William Byrd: Versatile Composer of the Renaissance

William Byrd was a celebrated English composer of the Renaissance. Haec Dies is a motet from Missale Romanum. Byrd studied music under Thomas Tallis, composed Catholic masses and Anglican church services. He fell in and out of favor though, living through chaotic political and religious times of Queen Elizabeth I, James I, and Henry VIII. In addition to religious compositions, Byrd also composed madrigals and Elizabethan dance music.

A motet is a musical piece in different part with words. The word motet comes from the Latin "movere", to move. Unlike medieval motets, Renaissance motets were polyphonic with imitative counterpoint.



Latin: Haec dies quam fecit Dominus: Exultemus et laetemur in ea. Alleluia.

English: This is the day that the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alleluia.

William Byrd biography

Early Christian Symbols - Chi-Rho and the Mosaics of San Vitale

For our son's Art History, we've been enjoying slowing working our way through Laurie Adams' A History of Western Art. It was in the chapter on Early Christian and Byzantine Art that discovered the beautiful mosaics of San Vitale.

In the picture at the left, the green shield is decorated with Constantine's Chi-Rho. Constantine was very important in the history of early Christianity because his Edict of Milan made it safe for Christians to open practice Christianity. A precise account of Constantine's relationship to Christianity is not known, but according to Eusebius, Constantine saw two visions before his battle with Maxentius. In one, the Cross appeared against a light with the words "In this sign you conque," while on the other, he was told to place Chi-Rho - the first two letters of Christ's Greek name on the shields of his soldiers. Eusebius also told of Constantine's baptism as a Christian.

For more views of the mosaics, check the following link: San Vitale Basilica.

For more, read here about Early Christian Symbols.The fish is an acrostic: in Latin fish is icthus; in Greek, Iota Chi Theta Upsiolon Sigma is an acrostic for Jesus Christ, of God, the Son, the Savior (Iesous Christos, Theou Uiou Soter). The drawing of two fish and an anchor (at right) was another early Christian symbol seen in an ancient Roman catacomb.





The two images above were taken from Dr. Ralph Wilson's Ichthus as Early Christian Symbols.

Latin Mnemonics, Flashcards, and the National Latin Exam

Here's a link to our Latin 1 Mnemonics Study Sheet My son and I found ourselves drowning in conjugation and declension rules, and though we had the chants memorized, we were confused about which chant was which. These are our own homespun mnemonics - Imperfect Bam Bam, Perfect Cousin It (from Adams Family), Future Little BO Peep and Ent (Lord of the Rings). The file is a pdf file, so you can only open it if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader. Other sites: Cornell Latin Mnemonics and for some entertaining Latin mnemonics songs (including downloadable music files) check out Julie Dyson Hejduk's Latin Study Materials site.

For flashcard practice, we usually use free cards at Flashcardexchange.com (search under Latin or Wheelocks) and Quia.com Both sites are have a free membership option, but require registration.

Our son will be taking the National Latin Exam in March, and the best all-around site we found for review is NLE KET Distance Learning. Previous exams (including answer keys) are posted at the National Latin Exam site.

Christmas Carols

"Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song." - Psalm 149: 1

This picture is from a medieval collection of Christmas Noels or carols from the 16th century.

Our daughter's school had their Christmas concert last week and we were treated to a marvelous concert of Puer Natus in Bethlehem, In Dulci Jubilo, and Psallite. It was a remarkable concert, all the more amazing because it is such a small school (150) and a school that originally grew from homeschooling families. Click here to listen to an excerpt. The string quartet was made up from the parents, but the singers were all 2nd-12th graders. It was beautiful.

This History of Christmas Carols site suggests that a Roman bishop in AD 129 was the first to advise that an Angel's Hymn be sung at a Christmas service. St. Francis of Assisi was credited for reviving Christmas songs when he included canticles in his nativity plays in 1223.

If you like to learn some of these old carols (especially wonderful if you are learning Latin together), you will love Choral Wiki. There is a treasure trove of free choral music (piano music included), MIDI files, and other resources to sing them at home.

Ever since we were married, we have watched a video of Lessons and Carols from Kings College every Christmas. On YouTube.com, we found an excerpt, Once in Royal David's City. Enjoy!

History of Music: Rounds and Canons

The oldest known found is Sumer is icumen in (Summer has come in) from the mid-13th century. The manuscript is written in Middle English and Latin (red ink), too, and it was written for several voices. One singer would begin, then the second singer would start when the first singer had reached the red cross (see below).



Here in the United States, children learn rounds through Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Frere Jacque, or Dona Nobis Pachem (Give Us Peace). Rounds are a great way to introduce singing in harmony to children. Here's a nice collection of rounds lyrics from Swarthmore. A shorter listing of rounds with short sound clips can be found here.

Rounds and canons both have repeating sequences of melody, but in canons, the repetitions can be complex, with backwards or upside down imitations, variations in the durations of sounds, and changes in pitch. In Pachelbel's Canon in D, repeated sequences are shown in different colors to make the pattern easier to see.



To listen to a brief excerpt, click here: Johann Pachelbel – Canon

Pachelbel's Canon has a remarkable history in recent history. It burst on the musical scene in the 1970's in relative obscurity, and then was played in countless versions and arrangements, and still enjoys a great deal of popularity among all age groups and musical traditions. One of the top ten watched videos at Youtube.com was of an apparently young baseball cap-wearing electrical guitarist playing a pretty incredible Canon in D variation here. It has been been viewed over 21 million times.

Round (music) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Canons and Rounds

The Classical Education of Queen Elizabeth I

As a child, Queen Elizabeth I was clever and verbally precocious. She received a language-rich classical education (Latin, Greek, French Italian), and also studied the Bible, ancient philosophers and history, and poets and orators. Roger Ascham said his aims of teaching were three: 1. to instill moral principles, 2. to provide an intellectual guard against adversity, and 3. to set an example for others to follow.

Elizabeth's palace-schooling routine was split into a morning and an afternoon session:

"The mornings were usually devoted to readings of the Greek New Testament, after which Ascham chose readings from the orations of Isocrates , the tragedies of Sophocles, and the works of Demosthenes to complete the lessons of the day.

Non‐scriptural readings were carefully selected by Ascham to instruct Elizabeth in areas that “would be of value to her to meet every contingency of life” (I lxiii). Furthermore, as Ascham notes, the texts chosen were of those “best adapted to supply her tongue with the purest diction, her mind with the most excellent precepts, and her exalted station with a defense against the utmost power of fortune”. Other works that Elizabeth is known to have studied include those texts by St. Cyprian and the Commonplaces of Melanchthon, Luther’s disciple. These would have influence the development of her religious concepts.

Elizabeth’s afternoons were devoted almost entirely to the reading and studying the entire repertoire of Cicero and a significant part of Livy...Additional study time was divided between French and Italian, which she spoke as well as she spoke English."

Elizabeth didn't just sit with her books, though. She was also an avid horseback rider, danced, hunted. Elizabeth's training held her in good stead for the challenges she faced with the Protestant-Catholic tensions and attack by the Spanish Armada. She inspired her country with the following words in 1588:

"My loving people, we have been persuaded by some, that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear; I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms: to which, rather than any dishonor should grow by me, I myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, by your forwardness, that you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you, on the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble and worthy subject; not doubting by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and by your valor in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over the enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people."

Ascham's The Scholemaster.
The Early Education of Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I portrait at PBS
Queen Elizabeth I's Speech Against the Spanish Armada

Really Learning Latin: Vocabulary, Grammar, Translation, and Wheelocks

When we first started learning Latin, we were delighted learn some ancient Roman or Biblical sayings, and delighted to see how quickly we could be up-and-running. But we hit the wall, and soon found what people meant when the said, "You can't REALLY learn Latin without learning the grammar."

For young children, "soft" Latin programs like Minimus, Latina Christiana, or Prima Latina are probably best, but if you think your student would like to some day continue on in Latin at college, then Latin grammar should be tackled as soon as it is developmentally possible.

An example: if a student has only learned vocabulary or famous phrases, she may be perplexed about how to translate a sentence like: Nauta magnam poêtae fâmam nôn laudat. Who's the subject and how do you figure out which noun is which?

