#49 Topical Discussion

This book was originally given as a talk by Dorothy Sayers at Oxford University in 1947 on the benefits of a classical education for children. It is great brief introduction to the advantages of a classical education.

How can you give your children the tools they need to teach themselves? Long ago students were first taught how to learn. Today, students are taught an encyclopedia of subjects trivia but they are not taught the basic skills of learning: to discover, to reason, and to apply. They are not taught the trivium.Can you homeschool in a classical style without compromising your Christian principles? Classical Education must be sifted through the critical screen of the Scriptures to be transformed into a Biblical model.Can you homeschool in a classical style without buckling under the burden? There is only so much time in the day. For every subject, and for every age, we have a workable plan which leaves you free to breathe. You can continue to use other approaches to homeschooling within the framework of classical education.Is homeschooling about renewing family vision? The family is at the heart of God s plan for restoring Christian culture. Homeschooling is not alternative education. Homeschooling was here first. We want to restore Biblical order to education.

Drawing upon forty years of study in theology, philosophy, history, sociology and the arts, Dr. Schaeffer contemplates the reasons for modern society's sorry state of affairs and argues for total affirmation of the Bible's morals, values, and meaning.

What is a good education? What is it for? To answer these questions, Stratford Caldecott shines a fresh light on the three arts of language, in a marvelous recasting of the Trivium whereby Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric are explored as Remembering, Thinking, and Communicating. These are the foundational steps every student must take towards conversion of heart and mind, so that a Catholic Faith can be lived out in unabashed pursuit of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. Beauty in the Word is a unique contribution to bringing these bountiful aspects of the Real back to the center of learning, where they rightfully belong. If your concern is for the true meaning of education for your children, here is the place to begin.

Malls, stadiums, and universities are actually liturgical structures that influence and shape our thoughts and affections. Humans-as Augustine noted-are "desiring agents," full of longings and passions; in brief, we are what we love. James K. A. Smith focuses on the themes of liturgy and desire in Desiring the Kingdom, the first book in what will be a three-volume set on the theology of culture. He redirects our yearnings to focus on the greatest good: God. Ultimately, Smith seeks to re-vision education through the process and practice of worship. Students of philosophy, theology, worldview, and culture will welcome Desiring the Kingdom, as will those involved in ministry and other interested readers.