A True Good Beautiful Life

Welcome, welcome to my last episode of this limited series podcast! It is bittersweet for me for sure! While responsibilities take me away temporarily from this full format, I do plan to continue sharing helpful tips, resources, and insights through social media and my website, so please if you don't already, follow me on my Instagram and Facebook pages - A True Good Beautiful Life and my website: ATrueGoodBeautifulLife.com .

And so to recap, the telos of this podcast is to share the pedagogical ideas of Charlotte Mason in light of the Classical ideals of the True, Good, and the Beautiful. Because Charlotte Mason belongs to the Classical tradition (the historical traditional understanding of this pedagogy), I wanted to show how these two methods can harmonize well with each other. They both emphasize paideia, which is the classic holistic approach to educating the whole child -- mind, body, and spirit. They both stress living/great books, observing and getting out in the natural world or cosmos, and thinking deeply about a feast of ideas. And while there are many other shared characteristics and goals, the one we are going to talk about today is how Charlotte Mason's motto of "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life," marries perfectly with the traditional Classical approach to learning, nurturing character, and promoting virtue - schole.

With the revival of Classical Education over the past few decades, many in that field, including my special guest today, are trying to recover this ancient ideal of schole, or restful learning. Today's education seems to be inhabiting both ends of the spectrum of learning – a style that is too rigorous or one that is too lackadaisical. But today, I hope that we can encourage you to seek a balance by devoting some of your day engaging in schole, which will surprisingly promote wonder, love, and learning for you and your students.

Back in the 4th century, Aristotle wrote that "schole [or leisure, as it it often translated], represents the highest human activity, that our labors were not what life was all about but that work was for the purpose of getting to enjoy leisure" – and that this concept would lead to human happiness (10.7).

So what does this old Greek word have to do with education? Why revisit this idea from Episode 10? Because this is the final episode for the foreseeable future, I wanted to highlight and dig more thoroughly into this idea of leisure, or schole. I want to leave you with these important thoughts to contemplate as you begin your summer season and think about your upcoming school year. I want to give you permission to stop and rest and to consider cultivating this same rest in your homes and schools. I want to show you how this old Greek philosophy would make Charlotte Mason smile centuries later and how she incorporated it into her own philosophy of education.

My final special guest of this season of the podcast is Dr. Christopher Perrin, and in the next hour or so, he is going to share with us his passion for education and how we can flourish as human beings through this old but forgotten concept of schole. He has recently published a book all about schole and I know you will want to read it. As you listen, see how this concept matches well with Charlotte Mason's motto on education.

10 Pedagogies of Schole:

1. Make Haste Slowly
2. Much Not Many
3. Repetition: The Mother of Memory
4. The One Who Loves Can Sing and Remember
5. Wonder and Curiosity
6. Schole and Contemplation
7. Embodied and Liturgical Learning
8. By Teaching We Learn
9. The Best Teacher is a Good Book
10. Learning in Community

Favorite Resources:

• The Schole Way: Bringing Restful Teaching and Learning Back to School and Homeschool by Dr. Christopher Perrin
• "The Schole Way" Classical U online recorded course by Dr. Christopher Perrin
• "Schole (Restful) Learning," Classical U online recorded course by Dr. Christopher Perrin
• The Good Teacher: Ten Key Pedagogical Principles That Will Transform Your Teaching by Dr. Christopher Perrin and Carrie Eben
• Christopher Perrin's Substack Account
• "Bringing Schole Back to School" article by Dr. Christopher Perrin, Substack
• The Age of Martha: A Call to Contemplative Learning in a Frenzied Culture by Devin O'Donnell
• Teaching From Rest: The Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie
• Josef Pieper: Leisure: The Basis of Culture published by Ignatius Press
• Josef Pieper: Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation published by Ignatius Press
• Josef Pieper: An Anthology published by Ignatius Press
• Common Arts Education: Renewing the Classical Tradition of Training the Hand, Head, and Heart by Christopher Hall
• "Schole Sisters"
• An Introduction to Classical Education: A Guide for Parents by Dr. Christopher Perrin
• Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition by Karen Glass
• The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education by Kevin Clark and Ravi Jain
• Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm for Classical Learning by Robert Littlejohn and Charles Evans

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

"Schole is both fundamental to education and related to other fundamental elements of a traditional classical education: the curriculum of the liberal arts and natural sciences; the conversation contained in the great books or archived human wisdom; the cultivation of the moral and academic (or intellectual) virtues; the cultivation of wisdom; and the inherited pedagogies of wonder, memory, imitation, and practice. This book holds up schole as the chief lens by which we will consider education, but it is already in a dance with these other elements." - Dr. Christopher Perrin, The Schole Way: Bringing Restful Teaching and Learning Back to School and Homeschool

"We are un-leisurely (ascholia) in order to have leisure (schole). " - Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 10.7.6)

"Scholé means something like undistracted time to study the most worthwhile things with good friends, usually in a beautiful place, and usually with good food and drink. It has a range of meaning because scholé is at the same time a disposition of the teacher and student, an atmosphere or setting, and an activity. It was at the heart of our understanding of what education was for about 2,000 years up until about 1900, when education was replaced by the progressive, modern "education" we have today." - Dr. Christopher Perrin, The Schole Way: Bringing Restful Teaching and Learning Back to School and Homeschool

"A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." - Luke 6:20, The Bible, NIV

Prayer Before Study: "O Ineffable Creator, who, from the treasures of Your wisdom, have established three hierarchies of angels, have arrayed them in marvelous order above the fiery heavens, and have marshaled the regions of the universe with such artful skill. You are proclaimed the true font of light and wisdom, and the primal origin raised high beyond all things. Pour forth a ray of Your brightness into the darkened places of my mind; disperse from my soul the twofold darkness into which I was born: sin and ignorance. You make eloquent the tongues of infants. Refine my speech and pour forth upon my lips the goodness of Your blessing. Grant to me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret, and eloquence in speech. May You guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress, and bring it to completion, You who are true God and true Man, who live and reign, world without end. Amen." - St. Thomas Aquinas; found in The Schole Way: Bringing Restful Teaching and Learning Back to School and Homeschool by Dr. Christopher Perrin as well as online - https://classicalliberalarts.com/catholic-theology/catholic-prayer/prayer-before-studying-by-st-thomas-aquinas/

. . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

APPLICATION

1. Consider trying some of these practical ideas in your home and school: keep a commonplace book, take an art class, copy scripture or poetry by hand, choose a literary mentor to read through, start a book club, start a supper club, add handicrafts and the common arts to your weekly plans, read less books in order to dig deeper, hang beautiful art up, have less class periods during the day for more contemplation in each class, build up your home/class library, create a peaceful space for reading, go out into nature and journal, memorize poetry and have a recitation night, pray throughout the day together, keep a sketchbook, include feasting and celebration in your school calendar, play music in the background, read books aloud to each other, have the older kids plan an event with/for the younger kids
2. Get a copy of Christopher Perrin's book, The Schole Way, and see how you can foster this idea and practice in your homes and classrooms. Then read the other books listed above for more insight and recommendations.
3. Engage in handicrafts by making your own books! Learn how to bind and decorate them and then fill them with your favorite quotes like a commonplace book or junk journal.

Today you will hear about an epic poem that you never knew you needed to know!

The topic is also about a man whom you may have never heard of but is by no means insignificant in history and the literary world, past and present. His wisdom and character permeate society even today, after his death 89 years ago.

G. K. Chesterton…. Do you recognize that name? Yes? No? Curious why you haven't heard of him? He was a giant of a writer during his lifetime and because he wrote so much on so many topics, he is hard to pigeonhole, as well as to argue with. Chesterton was a prolific writer, intellectual, thinker, and defender of truth and tradition, family and beauty, the poor and Christianity, education and self-sufficiency, self-employment, and independence. He wrote 100 books, hundreds of poems, contributed to 200 books, 5 novels, 5 plays, +/- 200 short stories (including the famous Father Brown mysteries), he edited his own newspaper, and wrote 4,000+ essays… (imagine writing an essay everyday for 11 years!) He wrote in all kinds of genres…. such as theology, politics, and literary criticism.

His Catholic faith deeply influenced his writings and used his wit and paradox to investigate complex issues of society, morality, and religion. There are even modern societies that promote his work and ideas, like The Society of G. K. Chesterton, Chesterton Schools Network, the Chesterton Society at Hillsdale College, and the Philadelphia Chesterton Society.

Chesterton influenced future greats like C. S. Lewis, Mahatma Ghandi, George Orwell, Orson Wells, Alfred Hitchcock, Earnest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and J. R. R. Tolkien, just to name a few. He is considered by some to be the best writer of the 20th century (Dale Ahlquist of the Society of G. K. Chesterton).

Please sit back and enjoy my conversation with revisiting professor, Dr. Fred Putnam.

Favorite Resources:

• The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton (Ignatius Press)
• The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton (Seton Press)
• The Life of Chesterton: The Man Who Carried a Swordstick and a Pen by Holly Geirger Lee
• The Compete Father Brown Stories by G. K. Chesterton (Wordsworth Classics)
• Chesterton Spiritual Classics Collection: Heretics, Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton
• The Everyman Chesterton, edited and Introduced by Ian Ker (The Everyman Library series)
• The Golden Dragon: Alfred the Great and His Times by Alf J. Mapp
• The Dragon and the Raven by G. A. Henty
• Librivox audio recording (free)
• Project Gutenberg recording (free)
• Who is This Guy and Why Haven't I Heard of Him article by Dale Ahlquist
• Lecture 21: The Ballad of the White Horse article by Dale Ahlquist
• Why the World Still Needs G. K. Chesterton article by Shawn White
• The Society of G. K. Chesterton

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

"Not merely a world full of miracles; it was a miraculous world."

"Unless a man becomes the enemy of an evil, he will not even become its slave but rather its champion." - regarding the US's entrance into the Great War

"A dead thing can go with the stream, only a living thing can go against it."

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."

"There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person."

"Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions."

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."

"There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great."

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."

"To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it."

"People forget how to be grateful unless they learn how to be humble."

"The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost."

"The free man is not he who thinks all opinions equally true or false; that is not freedom but feeble-mindedness. The free man is he who sees the errors as clearly as he sees the truth."

"Right is right, even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong about it."

"The one thing that is never taught by any chance in the atmosphere of public schools is this: that there is a whole truth of things, and that in knowing it and speaking it we are happy."

"If we do not clear the outline of the White Horse with unwearying care, grass will very soon choke it and we will lose it forever. It is not the moral tradition that keeps us, it is we who keep (or do not keep) it." - Ekaterina Volonkhonskaia

. . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

APPLICATION

1. Read or listen to The Ballad of the White Horse.
2. If you choose to listen, gather printmaking supplies and try your hand at designing a printblock of the White Horse of Enthandun/Uffington and make some greeting cards or frame it as a small wall hanging.
3. Plan to celebrate October 26th - The Feast of Alfred the Great, at home with readings and prayers: Wisdom (Proverbs) 6:1-3, 9-12, 24-25; Psalm 21:1-7; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17; Luke 6:43-49. Think about God's calling in your life and how you can be a noble and good leader in your homes, communities, and places of work.

There are mysteries all around us. Like was there a real King Arthur? What happened to the colonists on Roanoke Island in 1590? Who was Jack the Ripper? Who killed JFK? Is Big Foot real? While these and many other mysteries perplex us, in the literary world, the mystery of who inspired Shakespeare's Sonnets, who is supposed to be the sonneteer, and who are the young man and dark lady in which the poems address, baffles critics and lovers of poetry to this day. But despite the musings and gallons of ink spilled in writing about these mysteries, Shakespeare's Sonnets are a fascinating poetic creation to be admired and enjoyed simply for its beauty of language and artistic feat.

Poetry is like performing magic with words. But instead of turning you invisible or levitating a chair, your heart feels pain and joy, solitude and curiosity, anger and wonder. Raise your hand if you like poetry? Raise your hand if you studied poetry in school? Raise your hand if you keep volumes of poetry in your bookshelves. I wonder if not many of you raised your hands. Is it because you were never exposed to it? Or was it because your only experience with it was to dissect it and try to figure out what the poet was meaning, only to end in frustration and confusion?

Today we are going to explore the beauty of words, the world of poetry, and the magic of Shakespeare. I hope that you will come to see that poetry speaks to us, challenges us, and changes us in various and surprising ways.

Poetry is a staple in a Charlotte Mason education. Charlotte Mason said that "Poetry is a criticism of life; so it is, both a criticism and an inspiration; and most of us carry in our minds tags of verse which shape our conduct more than we know" (Vol. 4, Book 2, p. 10). She recommended that children should practice reading aloud, "for the most part, in the books he is using for his term's work. These should include a good deal of poetry, to accustom him to the delicate rendering of shades of meaning, and especially to make him aware that words are beautiful in themselves, that they are a source of pleasure, and are worthy of our honour; and that a beautiful word deserves to be beautifully said, with a certain roundness of tone and precision of utterance." (Vol. 1, p. 227)

Today I have with me a returning guest, Dr. Kathryn Smith, who was my co-director and professor at the MAT program at Templeton Honors College. You may recall her intriguing explanation of the genres of literature back on Episode 12, where we discussed the Lyric, Tragedy, Comedy and Epic forms of literature. Now you won't find Dr. Smith on the east coast anymore but all the way across the country in Colorado, teaching Humane Letters classes. So I am excited to have her back and to talk about one of her passions and expertise, Poetry and Shakespeare's Sonnets – those 14-line marvels that are not only works of art but windows into love, beauty, time, and humanity.

Favorite Resources:

• A Child's Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll
• R is for Rhyme: A Poetry Alphabet by Judy Young
• A Treasury of Poems for Almost Every Possibility edited by Allie Esiri and Rachel Kelly
• Favorite Poems For the Garden: A Gardener's Collection by Bushel and Peck Books
• Favorite Poems of the Sea: A Coastal Collection by Bushel and Peck Books
• Favorite Poems of the Wild: An Adventure Collection by Bushel and Peck Books
• Favorite Poems for Bedtime: A Child's Collection by Bushel and Peck Books
• Favorite Poems for Christmas: A Child's Collection by Bushel and Peck Books
• Poetry Patterns published by Evan-Moor Corp.
• The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets by Helen Vendler
• "On Teaching Poetry" by Mary A. Woods - https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR02p111TeachingPoetry.shtml
• "The Teaching of Poetry to Children by Mrs. J. G. Simpson - https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR12p879TeachingPoetry.shtml
• see "Favorite Resources" from Episode 12 for more poetry books

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

"Poetry is a criticism of life; so it is, both a criticism and an inspiration; and most of us carry in our minds tags of verse which shape our conduct more than we know" - Charlotte Mason, Volume 4: Ourselves, Book 2, p. 10

"These should include a good deal of poetry, to accustom him to the delicate rendering of shades of meaning, and especially to make him aware that words are beautiful in themselves, that they are a source of pleasure, and are worthy of our honour; and that a beautiful word deserves to be beautifully said, with a certain roundness of tone and precision of utterance." - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 227

Poetry is "the musical expression, by means of words, of thought charged with emotion . . . . the elements of poetry are thought, emotion, music; and I lay stress upon the music, because I believe it to be not only an element essential to poetry, but an element too apt to be overlooked. Poetry appeals primarily to the ear, and its sounds out to satisfy the ear. . . . For the child the order I have given is reversed. It is not, 'thought, emotion, music,' but 'music, emotion, thought.' A child will hear and enjoy the music of a poem before he can appreciate the emotion; he will appreciate the emotion before he can understand the ghost. Now this order, which is the natural and therefore the healthy one, is obviously to be followed in all attempts to teach young children." Mary A. Woods, "On the Teaching of Poetry," The Parents' Review, Vol. 2, 1891/2, pp. 111-116

"Most people will agree with me that poetry ought to be taught. Doubtless there are still some who hold that [poetry] is a mere amusement, a trifle fit only for the nursery or the drawing room, and unworthy to encroach on the sacred hours devoted to science and mathematics and physical exercise. And others will tell me that it is too good for the schoolroom. Poetry, they say, the ripest fruit of the ripest thought of mankind, should not be squandered on minds too crude or too weak to receive it: the audience of the true poet, if fit, must always be 'few.' But these two classes are in a minority, and I do not propose to deal with them to-day. I must assume that poetry is good, and that, being good, it cannot be too good for our children." - Mary A. Woods, "On the Teaching of Poetry," The Parents' Review, Vol. 2, 1891/2, pp. 111-116

"To withhold good pictures from children because we thoughtlessly conclude them to be incapable of noticing anything but grandness of colour, is to despise them, to value them too lightly," so with poetry you must believe that a child is capable of enjoying and admiring the very best, if only you show him how to begin. You must let him see that you yourself delight in well chosen epithets and true pieces of word painting; you must let him feel that you only care for poems which put a pleasant thought into your mind or a pleasant picture before your eyes; you must let him realize that when you go with him for a country walk, you can add a charm to the brook or the meadow, or the oak tree, or the wild rose, by a familiar quotation, and his taste will not be long in forming itself. This taste should be formed, or should be in process of forming, before the child goes to school." - Mrs. J. G. Simpson, "The Teaching of Poetry to Children," The Parents' Review, Vol. 12, 1901, pp. 879-883

"We must change all this if we want our children to have the real poetic feeling in them drawn out and developed. We must read our poets and learn them by heart till our minds are full of the best thoughts and the loveliest expressions that the world has yet uttered; and be sure that as we read and learn, our own appreciation will grow, and we shall begin to understand more fully why we must teach our little ones only what is good, and why we are doing them a real wrong if we let their minds be filled with what is poor and trivial, while all the world's richest treasures are lying ready for them to take and use as their own possessions." - Mrs. J. G. Simpson, "The Teaching of Poetry to Children," The Parents' Review, Vol. 12, 1901, pp. 879-883

". . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . " - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

APPLICATION

1. Read samples of haiku poetry and check the syllable patterns. Discuss how the imagery helps paint a picture or evoke a feeling. Help your student write their own. First brainstorm descriptive words and phrases about a nature subject. Then use that list to write a sentence about the subject using three ideas/concepts. Finally, cut and adjust the phrase to follow the 5-7-5 syllable pattern. Encourage your students to copy it out and illustrate their poems.

2. Host a Poetry Tea where each student must bring and read aloud a narrative poem of significant length. Make sure they are all different so that they can enjoy hearing something new and appreciate the attention, creativity, and time such a lengthy poem requires.

3. Take one of Shakespeare's sonnets and have students pick out a few beautiful lines. Then have them paraphrase it. Together as a class, consider what wonderful things have been lost (ie. rhyme, alliteration, consonance, word order, sounds, syllables, rhythm). Notice that the words are just as important as the plot/meaning.

Welcome back to the second part of our discussion of Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice! I have my good friend Heather Usher back with us to finish talking about the signifcance of "countenance" in Jane's famous novel, what are entails, the life of a governess, using foils, and examining Austen's prayer life.

Pride and Prejudice is a book about love, societal expectations, growth in sound judgement and in self-knowledge. It is a canvas of human failings and how they sometimes triumph over them. The book looks into deep questions like - "Can an unworthy man have a worthy friend?" "How far can a person be deceived?" "How influential are one's parents?" "Should one marry for love or for security?" "How does one's behavior affect one's family and friends?" "Can good come from evil?" "What does one do with difficult truths?" "What does Christian charity look like?" "What can you learn from retrospection?" "How can we judge what others are feeling?" "What is it to act morally?" "Is strong physical attraction the same as love?" "What is a proper sense of pride?" "What is the value of a 'marriage of true minds'?" It's a fascinating study on society and humanity. I hope you will conisder reading this masterpiece!

Favorite Resources:

• Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen by Rachel Dodge
• The Prayers of Jane Austen published by Harvest House Publishers
• Eight Women of Faith by Michael A. G. Haykin
• The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen annotated and edited by David M. Shapard
• Pride and Prejudice: An Annoated Edition edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks
• Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
• Jane Austen's Country Life by Deirdre Le Faye
• Miniatures and Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen by Peter J. Leithart
• BBC's 1995 mini series "Pride and Prejudice"
• Joe Wright's 2005 movie "Pride and Prejudice"
• Ellie Dashwood's YouTube Channel on Classic Literature and History
• Tea with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson
• Tea with Jane Austen by Pen Volger
• Cooking with Jane Austen & Friends by Laura Boyle
• Jane Austen's Talbe: Recipes Inspired by the Works of Jane Austen by Robert Tuesley Anderson
• A Jane Austen Christmas: Regency Christmas Traditions by Maria Grace
• The Jane Austen Handbook: Proper Life Skills from Regency England by Margaret C. Sullivan
• A Jane Austen Devotional by Steffany Woolsey
• An Assembly Such as This: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan (fiction)
• Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan (fiction)
• These Three Remain: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan (fiction)
• The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James (fiction)
• So Jane: Crafts and Recipes for an Austen-Inspired Life by Hollie Keith
• The Making of Pride and Prejudice by Sue Birtwistle and Susie Conklin
• 101 Things You Didn't Know About Jane Austen: The Truth About the World's Most Intriguing Literary Heroine by Patrice Hannon
• What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England By Daniel Pool
• All Roads Lead To Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

. . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

APPLICATION

1. Take a portion of the book, say Mr. Collins' proposal to Elizabeth, and practice some Rhetoric skills. Ask the SPAUTS questions: S=Speaker - Who is the author or protagonist? P=Purpose - What is the purpose of the text? A=Audience - Who is the text indended for? U=Universal Ideas - What are the major themes of the passage? T=Tone - What is the tone of the author or progagonist? S=Strategies - What are some stragegies the author uses to convey ideas? Have your students answer this in a journal or participate in a Socratic Circle. Try it again using Mr. Darcy's proposal to Elizabeth.
2. Jane Austen's novels are full of teatime, dinner parties, and balls. Practice some lifeskills by learning how to make the perfect pot of tea, set a table for a fancy dinner party, and learn how to square dance or swing dance. Do you know where the dessert fork goes or the water goblet? Be in the know!
3. Read "The Lord's Prayer" in Matthew 6:9-13, Psalm 19, 23, 27, 29, 145, and 150 in the Bible. Contemplate writing your own prayer to God. What would you say?

Happy New Year to you all! Welcome to "A True Good Beautiful Life" podcast where we talk about life-long flourishing through the lens of Charlotte Mason and Classical educational philosophies. Perhaps my favorite thing to talk about is Literature and History and today I hope you will be as excited as I am about our topic of discussion.

When I thought about doing an episode on Jane Austen, I was both giddy and terrified. There is so much that could be said, from her biography to her novels, from the Regency era to her juvenilia. And so I decided to take my favorite of her novels, which probably includes most everyone else's in the world, Pride and Prejudice, and use it as guide to travel through Jane Austen's world and help us readers understand a little deeper what is going on in her novels in general and what is passing through the minds of her characters. For as any good reader of literature should do, we ought to approach a book with open arms to see and understand what the author is trying to tell us and enter their world wearing their shoes.

C. S. Lewis reminded us in his book An Experiment in Criticism, that - "in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do."

Jane wrote, as many authors do, with the assumption that her readers understood her world and did not need significant descriptions and annotations regarding the social culture surrounding the plotline. But for us modern readers, much of what we read about in her Regency English world (and even in her language) is foreign to us and can leave us wondering what is going on. So thank goodness there are folks out there who have written and podcasted about Regency England so that we can obtain a better understanding of the world and society that permeates Austen's novels.

Today I have with me a dear old college friend who shares an affinity of all things Austen and Literature in general, fellow George Mason graduate, Heather Usher.

Favorite Resources:

• The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen annotated and edited by David M. Shapard
• Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
• Jane Austen's Country Life by Deirdre Le Faye
• Miniatures and Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen by Peter J. Leithart
• BBC's 1995 mini series "Pride and Prejudice"
• Joe Wright's 2005 movie "Pride and Prejudice"
• Ellie Dashwood's YouTube Channel on Classic Literature and History
• Tea with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson
• Tea with Jane Austen by Pen Volger
• Cooking with Jane Austen & Friends by Laura Boyle
• Jane Austen's Talbe: Recipes Inspired by the Works of Jane Austen by Robert Tuesley Anderson
• Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen by Rachel Dodge
• A Jane Austen Christmas: Regency Christmas Traditions by Maria Grace
• The Jane Austen Handbook: Proper Life Skills from Regency England by Margaret C. Sullivan
• A Jane Austen Devotional by Steffany Woolsey
• An Assembly Such as This: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan (fiction)
• Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan (fiction)
• These Three Remain: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan (fiction)
• The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James (fiction)
• So Jane: Crafts and Recipes for an Austen-Inspired Life by Hollie Keith
• The Making of Pride and Prejudice by Sue Birtwistle and Susie Conklin
• 101 Things You Didn't Know About Jane Austen: The Truth About the World's Most Intriguing Literary Heroine by Patrice Hannon
• What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England By Daniel Pool
• All Roads Lead To Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

"The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours." -Alan Bennett

". . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . ." - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

APPLICATION

1. Spend the month of January reading The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and annotated and edited by David M. Shapard. Not only will you enjoy one the world's most beloved and famous novels, you will also learn about Regency England. If you really want to delve into her novels, start a Book Club with a few friends and spend 2 months reading each of her books and Zoom together after each book to discuss. At this rate, you will finish all 6 of her major novels in one year.
2. Engage in one of the handicrafts young accomplished ladies would learn during the Regency Era: embroidery, sewing, watercolor, pastels, etc. Today, even boys can learn and benefit from these crafts.
3. Even though it is winter, carve out some time to "take a turn" outside and enjoy the crisp fresh winter air. Learn how to identify your local birds by setting out birdfeeders and distinguish the different types of evergreens outside.

Merry Christmas!

Hello and welcome to A True Good Beautiful Life. I am your host, Jennifer Milligan and this podcast explores the ideas and practices of a Charlotte Mason and Classical Education. Today I am treated to a fascinating conversation with the Dean of Templeton Honors College, Dr. Brian Williams. We will discuss the telos or purpose of education and how to incorporate seven different areas of formation in the lives of our students (as well as ourselves) to promote long-term human flourishing.

The areas of formation include the Intellectual, Moral, Aesthetic, Spiritual, Physical, Practical, and Social. Dr. Williams takes each one and discusses what question they each ask, the end goal for each one, the means or virtue to acquire to accomplish the end goal, the vices to overcome for each area, and finally the danger that arises if one pursues this area of formation exclusively.

The Seven Areas of Formation (and some suggested readings):

1. Intellectual (the Bible, Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy, Calvin's Institutes, Kevin Clark & Ravi Jain's The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education, Josef Pieper's An Anthology, Devin O'Donnell's The Age of Martha: A Call to Contemplative Learning in a Frenzied Culture, Nathaniel Bluedorn's The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning, John Taylor Gatto's The Underground History of American Education, Derrick Jensen's Walking on Water, C. S. Lewis' Abolition of Man + Mere Christianity, Tolkien's Leaf by Niggle, Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society series, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre)
2. Moral (the Bible, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, The Rule of St. Benedict, Vigen Guroian's Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination, Dante's Divine Comedy, Homer's The Odyssey, E. Nesbit's The Best of Shakespeare: Retellings of 10 Classic Plays, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Christina Rossetti's Time Flys: A Reading Diary)
3. Aesthetic (Artistotle's Poetics, Josef Pieper's Only the Lover Sings, Plato's Republic, Book X, Steve Turley's Beauty Matters: Creating a High Aesthetic in School Culture, Jacobson, Silverstein and Winslow's Patterns of Home, Roger Scruton's Beauty, Alain de Botton's The Architecture of Happiness, John Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture, Emily Lex Studio's watercolor workbooks, Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, poetry from Christina Rossetti, William Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Robert Frost, etc., art books featuring Vermeer, Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, DaVinci, Michelangelo, Constable, Gainsborough, Turner, Wyeth, etc., musical pieces from classic and contemporary composers)
4. Spiritual (the Bible, Augustine's Confessions + The City of God, R. C. Sproul's Defending Your Faith, Nancy Guthrie's Blessed, Jen Wilkin's Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds + her various Bible studies, Helen Talyor's Little Pilgrim's Progress, John Milton's Paradise Lost, C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series)
5. Physical (books that teach exercise, stretching, strength-training, games, sports)
6. Practical (John Holt's How Children Learn, Charlotte Mason's Vol. 6: A Philosophy of Education, Sarah Mackenzie's Teaching From Rest, Chris Hall's Common Arts Education, Rory Groves's Durable Trades, cookbooks (like Gooseberry Patch volumes, DIY Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen), DIY manuals (like Reader's Digest's New Fix-It Yourself Manual, Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional Skills, and John Vivian's Manual of Practical Homesteading), Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook, Jennifer Berry's Organize Now!, Floret's Cut Flower Garden, Christie Purifoy's Garden Maker and other gardening books, The Passionate Penny Pincher's menu plans and yearly planner, Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series)
7. Social (Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together, Margaret Peterson's Keeping House, Sally & Sarah Clarkson's The Life-Giving Home, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Starcatchers series, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice + the rest of her novels)

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

. . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

APPLICATION

1. Sit down for an hour or two (maybe enjoy coffee and donuts with your collegues or other homeschooling moms and dads) and think about each of the seven areas of formation and how your school or homeschool is doing well with them and how you can improve in cultivating the means to strive for the goals of the True, the Good, the Beautiful, the Holy, the Healthy, the Beneficial, and the Neighborly.
2. Learn about Artistotle's Intellectual Virtues. They include Artistry or craftsmanship, Prudence or practical wisdom, Intuition or understanding, Scientific Knowledge, and Philosophic Wisdom.
3. After you have read a piece of literature for the pure enjoyment of it, consider back to how, if at all, it showed the means and benefits of seeking and aquiring virtues and the dangers and tragedies of falling into vice. How do those characters, in turn, relate to you?

Welcome! On last month's episode, I had the honor of talking with Dr. Amy Richards of Templeton Honors College and Eastern University on her book, Disability and Classical Education. She shared about the "why" of education and the "how" of implementing telic attention and a doxological classroom for everyone. So if you missed that one, please go back and check it out after you listen to this as you will certainly benefit from it.

And so to piggyback on her talk, on today's episode, I will be continuing our discussion on disabilities and learning differences, by taking a dive into one particular learning issue - Dyslexia, with Barton Reading and Spelling Dyslexia Coach, Jolene Christian of Reading and Spelling SOS. You will hear the TRUTH about Dyslexia and some GOOD ways to care about and help students struggling with this learning difference.

In the final and short segment on BEAUTY, I will share with you a new favorite watercolor book by Emily Lex Studio that you'll want to pick up for yourself and your kids.

So please stick around, grab a cup of tea, and let's enter this conversation together!

Favorite Resources:

• Reading and Spelling SOS with dyslexia coach Jolene Christian
• Bright Solutions for Dyslexia
• The Warning Signs of Dyslexia Summary Sheet
• Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz
• Handwriting Without Tears
• IEW Writing Program (Institute for Excellence in Writing)
• Ghotit.com - Dyslexia Reading and Writing Assistant
• grammarly.com - an AI writing partner
• Kurzweil Education - reading, writing, studying, test-taking tools
• Made by Dyslexia
• Dyslexic Advantage
• Learning Ally Audio Books
• Microsoft OneNote
• Emily Lex Studio Watercolor Workbooks
• Emily Lex Studio Watercolor & Penmanship Classes
• Watercolor With Me: In the Forest
• Watercolor With Me: In the Jungle
• Watercolor With Me: In the Ocean

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." - unknown

". . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . ." - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

APPLICATION

1. Prepare yourself a cup of tea or coffee and sit down and contemplate the warning signs for each of your children or students and see if there is anything there to be concerned about. Then treat yourself to a piece of cake! You deserve it!
2. Organize a parent or teacher meeting to go over these warning signs so others can be informed as well. They might want cake too! :)
3. Check out Emily Lex Studios and try out one of her watercolor workbooks or use your own paper and paints and dabble with the medium. Just get comfortable using it and seeing how it works. The more you play the less intimidating it will seem. If you don't get stressed about it, chances are you children won't either...or at least not as much.

Welcome to A True Good Beautiful Life podcast! Today my guest and I will take some of you down an unknown path of life, for others maybe an all too worn path, and perchance even for others one that some have ventured a little ways in but yet do not know their way through or what is beyond the bend. We are going to talk about disabilities and how understanding disabilities is essential to human flourishing, Classical Education, and Charlotte Mason's First Principle - "children are born persons."

In the past, I briefly described what Charlotte Mason meant when she said that "children are born persons" –that they are a wonder of wonders; born ready to learn; that children are not blank slates, but that they are full persons with intellectual power, moral sense, and spiritual perception (Parents and Children, Chapter 24). Children are in fact image-bearers of our Creator God, thus deserving dignity, respect, and love.

This concept of loving children and students is at the heart of understanding how to live with and teach students with various kinds of disabilities.

My special guest today is Dr. Amy Richards, Affiliate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Eastern University and Faculty Fellow of the Templeton Honors College's Master of Arts in Classical teaching program. That is where I first met Amy. She teaches a course entitled "Difference and Human Dignity in the Great Tradition" and her newly published book, called Disability and Classical Education: Student Formation in Keeping with our Common Humanity, and online lecture course through Classical U is our topic of discussion.

