The number of people (teachers and parents) migrating to Classical Christian Education (CCE) is astounding—and joyfully so! Talking recently with a colleague, he pointed out how the crowds at homeschooling conferences are drastically different than the families who attended the conferences before COVID. What he was observing was a new wave of families who have […]
Trigger Warning: The Post You are About To Read Contains Viewpoints That May Create Emotional Discomfort for Cult Practitioners of Safetyism
In this post, I’m going to get right to the point. We’ve all seen those articles, videos, and other media that begin with a trigger warning similar to the one in the title of this post. Perhaps you just assumed some well-meaning do-gooders at the executive level thought it would be helpful to warn their […]
A Primer for Becoming a Lifelong Learner
The Great Conversation is a spirit of inquiry applied to the Great Books—the best that has been thought and written in the Western tradition.
Book Review: Uprooted by Grace Olmstead
Uprooted, is foremost a memoir about homesickness…a deep and personal exploration of that “ache for presences past, for the souls that animated and embodied our most beloved memories of homes.
The Three R’s: The Essentials of an Educated Person
I want to use whatever good I learned as a boy— I can speak and write, read and count—and I want these things to be used to serve you. – St. Augustine of Hippo
To Whom Will We Pay Our Respects?
The struggle for who controls the educational worldview of the next generation is at the heart of the culture war in every generation. For example, in the early twentieth century, Adolf Hitler notably focused on the education of the German youth in his attempt to create the Aryan man who would populate and propagate his […]
J. R. R. Tolkien’s First Car
In a previous post, I noted that Tolkien had a particularly adversarial disposition toward Machines. In his book, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, Humphrey Carpenter recounts a humorous anecdote about J. R. R. Tolkien’s personal relationship with one kind of Machine, the automobile.
J. R. R. Tolkien: Modernity, Magic, and Machines
Anyone who has spent much time reading Tolkien’s fiction knows he struggled to reconcile with modernity and the resultant effects of technological progress on the human condition. Having served in WWI as a Battalion Signalling Officer at the Battle of the Somme until a severe illness took him out of the trenches, he witnessed firsthand the brutality of modern killing Machines.
Holy Saturday: The Day Jesus Went to Hell
Over the Weekend, I published a two-part series called Holy Saturday: The Day Jesus Went to Hell on my Substack. You can read both posts using these links.
Two Methods for Overcoming Writer’s Block
There is no legitimate reason for writer’s block. Hemingway said, “All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Nevertheless, the phenomenon is real.