Step 1: It's handy to know the most common word order for Latin Sentences:
Subject - subject's modifiers - Indirect Object - Direct Object - Adverbial Words or Phrases - and Verb.

Step 2: Look for the subject and the noun:
Nauta magnam poêtae fâmam nôn laudat.

Step 3: Look at the word endings - and figure out what function the different nouns are serving in the sentence.
Nauta magnAM poêtAE fâmAM nôn laudat.

The AM will tell me that it's fame that's the direct object (The sailor doesn't praise the reputation, not The sailor doesn't praise the poet), or accusative case. The same ending of magnam means it's paired with fâmam (so great reputation, not great poet), and the AE identifies poêtae as genitive (possessive) so it could be translated as "of the poet".

Final translation: The sailor does not praise the great reputation of the poet.

Now, I confess my son and I still run through the chant "a, ae, ae, am, a; ae arum, is, as, is) to jog our memories for the noun endings, but with more practice we wnat to be able see a word ending and know exactly what function (or possibility of functions) that word has in the sentence. Exact grammar terms have to be learned because it allows communicate precisely about word functions to others when questions arise.

There are many resources for Wheelock's Latin on the web. Before we advance to the next chapter, we first do the self check with drills at University of Houston Latin (Scroll down to the Course 1301 drills). Afterwards we can follow up with Dr J's Latin Grammar Explanations or check out Dale Grote's Latin Study Guide if we have any questions.

Additionl Resources for Latin Online Practice that you may find helpful:
University of Victoria Latin Exercises
Latin Wheelock Practice at Quia.com
Wheelocks Audio
Real Latin Inscriptions

Free Latin Books at Google Books

I've been enjoying browsing through Google Books now that more full-text books have been loaded to their site. For beginning Latin students, the Elementary Prose exercises can be fun practice or a useful place for finding quotes or phrases suitable for memory or copywork journals. By grouping short phrases under chapters such as comparisons, adjectives, verbs active or passive, this book can also help a child recognize common word groupings, a help for beginning translators.

For late beginner-intermediate students, the Latin Elegaic Verse book looked nifty- it has Latin elegies chosen for their ease of translating by relative beginners. The book includes "Verse Rules for Beginners" and hints for many of the poems for ways in which certain words could be translated.

Elementary Latin prose exercises - Google Books
Elementary Exercises in Latin Elegaic Verse

Technorati tags: classical education, Latin, classical homeschooling

Spring Equinox Tomorrow - March 20, 2007

Tomorrow is the Vernal Equinox, or "Equal Night" - or what many note as the first day of Spring. The days will start to get longer after this, and the nights shorter. Because the sun will pass directly over the equator, days and nights will be of equal length all over the world during equinoxes. The official date of Easter is designated as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

Spring Equinox
Introduction to Astronomy - Vernal Equinox

Classical Education Ideas: Rewriting Aesop

We've been enjoying Dorothy Maclaren's Esopus Hodie and using it both as a Latin reader and regular Language Arts. For each Aesop's fable, there's a poem version to read in English, then a Latin version in prose. An exact English translation is on the following page, as well as vocabulary and short questions which about the fable that a student can answer in Latin. For example, for The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg, here's the first stanza from the poem:

"A goose called Anserella
lived a happy, quiet life
in a nest by a brook,
and her master too
her eggs each day to his wife"

This is followed by: "Olim (Once upon a time) agricola prosperus anserum feminam possedit. Anserella Aesopius Aurifabra (a goldsmith) ab amici appellata est..." The poems, drawings, and the translations are funny and cute.

This has now become a fun Friday tradition with us; we leave the harder grammar Latin for other days. Because we've been studying different poetic forms (iamb, anapest, etc.), we've also taken it as an opportunity to write a poem in a specific style.

Here's our son's Goose poem:

There was a farmer of old
Who once found an egg of gold
Said the farmer, "Oh my!"
"How lucky am I!"
"I'm rich as the stars in the sky!"

He took the egg to his wife.
They'd be rich for the rest of their life-
She stopped him altho',
And spoke to him low
More than one will we need 'til we crow-

"Let's think a little bit more,"
"How can we increase our score?"
"One egg is not much..."
"A trifle as such..."
"'Twould be clever to fill a whole hutch!"

"I think a plan have I now..."
"A way to better endow..."
"Let's cut up the bird,"
"Without saying a word,"
"And we'll be richer than anyone's heard!"

The goose, poor soul, she was slain,
But the farmer saw to his pain,
No gold was inside
They moaned and they cried!
"'Twould been better if we'd never had tried!"

Stumped for a rhyme? Here's a neat free online Rhyming Dictionary. Rhymes are organized according to end rhymes, beginning rhymes, etc. Other useful links: AesopFables.com and a site for Aesop's Fables in Latin and English: BestLatin.net. Here's a site for Meter in Children's Poetry

We're going to be traveling for an Educators Conference in Pasco. We'll be back in the middle of next week, and post on Classical Education in the New Millennium, or why a Classical Education is a Ideal Preparation for a Flat World.

Technorati tags: Classical Education, homeschooling, lesson plans, Latin, poetry

Newbies: Choosing a Latin Curriculum

Because of the Internet, there are many, many options to learning Latin via independent study. YMMV (Your mileage may vary).

1. Simplest: Latin Appreciation- If the goal is Latin exposure or appreciation, then many playful and entertaining books like Minimus
or Secundus are available.

2. A Little More- The next very gentle step for Christian students might be Memoria Press books like Prima Latina or Latina Christiana. The positive side is that children are introduced to common Christian Latin sayings like Table Blessings, The Lord's Prayer, or famous lines from the Bible, but the down side is that grammar is de-emphasized, so that students will have to have a more intensive program to become fluent.

3. Serious Learning - Inductive- Good immersive or inductive Latin programs include Cambridge Latin or Ecce Romani. These books start students reading Latin very quickly, but as students progress through the book, they may become more puzzled by why words with the same meaning have so many different forms...it's because they weren't instructed about the rules of grammar in the first place. This weakness can be softened by the introduction of Latin grammar on the side (some done in the text), but for our 11 year old, the first 8 chapters of Ecce Romani was about all we could handle, we made a switch to Wheelock to learn the "bones" of the language in more straightforward teaching fashion.

Teacher and student workbooks can definitely enrich grammar learning through Ecce Romani, and there are free online resources to help you learn (we'll add in a later post) at Yahoo Groups, KET, and Quia.com. Cambridge Latin also has many fans; its site has many accessible exercises for practice, and it's even possible to have a Cambridge tutor (UK!) in a new distance learning program (here).

4. Serious Learning - Deductive- For those who think they or their students might pursue Latin for several years, a strong program that provides pronunciation may also be preferred. Because our daughter was preparing to enter a Latin school, we had a good start for her using a DVD series Latin Primer. The DVD really is just like sitting in an elementary school class, and both of our children picked up the chants for verb endings quickly; we did become discouraged, though when we found some errors in the materials, and when we found that the teacher was pronouncing some of words incorrectly.

Many Latin teachers and students debate whether pronunciation is important, but pronouncing it correctly will important for later Latin poetry and macron placement (the line over the long syllables).

Which brings us finally to Wheelock's Latin. We are using Wheelock's now for our 11 year old's study, and with it - the audio CDs for pronunciation, and the student workbook. When we first looked at it 6 months ago, it looked too dry to use. After being baffled by the different forms for words in Ecce Romani, it is now a sight for sore eyes! We also obtained access to the Teacher's site (including answers for the Text and Workbook) by emailing a request to: academic@harpercollins.com.

It's true that some of the lessons in Wheelock's are a little boring (even though the author tries to add a joke here or there), but we've also been enjoying Latin mottoes via Amo, Amas, Amat, and More, Aesop's Fables in Latin using Esopus Hodies, and Rufus Fear's fabulous Audio course Famous Romans, for history. Like the other major Latin programs, there are many resources to help Wheelock's learners - the main site here: WheelocksLatin.com, Dale Grote's Study Guide here, as well as support groups at Yahoo.

There are many more curricula, but these are the ones we're familiar with. A more extensive site with reviews is here

Why Study Latin?

