A glimpse inside Hillsdale College's network of classical schools across the country.
Every educational model flows from some idea of what it means to be human. Even if such a philosophical worldview is never made explicit or even consciously considered, it is still at work in all practical education, since educators can only profess to improve their students if they have some sense of what those students… Continue reading Minds and Hearts
Prior to working as a teacher at a Hillsdale College-affiliated BCSI school, I held several different jobs in traditional public education. Working with students from Pre-K through 12th grade, I served as an ESL paraprofessional, library aide, and preschool recess monitor, among other roles. I had the privilege to observe many experienced, compassionate educators and… Continue reading Prior to working as a teacher at a Hillsdale College K-12 school…
At Seven Oaks Classical School, we've had our two winter concerts and, even though I've been planning this music since April, I finally saw a theme peeking through. It's a theme that frequently pops up in classic winter songs, including one we sang recently: Lo, how a rose e'er blooming / From tender stem hath… Continue reading Spring is Coming
"The beginning is thought to be more than half of the whole."- Aristotle We often advertise classical education as an education for the whole human person. We are not training people for careers, we say, but minds for Wisdom; we aim not to improve skill sets so much as we aim to improve the human… Continue reading The First Step toward Wisdom
Self portrait, by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1790). The most frequent piece of advice I have given students over the years is to slow down on art assignments. It is very easy to become impatient in the studio and want to skip steps or move forward prematurely. Admittedly, I am guilty of often becoming… Continue reading Quality Over Quantity
When I was gathering school supplies in my classroom as a first-year teacher, I had no idea how important the humble ruler would be. Of course it would be used when we learned about inches and centimeters, or even serve as a ramp when we studied motion and force in science. But I didn’t think… Continue reading Drawing the Ruler Sword
Petrarch, the fourteenth century Italian monk, sometimes referred to as the “father of humanism”, famously wrote a series of letters to classical writers such as Cicero, Seneca, Homer, and Socrates. These writers having been dead for more than a thousand years at the time, Petrarch didn't expect a response. But he wrote nevertheless because he… Continue reading Why Our Students Write in their Books
One of my favorite features of the Hillsdale College-affliated schools is that there is an equal focus on teachers educating both the minds and the hearts of their students. The curriculum we teach is ripe with opportunities to discuss virtue and how the choices of different people affect their lives and the lives of those… Continue reading Lancelot Plays Football
Movies can be so captivating. They take us on a journey through events, lives, struggles, and victories. For me, I am particularly drawn in when the movie ends and right before the credits, I see the words based on a true story. When the movie is based on real events, I relate more to the… Continue reading “Based on a True Story”
Instead of helping us to deepen ourselves and take a mature and complex view of the past, history is increasingly employed as a simple bludgeon, which picks its targets mechanically—often based on little more than a popular cliché—and strikes.
The Classical Classroom 