An article from American Thinker titled "How Democracies Become Tyrannies" not only puts forward an insightful view of the times through the lens of Book VIII of Plato's Republic, but also presents an excellent example of the application of Classical learning in the modern world.
We read ancient works that have proven their worth by standing the test of time so that we may better understand and live in our own times.
This article is must-reading, especially for our rhetoric students.
Friday, March 6, 2009
_ _ _ at School
What three-letter word rhyming with "nod" fits into the blanks in the title of this post? If you are a student at Lakeview Elementary School in Mt. Juliet, TN, you will never know. This article on this latest in an ongoing attack on God and those who follow Him can be found here.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Death's Duel
The great English poet John Donne (1572-1631) delivered his final sermon in 1630. It was during Lent and was titled Death's Duell. The following is the conclusion of that sermon, and I found it so eloquent, so poignant, that I just had to share it. Yes, the language is a bit difficult. Try not to get hung up on individual words and just push through. Let the general force of the piece carry its message. For those who want to read the entire sermon, you can find it here.
Take in the whole day from the hour that Christ received the passover upon Thursday unto the hour in which he died the next day. Make this present day that day in thy devotion, and consider what he did, and remember what you have done. Before he instituted and celebrated the sacrament (which was after the eating of the passover), he proceeded to that act of humility, to wash his disciples' feet, even Peter's, who for a while resisted him. In thy preparation to the holy and blessed sacrament, hast thou with a sincere humility sought a reconciliation with all the world, even with those that have been averse from it, and refused that reconciliation from thee? If so, and not else, thou hast spent that first part of his last day in a conformity with him. After the sacrament he spent the time till night in prayer, in preaching, in psalms: hast thou considered that a worthy receiving of the sacrament consists in a continuation of holiness after, as well as in a preparation before? If so, thou hast therein also conformed thyself to him; so Christ spent his time till night. At night he went into the garden to pray, and he prayed prolixious, he spent much time in prayer, how much? Because it is literally expressed, that he prayed there three several times, and that returning to his disciples after his first prayer, and finding them asleep, said, Could ye not watch with me one hour, it is collected that he spent three hours in prayer. I dare scarce ask thee whither thou wentest, or how thou disposedst of thyself, when it grew dark and after last night. If that time were spent in a holy recommendation of thyself to God, and a submission of thy will to his, it was spent in a conformity to him. In that time, and in those prayers, was his agony and bloody sweat. I will hope that thou didst pray; but not every ordinary and customary prayer, but prayer actually accompanied with shedding of tears and dispositively in a readiness to shed blood for his glory in necessary cases, puts thee into a conformity with him. About midnight he was taken and bound with a kiss, art thou not too conformable to him in that? Is not that too literally, too exactly thy case, at midnight to have been taken and bound with a kiss? From thence he was carried back to Jerusalem, first to Annas, then to Caiaphas, and (as late as it was) then he was examined and buffered, and delivered over to the custody of those officers from whom he received all those irrisions, and violences, the covering of his face, the spitting upon his face, the blasphemies of words, and the smartness of blows, which that gospel mentions: in which compass fell that gallicinium, that crowing of the cock which called up Peter to his repentance. How thou passedst all that time thou knowest. If thou didst any thing that needest Peter's tears, and hast not shed them, let me be thy cock, do it now. Now, thy Master (in the unworthiest of his servants) looks back upon thee, do it now. Betimes, in the morning, so soon as it was day, the Jews held a council in the high priest's hall, and agreed upon their evidence against him, and then carried him to Pilate, who was to be his judge; didst thou accuse thyself when thou wakedst this morning, and wast thou content even with false accusations, that is, rather to suspect actions to have been sin, which were not, than to smother and justify such as were truly sins? Then thou spentest that hour in conformity to him; Pilate found no evidence against him, and therefore to ease himself, and to pass a compliment upon Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, who was at that time at Jerusalem (because Christ, being a Galilean, was of Herod's jurisdiction), Pilate sent him to Herod, and rather as a madman than a malefactor; Herod remanded him (with scorn) to Pilate, to proceed against him; and this was about eight of the clock. Hast thou been content to come to this inquisition, this examination, this agitation, this cribration, this pursuit of thy conscience; to sift it, to follow it from the sins of thy youth to thy present sins, from the sins of thy bed to the sins of thy board, and from the substance to the circumstance of thy sins? That is time spent like thy Saviour's. Pilate would have saved Christ, by using the privilege of the day in his behalf, because that day one prisoner was to be delivered, but they choose Barabbas; he would have saved him from death, by satisfying their fury with inflicting other torments upon him, scourging and crowning with thorns, and loading him with many scornful and ignominious contumelies, but they regarded him not, they pressed a crucifying. Hast thou gone about to redeem thy sin, by fasting, by alms, by disciplines and mortifications, in way of satisfaction to the justice of God? That will not serve that is not the right way; we press an utter crucifying of that sin that governs thee: and that conforms thee to Christ. Towards noon Pilate gave judgment, and they made such haste to execution as that by noon he was upon the cross. There now hangs that sacred body upon the cross, rebaptized in his own tears, and sweat, and embalmed in his own blood alive. There are those bowels of compassion which are so conspicuous, so manifested, as that you may see them through his wounds. There those glorious eyes grew faint in their sight, so as the sun, ashamed to survive them, departed with his light too. And then that Son of God, who was never from us, and yet had now come a new way unto us in assuming our nature, delivers that soul (which was never out of his Father's hands) by a new way, a voluntary emission of it into his Father's hands; for though to this God our Lord belonged these issues of death, so that considered in his own contract, he must necessarily die, yet at no breach or battery which they had made upon his sacred body issued his soul; but emisit, he gave up the ghost; and as God breathed a soul into the first Adam, so this second Adam breathed his soul into God, into the hands of God.
There we leave you in that blessed dependency, to hang upon him that hangs upon the cross, there bathe in his tears, there suck at his wounds, and lie down in peace in his grave, till he vouchsafe you a resurrection, and an ascension into that kingdom which He hath prepared for you with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.
Take in the whole day from the hour that Christ received the passover upon Thursday unto the hour in which he died the next day. Make this present day that day in thy devotion, and consider what he did, and remember what you have done. Before he instituted and celebrated the sacrament (which was after the eating of the passover), he proceeded to that act of humility, to wash his disciples' feet, even Peter's, who for a while resisted him. In thy preparation to the holy and blessed sacrament, hast thou with a sincere humility sought a reconciliation with all the world, even with those that have been averse from it, and refused that reconciliation from thee? If so, and not else, thou hast spent that first part of his last day in a conformity with him. After the sacrament he spent the time till night in prayer, in preaching, in psalms: hast thou considered that a worthy receiving of the sacrament consists in a continuation of holiness after, as well as in a preparation before? If so, thou hast therein also conformed thyself to him; so Christ spent his time till night. At night he went into the garden to pray, and he prayed prolixious, he spent much time in prayer, how much? Because it is literally expressed, that he prayed there three several times, and that returning to his disciples after his first prayer, and finding them asleep, said, Could ye not watch with me one hour, it is collected that he spent three hours in prayer. I dare scarce ask thee whither thou wentest, or how thou disposedst of thyself, when it grew dark and after last night. If that time were spent in a holy recommendation of thyself to God, and a submission of thy will to his, it was spent in a conformity to him. In that time, and in those prayers, was his agony and bloody sweat. I will hope that thou didst pray; but not every ordinary and customary prayer, but prayer actually accompanied with shedding of tears and dispositively in a readiness to shed blood for his glory in necessary cases, puts thee into a conformity with him. About midnight he was taken and bound with a kiss, art thou not too conformable to him in that? Is not that too literally, too exactly thy case, at midnight to have been taken and bound with a kiss? From thence he was carried back to Jerusalem, first to Annas, then to Caiaphas, and (as late as it was) then he was examined and buffered, and delivered over to the custody of those officers from whom he received all those irrisions, and violences, the covering of his face, the spitting upon his face, the blasphemies of words, and the smartness of blows, which that gospel mentions: in which compass fell that gallicinium, that crowing of the cock which called up Peter to his repentance. How thou passedst all that time thou knowest. If thou didst any thing that needest Peter's tears, and hast not shed them, let me be thy cock, do it now. Now, thy Master (in the unworthiest of his servants) looks back upon thee, do it now. Betimes, in the morning, so soon as it was day, the Jews held a council in the high priest's hall, and agreed upon their evidence against him, and then carried him to Pilate, who was to be his judge; didst thou accuse thyself when thou wakedst this morning, and wast thou content even with false accusations, that is, rather to suspect actions to have been sin, which were not, than to smother and justify such as were truly sins? Then thou spentest that hour in conformity to him; Pilate found no evidence against him, and therefore to ease himself, and to pass a compliment upon Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, who was at that time at Jerusalem (because Christ, being a Galilean, was of Herod's jurisdiction), Pilate sent him to Herod, and rather as a madman than a malefactor; Herod remanded him (with scorn) to Pilate, to proceed against him; and this was about eight of the clock. Hast thou been content to come to this inquisition, this examination, this agitation, this cribration, this pursuit of thy conscience; to sift it, to follow it from the sins of thy youth to thy present sins, from the sins of thy bed to the sins of thy board, and from the substance to the circumstance of thy sins? That is time spent like thy Saviour's. Pilate would have saved Christ, by using the privilege of the day in his behalf, because that day one prisoner was to be delivered, but they choose Barabbas; he would have saved him from death, by satisfying their fury with inflicting other torments upon him, scourging and crowning with thorns, and loading him with many scornful and ignominious contumelies, but they regarded him not, they pressed a crucifying. Hast thou gone about to redeem thy sin, by fasting, by alms, by disciplines and mortifications, in way of satisfaction to the justice of God? That will not serve that is not the right way; we press an utter crucifying of that sin that governs thee: and that conforms thee to Christ. Towards noon Pilate gave judgment, and they made such haste to execution as that by noon he was upon the cross. There now hangs that sacred body upon the cross, rebaptized in his own tears, and sweat, and embalmed in his own blood alive. There are those bowels of compassion which are so conspicuous, so manifested, as that you may see them through his wounds. There those glorious eyes grew faint in their sight, so as the sun, ashamed to survive them, departed with his light too. And then that Son of God, who was never from us, and yet had now come a new way unto us in assuming our nature, delivers that soul (which was never out of his Father's hands) by a new way, a voluntary emission of it into his Father's hands; for though to this God our Lord belonged these issues of death, so that considered in his own contract, he must necessarily die, yet at no breach or battery which they had made upon his sacred body issued his soul; but emisit, he gave up the ghost; and as God breathed a soul into the first Adam, so this second Adam breathed his soul into God, into the hands of God.
There we leave you in that blessed dependency, to hang upon him that hangs upon the cross, there bathe in his tears, there suck at his wounds, and lie down in peace in his grave, till he vouchsafe you a resurrection, and an ascension into that kingdom which He hath prepared for you with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Classical Education and the Community
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."
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."
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.
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