but rejection of classical literature." In the spirit of and , I invite you to read and reason through both.

Certainly there are different ages when it would more appropriate to introduce the people and philosophical debates of ancient Greece, but Highet is right. If we teach ancient Greece as only a collection of historical facts, we have missed important lessons for our next generation.

The Classical Education of Queen Elizabeth I

As a child, Queen Elizabeth I was clever and verbally precocious. She received a language-rich classical education (Latin, Greek, French Italian), and also studied the Bible, ancient philosophers and history, and poets and orators. Roger Ascham said his aims of teaching were three: 1. to instill moral principles, 2. to provide an intellectual guard against adversity, and 3. to set an example for others to follow.

Elizabeth's palace-schooling routine was split into a morning and an afternoon session:

"The mornings were usually devoted to readings of the Greek New Testament, after which Ascham chose readings from the orations of Isocrates , the tragedies of Sophocles, and the works of Demosthenes to complete the lessons of the day.

Non‐scriptural readings were carefully selected by Ascham to instruct Elizabeth in areas that “would be of value to her to meet every contingency of life” (I lxiii). Furthermore, as Ascham notes, the texts chosen were of those “best adapted to supply her tongue with the purest diction, her mind with the most excellent precepts, and her exalted station with a defense against the utmost power of fortune”. Other works that Elizabeth is known to have studied include those texts by St. Cyprian and the Commonplaces of Melanchthon, Luther’s disciple. These would have influence the development of her religious concepts.

Elizabeth’s afternoons were devoted almost entirely to the reading and studying the entire repertoire of Cicero and a significant part of Livy...Additional study time was divided between French and Italian, which she spoke as well as she spoke English."

Elizabeth didn't just sit with her books, though. She was also an avid horseback rider, danced, hunted. Elizabeth's training held her in good stead for the challenges she faced with the Protestant-Catholic tensions and attack by the Spanish Armada. She inspired her country with the following words in 1588:

"My loving people, we have been persuaded by some, that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear; I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms: to which, rather than any dishonor should grow by me, I myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, by your forwardness, that you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you, on the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble and worthy subject; not doubting by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and by your valor in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over the enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people."

Ascham's The Scholemaster.
The Early Education of Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I portrait at PBS
Queen Elizabeth I's Speech Against the Spanish Armada

Classical Education for Visual Learners

One question raised by parents about a classical education is whether it is too "verbal" for some of their children, and the verbal demands of reading classical history or texts can't be underestimated.

But like great thinkers in all historical times, they come in many different sizes, shapes and varieties. If your young visual thinker is having his mind wander we you talk about Plutarch and Charlemagne, then perhaps you need to spiff up what you're doing to make history, philosophy, and the decisions of great men and women of the past come alive.

Here are some Classical Schooling ideas for Visual and Spatial Learners:

1. The Beauty in Every Time
Visual learners are often aesthetes who may lose their sense of time when studying something that they think is beautiful or amazing. In even the best of intentions to "cover the curriculum", it's wise to remind yourself to find and opportunities for beauty in your visual learner, whether it's in the the archaeological treasures of the past, the powerful images of beautiful or heroic poems, or the hidden treasures in nature.

2. A Visual Picture or Scene for People and Events
If a classical lesson doesn't seem to take, then you might need to provide a visual picture or scene to peg or personalize the events. If some students don't have a peg to hang other information on, knowledge with drift away like the tide. We have used flashcards like these for history, science, and philosophy. They make review more effective and the learning really sticks better.

3. Spatial Talents in Re-enacting Historical Battles and Engineering
Great activities for spatially-talented children involving building and simulations of historical battles. By studying the strategies of famous battles, students can immerse themselves in complex scenarios that involve tactics, geographical terrain, weighing of risks and resources, and contemplation of personal as well as opponents' strengths and weaknesses. Budding architects and engineers can study and try to replicate the various feats of architecture and engineering throughout the centuries.