Our family is whole-heartedly into Latin, and enjoying every minute of it. Are you still on the fence? Here are some of the potential benefits of a Latin-centered education.

English Understanding and Usage

Latin greatly enriches an English speakers understanding of his or her own language. 60% of English words are based on Latin derivations - so not only are students learning a foreign language, they are also extending their knowledge of their native tongue.

The process of learning Latin teaches students to look more carefully at word roots, similar and different spellings, and families of related words. What's more, linguistic learning through Latin builds a richness of word connotation, that can't be gained from memorizing SAT word lists.

Latin students also learn their language in association with vivid stories and myths, heroic poems, and historical events - so word learning is developed in all its richness of meaning.

Latin students must also learn the "bones" of language construction through its syntax and grammar. This also has a direct impact on helping students express themselves with writing and speaking. English grammar by itself may seem dry and purposelessness, but when coupled with Latin, it takes on a whole different level of importance.

Other Languages

Learning Latin in the early years will greatly ease the learning of Modern languages like Italian, French, or Spanish, because these Modern languages originated from Latin. It also give one a more flexible sense of how languages and cultures developed.

Effects on Development of the Mind

The process of a Latin learn extends beyond memorization because the language requires quite extensive analysis in addition to memorization. As a result, many beneficial cognitive skills come from learning Latin - task persistence, word and visual analysis, organization and sequencing, and flexibility in the application of knowledge. Small wonder that successful Latin students are highly valued for their intellects and ability to master complex new domains.

Our Latin Inheritance and Advantage

When Latin-educated students are compared to age peers, they outperform in the areas of verbal SAT (in 2002, all students: 504; Spanish: 581; Latin: 666), tests of mathematical problem solving, reading achievement, and vocabulary. A Latin-based education nurtures students in the origins of Western civilization and literature, philosophy, law and government, science, the arts and music, and as a result, students see their modern history and experience in the context of our past.

Aesthetics

Finally, from a purely aesthetic perspective, many people cherish the time they spent learning Latin because the beauty of the language, the possibility of reading the poems of Ovid or Virgil in their native language, and ancient writings in their original form. Beginners don't have to wait to become fluent speakers to enjoy the sounds and succinctness of beautifully turned phrases - there are many pithy Latin mottoes that are fun to learn for the whole family.

We've looked any many different curricula - and these may vary in their suitability depending on the a student's learning styles or preferences. We'll post our reviews in follow-up post.

Why Study Latin?
Latin Makes a Comeback
The Latin Advantage
Lost Tools of Learning
Latin Maxims
Amo, Amas, Amat, and More


Technorati tags: Latin, Foreign Language, Classical education, homeschooling, education, classics

The Aims of Education

I've been enjoying reading Alfred North Whitehead's The Aims of Education (1949), and impressed by its implications today. He had a developmental view of education, and suggested that student instruction change fundamentally at different ages.

Whitehead: "I call the first period of freedom the "stage of Romance," the intermediate period of discipline I call the "stage of Precision," and final period of freedom is the "stage of Generalization."

The Romantic Stage: "...in the stage of romance the emphasis must always be on freedom, to allow the child to see for itself and to act for itself...Without the adventure of romance, at best you get inert knowledge without initiative, and at worst you get contempt of ideas--without knowledge."

The Stage of Precision: Romance should not be dead in the age of precision, but now as students enter their teen years, precise knowledge should become more the emphasis. "...to be effective in the modern world, you must have a store of definite acquirement of the best practice. To write poetry you must study metre; and to build bridges you must be learned in the strength of material...I am certain that one secret of a successful teacher is that he has formulated quite clearly in his mind what the pupil has got to know in precise fashion. He will then cease from half-hearted attempts of inferior importance. The secret of success is pace, and the secret of pace is concentration. But, in respect to precise knowledge, the watchword is pace, pace,pace. Get your knowledge quickly, and then use it. If you can use it you will retain it."

