Why Latinphobes fear

Brian Philips at Covenant Classical here in Concord provided a forum on why Latin should be taught in our schools. He got some great discussion going with the audience and one of the things that came out is that there is a rather obvious attempt by many of our cultural leaders to follow Nietzsche’s lead [...]

Scientific vs. Poetic Modes of Learning

This from James Taylor’s Poetic Knowledge
Unlike the scientific mode of learning that proposes methods and systems for acquiring knowledge, the tradition that has been thus far reviewed [i.e. the tradition of poetic knowledge in the classical and Christian eras] reveals rather a way of knowledge, like a path or winding road, with interesting detours off [...]

My garden blog

Here begins my gardening blog posts.
I am keeping this blog because I love the idea of gardening and I believe gardening has an awful lot to teach us about life, but I’m a lousy gardener. So, having resolved to give it another shot, I’m going to keep track of things here and also ask for [...]

Beyond Good and Evil II

In this post, I wrote these words:
Widespread homosexuality is both cause and effect of social and personal disintegration. More precisely, the gay agenda has already and will continue to wreak moral havoc. It does so by implementing a logic of permission that is untenable, but having been implemented becomes the habitual language of moral thought by which the great [...]

Mercury (Hermes) and Dionysus (Bacchus): Beyond Good and Evil

Were Mercury and Dionysus good friends? I’m scanning my memory for stories that involved both of them because, looking at the age, it seems evident to me that Mercury is the god of this age and that Dionysus is riding his wagon. Are they friends or rivals?
Mercury was the messenger god. He was the god [...]

Coming Wars?

Here’s an interesting speech that a Robert Spencer gave in Belgium about Islam and its attitude to non-Muslims. I don’t know enough about the subject, but this speech would seem to raise concerns that are of historical/political/theological importance.
He asks how Osama bin Laden is twisting verses in the Koran and gets no response.
Did you know [...]

Understanding and Instilling a Love of Beauty

Every year after our CiRCE conference I have the privilige of listening to the conference CD’s. Some of them are downright extraordinary, especially if you are willing and eager to think about education beyond the superficialities of popular thought. Today I was listening to a CD by Debbie Harris with the title of this blog [...]

Why Read the Pagans?

Colorado Rockies might lose tonight, since they’re down 13-1 in the fifth. Oh well. On Tuesday night I participated in a teleconference interview about how to teach great literature to kids. In it I emphasized the seven great questions that teach kids how to think and that make teaching both more effective and easier. Next [...]

The Times We Inhabit

The discussion around the Dumbledore case is profoundly revealing. I posted the following to one participant in the NY Times  discussion. America’s heart is laid bear in these comments. So here’s my response to one of them: 
I read all the comments up to 155 and then I thought: Without doubt this is the most interesting post. So [...]

This Dumbledore thing

Like many, I’ve been following the reaction to Rowling’s “outing” of Albus Dumbledore with bemusement and some wonder. It seems to be a social event of some signficance and one worth thinking about from many angles. I expect I’ll be doing that for the next little while, because I can’t possibly contain the various tracks [...]