4. You Were There - Historical Storytelling
Daydreaming children often thrive on the excitement of a good adventure story, and once they get the idea, they may enjoy spinning tales of their own.

5. Computer and Media Studies within a Classical Education
Finally, computer and media studies can definitely be integrated into a classical curriculum. Because of the quantity of literary or historical information relayed in a classical education, it is often easier to find verbal than visual material for your classical learner, but it is important to persevere.

There has never been a greater need to imbue classical studies with the talents that visual learners have to give. When classical education seemed to be on its death's door, it has undergone a rejuvenation because of the world wide resources of the Internet (surge in online Latin and Greek), the many different ways that classical educators can now find kindred spirits, and the interest from non-academic disciplines (contemporary movies, game industries) to learn more about the past.

In our household, our computer literacy and media studies take on many different forms - from simple online work (courses, research), to the study of film representations of classics and history, and lessons in computer programs (Flash, Photoshop, Adobe Premiere / Digital Video) that can allow our kids to express their ideas in a wide range of media.

When we get a chance, we'll post the films that we've used to complement our historical readings, and we'll post links and lessons that we've used to study film analysis as well as share some of our experiences dabbling with video editing. Since our posting about the Medieval Siege links, we've been busy building an elaborate medieval city from the paper templates for our daughter's Medieval Faire at the end of this week. I'll post a picture of this when I think we're just about done!

Classical Homeschooling: Backing Our Way into Physics

I want to teach my kids to be good natural scientists. Physics always seemed to be a natural science to introduce early (even toddlers negotiate their physical world), but it's easier wished than done.

I remember Richard Feynman's writing about how his father first told him about physics principles from The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, " said, 'Say Pop, I noticed something: When I pull the wagon the ball rolls to the back of the wagon, and when I'm pulling it along and I suddenly stop, the ball rolls to the front of the wagon," and I says, 'why is that?' And he said, 'That nobody knows,' he said. 'The general principle is that things that are moving try to keep on moving and things that are standing still tend to stand still unless you push on them hard.' And he says, 'This tendency is called inertia but nobody knows why it's true.'" I like that approach because it gives knowledge with an appreciation for what also is unknown. But the problem is me. I also wish I knew as much about Nature as Anna Comstock (Handbook of Nature Study, but our natural teaching moments were more likely to be planned or science-lite, relying on what knowledge I happened to have available without looking it up in a book.

Physics is a tricky subject to teach for tweens or middle school students because it doesn't have to be as complex or rigorous as high school or college prep physics, but it also deserves more than elementary school level explanations. I had started off this year with the high school Conceptual Physics book, and we even spent some time with Conceptual Physical Sciences, but although our son could read the chapters and answer the questions, it wasn't helping him look at his natural surroundings more thoughtfully or think like a scientist. And it seemed a lot like work, rather than something that was intriguing or fun.

Recently we found this delightful site that has free online Classical Physics demonstrations. It's not enough to be a stand-alone curriculum, but it terrific for bring back the fun.

Though we covered Newton's Laws of Motion, we're now revisiting what we've learned, so that understand more about the historical context that drove Newton connect ideas about the movement of the planets, with movement on earth. In order to answer his questions in a specific way, had had to develop a new branch of mathematics (calculus) to test hypotheses about what laws could predict movement.

Newton's laws would allow others to design rockets, spaceships, and rollercoasters, predict the movements of golf balls, fluids, and neutrons in a nuclear reactor. As we collect links and for study notes, we'll post them on our blog.

I'm much happier with our current track in physics because I can see our children's curiosity and excitement returning, and they're getting a better experience for what the practice of science is - observing carefully, questioning, hypothesizing, making conclusions, and then recognizing what remains unknown.

BTW, the beautiful pictures above are from that wonderful MIT physicist and teacher, Harold Edgerton, who was able to stop time and provide surprising insights into the behaviors that previously were too fast to study.

Edgerton Golf Picture
Harold Edgerton Center
Edgerton Explorit Center
High Speed Visualization Lab...Cool Pictures

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