The Stage of Generalization: "There is here a reaction towards romance. Something definite is now known; aptitudes have been acquired, and general rules and laws are clearly apprehended both in their formulation and detailed exemplification. The pupil now wants to use his new weapons. He is an effective individual, and it is effects that he wants to produce. He relapses into the discursive adventures of the romantic stage, with the advantage that his mind is now a disciplined regiment instad of a rabble. In this sense, education should begin in research and end in research...The stage of generalization is the stage of sheddingdetails in favour of the active application of principles."

Whitehead raises some excellent points.

1. Romance should be an essential ingredient to education, but it should not be its sole ingredient. Students who fail to learn intellectual precision in their thinking and habits of learning and analysis, will exclude themselves from many disciplines and activities that require high-level competency and funds of knowledge. Precision is acquired by essential knowledge, challenging analytical work, mathematical or scientific problem solving, writing to a high standard (redrafting), high-level musical training, and subjects such as logic, computer programming, or Latin.

2. The stage of generalization is usually woefully ignored in the conventional educational process, although it is an critical feature and impelling force for virtually all higher-order intellectual and creative work. BTW, Whitehead mourned the state of affairs at his own institutions: "In my own work at universities I have been much struck by the paralysis of thought induced in pupils by the aimless accumulation of precise knowledge..."

3. We should be wary of standardized tests and their resulting effects on classroom culture if they clash with normal developmental shifts in the emphases of learning or the ultimate aims of education at that time.

Whitehead's model may fit in well with many K-12 classical education (trivium) and liberal arts programs like the International Baccalaureate, but it's a good reminder all the same. When students can cram lots of facts into their heads, the temptation is to give them more. But that is why Whitehead was so vehement about careful pacing of the schoolwork at this stage. Multum non Multa (Not many things, but much). Students at this age need to be allowed time to reflect and critique knowledge, then deeply consider where applications and intersections of ideas exist.

The Aims of Education and Other Essays (Alfred North Whitehead)

Technorati tags: education, liberal arts, philosophy, classical learning, mathematics problem solving, gifted, homeschooling

The Lost Tools of Learning

We recently discovered Dorothy Sayers' wonderful essay, The Lost Tools of Learning. I had also read Tracy Lee Simmons' Climbing Parnassus earlier in the winter, and it stimulated many reflections about what today's our students are missing in their educational years.

Although her indictments were for another generation, the charges are even heavier for the present times.

Excerpt: "...although we often succeed in teaching our pupils "subjects," we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think: they learn everything, except the art of learning."

Some targets on Ms. Sayers' radar -

1. Failure to rigorously teach an understanding of language - including its structure and critical analysis, and its use in reasoning and persuasion.
2. The importance of a developmental education - or different strokes for different folks - (is there any reason that conventional U.S. education neglects dialectical thinking?)
3. The virtues of memorizing great literature and poetry
4. The importance of teaching logic and argumentation
5. The importance of giving rhetorical age (high school) learners the opportunity to extrapolate their knowledge in different contexts and discover where their knowledge ends.

Ms. Sayers again: "I am concerned only with the proper training of the mind to encounter and deal with the formidable mass of undigested problems presented to it by the modern world. For the tools of learning are the same, in any and every subject; and the person who knows how to use them will, at any age, get the mastery of a new subject in half the time and with a quarter of the effort expended by the person who has not the tools at his command. To learn six subjects without remembering how they were learnt does nothing to ease the approach to a seventh; to have learnt and remembered the art of learning makes the approach to every subject an open door."

Here in the States, education by committee often means that the educational product agreed upon by multiple tiers of evaluators and experts is a patchwork compromise package. It may be that no one person completely likes the end product, but that it represents the least worst option.

What Sayers argues for is an emphasis on the processes of critical reasoning and learning. It is not rote vs. creative learning, but rather a model that values both. The classical educational model that she defends seems antithetical to the "express yourself" approach to learning that puts heavy emphasis on personal opinion and expression without critique the validity or process by which conclusions were arrived. The beauty of the well-tooled mind is that it can apply itself to any new situation or subject because it knows how to think and learn about anything. Essential prep for thriving in the new millennium.

The Lost Tools of Learning

Technorati Tags: classical education, education, school, critical thinking, educational philosophy, logic, flat world, liberal arts, knowledge, teaching, creativity, parenting, gifted