Classical Education

About our Guest
Sean Johnson holds an M.A. in English from the University of Dallas, and he teaches Great Books at Veritas School in Richmond, Virginia. Sean has reviewed movies for FilmFisher.com, and is a frequent contributor to The Circe Institute’s blog and print journal FORMA. As you notice in this interview, Sean loves family, food, and film.  After the show,  consider listening to Sean Johnson’s talk “The Devil Loves a Picky Eater.” 

Show Notes

In this episode, Sean Johnson and Trae Bailey converse on the proper relationship between family, food, and film in the classical classroom and home. Here Sean suggests movies for the whole family, what to cook with your kids, and how to deal with picky eaters.

Some topics in this episode include:

• Our cultivated culture of pickiness  
• How the kitchen can inform the classroom 
• The difficult roles of teachers and parents 
• Narration in the home 
• Reviewing Films and Praising Well 
• Graham Greene’s novels and screenplays
• Lectio Divina   
• Alcohol and Drinking Culture
• How to watch movies with your family 
• The proper place for the television in the home 
• Sean’s film recommendations

Books &  Resources Mentioned In This Episode

FORMA Journal 

The Republic, Socrates  

The Supper of The Lamb: A Culinary Reflection, Farrar Capon  

The Third Man, Graham Greene 

Our Man in Havana, Graham, Greene 

High Noon

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 

Charlie Chaplin Movies 

WALL-E  

Ratatouille 

The Incredibles 

Sean’s Favorite Book & Quote: 

Beauty for Truth’s Sake, Stratford Caldecott 

“Is he enough of a pagan to die for the world, and enough of a Christian to die to it?” - G.K.Chesterton, Orthodoxy 

_______________________________

Credits:

Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel

Logo Art: Anastasiya CF

Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo

 © 2022 Beautiful Teaching. All Rights Reserved

About our Guest
Dr. Reno Lauro received his PhD from the University of St. Andrews Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts in 2011, where he wrote on J. R. R. Tolkien’s philosophy of Mythopoeia. For the past 10 years, he has worked at the intersection of Humane and Digital learning.After completing his degrees, Theology (MDiv) and History (BA), Reno apprenticed for 18 months on the Palme d’Or winning film The Tree of Life with director Terrence Malick, which transformed his understanding of the Classics, the modern world, and how to communicate the relationship between the two. 

He has taught at the graduate and undergraduate level as well as in both Lower and Upper School classrooms of Classical Schools. Most recently, Reno has served as the Assistant Headmaster at St. Peter’s Classical School in Fort Worth, TX and of a Great Hearts Archway School and also worked closely with the CEO of the globally recognized BASIS.ed charter schools to create and pilot seminar-style history courses as alternatives to AP classes.

Reno resides in Ft. Worth, Texas with his wife and 4 gloriously active young boys. He is passionate about philosophy, history, and beautiful teaching. He currently works as a Classical Pedagogy and Curriculum Specialist for Coram Deo Academies in DFW. He also is an active consultant for Beautiful Teaching: Consulting in Classical Education Philosophy & Pedagogy.

His 2 Bonus Podcast Episodes can be downloaded from our Patreon Page here.

Show Notes

We discuss Tolkien’s view of education through the lens of cosmology, anthropology, and story. Reno discusses the theological implications between language and story and how this view ties to the recovery of Christian classical education. Philology is the foundation of the humane letters and there is more to learning than the seeking and the mining of literature in an academic way. This “lifeless” and “dull”  style of the university in Tolkien’s Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford, points to a larger anthropological view of education. This leads us to think of education as a living, breathing, and whole that is multi-faceted and varied. 

In this world of machines, we need to recover the fullness of human life. 

Key Text: 

We discussed at great length from The Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford refers to J.R.R. Tolkien's retirement speech from the University of Oxford, delivered on 5 June 1959. The valedictory speech is included in J.R.R. Tolkien, Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam. Another draft was published in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1983).

Some topics in this episode include:

• What was Tolkien's struggle with his peers at The University and how does it show us his philosophy of education?
• Tolkien as a Dante for the technocratic age
• Encountering education as a living, breathing, whole within the cosmos
• The medieval view of education
• What was Tokien’s relationship with the cosmos and trees and how does this influence his view of learning? 

