Lone Founts
by Herman Melville (1819-1891)

Though fast youth's glorious fable flies,
View not the world with worlding's eyes;
Nor turn with weather of the time.
Foreclose the coming of surprise:
Stand where Posterity shall stand;
Stand where the Ancients stood before,
And, dipping in lone founts thy hand,
Drink of the never-varying lore:
Wise once, and wise thence evermore.

Cursive

It is sad to report that at least one suburban public school district has chosen to replace time spent teaching cursive writing with time spent teaching children how to operate a computer keyboard. Do most in our society use the keyboard? Yes. Do more use the keyboard than a fine fountain pen? Without question. Do those who do put pen to paper print rather than use cursive? Almost without exception.

And to this I ask, so what? A school district only takes its curricular mandates from the shrill voice of the moment when it has given its soul in sycophantic subservience to the jackbooted tyranny of the pragmatic.

Yet when a school or school district dares, when a group of educators dares, when parents dare to pursue true education, the kind suggested in Plato's famous "Allegory of the Cave" in which a mind is led forth from darkness to light and not merely equipped to do a job, then children are educated in truth, goodness, and beauty. The last in the list is by no means the least, and every effort is made to instill in them not only an appreciation for all that is good and true in the graphic, musical, and performative arts, but also the ability for them to take their place beside other artists by developing their own artistic gifts.

Is cursive necessary to fill out a form or to post on a blog? Not at all. But does it add immeasurably to a poem or letter from a lover to a beloved, does it grace the note of thanks or sympathy, does it bring a touch of elegance amidst the quotidian pressures and stresses of life that erode the humane senses? It certainly can. Unfortunately, such simple grace will no longer be available to the children of this school district.

Aristotle and Contemporary Theatre

I just finished reading the play The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman. Before continuing, let me say that I could not recommend it for its moral content, for its content is absolutely amoral from a Christian perspective. Not only does it portray the Christian faith in a false and negative way, it presents as absolutely normal a sinful lifestyle. I read it in order to be informed about the play because it will be performed this fall at an area high school.

That said, the play contains what Kaufman calls a series of "moments," an idea he derived from a Brecht essay in which Brecht describes "an eyewitness demonstrating to a collection of people how a traffic accident took place." There is no traditional plot in Kaufman's play, no traditional character development. There is a series of actors who come on stage to portray various characters. Occasionally the characters interact, but the play is in long stretches a concatenation of monologues. To be honest, I did find the technique interesting.

Musing then about dramaturgy in general, I took a look at Aristotle's Poetics and found the following.

"The tragedies of most of the moderns are characterless -- a defect common among poets of all kinds.... [O]ne may string together a series of characteristic speeches of the utmost finish as regards Diction and Thought, and yet fail to produce a true tragic effect; but one will have much better success with a tragedy which, however inferior in these respects, has a Plot, a combination of incidents, in it." (Poetics 1450a)

Clearly Aristotle would not approve of Kaufman's work nor, I would imagine, of much else in modern theatre.

He goes on,

"[T]he poet's function is to describe, not the thing that has happened, but a kind of thing that might happen, i.e. what is possible as being probable or necessary. The distinction between historian and poet is not in the one writing prose and the other verse...; it consists really in this, that the one describes the thing that has been, and the other a kind of thing that might be. Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars." (Poetics, 1451b)

And now we get to the heart of it. When Aristotle talks of poets and poetry, he is talking of drama, for all drama was written in poetic meter. Today, music, theatre, movies, and television, are obsessed with the singulars rather than the universals. Rather than transcend the historical moment in which it is produced, dramatic and musical art seems focused on becoming ever more accurate in what it portrays. In fact, verisimilitude seems to be the prime, if not the sole, criterion for measuring success in drama and lyrical music. The more the rap artist uses language like what is found on the streets, the more the police drama can use real-life scenarios and procedures, the better.

What, then, takes us beyond the suffocatingly immanent? Obsessed with the here-and-now, we find ourselves looking only and ever more inward. What can lift our eyes to where, as Pope once observed, "hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise?" Alas, it is not The Laramie Project, however interesting or novel its dramaturgy. Aeschylus' trilogy Oresteia or Sophocles' Oedipus cycle, perhaps Euripides' Alcestis, to say nothing of Shakespeare or even the more recent A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt...these fulfill Aristotle's vision, for indeed they are pieces of graver import than anything else to be found today.

Why Our School Exists

I ran across the following article and found it to be an insightful and incisive argument for why The Summit Academy exists. It is not long and is well worth your time to read.

http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2009/08/what-do-you-want-an-engraved-dismissal.html

In addition, there is this on the recent New Hampshire court ruling, forcing a young girl to attend the local public school because it found she was too much like her mother, who homeschooled her, when it came to the issue of her Christian faith. No, I am not making this up!

We Have a Location!

We have a location!

