Two more states recently enacted universal school choice laws, which means parents there no longer are limited to sending their children to schools within their district.
In mid-February, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed into law a universal private school voucher bill. Now, in subsequent weeks, both Idaho and Wyoming have adopted universal school choice, becoming the 14th and 15th states (respectively) to do so. Continue reading
Rhymes remain engraved in the mind, even when many other memories are gone. – Biba Kayewich
It would seem logical to begin an essay on nursery rhymes with childhood. But I want to begin instead with old age – or, to be more precise, the link between childhood and old age.
My wife’s grandmother recently passed away. A few days before her passing, my wife and 2-year-old daughter were visiting her and my wife’s mother, and somehow they came to the subject of traditional nursery rhymes. We’d been teaching some to my daughter. My little girl began to prattle away, reciting several rhymes for her grandmother and great-grandmother.
Then something remarkable happened. Continue reading
The future will belong to the literate, not the un-literate, and the decline of reading will invariably be corrected by those at the forefront of the educational revolution sweeping America – and that is the rise of classical education.
“Reading by the Sea” (1910), by Vittorio Matteo Corcos
Some years ago I was discussing with a Benedictine abbot the trends he was experiencing among postulants and novices at the abbey. “Two of the most startling things” he observed “is their inability to sit still, and the their inability to curl up with a good book.”
The decline of reading has also been noticed among college educators. This article in The Atlantic reports that college professors are alarmed by the unwillingness and inability of their students to read a book. Continue reading
Sistine Ceiling between 1508-1512 by Michelangelo. Fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican.
Our artistic traditions are full of wisdom. We can look to the past and, with curious minds and open hearts, absorb the lessons of our cultural history. The Italian Renaissance is filled with great stories that resulted in great art, and the story and art of Michelangelo are an enduring example. Continue reading
Why is it that so many students in the modern American education system say that school is “boring”? Aren’t they learning about the most fascinating aspects of our world? Isn’t part of human nature, as Aristotle teaches, to desire to know? Continue reading