Books & Titles Mentioned In This Episode

The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Their Friends by Humphrey Carpenter (chapters 2-3)

Secret Fire: The Spiritual Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien by Stratford Caldecott

Mythopoeia by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis

The valedictory speech is included in J.R.R. Tolkien, Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam. Another draft was published in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1983).

Reno's quote at end of podcast:
Hail Earendel, brightest of angels,
Sent to men over middle-earth,
And true radiance of the sun,
Fine beyond stars, you always illuminate,...
Source: 

Christ I poem from Anglo-Saxon advent liturgy

_________________________________

Credits:

Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel

Logo Art: Anastasiya CF

Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo

 © 2022 Beautiful Teaching. All Rights Reserved

About our Guest

Steven J. Bourgeois, PhD has been a practicing teacher for the past 32 years. Working primarily in Oregon and Texas, he has taught high school German, string orchestra, humanities, and applied music in addition to several years as a head tennis coach. After completing a PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2012, he accepted a position as Executive Director of Research, Evaluation, and Instruction at Responsive Education Solutions, one of the largest charter school organizations in Texas. After recently retiring, Dr. Bourgeois has transitioned to full-time educational consulting, focusing services on teacher attrition, distributive leadership, student motivation, and classical methods. Leveraging his skills in data analytics, survey design, and data visualization, he currently supports leaders in independent, traditional public, and charter schools. Dr. Bourgeois currently serves as an adjunct professor at UT Arlington teaching doctoral-level courses in qualitative research. Additionally, he teaches courses within the Classical Education Department of the Braniff Graduate School at the University of Dallas. Dr. Bourgeois has a record of publications in peer-reviewed educational journals and presentations at state, regional, national, and international conferences in the areas of student motivation and engagement, along with conceptual pieces on authentic engagement and intrinsic motivation.

Research by Dr. Bourgeois
Teaching as Entertainment: An Examination of Effects
High-achieving, cognitively disengaged middle level mathematics students
The indirect effects of school leadership on achievement
Praise in the elementary classroom: The teacher’s perspective
Contingent rewards in the elementary classroom: The teacher’s perspective
Intrinsic motivation and authentic engagement: A conceptual discussion
Motivation for academically gifted students in Germany and the US: A phenomenological study

Show Notes

Dr. Bourgeois, Adrienne, and Trae discuss potential solutions to cultivating motivation so students can develop true virtue. They discuss modern research and the effects of praise on student motivation. Some classical school have beautiful mission statements, but their practice does not necessarily align with the philosophical truths that encourages internal motivation. For true virtue formation, students and teachers need intrinsic motivation and this is a bit more complicated than most typical practices in schools today. 

Some practical questions in this episode include:

• Please define for our listeners the differences between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. What exactly is motivation and what role might it play in the life of a school? 
• Is it really the job of the teacher to motivate students? And at the Highschool level (Which is where we are working) is there any hope in saving the curious nature of the learner inside of them?
• How do we get away from an excessive assesment mentality? 
• Should we give prizes for reading? 
• What does Charlotte Mason say about motivation? 
• How can we encourage teachers today who want to transition to a more classical way of approaching student performance? 

These questions help us to wrestle with the idea that all education ought to be humane and focused on helping students with internal motivation. The expectations of parents, teachers, and boards on can hamper the experience of a truly classical educaiton.

Resources  and Quotes Mentioned In This Episode

Old School podcast Episode 25: On Motivation and Learning 

Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason quote: “the Desire of Knowledge (Curiosity) was the chief instrument of education; that this desire might be paralysed or made powerless like an unused limb by encouraging other desires to intervene between a child and the knowledge proper for him; the desire for place,––emulation; for prizes,––avarice; for power,––ambition; for praise,––vanity, might each be a stumbling block to him.... the delightfulness of knowledge is sufficient to carry a pupil joyfully and eagerly through his school life and that prizes and places, praise, blame and punishment, are unnecessary insofar as they are used to secure ardent interest and eager work. The love of knowledge is sufficient.”

Essay by Simone Weil (correct title was not stated on the podcast):
Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies With a View to the Love of God by Simone Weil 

“'Motivation' has become the bete noire of modern educators. How can the young be moved to learn? By rewards and promises of rewards? By such inducements the young will go through the motions of education, but they will remain unmoved. But how then? Why, by exposing them to the Muses, where no phenomenon is seen except under the aspect of wonder. Mistake me not: wonder is no sugary sentimentality but, rather, a mighty passion, a species of fear, an awe-full confrontation of the mystery of things. Through the Muses the fearful abyss of reality first calls out to that other abyss that is the human heart; and the wonder of its response is, as the philosophers have said, the beginning of philosophy not merely the first step; but the arche, the principle, as one is the principle of arithmetic and the fear of God the beginning of Wisdom. Thus wonder both starts education and sustains it."

