Cindy Rollins
Sometimes life offers up delightful surprises. I remember the first time I met Dorothy Sayers's detective Lord Peter Wimsey, the first time I heard Dr George Grant speak of education as wonder, my first Circe conference in Memphis, the first season of LOST, my introduction to iambic pentameter via The Taming of the Shrew. While not the bigger moments of my, life such as meeting my husband or seeing my own grandchild smile at me, they are delightful all the same.
Category:
If we decide to take classical education as our model of teaching does that mean that some modern teaching ideas and methods are anathema to us? Yes. I thought it would be interesting to explore some of these negative methods in the next few weeks.
Category:
Since finishing The Bible and the Task of Teaching (a book I can no longer link to in good conscience as the price is now ridiculous) I have been thinking about the power of metaphor. We often hear how our ‘worldview’ affects our thoughts and actions. Our ‘worldview’ is in a sense our picture or metaphor of the world. But in teaching and raising children we also have a picture within which we operate. Therefore it is important that we are operating within the right picture.
Category:
"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth." 3 John 1:4
In a few weeks I will be graduating my 6th son from our homeschool which means I have reached a stage of life which I feared would never come; I am beginning to reap. Reaping is fun especially when the sowing came with tears.
"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Psalm 126:6
There were many years when this seemed more like a pipe dream than a promise.
Category:
When I read a great book the first thing I want to do is share it with someone who will appreciate it. Sometimes I even buy the book as a gift. Then I can enjoy watching the giftee stare blankly at me as they compute whether they are actually going to have to read the book. I don’t blame them; I do the same thing when presented with a book because the pile of books beside my bed threatens to kill me in my sleep and when someone tells me I must read another one, I rebel. If the book has been given to me by my mother I am in even bigger trouble.
Category:
Growing up I went to a church with the word ‘missionary’ in its name. Somehow this translated out in practice to the idea that everyone should be a foreign missionary. If you were a nice girl and wanted all the little old ladies to pat you on the head and smile then it was best to always answer the question, “What do you want be when you grow up?” with “missionary.” It was no surprise in my public school 2nd grade class this was my answer to that question. I am sure I must have felt a bit baffled when I was not immediately showered with approval.
Category:
Some of you may remember my story of how our family came to enjoy reading Shakespeare together. It was a heart’s desire that became a reality over time. Not so with Plutarch and his Lives. When I first read how some Charlotte Mason Cottage Schools (PNEU) in Britain read Plutarch’s Lives in class I barely gave it a thought. One reason was my own dismal education. Plutarch who? It took many years of hearing the name and the book mentioned before I had the faintest stirring in that direction. To tell the truth I wasn’t ready to appreciate the author at all.
Category:
Since you are reading this article there is a good chance you love and teach children. It is probable that you appreciate Andrew Kern’s definition of classical education as “the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty by means of the seven liberal arts and the four sciences."
Category:
