Digressio: Inherit the Humanities

Rusty Olps tells us about the lesser-known roots of the modern school system, and the affects of incidentals like age-based placement and  5-day a week attendance.

INTRO:
The Jubilee School
Lewis Clark Christian School
Kepler Education

OUTLINE:
1. The Prussian Model of Education
2. Horace Mann's Report of an Educational Tour, 1844
3. Incidentals of the Modern School
4. Diversity of learners, age-based grades, achievement-based advancement, 3-day model
5. The flipped classroom model
6. The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined - Salman Kahn
7. Homeschooling, Jubilee, and Kepler
8. How parents can help improve their 5-day schools

FURTHER READING:
The German Conspiracy in American Education - Gustavus Ohlinger 1919
Prussia and the German System of Education - Arthur Bott
The Myth of the Common School - Charles Leslie Glenn Jr.
John Taylor Gatto
Disrupting Class
Deschooling Society- Ivan Illich
So You Want to Start a School? - Brian Daigle

Dr. Mitch Stokes tells us about his journey from engineering to philosophy and why those disciplines should be much more integrated than they typically are in the classroom and the lab.

1. How To Be An Atheist - Why Most Skeptics Aren’t Skeptical Enough
2. A Shot of Faith to the Head - Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists
3. Galileo
4. Mitch's journey from STEM to philosophy
5. How did science and math influence philosophy?
6. What Does Jesus Have to Do with STEM? - Digressio Magazine
7. Is calculus important?
8. Why calculus is important for STEM people
9. Why calculus is important for humanities people
10. Calculus for Everyone? - Digressio Magazine
11. Practical tips for the school administrator and homeschooling parent
12. Calculus for Everyone - Roman Roads Store

Questions and Suggestions Form

In this episode "about" Homer's Iliad, we get to enjoy the entirety of Book 1, "The Rage of Achilles" from Wes Callihan's personal rendering of the Iliad.

1. "About" the great books vs. "Through" the great books
2. Roman Roads' 2019 Iliad Read Aloud Livestream
3. Conclusion

Questions and Suggestions Form

In this episode we explore how to approach the great books as Christians, Enlightenment prejudices, and oft-forgotten Medieval classics through the very first lecture of the Old Western Culture course.

Ep 4 - OWC Inaugural Lecture

1. Old Western Culture Year 1 - The Greeks
2. What do the great books do for us?
3. A Christian approach to the great books
4. “The clean sea breeze of the centuries”
5. Christianity vs. syncretism; a confessional approach
6. Enlightenment prejudice in great books collections
7. The Consolation of Philosophy
8. Rule of Benedict
9. Anselm’s Theology
10. The Golden Legend
11. Geoffrey of Monmouth
12. Old Western Culture Year 3 - Christendom
13. The complete Christian classics reading list
14. Ancient Christians are our people
15. Conclusion

Questions and Suggestions Form

What is classical education? Is it a way of teaching (pedagogy) or is it the topics covered (subject)? We explore Daniel's answer and see how it dovetails with sharing the Gospel.

Ep 3 - Classical Education as Inheriting the Humanities

1. What is classical education? Pedagogy vs. Subject
2. The inheritance of the West
3. “The Humanities”: an integrated approach to many subjects, Calculus For Everyone
4. An inheritance for who?
5. Americans’ Roman worldview
6. Different cultural understandings of the Gospel: guilt vs. innocence, shame vs. honor, confidence vs. fear
7. Studying the humanities shows us who we are
8. Why read pagans as Christians? Fitting Words
9. Superficially Christian education
10. Western inheritance: the weird uncle
11. Conclusion

Questions and Suggestions Form

Everybody knows Narnia, but fewer have ventured into C.S. Lewis's science fiction series, wrongly called "The Space Trilogy". Teacher, author, and Lewis scholar, Christiana Hale shares her knowledge of Lewis, the Discarded Image, and the deeper meaning behind the trilogy.

Ep 2 - Deeper Heaven & Lewis’ Ransom Trilogy

1. Deeper Heaven
2. Silent Planet, Perelandra, Hideous Strength
3. Foreword from Douglas Wilson
4. Christiana’s introduction to Lewis
5. Why does the Ransom Trilogy need a reader’s guide?
6. Why Lewis wrote the Ransom Trilogy
7. Copernican vs. Ptolemaic universes & medieval cosmology
8. The cosmos & story arc of the ransom trilogy
9. The influence of the planets & astrology
10. The Discarded Image in the Trilogy
11. “Donegality” in Ransom Trilogy & Narnia (Planet Narnia + The Narnia Code)
12. Deeper Heaven’s audience & outline
13. Christiana’s “Recovering the Discarded Image” from Digressio Magazine 2019
14. Why is That Hideous Strength so different from the first two?
15. Abolition of Man , education, and enlightenment rationalism
16. Conclusion

Questions and Suggestions Form

In this pilot episode we explore the mission and curricula of Roman Roads Press.

Ep 1 - What is Roman Roads?

1.  What is Roman Roads?
2. Great Books Reading Challenge
3. The “Old Western Culture” course 
4. De Descriptione Temporum
5. Why is it called “Roman Roads”?
6. RR curricula: Calculus For Everyone, Picta Dicta, Grammar of Poetry
7. “Fitting Words” and the art of Rhetoric
8. Conclusion

Questions and Suggestions Form