- Dennis Quinn

_________________________________

Credits:

Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel

Logo Art: Anastasiya CF

Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo

© 2022 Beautiful Teaching. All Rights Reserved

About our Guest
Soren Schwab, M.Ed is a passionate educator with a decade of experience in K-12 education. Born and raised in Germany, Soren moved to the US in the late 2000’s to pursue his literature and theology studies. He earned a B.A. in English from Hillsdale College and an M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction from Colorado Christian University. For many years, Soren led the English Department at The Vanguard School, a classical charter school in Colorado Springs. He joined CLT in 2018 and currently serves as the Vice President of Partnerships. Soren and his wife Paula live in Annapolis, MD where they enjoy kayaking, hiking, and rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles.

CLT Resource: https://www.cltexam.com/

Show Notes

The Ethos, Pathos and Logos in Forming a New Model of Testing

Rather than teach to test, creating “testing fatigue”, the classical movement has ideas for making the content matter. Consider a new and helpful tool for Classical renewal.

 In this podcast, Soren Schwab discusses (CLT) Classical Learning Test, with Adrienne and Trae as they voice the many known questions and concerns about testing. Studies have proven that make the case for better content. There is a disconnect between evaluating a student’s achievement of test content, and a real aptitude by students who reason through a problem. Here, we explore something less exhausting than testing for days.

Some topics in this episode include:

• Here is a common question: How do we deal with tests? 
• How can content help change the outcome?
• Is it a popular need to look for learning gaps in students?
• Why not test prep?
• How do we address the big question about aptitude vs. achievement ?

Colleges and Universities that accept the CLT:
https://www.cltexam.com/colleges/

Books & Titles Mentioned In This Episode

Soren's favorite quote originally in German: "Tradition ist nicht das Halten der Asche, sondern das Weitergeben der Flamme" - ein berühmtes Zitat, geprägt von Thomas Morus (1478-1535).

The Gutav Mahler paraphrase "Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire."

_________________________________

Credits:

Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel

Logo Art: Anastasiya CF

Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo

 © 2022 Beautiful Teaching. All Rights Reserved

About our Guest

Gary Hartenburg holds a BA in Bible and theology from Moody Bible Institute, an MA in philosophy of religion and ethics from Biola University, and a PhD in philosophy from the University of California, Irvine. He is an associate professor or philosophy at Houston Baptist University, where he also serves as the director of the HBU Honors College, a liberal arts program for undergraduates to read, discuss, and write about great works of Western civilization. He resides with his family in the suburbs of Houston, Texas.

His most recent publication is Aristotle: Education for Virtue and Leisure published by Classical Adademic Press.

Show Notes

We invited Gary to discuss his new book. In keeping with one of our Classical Education podcast goals, "to inspire educators and parents to offer an education done well, influencing children to choose a life of virtue" Dr. Gary Hartenburg will inspire you! He explains that choices are not all equal in using time well and elaborates that to be ready and able to use time well, one must be “doing a lot of philosophy and music." 

He also explains the Aristotelian concept of “Phronesis” in contrast to “Sophia”, which is described as “practical vs theoretical.” To accomplish wisdom and theological contemplation, we must design an education that enables students to use their leisure time well. Reaching the highest end is philosophy and contemplation of the best things, with attention equally on all of the virtues of character. Each of four Aristotelian virtues: courage, moderation, justice, and wisdom must be equally considered in a classical education.  Students attain these virtue by "doing" and through the formation of good habits. 

Some topics in this episode include:

• How does leisure, as described by Aristotle, influence virtue?
• What is it to be happy and spend leisure time well?
• Will you explain phronesis and how it undergirds an Aristotelian Education?
• What would Aristotle say if he could speak through teachers to students?
• What do you think Aristotle would say about a common current approach to leisure and what would he say about the way we approach ethics in our schools?

Books & Titles Mentioned In This Episode

Aristotelian Education for Virtue and Leisure by Dr. Gary Hartenburg

Nichomachean Ethics by Aristotle

The Republic by Plato

_________________________________

Credits:

Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel

Logo Art: Anastasiya CF

Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo

 © 2022 Beautiful Teaching. All Rights Reserved

About our Guest

John W. Heitzenrater II has nearly 17 years teaching and administrative experience in classical schools. Mr. Heitzenrater began his career teaching history and humanities at the Lady Margaret Roper School and St. Peter’s Orthodox Classical School in Fort Worth, Texas. In 2015, he joined Responsive Education Solutions and served as a founding headmaster, Director of K-12 History, Regional Director under the superintendent, and most recently as headmaster of the second largest Responsive Ed school with a student enrollment of approximately 915 students.

Mr. Heitzenrater received his A.B. magna cum laude from the College of St. Thomas More where he studied literature, philosophy, theology, classical languages, and history. In graduate school he attended the University of Dallas where he received his Master of Humanities with a concentration in history in 2016. He brings a love for student excellence, a passion for classical education, and a quest for virtue, and wisdom to students and families. He and his wife Christina have 11 children, seven girls and four boys, many of whom attend Saint John Chrysostom Academy in Pennsylvania.

Show Notes

Trae and Adrienne interview John Heitzenrater, father of 11 and classical school headmaster on raising virtuous children. In this candid discussion, John shares his experiences and stories as a parent and headmaster. From discipline in a school to helping parents in the upbringing of virtuous children, this episode is rich with anecdotes and carries a spirit of humility throughout the show. John talks about the importance of headmasters partnering with parents regarding what is best for a child.  We have a moral responsibility to bring up children in virtue, and the principles in classical education dictate how we behave and treat other people. 

Some topics in this episode include:

•  “Having children is a matter of nature; but raising them and educating them in the virtues is a matter of mind and will. “ - St John Chyrsostom 
  • How has this quote shaped you as a headmaster?
• How are principles in classical education different from a progressive education?
• Creating a home that is working within the principles of a classical education
• How technology affects the hearts and minds of families

Books & Titles Mentioned In This Episode

St John Chrysostom: Vainglory and the Right Way for Parents to Bring Up Their Children

Ideas Have Consequences by Richard M. Weaver

Hold On To Your Kids Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by: Gordon Neufeld

_________________________________

Credits:

Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel

Logo Art: Anastasiya CF

Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo

 © 2022 Beautiful Teaching. All Rights Reserved

About our Guest
For more than 20 years, Carol was Associate Professor of Music History at the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Professor Carol Reynolds is a uniquely talented and much sought-after public speaker for arts venues and general audiences. She combines her insights on music history, arts, and culture with her passion for arts education to create programs and curricula, inspire concert audiences, and lead arts tours. Never dull or superficial, Carol brings to her audiences a unique mix of humor, substance, and skilled piano performance to make the arts more accessible and meaningful to all.

Carol has has teamed with Smithsonian Journeys for cruises to the Holy Land, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Baltic Sea, Indian Ocean, and across the Atlantic.

She now makes her home in North Carolina and maintains a second residence in Weimar, Germany — the home of Goethe, Schiller, Bach, and Liszt, and the focal point of much of Europe’s artistic heritage.

Show Notes
Dynamic resources will be found in this podcast. As you listen, you’ll hear about promising and natural ways to blend music into the lives of those you teach and with whom you surround yourself. The mind shift is that it is not about fitting it in, it’s about shaping affections with beauty. There are shared musical treasures that bring people together. What if your students discovered such delight, as when one little girl exclaimed, “Mommy look! All the songs are here in one place!”?

Some questions in this episode include:

• What should we be thinking about in Music Education?
• When we want to embrace Musical Education, can we first describe what the problem is?
• What does a robust music program look like in a Classical Education?

This talk will bring your own musical stories to mind, and inspire you to preserve the beauty of the rich and timeless songs. 

