The Classical Teacher Parent Edition - Winter 2018

Saving Western civilization one student at a time.

Winter 2018

The Critical Thinking Skills Hoax

by Martin Cothran Alma Mater

by Leigh Lowe

LEARNING This issue is dedicated to the memory of Cheryl Lowe, founder of Highlands Latin School and Memoria Press.

(1945-2017)

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

LIVING STATUES

by Martin Cothran

G

od blesses some of us with vision and with lives of clear purpose and meaning—and to some of us he adds the time and opportunity to accomplish what we have been given to do. The life of Cheryl Lowe, Publisher at Memoria Press and Headmistress of Highlands Latin School, was this kind of life.

Mrs. Lowe grew up just outside of Louisville, Kentucky, attended the university there, and became a science teacher.

She disliked what education was becoming and decided to homeschool her two sons at a time when homeschooling was still in its infancy.

After reading about classical education, she decided she wanted to teach them Latin, but at that time there was no program to teach it to young children. So she wrote a program called Latina Christiana, which she later began selling to other homeschool parents. She bound it herself in her garage.

I met Cheryl in the early 1990s, when both of us were involved in an intense public debate over a statewide education reform of Kentucky schools.

She wrote four articles in a newsletter published by a small group of mothers concerned about their children's education. The articles were written in simple and direct prose, and they explained precisely and eloquently what was wrong with the revolutionary school reform law our state had passed, a law that proposed to reform schools by implementing many of the same fads and gimmicks which had been a part of previous reforms.

To this day, most of what I know about education I learned from those four articles.

By 1998, when I joined Cheryl as the first employee of Memoria Press, her Latin book was selling in the thousands by word of mouth. We had two computers and we worked in the attic over her garage.

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Letter from the Editor

Cheryl had two major goals: She wanted to start a classical Christian school, and she wanted to establish a publishing company to provide private schools and homeschools with the tools to accomplish what to some people seemed impossible.

Her school began by meeting one day a week at a local church. As the school expanded, it moved to a larger church, and then later added its Spring Meadows campus.

Highlands Latin School now serves over 600 students from K-12th grades.

Memoria Press now publishes the school's curriculum, a curriculum which Cheryl conceived and designed, and which is used in home and private schools across the nation and the world.

Her family, friends, and co-workers knew her as a wise and far-seeing visionary, as well as a simple, down-to-earth mother and teacher. In a better age, there would be statues erected to such a person. And yet, in her case, such statues would be superfluous.

In C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, a world is under an evil enchantment, and many of its inhabitants have been turned to stone. The story is about the redemption of this world, and the giving of life to lifeless statues.

There are now thousands of students who have graduated from the school Cheryl founded and from the many schools and homeschools that were influenced by her work. These students are living statues—testimonies to the dedication and hard work of one homeschooling mother with a clear vision and a singular purpose.

We will miss her.

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Winter 2018

FEATURED ARTICLES

Letter from the Editor by Martin Cothran...................................................... 2 Which Latin Program Do I Start With? by Paul Schaeffer............................ 4 Is Religion Irrational? by Martin Cothran........................................................ 6 The Critical Thinking Skills Hoax by Martin Cothran..................................... 8 Alma Mater: The Life of Cheryl Lowe by Leigh Lowe................................ 10 Greater Even Than Rome by Cheryl Lowe.................................................. 13 Memoria, Memoriae by Cheryl Swope........................................................ 14 How We Get There Is Where We'll Arrive by David M. Wright..................... 16 A Night at the Museum (With Your Kids) by Carol Reynolds..................... 18 Sowing the Seeds of Learning by Jessica Phillips......................................... 20

© Copyright 2018 (all rights reserved) Publisher | Memoria Press Editor | Martin Cothran Assistant Editor | Dayna Grant

Managing Editor | Tanya Charlton Copy Editor | Jennifer Farrior Graphic Designers | Aileen Delgado & Jessica Osborne

MEMORIA PRESS MemoriaPress.com

ONLINE ACADEMY MemoriaPressAcademy.com

LATIN

WHICH LATIN PROGRAM DO I START WITH?

by Paul Schaeffer

M

any parents and teachers ask how Memoria Press' Latin programs relate to each other.

When do I start? In what order should I use them? What if I start late? Let's look at each individual program in order.

grammar concepts, the vocabulary, and the hymns, Prima Latina will take about twenty minutes a day.

LATINA CHRISTIANA

Latina Christiana is another introductory program, but geared towards a slightly older student: third PRIMA LATINA through fifth grades.

Prima Latina is the ideal beginner program. It is a While it does not cover the parts of speech in a simple course of study, consisting of an English structured way like Prima, it builds on the language lesson, five Latin vocabulary grammar knowledge a third grader should words, derivatives, and a line of an already have (whether by having ancient hymn or prayer to memorize studied Prima or another grammar each week.

While both Prima program). It asks questions such as, Prima Latina can be started “In English, how many words are Latina and Latina in second grade with a fluent needed for a sentence?" (two: a reader but would be appropriate Christiana could be noun and a verb) even up until fourth grade.

Latina Christiana teaches ten skipped by an older Since it is an introductory vocabulary words, along with program, it can be skipped if the student, no one can their derivatives, each week and a student is older. new grammar form (a declension or skip First Form.

One of the indispensable conjugation) every couple of weeks. benefits of Prima Latina is that A deep understanding of usage is it systematically covers the parts not yet required. The student masters the of speech, and so it doubles as your forms of a declension, but usage is introduced grammar program for the year. There are at a very basic level.

Simple sentences (subject and verb) no translation exercises because the young child are translated, but direct and indirect objects are avoided is not developmentally ready for the abstract skills to enable the student to master the usage that is taught. translation requires. To effectively master the 4

Which Latin Program Do I Start With?

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FIRST FORM LATIN SERIES

In First Form Latin a student’s Latin studies really take off. While both Prima Latina and Latina Christiana could be skipped by an older student (fifth grade and up), no one can skip First Form. The prior two programs build a nice base of vocabulary and grammar that makes it easier for the student of First Form to get off to a good start; however, the content of those books is not assumed, and so even a student who has had no Latin can begin here.

First Form Latin utilizes a student text and a student workbook. The text presents the material to the student: a grammar form (a declension or tense of a conjugation), basic usage of that form, a Latin saying, and no more than ten vocabulary words. The scripted teacher manual provides help for the amateur teacher. The workbook gives anywhere from four to six pages of written exercises for each lesson to ensure mastery. There are flashcards available for help learning vocabulary, and instructional DVDs in case the child needs a master teacher to explain the lesson to him.

First Form helps students hone sentence translation.

The program does not require the student to master advanced translation. While most fourth, fifth, or sixth graders are ready to parse (that is, identify the attributes of a particular word), they are not ready to deal with the abstract complexities of relating those attributes to one another to form a complex translation.

First, Second, Third, and Fourth Form build on one another. The grammar and vocabulary from each previous level are reviewed in the subsequent level before more new content is presented. Students will

begin to deal with difficulties like the passive voice in Second Form, the subjunctive in Third Form, and participles, gerunds, and gerundives in Fourth Form.

The translation in the Forms Series gradually gets more difficult. In First Form, the sentences are very simple. Over time they get more and more complex until in the Unit Reviews in Fourth Form, students translate portions of St. Patrick’s autobiography. Many adults want to see their children translating as soon as possible, but the children's familiarity with translation by the seventh grade (the earliest we would recommend Fourth Form) will show the wisdom of the more grammatical approach.

THE HENLE SERIES

The Henle series is a high-school level program that was written in an age when students were expected to have been exposed to Latin in elementary and middle school. As such, it covers in the First Year text what the Forms Series takes four years to cover and introduces translation at a much quicker pace.

Because Fourth Form Latin utilizes the Henle Year One text for a good amount of the exercises required of the student, a student who has completed Fourth Form can jump straight into the Henle Year Two book.

A student entering ninth grade who has not done any Latin, however, could go straight into the Henle Year One text and take two years to complete it (our Henle Year One Units 1-5 and Units 6-14 Guides are a tremendous help in doing this). They would follow these two years with Henle Year Two and Mueller’s Caesar to complete four years of high school Latin.

PROGRESSION

2

BEGINNING IN GRADE

3 4

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

PL

LC

LC

FF

SF

TF

4F

HY2

Muell

HY3

AP

PL

LC

FF

SF

TF

4F

HY2

Muell

HY3

AP

LC

FF

SF

TF

4F

HY2

Muell

HY3

AP

FF

SF

TF

4F

HY2

Muell

HY3

AP

FF

SF

TF

4F

HY2

Muell

HY3 or AP

FF

SF

TF

4F

HY2

Muell

FF

SF

TF

4F

HY2*

HY1

HY1

HY2

Muell

HY1

HY1

HY2

HY1

HY1

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

PL = Prima Latina LC = Latina Christiana FF = First Form SF = Second Form TF = Third Form 4F = Fourth Form HY1 = Henle Year One HY2 = Henle Year Two HY3 = Henle Year Three Muell = Mueller's Caesar AP = AP Latin: Caesar & Virgil

HY1

* Henle Second Year can be done according to our plans, or for an older student you can modify to do more translation in that year. An older student can accelerate the pace suggested above by enrolling in the Memoria Press Online Academy.

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Which Latin Program Do I Start With?

5

LOGIC

IS RELIGION IRRATIONAL?

by Martin Cothran

O

ne of the most common modern beliefs is that science is rational while religion is not. This dogma has been asserted again and again, most loudly by atheist thinkers.

I say "asserted" rather than "argued" because, like most dogmas, it is never actually argued for, only assumed. It is simply repeated, again and again, almost as if it were an incantation.

One scientist puts it this way: Science and faith are fundamentally incompatible, and for precisely the same reason that irrationality and rationality are incompatible. They are different forms of inquiry, with only one, science, equipped to find real truth.

This is just one example of many similar statements of this belief, this one from atheist biologist Jerry Coyne.

It is just another form of the scientistic creed: Credo in scientiam omnipotentem: "I believe in all-powerful science."

Coyne has invoked something he calls "secular reason." No one is exactly sure what this "secular reason" is, but it apparently includes, as he states in a New Republic article, "science, but also embraces moral and political philosophy, mathematics, logic, history, journalism, and social science—every area that requires us to have good reasons for what we believe."

All of the disciplines he cites employ intellectual tools that have analogs in science: Mathematics and 6

Is Religion Irrational?

logic employ formal reasoning skills; history and journalism involve empirical investigation; the social sciences employ research in coming to their findings.

They are all broadly "scientific" in this sense.

But why does Coyne exclude religion from this list? In his New Republic article, he says: It would appear, then, that one cannot be coherently religious and scientific at the same time. That alleged synthesis requires that with one part of your brain you accept only those things that are tested and supported by agreed-upon evidence, logic, and reason, while with the other part of your brain you accept things that are unsupportable or even falsified. In other words, the price of philosophical harmony is cognitive dissonance.

Accepting both science and conventional faith leaves you with a double standard: rational on the origin of blood clotting, irrational on the Resurrection; rational on dinosaurs, irrational on virgin births.

"It would appear, then ‌," he says. He speaks as if his view of religion as irrational is a conclusion from some previous reasoning process, but the reader will search for it in vain. Coyne has, it seems, simply defined anything as irrational if it does not conform with his materialist dogma of reality.

But surely one cannot prove something irrational simply by defining it so. Almost every religion offers arguments in its own defense. Christianity certainly does. An atheist like Coyne might say these MemoriaPress.com

arguments are invalid or factually wrong, but he can't just pretend they don't exist.

In his Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius has his character, Lady Philosophy, explain the two ways in which one must question a position in order to show that it is not sound: [I]f anyone finds it hard to admit the conclusion, he ought in fairness either to prove some falsity in the premises, or to show that the combination of propositions does not adequately enforce the necessity of the conclusion.

And if the problem with Christianity is not the actual logic but the evidence, then what proof do atheists have that religion has its facts wrong?

In the case of Christianity, there is very clear evidence set forth by its apologists. Paul states the one major piece of evidence for Christianity in I Corinthians 15: But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.

So central is the fact of the Resurrection to the In other words, the problem with any Christian faith that Paul states it as a necessary position is either that the facts it assumes condition for the legitimacy of Christianity. are not facts, or that the reasoning There is a mountain of documentary from those facts is flawed: either evidence to support the claim by those because its conclusion is derived who witnessed a resurrected Christ.

To say that religion from false assumptions, or Simon Greenleaf, who wrote because its conclusion does not the text that was for generations does not employ reason follow from its assumptions. the standard work on legal is simply to disregard These are two very different evidence in American law schools, considerations and must be wrote an entire book explaining the whole history of treated separately. why the testimony of the New Western thought.

One of the problems with Testament witnesses stood the tests atheists like Coyne is that they of legal evidence. are careless in their use of the term So where is the atheist argument "rational." Do they mean religion is against the fact of the resurrection? Nine not logical? Or do they mean it has its times out of ten the argument consists of facts wrong? pointing out that the Resurrection is a miracle and To say that religion does not employ reason is miracles are impossible: simply to disregard the whole history of Western No miracle is possible thought. There are more logical syllogisms in a single The resurrection is a miracle page from St. Anselm, St. Augustine, or St. Thomas Therefore, resurrections are not possible Aquinas than in whole modern scientific treatises.

But look at the first premise: "No miracle is possible."

A freshman student at the University of Paris in the How does an atheist know this? Has he been present at thirteenth century would be able to reason circles every event that has ever occurred everywhere? around Coyne and his fellow atheists without All the atheist has is another dogma. As G. K. breaking a sweat.

Chesterton once put it: In his magisterial Science and the Modern World, philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) criticizes the Christian Middle Ages, but not for being because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in irrational. Far from it. In fact, he criticizes the period for miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have being a "rationalist orgy." Medieval thinkers such as a doctrine against them.

Duns Scotus, the "Subtle Doctor," are criticized for going The doctrine consists of the belief that there are overboard on their application of reason to Christianity, "natural laws" and such laws can never be abrogated. not for disregarding it—for making distinctions that were But, once again, this is an assertion requiring proof, too fine, not for being logically careless. and there simply is no proof for such an assertion.

What about the traditional arguments for the In fact, such an assertion is not verifiable at all. It is a existence of God—the ontological, cosmological, and philosophical dogma, a faith statement. teleological arguments, as well as the argument from If the enemies of religious belief are going to design? Coyne doesn't refute them; he ignores them. charge their religious opponents with being irrational, Coyne's accomplishments in biology may be they ought to at least have the appearance of being impressive, but when it comes to rationality he is not in rational themselves. the same league as Augustine, Boethius, or Peter Abelard.

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Is Religion Irrational?

7

THE CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

HOAX BY

M

MARTIN COTHRAN

odern educators love to talk about "critical thinking skills," but not one in a hundred even knows what he means by the term.

Every time our country goes through an education reform spasm—which it has experienced about every twenty-five years since the 1920s—the education establishment trots out a set of slogans that always sound good but don't really mean anything.

In fact, the next time you hear an educator use the term "critical thinking skills," ask him what he means and see what happens. You get the same reaction you would get if you were to politely interrupt a cheerleader in the middle of her routine and ask, "When you say 'rah-rah, sis-boom-bah,' exactly what do you mean?" You would get a blank stare. The words have no substance in themselves; they are meant merely to elicit positive emotions. It is the same with the term "critical thinking skills." It is the educational equivalent of shaking pom-poms.

To say you are in favor of critical thinking skills is the education equivalent of saying, "Have a nice day."

I recently participated in a televised debate on national science standards being implemented in my home state of Kentucky. I pointed out that the standards did nothing to encourage the acquisition of a knowledge of nature.

There is a pronounced tendency in progressive education to downplay basic factual knowledge— particularly if such knowledge is gained through that process which is anathema to progressive educators: memorization. In the science standards, students are never asked to name, identify, classify, or describe any natural object. In fact, the words "mammal," "fish," "reptile," and "amphibian" are never mentioned in the standards—nor are such basic scientific terms as "hormone," "kinesis," "lymphatic," "neuron," "nucleotide," "osmosis," "Celsius," "Fahrenheit," "plasma," "vaccine," "protozoa," or "enzyme."

8

The Critical Thinking Skills Hoax

When I pointed this out during the debate, my two opponents, one a college biology professor and the other the chairman of the State House Education Committee, argued that the reason for excluding these things was that they were trying to teach students "critical thinking skills."

It is a litt le frightening when educational policymakers think that, in order to teach thinking skills, they need first to exclude knowledge.

I said that I doubted whether they even knew what "critical thinking skills" were. And as it turned out, they couldn’t give a defi nition.

When the moderator of the debate asked me what my defi nition of critical thinking skills was, I answered: "Logic."

It is an interesting fact that the people who say they want to improve our schools spend so much time talking about "critical thinking skills" and so little about logic. One of the reasons is undoubtedly that the word "logic" is much more concrete. It implies learning and being able to use a specific system of rational rules that can be taught—what the ancients called an "art." Logic has an actual history of having been taught, and taught in a certain way. It is not nearly so amorphous as the term "critical thinking skills."

But for propaganda purposes, it is less useful to use exact words. Vague words with indeterminate meanings are much to be preferred. "Thinking skills, thinking skills, rah-rah-rah!"

In fact, "thinking skills" is only one of the terms in a constellation of vague promotional phrases used by education reformers. Others include "problem-solving skills," "inferencing skills," "main

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idea finding," and "higher-order skills." Again, these sound good, but what exactly do they mean?

And these share with "critical thinking skills" the same problems. Not only are they ill-defined, but in a sense they really don't exist, at least not as separate areas of study.

Knowledge is unnecessary, goes the thinking of progressive educators, because the only thing necessary is skills. And so we think we can divorce skills from knowledge.

Here is what the Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance has to say about the idea that skills can be taught and learned in a content vacuum: Research clearly rejects the classical views* on human cognition in which general abilities such as learning, reasoning, problem solving, and concept formation correspond to capacities and abilities that can be studied independently of the content domains.

problem-solving skill, independent of domainspecific knowledge."

Hirsch cites study after study showing that, on tests of particular skills like "reading skills," students with less developed skills but who know the subject of a text outperform those who have more developed reading skills but who don't know the subject.

Knowledge matters.

When the television moderator asked me the question about what "critical thinking skills" were, instead of merely mentioning logic, I could just as easily have said "the liberal arts" (of which logic is a part).

The liberal arts include the trivium (the three language subjects) and the quadrivium (the four mathematical subjects). But they are arts taught as subjects, each with their own unique content.

The term "liberal arts" doesn't fit into a cheer routine very well. But that shouldn't really matter.

In E. D. Hirsch's recent book, Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children from Failed Education Theories, he makes the case that psychological and educational research is fairly unanimous on this point: Skills are "domain-specific." In other words, you have to study skills in the context of some specific subject.

And "problem solving"? "There exists," Hirsch says, "no consistent all-purpose *The term "classical views" here means "standard views" of the subject that were prevalent in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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The Critical Thinking Skills Hoax

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Alma Mater

BY LEIGH LOWE

THE LIFE OF CHERYL LOWE

C

heryl Joy Lowe was born the second daughter of Harold and Evelyn Vittitow on August 6, 1945. She was born on Gaulbert Street in Louisville's West End, in a neighborhood where houses were full of stay-at-home moms and children ran the neighborhood safe and free. There, she began, but dropped out, of kindergarten. This is the only thing we know of her ever quitting. She started first grade knowing only two letters. Soon she made it to the top reading group, and this is where Cheryl Lowe, the scholar, got her start.

Mrs. Lowe was very proud of her dad, who worked hard to learn the refrigeration business, and, with an eighth grade education, started a repair business, moving the family to the South End of Louisville. He then expanded to a shop on National Turnpike.

The space had a dirt floor and it rented for $40 a month.

Mrs. Vittitow, also with an eighth grade education, did the bookkeeping, and the family business thrived.

Mrs. Lowe always remembered fondly the house her dad built on Esplanade, a beautiful street at the foot of Kenwood Hill, a street where doctors, lawyers, and professionals lived. One of her neighbors was the principal of Butler High School, from which Mrs. Lowe graduated in 1963.

She recalled that if the weather was bad he would offer to pick her up in her driveway so she wouldn't have to stand at the bus stop. Choking on cigar smoke in the car, however, made the prospect of standing in bad weather seem mild by comparison.

To Mrs. Lowe, the 50s and 60s seemed like a golden age. On Saturdays, she and her sister, Iris, dressed up in their Sunday finest, complete with white gloves, and rode the city bus downtown to shop at Stewart's, Byck's, and Selman's. They ate banana nut bread and cream cheese sandwiches at Stewart's. On other days they ate lunch at the Blue Boar, where the lady added up the total of your tray items in her head. Waitresses with 18-inch waists carried a tray on each hand up a winding staircase to your table. Watching them, it seemed they were infallible. Mrs. Lowe dreamed of being a Blue Boar waitress when she grew up.

Leigh Lowe is the daughter-in-law of Jim and Cheryl Lowe, and the Curriculum Director at Highlands Latin School. She delivered this eulogy at Cheryl's funeral, June 28, 2017.

People dressed up in those days. Informal dress— shorts and pants—were exclusively for the home, yard, or park. Even a trip to the grocery required a dress. It seemed that the world that had existed was changing in the blink of an eye for Mrs. Lowe—a world “gone with the wind.”

Mrs. Lowe spent two years at Florida Christian College in Tampa, a junior college of about 250 students. Her mother couldn't have been prouder.

The University of Louisville, then a small, private university of about 4,000 students, accepted her twelve hours of Bible and she transferred. Mrs. Lowe loved her math and science classes and was always grateful for the brilliant teachers there. The turbulence of the 1960s went straight over her head—she was happily studying in the Math and Science Building.

Mrs. Lowe received her degree in chemistry at the University of Louisville and began working as a microbiology researcher.

Worried that she would never look up from her work, her close friend, Jeannie Davis, introduced her to a boy from Sunny Point, Kentucky, James Arthur Lowe.

Mr. Lowe claims that, once, when he came for a date, he had to wait on the front porch with Mr. Vittitow because, as he tells it in his dry manner, she had gone on a motor scooter ride with another boy. Even those who know Mr. Lowe well aren't sure whether to believe this story.

For instance, when he returned from the Vietnam War, Mr. Lowe proposed by saying, “If I asked you to marry me, what would you say?” Mrs. Lowe answered, “Yes!” joyfully and thought they were engaged.

Upon reflection, however, she found that question ambiguous. The next day, she had to re-confirm their engagement, and soon they were married.

They attended Western Kentucky University together, where she received her master's in biology and Mr. Lowe earned his degree in agriculture.

While Mrs. Lowe learned all she could about biology from books, Mr. Lowe had grown up on a farm without running water or electricity, and where he was the first member of his family to be delivered by a doctor. The fact that the doctor was a veterinarian does not deter Mr. Lowe's pride in this fact one bit.

Mr. Lowe taught his academically trained bride about plants, animals, birds, trees, and flowers. He 1-877-862-1097

showed her the joy of walking through the woods and identifying the nature around them.

Mrs. Lowe always said that Mr. Lowe grew up like Almanzo in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy, and that she appreciated the beauty and simplicity of the life he had lived. The couple celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary the day before she passed, and during their marriage they always had a farm where Mr. Lowe could work, Mrs. Lowe could read, and together they could share the beauty of God's creation.

Early in their marriage, Mrs. Lowe set forth on two life-changing paths: She became a teacher, and she became a mother. She taught geometry and chemistry at Eastern High School for four years, and she had two sons, Andy and Brian. Mr. Lowe always said they started naming the children with the letter A and planned to go through the whole alphabet, but Brian was such a bad baby they had to stop at B. As her boys were coming of age, she researched every school in the city and sent them to the best she could find. Then she went back to school for minors in religion, math, and astronomy, and, armed with conviction and purpose, she eventually brought Andy and Brian home to school them herself.

While homeschooling, she discovered Latin, a subject she soon decided was the indispensable subject for training young minds. She saw how Latin provided discipline to the language arts in the same way math orders the sciences. Mrs. Lowe fell in love with Latin. She taught it to herself and then wrote her own Latin program for young students.

At the same time, she began lobbying in Frankfort for traditional schools. There she met Martin Cothran from Danville, who shared her passion for education.

They started working on a publishing company, Memoria Press, which consisted of one computer in the Lowes' living room, but soon expanded to a two-desk office above her garage. With two new IBM computers, Mrs. Lowe and Martin set to work on a new classical Christian curriculum.

With her living room now empty, Mrs. Lowe filled it with wooden desks and started teaching Latin to a handful of students. In a year's time, she had twentyseven students and moved into a rented church in the Highlands neighborhood.

Soon, Mrs. Lowe gathered those same families, again in her living room, and shared her vision for a complete Alma Mater

11

classical Christian school. Mrs. Lowe’s vision was a school that her future grandchildren would attend: a school with an unexcelled education, a school that was warm, joyful, and nurturing, a school with a wholesome culture that offered respite from an increasingly secular world, a school that would fortify her students with noble, Christian virtues.

She needed a principal and she wanted to hire 23-year-old Shawn Wheatley, who was teaching at a local middle school and had graduated with Brian from college. She saw something special in Mr. Wheatley and wanted him to lead her new school. Mr. Wheatley attended the first living-room meeting and immediately, by his own admission, decided Mrs. Lowe was crazy. Nonetheless, the seed had been planted, and two years later Mrs. Lowe had 70 students and her chosen principal, who has faithfully led the school with broad shoulders ever since.

Highlands Latin has grown to a school with more than 600 students.

And, with the help of Tanya Charlton who runs Memoria Press, a Highlands Latin School education is now available to all who seek it.

Last year, 650 schools across the country were using Mrs. Lowe’s curriculum, and 30 were HLS model schools. More than a half million students have used her programs in the last twenty years. This was Mrs. Lowe’s dream. She was humbled and blessed to see her vision of a renewed classical Christian education come to fruition in her lifetime.

But Mrs. Lowe is more than the sum of her successes. She was a mother, a grandmother, and a friend. Many of us, myself included, always referred to her as Mrs. Lowe. We would never dream of addressing her without the respect she deserves. Many call her Cheryl, though, and that seems appropriate too. That was her charm. Though she seemed a giant to us, she never saw that in herself.

Her public manner was dignified, even formal, and in our overly casual culture, refreshingly reserved. But we all fondly remember chatting giddily with her about clothes, hair, shoes, food—the trivial things we commoners like to discuss. Mrs. Lowe was truly just as likely to giggle about her pink passion nail polish as she was to quote Thucydides off the cuff. Our memory of her vacillates between an awe-inspiring woman in a suit behind a podium to a warm friend in a baseball cap and ponytail at the hayride.

She was a role model, not for her ambition or success alone, but for recognizing and honoring so astutely the seasons of her life. When she was a student, she learned all she could. As a wife and mother, she loved and served loyally. When it came time to share her knowledge, she fearlessly accepted the opportunity. She was 50 years old when she wrote her first book. Each season of her life was accepted graciously, patiently, and gratefully. Nothing had to be sacrificed. She quietly and faithfully accepted God’s plan for her life, and He lovingly allowed her to have it all.

Mrs. Lowe used to quote Cardinal Newman at our opening school ceremony each year. “A school should be an Alma Mater, knowing her children one by one. Not a factory, or a mint, or a treadmill.” Mr. Wheatley had it right when he said that she didn’t know it, but she was talking about herself all those years. She was our nurturing mother.

So, Mrs. Lowe, in your honor, we will continue your legacy of excellence. We will learn our conjugations and declensions. We will memorize all 70 stanzas of Horatius at the Bridge. We will translate our ten lines of Caesar, knowing the subject must be in there somewhere.

And most importantly, we will hold our pencils correctly and write in the beautiful cursive you and your sister taught us.

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GREATER

Even Than

ROME

Given as the Opening School Ceremony address for Highlands Latin School's 2016-2017 school year, August 29, 2016.

by Cheryl Lowe

W

elcome, parents, teachers, and students, to the 2016-2017 academic year. It is a joy and privilege to address you at the beginning of this, our seventeenth year. We thank God for this sultry summer morning, for Highlands Latin School, for a new school year, for the gift of life, the gift of children, and the joy of learning.

In partnership with parents and guided by the Gospel, we are committed to helping eac h st ude nt develop h i s or her intellectual gifts to the highest standards of the classical tradition. We a re com m it ted to character and faith f o r m a t i o n . We a r e c o m m it t e d to helping st udent s g row i n k n owl e dg e a nd w isdom, and in the love of Our Lord, so t h a t t h e y m ay use their gifts in the service of others and for the glory of Christ and his Church.

A High la nds Lat i n e duc at io n i s b u i lt o n a strong and lasting foundation: a foundation of three universal languages (Latin, mathematics, and music), a foundation of reading the classics to develop wisdom and virtue, and the foundation of a living faith.

As I look at our students and think about how to encourage you in your school work this year, I can think of no better example than Rome. Rome began as a humble village of outcasts, but grew to become mistress of the world. Rome is the city that created an empire so enduring that it has haunted the memory of mankind ever since. Historians always ask why Rome fell, but the real question is

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why Rome ever arose. How can we explain Rome, the Eternal City? How can we explain the spirit of Rome that never gave up, that never made terms with the enemy? Rome knew from the beginning that she was destined for greatness.

There is no natural explanation for Rome, just as there is no natural explanation for you! We believe that each of you is destined for greatness. You have parents that love you and teachers that have a passion for teaching, and all that is needed is for you to persevere, to never give up, to never make terms with the enemy. And who is your enemy? Apathy, boredom, sloth, discouragement, despair, and defeat.

Rome was defeated many times, but she never gave up. She lost many battles, but she never lost the war. She always came back to fight another day—and so must you.

We hope that you have a good year and learn as much as you can. We hope that you persevere in your studies and never give up. And we pray that you will add to those Roman virtues of perseverance and courage the Christian virtues of humility, mercy, and charity.

Students, respect and obey your parents and teachers. Be kind to your classmates and always think of other people first and you will be happy and loved in a way that the Romans never were. The Romans were great, but with the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ you can aspire to a greatness that even the Romans never dreamed of. Work hard and have a great year.

Greater Even Than Rome

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SIMPLY CLASSICAL

MEMORIA, MEMORIAE Training the Memory with a Classical Education

by Cheryl Swope

I

n the Dickens novel Great Expectations, Estella admits, "There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth." So it is today with the lost art of training the memory through education.

A classical education seeks to strengthen the mind and nurture the soul through meaning and memory with practice. This is for all students.

Consider these words written in the 1500s, when Christian humanists sought to reclaim classical education: Students must daily be given something which trains both understanding and memory. Indeed, ‌ as much must be offered as the powers of their memory and the nature of the subject matter can accommodate. Even material which they have already learned once must be repeated at brief intervals.1

Understanding Through Questioning

Contrary to misconceptions and common accusations heard today from our progressive teaching peers, classical educators seek understanding and mental training; we do not seek mere "rote memory work" as an end in itself. But we do see memory work as a valuable means to noble ends.

Questioning assists understanding, but the questioning occurs at the proper time for the child's mind. With the younger child this often takes the form of catechetical question and answer. Example: "Who is the Lord?" ("The Lord is God.") Memoria Press' English Grammar Recitation program teaches grammar in this efficient manner. In later years, students will learn to analyze deftly and express themselves eloquently using all that is retained in the memory, when Socratic questioning leads to greater understanding of the meaning and, ultimately, to truth.

Memory Work Is Good Practice

Cognitive neuroscientist Daniel T. Willingham notes that untrained students "tend to gauge their knowledge based on their feeling-of-knowing; as they read over their notes,' they get an increased feeling of familiarity. But a feeling of familiarity is not the same thing as "knowing."2 For this reason, Willingham suggests, "Students should study until they know the material and then keep studying."

In a classical education, recitation promotes this theory of over-learning in a timeless, satisfying way. The practiced responses instill in students poise, confidence, and a vast fund of knowledge with only a brief investment of time each day. A good recitation is a joy to behold. Such a recitation can be accomplished in both home and school. Oral recitations can begin the day or the subject area to impress essential knowledge and understanding upon consequently strengthened memories. Similarly, the ancient practice of copying by hand assists memorization. Whether poetry, Holy Scripture, or the days of the week, Memoria Press' Copybook exercises give students something worthwhile and often lovely to memorize.

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Special-Needs

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Five Steps

Try these five steps for any child, especially the child who needs to strengthen his "working memory," the term for holding material in one's mind for good use and application in his studies.

1. Introduce the whole, but teach in small bites.

2. Have the students echo each new portion.

"The Lord …" (The Lord) "is my Shepherd …" (is my Shepherd).

3. Work on the partial memory passages each day, but always let them hear the verse as a whole.

4. Add new bites until fully memorized.

5. Establish a schedule for ongoing review.

Follow these steps for math facts, Latin sayings or declensions, hymn stanzas, and more.

Learn by Heart

More than merely assimilating large chunks of "useless information," as some assume, all is enfolded into the child's education over time with enriching results. For this reason, much of classical Christian memory work may be better characterized by a more appealing phrase: learn by heart.

When my children were very young, they learned all of Psalm 23 with the five steps described above. The Little Golden Book The Lord Is My

Shepherd served as the whole, poetic impression, with the psalm sung at the end. Due to my children's special needs, they learned it in small portions, but they learned. As mentioned in my book, Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for any Child, not long after they learned it we had the poignant privilege to sing this psalm at the bedside of an aged friend before she died. Because the psalm had been learned by heart, the words could be shared freely.

Memoria, -ae

Memoria Press founder Cheryl Lowe named her publishing house after the Latin word for "memory." She once explained, "I came up with the name 'Memoria' (memoria, -ae) because memory is so foundational to a classical education and is completely counter-cultural to progressive education.

Training the memory is the first practical task of the teacher. Training teachers to focus on memorization in the classroom is really the first practical step in turning that teacher away from modern education to traditional classical education."

Let us carry on with diligence, joy, and delight as Mrs. Lowe envisioned, because when we give our children strong memories, we give them stronger minds.

1 Sturm, Johann, in Johann Sturm on Education: The Reformation and Humanist Learning, 91. Specifically, in 1538 Sturm recommended memory training for anyone opening an "Elementary School of Letters."

2 Willingham, Daniel T. "What Will Improve a Student’s Memory?" Amercian Educator, Winter, 2008-2009, 22.

Simply Classical Journal Do you wish there was a Classical Teacher magazine devoted entirely to special-needs education? Well, now there is. The new Simply Classical Journal, edited by Cheryl Swope, author of Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child, has the same features as the Classical Teacher—insightful, informative articles, and descriptions of new and existing programs—but geared toward you as a parent or teacher trying to provide a classical education to your student with special needs, whatever his or her challenges may be.

Sign up today: MemoriaPress.com/Simply-Classical-Journal

Cheryl Swope is the author of Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child and Memoria Press' Simply Classical Curriculum.

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LITER ATURE

HOW WE GET THERE IS WHERE WE’LL ARRIVE by David M. Wright "Beyond here there's no map." Traveling the path toward truth,

Heading Out Beyond here there’s no map.

How you get there is where you’ll arrive; how, dawn by dawn, you can see your way clear: in ponds, sky, just as woods you walk through give to fields. And rivers: beyond all burning, you’ll cross on bridges you’ve long lugged with you.

Whatever your route, go lightly, toward light. Once you give away all save necessity, all’s mostly well: what you used to believe you owned is nothing, nothing beside how you’ve come to feel. You’ve no need now to give in or give out: the way you’re going your body seems willing. Slowly as it may otherwise tell you, whatever it comes to you’re bound to know.

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- Philip Booth

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How We Get There Is Where We'll Arrive

goodness, and beauty, whether it be in our teaching and learning, our spiritual life, or any such sacred endeavor, can sometimes feel like we're in mapless territory—a benighted forest with little sign of a clearing. And though we have some helpful travel guides—for example, the time-tested tradition of classical education in the West, the Great Books, Holy Scripture, and sacred tradition—still, traveling the way is not always easy. We can feel lost, isolated, and worn out— sometimes even questioning whether it's all worth it.

Inspired by some of the more modern poems I'd been writing about in the latest installment of the Memoria Press Poetry Study Guides (Poetry Book III: The Romantic and Victorian Era), I re-read this Philip Booth poem and was struck by one of its key points: How we get to any worthy destination may in fact be the most important part of the experience.

Consider Hamlet, who could not know to what end his dire situation would come to, yet wisely knew that he must continually be preparing, because "the readiness is all." He knew that ultimately, God is in control: "There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now" (Hamlet, 5.2.11-15).

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Though understandable, perhaps we sometimes place too much emphasis and focus on reaching future goals or destinations. For example, in academics, most students want to receive high grades at the end of the semester, receive credit for their courses, and finally receive their diplomas. In sports, the goal is to win the league, state, or national championship. In a homeschool, a mother might endeavor to complete all the subjects in the MP Classical Core Curriculum by the end of the year. In the workplace, many employees seek to reach a higher position in the company. Alas, we are surrounded by a culture that is almost exclusively goal-driven.

Ye t how of t e n do we t h i n k about the inner growth that can take place in our souls and minds in the moment-by-moment daily grind of life?

Booth's meandering, metaphorical poem offers a short glimpse into the expansion possible through the active present, the day-by-day walk through life—which, paradoxically, already is the destination. This critical, profound journey happens externally in each passing moment, but even more so internally, in a kind of "heading out" characterized by epiphany, being, and spirit. The poem offers encouragement through its tone and imagery, along with its key idea: "How you get there is where you'll arrive."

After reading this poem with my students, I challenged them to stop a few random people between classes and simply say, "How you get there is where you'll arrive," and then walk away. They had fun with this activity. In our discussion of the poem, we could see that the "how" involves character and process, essentials for the journey—and that the being verb "is" implies a present, continual arrival. Linear time folds in upon itself. Could this be akin to God's perspective, outside of time?

The next lines, "how, dawn by dawn, you can see your way clear," not only repeats the word "how," but initiates a kind of enlightenment, a clarity of vision and understanding. The following lines (5-9) feature important physical settings: ponds, sky, woods, fields, and rivers, which serve as fitting metaphors—elements of natural beauty that inspire us and keep us going. After all, the sky reflects light, woods give way to fields, and bridges cross rivers.

Not coincidentally, Booth allows the middle two lines (10-11) to present the poem's highest moment: "Whatever your route, go lightly, toward light." Here, the light could be understood as the light of truth, or the light of Christ, toward which we move in spirit, in the daily activity of faith and action.

The subsequent lines (11-15) offer tangible, ascetic wisdom on how to proceed on this epiphanal journey: "Once you give away all save necessity, all's mostly well: what you used to believe you owned is nothing …." In some ways, these lines resonate with Christ's words in Matthew 19:21: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me"; or in Luke 9:24: "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."

May this poem inspire us to continue "heading out," being present in each moment, continually arriving at all that is good and true— embracing the daily struggle to live in two kingdoms at once, in time and beyond time—moving into the dawn with nothing but what is necessary, walking lightly toward the light.

Yet how often do we think about the inner growth that can take place in our souls and minds in the momentby-moment daily grind of life?

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Poetry III Grades 10+ Text $19.95 Student $14.95 Teacher $16.95

Poetry Book III: The Romantic to the Victorian Age The newest addition to Memoria Press' British poetry anthology series, Poetry Book III, covers the great English poetry of the Romantic and Victorian eras. From the simple-but-haunting profundity of Shelley's "Ozymandias" to the beautiful images of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," from the galloping lines of Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" to the majesty of Rudyard Kipling's "Recession," this new program will open a whole world of delight for your student. The guides utilize Reading Notes, Comprehension Questions, and Socratic Discussion Questions to lead students to discover the Central One Idea of each work.

David M. Wright, also the author of the guides for Book I and Book II, takes your student on a fascinating tour through the greatest body of poetic work ever created.

How We Get There Is Where We'll Arrive

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FINE ARTS

A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM (WITH YOUR KIDS)

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t the toddler stage, teaching art to kids is easy: Throw on a smock and get out the finger paints.

They need no inspiration. They have a visceral connection to their self-expression in color.

But as children grow, their relationship to art changes. Art is no longer simply a reflection of their own self-expressions. But we make a mistake if we teach them that it's now all about someone else's expression. And we tend to do just that when we frontload "art appreciation" with artists' biographies and stylistic labels. Those things can enhance understanding, but they can also create obstacles during the initial stages of encountering art, leaving students baffled and bored.

Recently a friend confessed that, despite displaying a well-prepared enthusiasm while taking her children to museums, she always found the experience disappointing. She thought neither she nor the kids were gaining what they were 18

A Night at the Museum (With Your Kids)

by Carol Reynolds

"supposed to" from each painting. She is not alone in those feelings.

I found my own path to art quite late. I had studied music extensively, but growing up with little exposure, I was lost at sea when it came to visual art. Then I suddenly realized that the vivid pictures in my Russian history books and on the covers of my LPs and scores of Russian piano music were, indeed, "art": Russian art from the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. And I loved those images, both the glittering fairytale paintings and the gritty historical canvases documenting Russia's messy slough through political history. With that connection made, I could then branch out to embrace virtually every type of art that I encountered.

So how do we help children find their own connections? The first step involves building experiences of discovery and glee. (Remember those finger paints.) We want to help kids enter a world MemoriaPress.com

where two- and three-dimensional art has the power to communicate ideas and stir the imagination.

So let's go back to those "disappointing" museum visits and rethink our goals.

First, please rid yourself of the thought that kids need to look at every item in an exhibit. The very idea is exhausting and makes me want to run out the door! If time allows, walk through each room of the exhibit. If the museum is extensive, pick a set of rooms that seem likely to appeal. People working in a museum can help advise you in this matter.

Once you have defined your route, set each student free with the goal of finding one item per room that draws his or her eye.

Alternatively, ask kids to find their least favorite items in the room.

(This works well with skeptical or disengaged teens.) After they have located "their" pieces of art, have them jot down or tell what they chose and why.

No concrete reasons are needed, simply a response.

However, conversation among the students often leads to deeper questioning. If the kids begin to disagree, all the better!

The advantage of this strategy comes from eliminating preconceptions of what a student is "supposed" to see, find, or gain. Instead, you are asking a student to encounter an artistic stimulus and respond to it. You are asking the art to win the student over, rather than placing a student in front of the art and saying: "Here, this is important."

If students find nothing they like or dislike, ask them instead to identify their favorite (or least favorite) frame. Kids rarely know that the framing of a painting is a critical part of its presentation. So it is possible that a student with little interest in the canvases themselves will become intrigued by the opulent, austere, or unusual frames, especially if they learn a bit about the materials and process of framing.

Similarly, if neither canvas nor frame catches their eyes, they might be led to comment upon the placement of the art—the juxtaposition of the pieces in the exhibit. How are the items grouped? Where are sculptures placed, and why? And why are some paintings presented singularly, and others in groups, including double or triple layering?

If none of this works, then back away entirely from the art and consider the way a show is mounted.

What kind of lighting is used? Is it natural, streaming

through windows or skylights, or is it electric? Are there spotlights used for some paintings? Why are some paintings covered with glass, and others not?

What kind of labeling is given each item?

In short, everything about the art should be up for questioning and response.

Practical and technical topics can liberate a student's mind from a pre-set, ineffective approach to art. At the very least, they can remove guilt or disappointment about not getting what one allegedly is supposed to get from viewing a given painting or sculpture.

Finally—and this is important—viewing art is tiring!

There's a reason museums have cafés. Taking breaks in a museum brings a special delight, starting with sitting down. Time in a café reminds us that art was, and is, social. As students become more aware of the interconnections between artists, composers, writers, philosophers, and their circles of friends, paintings and sculptures may step off of their esteemed pedestals and become more accessible items.

Above all, make the visits. Take whatever happens in the experience, tuck it away, and wait for it inevitably to percolate in the child's mind. Usually it isn't long before other material will trigger parts of the experience, and connections will form. And slowly, very slowly, the student will be able to develop a more mature eye and cultivate a deeper appreciation of the power that visual art can play in our lives.

Take whatever happens in the experience, tuck it away, and wait for it inevitably to percolate in the child’s mind.

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Available for Grades K-2 Art Cards (5"x7") $9.95 ea.

Art Posters (11"x17") $35.00 ea.

Art Cards & Posters

Enrich your child's educational experience with beautiful pieces of art from the most influential artistic movements in history, including the Renaissance, Romanticism, Impressionism, and more! These supplements are coordinated with our primary Classical Core Curriculum sets. Our art cards and posters have been hugely popular: They cover the best paintings by the best painters that you can hold in your hand or display on your wall.

A Night at the Museum (With Your Kids)

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LEARNING n thinking about Mrs. Lowe these last two weeks, I was reminded of the Parable of the Sower from the Gospel of Mark. Good seed was thrown four places, the last of which was onto good soil. In chapter 4, Jesus says that the good seed that fell in good soil "produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold." Consider how many of us here this year at Sodalitas have benefited from the work begun by Mrs. Lowe and Mr. Cothran all those years ago in the Lowes' living room.

It's about a hundredfold. Let's let that sink in for a moment.

And we are but a small representation of the manifold yield in only one sphere of the work of her life. She lived one life well.

She was one woman, wife, mother, teacher, writer, student, friend.

May you not underestimate the gift you are giving to the world through your kindness, intellect, persistence, personal study, vocation, and most of all through your relationships with your spouse and your children.

I know the parable is about the advance of the I have heard it's wise to follow those who walk with Gospel, but it also reflects the natural law of how a limp, who know they are human and are not afraid things grow, how they can multiply and increase to show it. If you find someone you'd like to grow up to in good conditions. I hope the sadness we feel from be like, ask her about her journey. Then take your steps, her loss this week is truly a bright sadness, the kind faithfully, day by day. Wisdom is purchased at a costly that is uplifted by hope and purpose, and is filled price, and reinventing the wheel is a task that none with the joy that comes from laying hold of the of us has time for! To give and to receive you have to inheritance she has left for us. talk—asking and answering. So we are here to talk!

And what more can we say than that we are thankful and honored.

MAKE HASTE SLOWLY We are gathered here not simply to be trained in The second phrase is this: Festina lentē. It means how to teach classical materials classically, though we "Make haste, slowly." are here to learn that too. We are gathered to consider Helen Keller once said, "I long to accomplish a great how best to embody a classical education in the form and noble task; but it is my chief duty to accomplish of a family, our specific family, in the space of a home, small tasks as if they were great and noble." And I in the years we have remaining to bet you are all familiar with Mother us to steward our children.

Teresa's words, "Do small things No other homeschool with great love." This is not a sprint, If you will take a curriculum publisher gathers or even a marathon; it's your life. longer view of your its users together to help them You cannot become a philosopher or understand, implement, and enjoy homeschool and decide scholar in a moment, and neither will their curriculum in their homes. your children. what end you have in C. S. Lewis, in his book Preface Think with me: What is wrong with to Paradise Lost, said, "The first our society's obsession with rushing mind, it will help you qualification for judging any piece everything? What does a truly good walk your current path life look like? of workmanship from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it I firmly believe that one of the with confidence. is—what it was intended to do and most important steps we can take how it is meant to be used." That's toward creating a truly classical exactly what you are going to learn culture in our homeschool is to slow about the classical curriculum Memoria Press has down, to study fewer things and to study them more designed for you to use in your homeschool. deeply, to come out on the other side knowing things I wanted to take a moment to give you three things and knowing ourselves better in the process. to take on your journey: three Latin phrases, of course! I Mrs. Lowe wrote that many "overestimate what encourage you to consider these like three legs on a stool. they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in five." I call this the "five-year vision." If you will take a longer view of your homeschool and decide GIVING AND RECEIVING what end you have in mind, it will help you walk your The first phrase is dare et accipere. current path with confidence.

Dare et Accipere is Latin for "to give and to receive," You don't have to start with Aristotle's Rhetoric, and it is the motto of the Sodalitas Gathering. It is our Euclid's Elements, or Dante's Divine Comedy. You can expectation that you are not only receiving during start with a Memoria Press primary curriculum your time here, but that you are actively giving to package. You can memorize four-line poems with your those around you. Ask your questions, encourage kindergartener or train your ear to recognize Handel's others around you, and share your experiences.

Water Music suite with your second grader. You can buy There are some of you in the room whom I know yourself a First Form Latin Student Workbook and do the very well. You are amazing people with stories to tell work along with your children. You can read one great and infectious laughter to share, and some of you have classic or novel each year with your oldest children walked through the darkest of valleys and come out and talk about it over meals. If you feel like you are a on the other side, alive, with grace and wisdom and a beginner, then begin! And do not stop. whole lot of mercy to share with others.

Jessica Phillips is a homeschool mother, co-founder of Highlands Latin School Nashville, and the creator of the Sodalitas Gathering. This article is an abridged version of her opening remarks at the 2017 Sodalitas Gathering.

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Sowing the Seeds of Learning

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THE ORDER OF LOVE

Which brings me to my third phrase: ordo amoris. It means "rightly ordered affections."

Homeschooling is only one part of your full, beautiful, complex, family life. The phrase ordo amoris comes to us from Augustine and is repeated in Lewis's Abolition of Man. It speaks to things being in their right place. Augustine actually used this phrase to define "virtue." Our affections—our loves—must be rightly ordered to be healthy. We all know the expression "A place for everything and everything in its place."

Are we driving our homeschool, or is it driving us? Are we living like homeschooling is our entire life? Then we need to get it back in its right place.

We need to work to get our homeschool as healthy and life-giving as possible so that it will give, and not take from, the rest of our lives. It is one thread we are weaving into our family's tapestry.

While you are taking an inventory of your homeschool, consider also your other relationships and responsibilities. Are there things that are improperly ordered that you need to adjust? In 2015, David Wright's Sodalitas talk, "Movere," challenged me. As a result I gave up a part-time hobby of talking about curriculum on the internet with strangers.

Just kidding!

But I needed to be pressed on whether that was time well invested. Now, I only talk curriculum on the MP forum, where we actively help other families 22

Sowing the Seeds of Learning

figure out how to use Memoria's curriculum in their homes. My affections had been out of order.

You may realize that you need to be more discerning about how you spend your time. Perhaps you need to spend less time here and more time there. Make notes as you feel God's gentle guidance. Our affections should be rightly ordered, and the people we love need them to be so. This world needs them to be so.

I want to give you a little mental structure that might be helpful as you think about those around you. There are three kinds of classical homeschoolers you will meet. The first are people I call Masters. I call them Masters, not because they are inherently better than anyone else, but because they've invested the time it takes to get closer to mastering aspects of homeschooling and classical education. They have answered the "how and why" questions over and over and over. They have done the work, day in and day out. Some of them have made classical education the work of their lives.

The second are people I call Peers.

These are the people climbing Mount Parnassus right beside us, the ones who are in the same literature guides, the same levels of arithmetic, the same concerns with having so many little people all at once, newly driving teenagers, or aging parents. You can relate to one another as a peer educationally, as well as irrespective of anything that has to do with education.

A Peer is someone who can give you instant empathy in your challenges, who can hear you are having a hard time and instantly connect with that struggle.

The final group I call Beginners. All of us have been there. Beginners are those who see everything through fresh eyes and give the gift of their questions and curiosity. Beginners bring enthusiasm and help everyone remember the challenge of figuring things out for the first time. They give us all hope that the good work of advancing classical Christian education is bearing fruit.

Your challenge is to look for Masters who can be your mentors, for Peers who can be your advisors, and for Beginners to whom you can be a mentor. In other words, look for friends.

Like Mrs. Lowe, we too need to sow seeds, and that can be hard work. Whether we are experienced at it or new to it, we need all the help we can get.

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