Yesterday evening six of my Latin students from North Central High School used their Classical learning to bless the lives of children at The Julian Center, a nonprofit agency providing counseling, safe shelter, and education for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other life crises.
Last fall we accepted submissions from student-authors of the classic myth of Phaethon, re-told in a way suitable for children. Two versions were selected by a panel of teachers, and when the illustrations had been completed by another student, The Tale of Phaethon was published.
Students and families then raised funds to purchase copies of the book to give to children at The Julian Center. Interested students attended an after-school session to learn how to read effectively to a young audience, and last night they brought the project full circle.
It was amazing to watch these elementary-aged children, who have suffered mightily in their young lives, sparkle with excitement as the high school students read the book and intereacted with them. When they were presented with their own autographed copies of the book, they positively beamed.
The motto of The Libri Juliani Project is antiquitatem legere est videre futurum...to read the past is to see the future. This is but a shorthand way of saying what Cicero said so eloquently in his Pro Archia, a speech in defense of the poet Aulus Licinius Archias. Ceteros pudeat si qui ita se litteris abdiderunt ut nihil ex eis possint neque in aspectum lucemque proferre, neque in communum adferre fructum. "Let others be ashamed if they have so hidden themselves away in literature that they can bring forth nothing into the light to be seen or can offer nothing for the public good."
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Upcoming Lecture
For the past five years I have been co-director of The Episteme Lectures (www.epistemelecture.org). This is a series of lectures given at North Central High School by scholars on a variety of topics. Past lecturers have included Pulitzer-prize winner Dr. Douglas Hofstadter and Dr. Ora Pescovitz, President and CEO of Riley Children's Hospital.
The 2009 lecture will "The Indianapolis Museum of Art's 100 Acres: Art and Nature in the 21st Century" by Dr. Lisa Freiman, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art for the IMA. The lecture is free and will be at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 19, in the Performance Classroom at North Central (1801 E. 86th Street)
The 2009 lecture will "The Indianapolis Museum of Art's 100 Acres: Art and Nature in the 21st Century" by Dr. Lisa Freiman, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art for the IMA. The lecture is free and will be at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 19, in the Performance Classroom at North Central (1801 E. 86th Street)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Tried and True
Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, was martyred in A.D. 155. According to the account of his martyrdom, when he had been asked to swear upon the name of the emperor, he boldy replied, "If you vainly suppose that I will swear by the genius of Caesar, as you say, and pretend that you are ignorant who I am, listen plainly: I am a Christian. And if you wish to learn the doctrine of Christianity fix a day and listen."
His was not an arrogant response, but it was bold. As a Classical and Christian school, The Summit Academy makes a similar announcement to all who suggest that other types of schools can do just as well educating our children. At a board/staff training, Andrew Kern of the Circe Institute observed that what the education market desperately needs is a school that will plant its flag and say, "This is what true education looks like. If you want to be a part of it, come on. We'll show you how, because we have not compromised."
Does this mean that our school or any other never makes mistakes? Of course not. But unlike schools that follow the fad of the day, we find our model in theory that has been proven right in practice for more than a thousand years. We welcome all who would be part of this grand adventure in education...students, parents, and other educators alike. Note that we are not inviting anyone to an experiment in education. This is not a trial, a test, an exploration to see if something may work. We know that it does.
At the end of the 6th century B.C., Horatius Cocles realized that he could save Rome if but two others would join him at the narrow entrance to a bridge leading into the city. His words, idealized and immortalized at the turn of the last century by Thomas Babington Macaulay, ring out to us today.
His was not an arrogant response, but it was bold. As a Classical and Christian school, The Summit Academy makes a similar announcement to all who suggest that other types of schools can do just as well educating our children. At a board/staff training, Andrew Kern of the Circe Institute observed that what the education market desperately needs is a school that will plant its flag and say, "This is what true education looks like. If you want to be a part of it, come on. We'll show you how, because we have not compromised."
Does this mean that our school or any other never makes mistakes? Of course not. But unlike schools that follow the fad of the day, we find our model in theory that has been proven right in practice for more than a thousand years. We welcome all who would be part of this grand adventure in education...students, parents, and other educators alike. Note that we are not inviting anyone to an experiment in education. This is not a trial, a test, an exploration to see if something may work. We know that it does.
At the end of the 6th century B.C., Horatius Cocles realized that he could save Rome if but two others would join him at the narrow entrance to a bridge leading into the city. His words, idealized and immortalized at the turn of the last century by Thomas Babington Macaulay, ring out to us today.
In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on my right hand
And keep the bridge with me?
