Charlie Chaplin and Modern Times

My family recently chuckled its way through Charlie Chaplin’s last silent film, and one of his best, “Modern Times.”  One scene near the beginning has our hero at work in a modern factory, with some sort of “widgets” sailing by him on a conveyor belt.  His job is to tighten two bolts as they go [...]

What Does the Bible Say About Education?

Spring Break has me thumbing my beat up old Bible, this time in search of passages that expressly address the notion of education.  If you check out the Pages section of this blog you will find a list I have started.  By all means weigh in with your own suggestions.  I am surprised at how [...]

What does it take to lead a Class of Life-long Learners?

In CCE (Christian classical education) we regularly espouse the ideal of cultivating life-long learners by gifting children with the seven liberal arts.  This is what we are seeking to do.  My question for this meditation is then related and simple: “What kind of person is best suited to lead students to such a place in [...]

We have 10,000 hours with each student.

What are we going to do with those hours?

Community = Conversation

We have been “discussing” the means by which community can be fostered at our school. I have taken the thesis that three things are necessary for community: commitment, a common vision, and conversation. I have stated that these three all naturally lead to each other. If we are committed to forming a community, then we [...]

What is a Vision?

Every community must have a commonly held vision. Without such, they cannot agree on their specific individual actions because they will not have any shared idea of what should be done when they don’t know where they are going. So what constitutes a vision?

Quite plainly, it is something “seen.” Visions cannot be so broad, general, [...]

Ordering the Soul 2

Continuing with my earlier blog on a summary of why the cultivation of virtue is a central key to education, I take up here the relationship between thought and action.  Again, pardon my attempt at being very basic and elementary.
I began our tour with “Man is a rational but fallen creature” and wound up with [...]

What you need to succeed

Before I put forth what follows, please know that I am not big on the pragmatic arguments for education.  Its not that they are not relevant (we do need to work or we should not eat) but that they are low.  There are so many better reasons to pursue a great education for ourselves and [...]

Why are there so many songs about CCE? Or The Start of Something Big

I started out to write this as one blog, then it got huge, so now its a series.
I recently received a wonderful letter from an old colleague in Christian Classical Education (who I will address as Miss Classically-minded. I still rank her as being one of the finest teachers I have had the honor to [...]

Cultivating Wisdom and Virtue Physically

 In considering the role of physical exercise in schools, we have to keep our eye on goal.  We state that education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, and so if we are arguing for some form of physical training to be included in education, then it must come within the pale of this goal.  [...]