The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships: Truth, Goodness and Beauty
“Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?” This line by Christopher Marlow in Doctor Faustus (c. 1590) is one of the most famous in Western literature. It is a reference to the beauty of Helen of Sparta who, though married to Menelaus, eloped with Paris of […]
Yes, We Are Thinking About Safety…All The Time
Recent events in South Florida are disturbing to those of us who teach and work in schools. On the one hand these events seem far away and removed; on the other, because active shootings so often target schools, they seem close. Some of us come to work every day wondering if it could happen here, […]
Where do the Grads Go?
Current and prospective parents often ask what our students do after graduation from the School of Rhetoric. They’re really asking a couple of questions, “Where do they go to college?” and “What careers do they pursue?” My standard response is, “Anywhere and anything they wish!” I have long believed that a classical, Christian education prepares […]
Looking Forward to Easter
My students in middle school chapel all agree with me that they look forward to Christmas. Along about Halloween the stores are displaying their obnoxious Christmas sale signs, and by Thanksgiving, we are in full holiday mode. Truthfully, it doesn’t bother me. Like my students I enjoy the school days between Thanksgiving and Christmas because they are light-hearted and seem carefree. […]
Character Matters Now
Wow! The last several weeks have driven home to me a singular truth. Character matters. And what is character? Someone quipped, “Character is who you are when you are by yourself.” Watching the news recently has been painful as one after another public figure – men in positions of power – have been accused of […]
I Didn’t Learn How to Learn…
How many times have you heard someone say, perhaps even yourself, “I didn’t learn how to learn until I got to college!”? I distinctly remember my own experience as a college junior when “the lights came on,” and I realized that learning was a process that consisted of patterns and routines, disciplines and techniques – […]
What Does a New Covenant Graduate Look Like?
I can be anywhere when it happens. It’s happened at Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club and the Exchange Club – all venues where I’ve been a guest. It’s also happened at Kroger, the bank, the little league park, and of course, in restaurants. People I don’t even know ask me, “So what do you do?” I […]
A Coherent Curriculum
One of the most important questions we could ask of any curriculum is this: “Does the curriculum cohere?” To put it a different way, we’re asking if the curriculum progresses in developmentally appropriate ways, if the curriculum moves at an appropriate pace, if its methods are consistent with the content explored, and if it addresses […]
Prayer and Noise
Americans are noisy people. At least the rest of the world thinks we are. There is some research to support this, suggesting that Americans are loud because we occupy a larger personal space, due to the fact that our country is large and mostly uncrowded. When we travel, for example, to France or Germany, we […]
Predictability And Support
At the annual faculty in-service at the beginning of the 2017 term, Headmaster Heaton addressed the faculty identifying several themes important to the long-term flourishing of our school and our families. This column is the third in a series of articles based on those lectures. The value of a well-ordered school cannot be overstated. Children […]
