Tag Archives: liberal education

Aristotle, meet Paul. . . .

On Thursday, March 7, 2019, I reached a personal milestone: I finished reading the works of Aristotle. I read them mostly from the 2 volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World that contain his works: volumes 8 … Continue reading

Posted in book reviews, thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Paideia Proposal by Mortimer J. Adler: learning to be citizens

The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto by Mortimer J. Adler My rating: 5 of 5 stars This short manifesto gives a cogent overview of what public schooling should be setting out to achieve, the rationale for doing so, and how … Continue reading

Posted in book reviews | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

hey! teachers! leave them kids alone!

Ideas matter. I suspect that behind every human conflict or disagreement there is an idea—or more than one idea—at stake, and that in most cases the parties concerned are unaware of it. This means that we argue at cross-purposes, never … Continue reading

Posted in thoughts | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

my liberal-education report card

In my last post I reviewed the reasons that I think liberal education is so important. Since I’m trying to acquire a liberal education through my own self-study program, a natural question is, what is my own progress? Without a … Continue reading

Posted in thoughts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

why liberal education, again?

Why do I feel that a specifically liberal education is so important? I see it this way. People are different. While we all belong to the same species, we have different backgrounds, characters, interests, and aims. Sometimes these aims come … Continue reading

Posted in thoughts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Trivium by Sister Miriam Joseph

The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric by Miriam Joseph My rating: 5 of 5 stars This dense, authoritative textbook takes all of Aristotle’s teachings on logic, grammar, and rhetoric, and some of his teachings of poetics, … Continue reading

Posted in book reviews | Tagged , | 3 Comments

where does the time go? I’ll tell you

We’ve all heard—and used—the excuse, “I would’ve done x, but I didn’t have time.” Indeed, I was tempted to trot this one out to explain the infrequency of my blog posts. But I don’t believe in that excuse. I think … Continue reading

Posted in thoughts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Edward P. J. Corbett

Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Edward P. J. Corbett My rating: 5 of 5 stars This college textbook, first published in 1965, is much more than a mere aid for students trying to learn how to come up … Continue reading

Posted in book reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

learning rhetoric the old-fashioned way

My daily reading period starts at about 4 p.m. and runs to dinnertime at 7 p.m. (gosh, I just checked the spelling of dinnertime as a closed-up word and found that it dates back to the 14th century), with a break of … Continue reading

Posted in thoughts | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

On Rhetoric by Aristotle

On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse by Aristotle My rating: 4 of 5 stars Not Aristotle’s clearest or best organized work, but still part of the core curriculum of a liberal education. Why read Aristotle today? Because he is … Continue reading

Posted in book reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment