Winter 2018 In the early 1990's, the "good life" found Peter Baur working as an admissions officer at his alma mater, the 150-year-old, top-rated preparatory school in the state of Pennsylvania. His institution was among the elite power-schools that broker entrance...
A note from Mr. Hopkins: We will gladly donate a boat and oars to the next ACCS school that wants to get into rowing. It won’t be the prettiest shell out there, but it will be sound and a good foundation for a start-up team. [email protected] AUGUSTINE CLASSICAL...
Good Morning America | Scoring Matrix & Team Roster | Battle Cry | Competition Timeline Mock trial is a good fit for classically trained students as it combines knowledge, logic, and rhetoric, the very framework of classical education. -- Jason Whatley Being...
In Charles Dickens’ 1861 book Great Expectations, Pip is a young orphan with no prospects—and no one expects much of him. An anonymous gift of wealth comes his way, and things change. He is expected to become a gentleman. In this simple synopsis, we catch a glimpse of...
By Megan Best An answer from an alumna turned teacher My enthusiasm for classical Christian education stems from my belief that it inspires an affectionate relationship with truth, empathy, and wisdom (among a whole host of other virtues). John Ruskin,...
By Emily Dewind “Attention ladies and gentlemen. Because of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, an international day of fasting is taking place today. Eating and drinking of any kind will not be permitted in public. Thank you.” This was the cheerful announcement made...
By KATHARINE SAVAGE Where I live, mention the Great Books or the Western tradition, and you are likely given a polite sneer, at best. At worst, you’ll hear the all too familiar string of adjectives: “racist,” “post-colonial,” “bigoted.” And this is a real conundrum...
Men are not Angels Thomas Hobbes, describing a condition without government called the “state of nature,” said that the life of man without authority is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Human beings are naturally ambitious, greedy, interested in their own...
In the year 410 AD, a new “order” for governing nations emerged, not from a king, but from a theologian. His idea remained with us into the twentieth century. Its slow loss threatens our freedom in the twenty-first. The sacking of Rome by Aleric the Visigoth inspired...
By JARROD RICHEY The year was 1824 when then 15-year-old Felix Mendelssohn was given by his grandmother a copy of the score of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Little did he know that five years later that same gift would introduce a more lasting global...
"EVERYONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS OWN FAITH, AND HE MUST SEE TO IT FOR HIMSELF THAT HE BELIEVES RIGHTLY.” --Martin Luther Literacy in the West From the start of the reformation in 1519, literacy rates across the West skyrocketed. See the interactive literacy rate chart...
By ANTHONY M. ESOLEN The first time I visited the Sistine Chapel, I didn’t know much about Christian painting. I did know a lot about the faith, though now I see that I was just starting on that journey. I remember there were crowded lines down the stairs, and...
By DR. BRIAN A. WILLIAMS “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? … For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and...
By LOUIS MARKOS Plato's Idea of Standards “Behold,” wrote the ancient Greek philosopher Plato some 2400 years ago, “we are deceived about the very nature of the world in which we live. We are like men who have been imprisoned since birth in the deep belly of a cave....
In my years as a headmaster, I had hopes of making every child understand the ideas of the West, and live out the good, the true, and the beautiful ones. Some did. But others did not. Looking back, more than any idea we taught, the family made all the difference....
Shown above: Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine, accompanied by the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325), holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. Required memory work at many classical Christian schools, this statement of faith was...