Union Chapel Church met for the last time to allow a final opportunity for Q&A, open debate as part of the Administrative Council procedure and then to approve the lease agreement.

Just to explain the atmosphere and the congregation’s mood, I haven’t seen that many smiles in one room in a long, long time. The vote was 32-0, a unanimous decision to openly welcome us onto their property. There was genuine excitement throughout the conversation and after the meeting was over, discussion of all the new possibilities, ways to make rooms work better, cleaning up and getting organized was so fun to watch. Faces I saw to be hesitant just days or weeks ago were bright and enthusiastic, full of joy. That went on for nearly an hour after the meeting was over. These folks are truly excited for us and for the ministry opportunities that are sure to flow out as we come to know each other a bit better. In the two Sundays I’ve spent with them as a congregation and in meetings with their Board of Trustees, I have found them to be incredibly kind and full of a love for the Lord. I pray that you will take time to get to know these people as they want to get to know all of you.

God has truly blessed both parties with this opportunity for the coming year and I pray that we will bless them with the same level of loving commitment that we have for The Summit Academy.

Thursday, July 23rd is your first opportunity to do just that as we hold our informational meeting for families, Union Chapel members and prospective families. The fun starts at 6pm for Summit Families and I’m sure there will be members excited to meet you there so please come! Join in a time of celebrating God’s love for us all and this school. Can you actually say no to ice cream? We didn’t think so! Come and give thanks.

Thank you for your patience and so many prayers,

Mickey Justice
Board President
The Summit Academy

Our New Home for 2009-2010

A lot has been happening this summer, and we want to share with you some of the changes that are taking place as we look toward the new school year. After many long, prayerful meetings and exploration of many possible locations for our school, we are excited to announce that The Summit Academy will meet for the 2009-2010 school year at Union Chapel United Methodist Church. Union Chapel is located at 2720 East 86th Street, Indianapolis, IN, 46240.



The people of Union Chapel have shown great enthusiasm in welcoming us into their facility, and we are eager for all Summit families to see the space that will be our home for the next year. We hope you will be able to join us for an informational meeting on Thursday, July 23 at the church. Current Summit families will meet from 6:00-7:00 p.m. to see the facility, with a general informational meeting following from 7:00-8:00 for all current and prospective Summit families as well as our new friends at Union Chapel, who are very much looking forward to this evening. It will be a great opportunity not only to tour the church, but also to begin building relationships with our new hosts. Popcorn, hotdogs, and ice cream will be on hand, and children are invited to check out the playground equipment and basketball courts.

Paul wrote the Philippians, “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:4-6, NIV) The Summit board is likewise filled with joy because of the partnership of all our families in an adventure in education that is rooted in the gospel. Like Paul, we, too, are confident that our Lord will carry to completion the good work that He has begun at Summit.

We hope you will be able to join us on Thursday, July 23, at Union Chapel for a time of fellowship, catching up on the events of the summer, and sharing in our vision for the future. It is an exciting time in the life The Summit Academy, and we look forward to where God is leading us.

Latin Grammar and Chemistry

I spoke today with a Latin II student at the public high school where I teach. She informed me that she could not take Latin next year because she was enrolling in a veterinary science class that would occupy three class periods. I asked her what she would take if she were not taking the veterinary class, and she replied that she would be taking a second math and a second science class in addition to the math and science she will already be taking, along with Latin.

Her choice, then, was between taking a schedule with two math and two science classes along with Latin III, or one with only one math, one science, and the veterinary class.

I was immediately put in mind of the following account, which I shared with her.

In the early 20th century, the great German chemist, Bauer, was asked by one of his colleagues whether his best students came from the Real-Schulen (a modern school where chemistry was taught as a subject) or from the Gymnasien (a traditional liberal arts school where Latin grammar was stressed). His colleague's assumption was that the best science students would come from the Real-Schulen.

"Not at all," [Bauer] replied; "all my best students come from the Gymnasien. The students from the Real-Schulen do best at first; but after three months work here, they are, as a rule, left behind by those coming from the Gymnasien." The colleague wondered at this because the Real-Schulen students had been especially instructed in chemistry. "Yes," he replied; "but the students from the Gymnasien have the best trained minds. Give me a student who has been taught his Latin grammar, and I will answer for his chemistry." (Kelsey, Latin and Greek in American Education, New York, NY: Macmillan, 1911, p. 24)

I asked my student who had advised her on this choice of curriculum. Her guidance advisor at school and, to my surprise, someone at the university she wishes to attend...North Carolina.

She and her mother thought that the veterinary class would give her a leg up when it came to such studies in college. I tried to help her see that the better preparation would be more classes in math, more in science, and more in Latin, precisely for the reasons that Bauer cited, but when I ran up against the university itself saying the opposite, I ceased trying to persuade her.

This is but one more example of an educational system and a social culture within our country that fails to recognize what true education is.