Books, Music, and Media Mentioned In This Episode

Resources by Carol:

The Circle of Scholars: by Professor Carol at professorcarol.com

Hymn Workshops and Webinars:by Professor Carol at professorcarol.com

Essay: "A Child’s Journey Into Sacred Music" by Carol Reynolds at Memoria Press: Memoriapress.com

Coming soon: Into the Spiritual by Carol Reynolds, a Hymn Workshop Webinar

List of Professor Carol’s Resources

______________________________

Father Bethel biography about John Senior 

Shiniche Suzuki writings 

In the Mood Frank Sinatra

Big Band Music

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Peter Pan Records

Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev

The Point by Harry Nilsson

Old Recordings with great orchestras and singers like Bing Crosby, Boris Karloff, Burl Ives

German Kinder songs

My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns

Hymnals and Devotional songs

Noise Pollution Carol Reynolds Weekly Digest email blog

Plato 

The Little Drummer Boy’s Bolero by Julie Giroux

Messiah by George Frederic Handel

American Folk Music and Christmas Songs

Folk Music from Ambleside Online Curriculum: Design Your Homeschool: amblesideonline.org

Hymns from Ambleside Online Curriculum: Design Your Homeschool: amblesideonline.org

Hillbilly music with Jimmie Rodgers and Ernest Tubb

The Met Opera 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Old Rugged Cross by George Bennard

The Entertainer by Scott Joplin

American Marches by John Philip Sousa

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn

Essays by C.S. Lewis

The Singing Revolution Documentary film history of Baltic Song Festival

My Musical Life by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

A Thousand Points for Children (1958) Find a similar collection of prose and poetry

_________________________________
Credits:
Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel
Logo Art: Anastasiya CF
Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo
 
© 2022 Beautiful Teaching. All Rights Reserved

Guest Biographies

Dr. Laura Eidt received her BA in English Literature and Linguistics from the University of Hamburg (Germany) and her MA and PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. She has been teaching in the Spanish, German, Comparative Literature, and Humanities Programs at the University of Dallas since 2006 and published on German and Spanish poetry, and on Ekphrasis. For many years she taught an applied foreign language pedagogy class that sent students to local area schools to teach their language to elementary children, and she was a mentor at a bilingual school in Dallas for four years. Her courses include classes on Foreign Language Pedagogy, Teaching Classical Children’s Literature, and Great Works in the Modern World. She is the faculty advisor for UD's Classical Curriculum team and is currently writing a Latin curriculum for K-5rd grade. 

Dr. Patrick M. Owens was born and raised in New York City where he graduated from Fordham University. In his pursuit of the Classical languages Dr. Owens moved to Montella, Italy to study at Vivarium Novum and then to Rome, where he earned his Ph.D. at the Salesian University. He has taught Latin, Greek, and Classical literature at the middle school, high school, and university levels. When he is not teaching, Dr. Owens continues his research on Latin literature and the history of Latin pedagogy. Additionally, he works as a consultant for schools developing curricula for Latin and Classical education. He and his wife Mallory, who is also an accomplished Latinist, raised two children in a bilingual home. 

Show Notes

Dr. Laura Eidt and Dr. Patrick M. Owens join Adrienne to discuss Latin. Both guests bring a wealth of information about classical education and teaching Latin.Their love for Latin is also contagious! This episode will not only give practical advice about incorporating Latin into your life, but the history of how to teach Latin is quite interesting.

Taking us back to antiquity and through the Renaissance, Dr. Eidt and Dr. Owens unfold the history of teaching Latin as a living experience. Classical education ought to be joyful and beautiful. The immersion approach for children is not common in most Latin programs on the market today. But the University of Dallas is launching a K-5 Storybook Latin approach that is great for both homeschoolers and classroom teachers who have little to no experience with Latin! 

Some questions in this episode include:

• What is classical education? 
• What can a parent do to help their child become interested in Latin (or Greek)
• What is the history of Latin education? 
• What is the tradition of the trivium and how is it different from the neoclassical trivium? 
• What is the role of Latin in the trivium, and what age ought a child begin learning Latin? 

Books Mentioned: 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Institutes of Oratory by Quintilian

Orbis Pictus by John Comenius

Didactica Magna (The Great Didactic), by John Amos Comenius

The Narnia series by C.S. Lewis

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Latin Resources for Adult Learning:

Hans H. Ørberg’s Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata: Familia Romana

Schola Latina

Vivarium Novum

Paideia Institute

Veterum Sapientia Institute (for Catholic Learning)

For more information on the University of Dallas’s K-5 Latin:

https://k12classical.udallas.edu/k-12-curriculum/k-5-latin-curriculum/ 

For consulting information from Dr. Patrick M. Owens:
Dr. Patrick M. Owens offers Classical education and Latin language consulting to K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. Dr. Owens works with educators who want to develop vibrant and successful academic programming through remote consulting or on-site professional development. He has worked with groups of every size from large State Universities to small homeschool coops.
You can reach him at: [email protected]

_________________________________

Credits:

Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel

Logo Art: Anastasiya CF

Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo

© 2022 Beautiful Teaching. All Rights Reserved

About our Guest

Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas. She is the author of numerous books, including The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints, published in 2022 by Brazos Press. Her book, Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov, received a 2018 Christianity Today Book of the Year Award in the Culture & the Arts.

Award-winning author Jessica Hooten Wilson explains that learning to hear the call of holiness requires cultivating a new imagination--one rooted in the act of reading. Learning to read with eyes attuned to the saints who populate great works of literature moves us toward holiness, where God opens up a way of living that extends far beyond what we can conjure for ourselves. Literature has the power to show us what a holy life looks like, and these depictions often scandalize even as they shape our imagination. As such, careful reading becomes a sort of countercultural spiritual discipline.

To hear about Jessica’s newest book, Scandal of Holiness, here is a recorded lecture at Union University. 

Show Notes

This lively and often deeply contemplative conversation with guest Jessica Hooten Wilson offers not only reasons for choosing Classical Education, but also simple and easy ways to support sanctity and truth in the joy of raising families. Here is support for the choices you make and how to replace that which infringes upon those choices.

Some questions in this episode include:

• What is education for? 
• Why is sainthood something that has captivated your imagination?
• Walk us through your blog essay: Awakening from Digital Slumbers 
• What does it mean to remember, and how do we embrace the importance of memory?
• How can the church help families?

Books & Titles Mentioned In This Episode

The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangrin, Jr.
Memento Mori by Muriel Spari
The Family & The New Totalitarianism by Michael D. O'Brien, Introduction by J.H. Wilson
The Diary of a Country Priest by George Bernanos
“Summer’s Harvest”  poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins
“Awakening from Digital Slumbers” (an online essay by Jessica)
Documentary: The Social Dilemma
Giving the Devil His Due: Flannery O’Connor and the Brothers Karamazov by: J.H. Wilson
The Scandal of Holiness, Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints by J.H.  Wilson
Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West, Co-Editor J.H. Wilson
Learning the Good Life from the Great Hearts and Minds that Came Before by J.H. Wilson
“Mike Teavee” poem  by Ronald Dahl
Books by Wendell Berry
“Allegory of the Cave” or “Plato’s Cave” by Plato
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (Jessica mentioned Well-Read Mom reading in May, 2022)

_________________________________
Credits:
Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel
Logo Art: Anastasiya CF
Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo
 
Copyright © 2022 Beautiful Teaching. All Rights Reserved

About our Guest

Joshua Gibbs is a teacher, a lecturer on pedagogy and great books, and the author of several books that are listed in the show notes. For the last twelve years, Gibbs has taught classic literature in Christian schools and earned acclaim for his writing. He has been a frequent speaker at several excellent classical conferences and published for many respectable classical education resources. His work can be explored on his website https://www.gibbsclassical.com/ 

We also encourage you to register for his 2022 Summer Conference.

Show Notes

Josh discusses how to engage students with voices from the past and how to shape their affections through delighting in common things.  He asks, "How do we teach a book so that a student wants to read it again?" As a teacher, it is our duty to step out of the way and let the author speak and pass on our delight in hearing voices from the past.  This is how we help students fall in love with books.  We want to instill a love for the right things. We need to capture the hearts of students so that they care. 

Some practical questions in this episode include:

• What are the goals of a classical teacher vs. a non-classical teacher?
• What types of goals ought we set and how do we go about teaching in a way that matches our goals?  
• How do we teach a book so that students will want to read it again? 
• How do we develop a taste for good things? 

These questions help us to wrestle with the idea that all education ought to be first and primarily about ordering our souls with love as the primary goal. If we set education goals too lofty or create goals that are too shallow, what are we telling our children? The goal of education is to help students care. Josh ascertains how a teacher can help students care about what they are learning. 

Books Mentioned In This Episode

Something They Will Not Forget by Joshua Gibbs

How to be Unlucky by Joshua Gibbs

Love What Lasts by Joshua Gibbs

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Demien by Hermann Hesse

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Iliad by Homer

Paradise Lost by Milton

The Divine Comedy by Dante

Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

Macbeth by Shakespeare

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Great Expectations by Dickens

_________________________________

Credits:

Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel

Logo Art: Anastasiya CF

Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo

Copyright © 2022 Beautiful Teaching. All Rights Reserved