Commencement

Andrew Kern
I have to admit that I got caught up in what Andrew was saying, did not take notes, and as a result cannot now recreate them for you a week and a half later.  If anyone wants to send me their’s I will gladly post.

The Vision of God: The Culmination of Faith and The Goal of Classical Education

Dr. Lloyd Newton 
Again, I am able mostly to communicate here in notes form rather than paragraph.  There was so much in so little time.  I continuously face folks who cannot see the correlation between Christ and the pagans and Dr. Newton certainly helped me a lot with that. 

Harold Bloom suggested two texts for understanding Western [...]

Exordium III – The Prerequisite of Peace: What Genesis 1 Tells Us about Education

Martin Cothran

Rather than try to do Martin’s talk justice with a narrative or paragraph form, allow me to simply record the “outline” or flow chart of his wonderful talk.Introduction:

The first thing we discover in Genesis 1 is that God’s six days of creative work were centered on forming and filling.

Days 1-3 — forming
Days 4-6 — [...]

Paideia Prize Giving Banquet — Acceptance Address: Dr. Richard Hawley [Headmaster (retired): University School, Cleveland, OH]

Despite the minor inconveniences caused by the late arrival of our speaker (after airline delays in Detroit), the whole evening was a delight.  Set in the beautiful Memphis Botanical Gardens, I had a great time both privately and publically.  The six of us from Greenville seemed to be glad for a chance to rest from [...]

Colloquy: Quote from Kant: “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.”

Led by Steve Elliott
I would love to say we spent the hour discussing this quote, but only one friend from here in Memphis showed up, so we spent a wonderful hour catching up and discussing a broad range of issues connected with our schools including parent education, movies in the classroom, the loss of connection [...]

The Necessity of Re-Inventing the Wheel: Why Every School Must Develop Its Curriculum In-House

Steve Elliott
This was my own workshop, so all I can say is “thanks” to the twenty or so who showed up and added to our discussion of what our fears are in curriculum development and how to move past them by placing more stock in our faculty and less in “paper curriculum.”
I am very [...]

Colloquy: Quote from MacDonald

Led by Vigen Guroian
The quote was as follows: To inquire into what God has made is the main function of the imagination. It is aroused by facts, is nourished by facts, seeks for higher and yet higher laws in those facts; but refuses to regard science as the sole interpreter of nature, or the laws [...]

Pillar II – The Principles of Classical Education: The Principle of Integration

John Mason Hodges
·       After a great illustrative story about horses and horse study that highlighted how disintegrated our learning has become, JMH launched into the following basic points:·      

Integration demands hierarchy – two subjects cannot be joined together w/o a third higher principle in play.·      
We must return to Theology as the Queen of Sciences, [...]

Exordium II: The Business of Reading Great Literature: Why We Should Teach Literature to Business Students and Why That Matters to Classical Schools

Vigen Guroian
Basing his thesis upon an experiment he conducted last year with his Theology and Literature classes at Loyola University in Baltimore, Vigen discussed the demise of any form of literary commonplace in the modern university classroom.  The core Liberal Arts have been squeezed out by trade courses in “business” and most modern university students [...]

The Poetic Knowledge Panel: The Prelude, Book 1, by William Wordsworth

This was a discussion of this work by Dr. James Taylor, Laura Berquist, and Martin Cothran.  It would defeat the very notion of the panel to try and relate what was discussed.  It is always a joy to take part.  The notion is that students can learn just by listening and watching accomplished students (the [...]