Some of the most well-known documents and speeches in history were extraordinarily brief. The Ten Commandments are composed of only 301 words. The Mayflower Compact was but 298 words. The Declaration of Independence was a little more than 1,330 words. On November 19, 1863, minister and politician Edward Everett spoke for two hours at a […]
Education is teleological. “Teleological” is a big word that comes from the Greek word telos, which means end, goal, or purpose. To say that education is teleological is to say that it shapes children to be a certain kind of adult, and education always works because it always forms students toward its inherent telos, its […]
It’s November, so I am going to talk about the end of school. No, not the end of the school year. I mean the end of school, as in the purpose or goal of education, as in, “Educate to what end?” Why are you educating your children? I’m not asking merely about your immediate goals […]
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterful tale The Hobbit, the wizard Gandalf accompanies the story’s unlikely hero, Bilbo Baggins, and his dwarf friends on their adventure across the Misty Mountains. As they prepare to enter the forbidding forest of Mirkwood, Gandalf announces that he must leave his friends. Danger awaits them ahead, he assures them, but they […]
Classical Christian education is a new and exotic animal for many Regents Academy parents. I always appreciate finding simple and direct explanations of many of the concepts, otherwise unclear or unknown, associated with our school’s philosophy of education. Below are a few questions and brief answers by Douglas Wilson that get right to the heart […]
David Bryant CCE, Cultural context
Parents who have been at Providence for a while know that what their children are receiving at the school is something distinctly different. Sometimes I hear parents saying they have a hard time putting their finger on it, but they can see it in their children. What’s the difference? You can see it in their […]
If you think of a school as a machine, then you have to conclude that every part of a school is necessary. A car with all its parts except for a radiator hose is not going far. Likewise, a school without, say, books or desks won’t get very far either. But what is the most […]