Conversation Topics:

• the telos of education
• strange vocations
• telic attention
• doxological classrooms
• the Anthropology Audit

Favorite Resources:

• Disability and Classical Education: Student Formation in Keeping with Our Common Humanity book by Dr. Amy Richards published by Classical Academic Press
• "Disability and Classical Education: Student Formation in Keeping with Our Common Humanity" online class by Dr. Amy Richards via Classical U
• Classical U
• Classical Academic Press
• What Can a Body Do: How We Meet the Built World by Sara Hendren
• God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweets
• www.ATrueGoodBeautifulLife.com

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

"The disabled person, with all the limitations and suffering that scar him or her, forces us to question ourselves, with respect and wisdom, on the mystery of man. In fact, the more we move about in the dark and unknown areas of human reality, the better we understand that it is in the more difficult and disturbing situations that the dignity and grandeur of the human being emerges." - St. John Paul II (https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/messages/pont_messages/2004/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20040108_handicap-mentale.html )

". . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . ." - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

APPLICATION

1. What do you think the telos of education ought to be? Write out your mission statement for teaching.
2. Consider what kind of attention your educational institution practices themselves and cultivates in their students -- instrumental or telic? How can you cultivate telic attention in your classroom?
3. To truly be a welcoming doxological classroom, we need to see everyone as a gift. How can you anticipate difference in your classroom and incorporate universal design?

Welcome back to a new episode! The new school year has begun and I am sure you are filled with wonderful dreams and maybe a few nervous jitters! Fall is a wonderful time to begin educational endeavors fresh with new books, supplies, friends, and lesson plans. And while reading one's Bible tends to always start in January, in our first segments on the TRUE and the GOOD, I am going to propose to you something a little more in depth that can be started anytime, including right now as autumn's leaves start to color and fall. It's a step-by-step Bible Study plan that you can use at home, in your Bible class at school, and even in your Sunday School class. And I am going to highlight this simple but vital process with one of our Women's Bible Study Leaders at Brick Lane Community Church, in Elverson, PA, Kelly Fenton, while using famous author and speaker, Jen Wilkin's super practical book, Women of the Word: How to Study the BIble with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds.

Delving into a deep understanding of God is one of the types of knowledge that Classical Education and Charlotte Mason include in their class studies. These pedagogies promote the ideas of forming humanity, virtue, and character and helping our students conform to the cosmos, to the ultimate True, Good, and Beautiful being, that being Jesus Christ.

In this discussion about the knowledge of God, we are going to focus on building Biblical Literacy in your own hearts and minds so you can also help your students and children to do the same.

Jen Wilkin's 5 P's:

1. Purpose
2. Perspective
3. Patience
4. Process
5. Prayer

For the final segment of the show, the BEAUTIFUL, I share with you some ideas of how you can teach your class about the art of the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

Favorite Resources:

• ESV Reformation Study Bible
• ESV Scripture Journals (black covers) - Old Testament Set
• ESV Scripture Journals (black covers): New Testament Set
• ESV Illuminated Scripture Journals - Old Testament Set
• ESV Illuminated Scripture Journals - New Testament Set
• ESV Scripture Journals (artwork by Ruth Chou Simons) - New Testament Set
• Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Timelines by Rose Publishing
• Jen Wilkin website
• Women of the Word: Digging into Bible Study Introduction - YouTube video
• Women of the Word: Digging into Bible Study Day 1 - YouTube video
• Women of the Word: Digging into Bible Study Day 2 - YouTube video
• Women of the Word: Digging into Bible Study Day 3 - YouTube video
• Women of the Word: Digging into Bible Study Day 4 - YouTube video
• Women of the Word: Digging into Bible Study Day 5 - YouTube video
• God of Creation: A Study of Genesis 1-11 by Jen Wilkin
• God of Deliverance: A Study of Exodus 1-18 by Jen Wilkin
• God of Freedom: A Study of Exodus 19-40 by Jen Wilkin
• Ligonier Ministries website
• Everyone's a Theologian by R. C. Sproul
• "Things Unseen" Podcast by Sinclair B. Ferguson
• Foundations of the Christian Faith: A Comprehensive & Readable Theology by James Montgomery Boice
• Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
• Expositional Commentaries Book Collection by R. C. Sproul
• BibleHub.com
• thegospelcoalition.org
• desiringgod.org
• The New City Catechism
• The Westminster Shorter Catechism
• The Navigators: How to Study the Bible article
• Art in Story: Teaching Art History to Elementary School Children by Marianne Saccardi
• The Stuff They Left Behind: From the Days of Ancient Egypt by Simply Charlotte Mason
• The Stuff They Left Behind: From the Days of Ancient Greece by Simply Charlotte Mason
• The Stuff They Left Behind: From the Days of Ancient Rome by Simply Charlotte Mason
• Egyptian Art: Art in Detail by Susie Hodge
• The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History From Prehistoric to Post-Modern by Carol Strickland
• Cave Paintings to Picasso by Henry Sayre
• The Penn Museum, Philadelphia, PA
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
• Biblical Tabernacle, Lancaster, PA
• Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC
• Creation Museum, Petersburg, KY
• Ark Encounter, Willimastown, KY
• Ink and Blood: Dead Sea Scrolls to Gutenberg museum collection, Murfreesboro, TN
• U. S. Museums with Artifacts Related to the Biblical World website

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

"to make a study of our God: what he loves, what he hates, how he speaks and acts. We cannot imitate a God whose features and habits we have never learned. We must make a study of him if we want to become like him. We must seek his face." - Jen Wilkin, Women of the Word, p. 150

"But living a just and holy life requires one to be capable of an objective and impartial evaluation of things: to love things, that is to say, in the right order, so that you do not love what is not to be loved, or fail to love what is to be loved, or have a greater love for what should be loved less, or an equal love for things that should be loved less or more, or a lesser or greater love for things that should be loved equally. - St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, I.27-28

Regarding young children -- "they should get a considerable knowledge of the Bible text. By nine they should have read the simple (and suitable) narrative portions of the Old Testament, and say, two of the gospels. The Old Testament, for various reasons, should be read to children. The gospel stories, they might read for themselves as soon as they can read them beautifully. It is a mistake to use paraphrases of the text….But let the imaginations of children be stored with the pictures, their minds nourished upon the words, of the gradually unfolding story of the scriptures, and they will come to look out upon a wide horizon within which persons and events take share in their due place and in due proportion. By degrees, they will see that the world is a stage whereon the goodness of God is continually striving with the willfulness of man; that some heroic men take sides with God; and that others, foolish and headstrong, oppose themselves to Him." - Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1: Home Education, p. 248

"the Bible is not a single book; but a classic literature of wonderful beauty and interest; that apart from its divine sanctions and religious teaching, from all that we understand by 'Revelation,' the Bible, as a mere instrument of education, is, at the very least, as valuable as the classics of Greece or Rome." - Charlotte Mason, Vol. 2: Parents and Children, p. 104

"Biblical literacy stitches patchwork knowledge into a seamless garment of understanding." - Jen WIlkin, Women of the Word, p. 37

"devotional reading is for the sake of asking what the text is saying to me, while studying the Bible as a text is to look at the Bible as literature in order to understand what it is saying, how it is saying it, and then why is it saying it the way that it is." - Dr. Fred Putnam

. . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

APPLICATION

1. Begin memorizing/understanding basic Bible basics, like the list of the Books of the Bible, the 7 Days of Creation, the 10 Commandments, the 12 Tribes of Israel, Psalm 1, 23, and 100, the Armour of God in Ephesisans 6:14-17, the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, the Apostles' Creed, the list of the 12 disciples, the sacraments of the Lord Supper and Baptism, some of the attributes of God, and the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Begin learning basic theology by using a catechsim like the Westminster Shorter Catechism or the New City Catechism. Learn some classic hymns like "Amazing Grace," "To God be the Glory," "Great is Thy Faithfulness," and "Be Thou My Vision." Don't forget to learn where things are (like the Table of Nations, 12 Tribes of Israel, the migration of Abraham, the route of the Exodus, Jesus's travels, and Paul's missionary journeys) by practicing cartography in the European, Asian and African continents.
2. Pick a short book of the Bible, like the book of James, and go through each chapter practicing the "5 P's" as in Jen Wilkin's "Digging into Bible Study" YouTube videos posted above.
3. Include an Art History class/or Picture Study if you don't have much time and take different Ancient cultures mentioned in the Bible and explore their different types of art throughout the year. Try recreating one famous artifact from each one for an Art Show at the end of the year.

New this week is a conversation about J. R. R. Tolkien and the genre of Fantasy literature. I have back with me special guest Dr. Fred Putnam, recently retired professor from Templeton Honors College and Eastern University in eastern Pennsylvania. We provide a brief biography of this famous writer and teacher, share some fun ideas on how to teach Tolkien in your classes, explain the benefits of reading Fantasy literature, and discuss the wonderful program offered to high school students in Templeton Honors College's Summer Scholars Program. There are a few little spoilers so if you haven't read the Lord of the Rings or watched the movies, beware! Maybe take this opportunity to enter Middle-earth this summer. Favorite Resources:

• Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination, by Vigen Guroian
• The Tolkien Reader: Stories, Poems, and Commentaries by the Author of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wooten Major, Roverandom, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Mr. Bliss, Letters From Father Christmas, by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Art of the Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Art of the Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Tolkien Gateway
• The Philosophy of Tolkien, by Peter Kreeft
• J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, by Tom Shippey
• The Road to Middle-Earth, by Tom Shippey
• Tolkien: The Authorized Biography, by Humphrey Carpenter
• The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien by J. R. R. Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien
• Writing Down the Dragon and Other Essays: On the Tolkien Method and the Craft of Fantasy, by Tom Simon
• The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis
• The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, and At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald
• On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature, by C. S. Lewis
• An Experiment in Criticism, by C. S. Lewis

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

Regarding faerie, it is a "perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold." - J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-stories," The Tolkien Reader, p. 33 "The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords. In that realm a man may, perhaps, count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very richness and strangemeness tie the tongue of a traveller who would report them. And while he is there it is dangerous for him to ask too many questions, lest the gates should be shut and the keys be lost." - J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-stories," The Tolkien Reader, p. 33 "Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of, scientific verity." - J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-stories, The Tolkien Reader, p. 74-75 Regarding the Eucatastrophe - the sudden joyous "turn," "sudden and miraculous grace" - J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-stories," The Tolkien Reader, p. 86 "The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by 'the veil of familiarity'. The child enjoys his cold meat (otherwise dull to him) by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savoury for having been dipped in a story; you might say that only then is it the real meat. . . . we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it. As long as the story lingers in our mind, the real things are more themselves. . . . By dipping them in myth we see them more clearly. . .[regarding the book], we know at once that it has done things to us. We are not quite the same men." - C. S. Lewis, "Tolkien's Lord of the Rings," On Stories, p. 138-139

. . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

APPLICATION

1. Either as a family or personally, read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings this year. Also try some of his other short stories, like Farmer Giles of Ham and Leaf by Niggle.
2. Do something creative: craft a scene of one of Tolkien's books - diorama, painting, Legos, clay; memorize one of his poems; recreate one of Tolkien's maps or design your own using similar style and drawings; study heraldry and design your own shield or coat of arms.
3. Celebrate Hobbit Day September 22, 2024, in honor of Bilbo's and Frodo's birthdays. Be sure to include all the meals. This Day is a great compliation of all our major holidays -- include feasting, gifts, picnics, costumes, and fireworks.