The Limits of Freedom
Freedom in our society is often mistaken for license or permissiveness, yet true freedom can only exist in a world with limitations. In his essay On the Education of Children, Montaigne recalled, "For as Cleanthes said, just as sound, when pent up in the narrow channel of a trumpet, comes out sharper and stronger, so it seems to me that a thought, when compressed into the numbered feet of poetry, springs forth much more violently and strikes me a much stiffer jolt." (Donald Frame translation)
In the world of education we often see a confused idea of freedom manifest when it comes to reading. Some will claim that they are respecting the freedom of children to read whatever they want when they refuse to censor what they read. It is assumed that all reading is beneficial, so it makes no difference whether a child reads a classic work of literature or smut.
Yet true respect for a child, which is rooted in a love for the child as a creation of God and not anchored in the shifting sands of sentimentalism, will provide proper guidance. It will cause a parent or teacher to say no to some things and yes to others.
It will also lead us way from the kind of flattery that some endlessly bestow on children. Andrew Kern of the Circe Institute recently spoke of this. He rightly observed that when children are praised and flattered for what they have no control over...intelligence, beauty, and other gifts from God...then they will eventually sin to get that praise. The child over whom a teacher or parent inordinantly gushes for being smart will be more likely to cheat on a test to obtain this flattery. On the other hand, the child who learns to value true praise for hard work, and who learns as well that praise is more valuable when it is accompanied by necessary criticism and correction for wrongdoing, will develop a work ethic that will bless all around him.
In the world of education we often see a confused idea of freedom manifest when it comes to reading. Some will claim that they are respecting the freedom of children to read whatever they want when they refuse to censor what they read. It is assumed that all reading is beneficial, so it makes no difference whether a child reads a classic work of literature or smut.
Yet true respect for a child, which is rooted in a love for the child as a creation of God and not anchored in the shifting sands of sentimentalism, will provide proper guidance. It will cause a parent or teacher to say no to some things and yes to others.
It will also lead us way from the kind of flattery that some endlessly bestow on children. Andrew Kern of the Circe Institute recently spoke of this. He rightly observed that when children are praised and flattered for what they have no control over...intelligence, beauty, and other gifts from God...then they will eventually sin to get that praise. The child over whom a teacher or parent inordinantly gushes for being smart will be more likely to cheat on a test to obtain this flattery. On the other hand, the child who learns to value true praise for hard work, and who learns as well that praise is more valuable when it is accompanied by necessary criticism and correction for wrongdoing, will develop a work ethic that will bless all around him.
Knowing God and Multiplication
What does it matter whether a school is Christian or not? Surely a child's learning of multiplication has no connection with whether the teacher is a Christian. 2x2=4 for the Christian, the Muslim, and the atheist alike.
In a recent faculty training session, Andrew Kern from the Circe Institute quoted Aristotle from his Nicomachean Ethics. "It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits." (NE 1094b) The word Aristotle used for "nature" was physis, the root of words like "physical" and "physics." I want to expand what Aristotle said by replacing physis with ousia the word for "essence," and looking at this question from the point of view of a world that has seen God in the flesh.
The classic wording for the revelation of God as Trinity is mia ousia, treis hypostaseis, which means "one essence, three persons." Before God revealed Himself to us, we had a limited understanding of what the essence of a thing was. We assumed it was static and lifeless. Once God showed His own essence to be dynamic and involving three persons...Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...we could see that the essence of anything that has been created through Him (and all things have been, according to John 1:3) is a bit more complex.
Putting all this back into Aristotle's words, it is the mark of an educated person to learn and explore each area of knowledge according to the nature of that knowledge, understanding first that the nature of anything is rooted somehow in the nature of God, Who has revealed Himself to us most fully in Jesus Christ. (Colossians 1:19)
So, yes, you can learn your math facts without ever knowing God. What you will have failed to achieve, however, is the full understanding of mathematics, or any other discipline, and for that you will have missed becoming the truly educated person that God intended you to be.
In a recent faculty training session, Andrew Kern from the Circe Institute quoted Aristotle from his Nicomachean Ethics. "It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits." (NE 1094b) The word Aristotle used for "nature" was physis, the root of words like "physical" and "physics." I want to expand what Aristotle said by replacing physis with ousia the word for "essence," and looking at this question from the point of view of a world that has seen God in the flesh.
The classic wording for the revelation of God as Trinity is mia ousia, treis hypostaseis, which means "one essence, three persons." Before God revealed Himself to us, we had a limited understanding of what the essence of a thing was. We assumed it was static and lifeless. Once God showed His own essence to be dynamic and involving three persons...Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...we could see that the essence of anything that has been created through Him (and all things have been, according to John 1:3) is a bit more complex.
Putting all this back into Aristotle's words, it is the mark of an educated person to learn and explore each area of knowledge according to the nature of that knowledge, understanding first that the nature of anything is rooted somehow in the nature of God, Who has revealed Himself to us most fully in Jesus Christ. (Colossians 1:19)
So, yes, you can learn your math facts without ever knowing God. What you will have failed to achieve, however, is the full understanding of mathematics, or any other discipline, and for that you will have missed becoming the truly educated person that God intended you to be.
On Metaphors and Life
I recently had the pleasure to join a lunch with Summit faculty and Andrew Kern from the Circe Institute. One of the questions he asked was why it seems artists, and that term is taken broadly to include graphic artists, poets, musicians, and so forth, are more drawn to Classical and Christian education than mathematicians and scientists. My own thoughts, scribbled in a notebook, led to the following.
Mathematical and scientific symbols...+, =, %, and so on...are metaphors just as are words. GIRL, for example, is not a girl. G-I-R-L is a one syllable word comprised of four letters...three consonants and a vowel. In English it represents a young female human, but it is not a young female human any more than the figure 8 laid on its side is infinity.
The difference between the metaphors in math and science and the metaphors in the arts is that the math and science metaphors are not treated as metaphors in our society. They are seen as reality itself, and a static, unchanging reality at that.
Poets, artists, and musicians never lose sight of their metaphors as metaphors, and this allows their metaphors to remain dynamic. Only when knowledge is dynamic can it stand against relativism, for in its dynamism such knowledge is alive and engaged with the matters of life. When knowledge becomes static, it is lifeless, a mere thing that can be manipulated to mean anything, and this leads to the slippery descent toward relativism.
Schools like Summit, of course, concern themselves with life and all that it entails. We seek the truth in all areas of life...in algebra, poetry, history, and song. The true mathematician and the true scientist would find a home here with the true poet and the true painter because we serve a God Who has said, "I am the way and the truth and the life." (John 14:6, NIV) Our knowledge is thus never static, but always dynamic and alive, as surely as is the One in Whom our knowledge is grounded.
Mathematical and scientific symbols...+, =, %, and so on...are metaphors just as are words. GIRL, for example, is not a girl. G-I-R-L is a one syllable word comprised of four letters...three consonants and a vowel. In English it represents a young female human, but it is not a young female human any more than the figure 8 laid on its side is infinity.
The difference between the metaphors in math and science and the metaphors in the arts is that the math and science metaphors are not treated as metaphors in our society. They are seen as reality itself, and a static, unchanging reality at that.
Poets, artists, and musicians never lose sight of their metaphors as metaphors, and this allows their metaphors to remain dynamic. Only when knowledge is dynamic can it stand against relativism, for in its dynamism such knowledge is alive and engaged with the matters of life. When knowledge becomes static, it is lifeless, a mere thing that can be manipulated to mean anything, and this leads to the slippery descent toward relativism.
Schools like Summit, of course, concern themselves with life and all that it entails. We seek the truth in all areas of life...in algebra, poetry, history, and song. The true mathematician and the true scientist would find a home here with the true poet and the true painter because we serve a God Who has said, "I am the way and the truth and the life." (John 14:6, NIV) Our knowledge is thus never static, but always dynamic and alive, as surely as is the One in Whom our knowledge is grounded.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Praying With a Target
Today the Summit board began a regular time of prayer. Each Wednesday at noon, the Summit board will be praying together. While we may be separated physically, we are coming together in spirit to pray for our school.
Ours is targeted prayer. It is strategic. We share through email a common Scripture reading, a short devotion, and a prayer that lauds our Lord and then lays before Him our petitions...just as Jesus taught us to do.
But our prayer has also been targeted...by our great enemy. One Christian writer once said that to live lives fully committed to Christ is like walking through downtown Baghdad with an American flag t-shirt. Don't forget, the one who opposes us is the one who orchestrated the crucifixion of our Lord.
So pray for all members of the Summit family. Pray specifically for our staff and our board. Pray for our parents and their children. And pray for the families that will one day be part of our larger family. As we walk in ever greater faithfulness, our enemy will become enraged. He will attempt to thwart us with every tactic imaginable. Yet ours is the victory in Christ, secured on the bloody tree of Calvary. We do not fear, but we must walk forward in bold unity, covered in the prayers of those made righteous by Christ.
Ours is targeted prayer. It is strategic. We share through email a common Scripture reading, a short devotion, and a prayer that lauds our Lord and then lays before Him our petitions...just as Jesus taught us to do.
But our prayer has also been targeted...by our great enemy. One Christian writer once said that to live lives fully committed to Christ is like walking through downtown Baghdad with an American flag t-shirt. Don't forget, the one who opposes us is the one who orchestrated the crucifixion of our Lord.
So pray for all members of the Summit family. Pray specifically for our staff and our board. Pray for our parents and their children. And pray for the families that will one day be part of our larger family. As we walk in ever greater faithfulness, our enemy will become enraged. He will attempt to thwart us with every tactic imaginable. Yet ours is the victory in Christ, secured on the bloody tree of Calvary. We do not fear, but we must walk forward in bold unity, covered in the prayers of those made righteous by Christ.
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