Author Archives: Joshua Gibbs

Student: What exactly is a strong reading of a book?  Teacher: A clearly articulated understanding of the spirit of a book. It’s a reader’s ability to delve below appearances and describe how all the disparate elements of a book coalesce into a singular moral vision. A strong reading is an interpretation of all the characters,Continue reading “That Disorienting Feeling You Get From A Good Education”

I’ve lately seen that a conversation has already quietly begun about dropping the word “classical” from the term “classical education.”

Two Christmas Playlists from my “A Matter of Taste” series.

Dark chocolates from Debauve & Gallais Giuseppe Giusti’s Banda Rossa 20-year vinegar D.S. & Durga car air fresheners Esteban’s Amber Japanese style incense (a perennial favorite) Lobby boy cap from The Society of Crossed Keys A continental wallet, perhaps this one or this one Rougie Foie Gras A bottle of Green Irish Tweed from Creed

“Teachers want administrators who are around. Administrators need to be present. They need to put in lots of face time every week. Headmasters at big schools may disappear for days at a time, but not weeks at a time. On the other hand, principals and deans need to be in the middle of things every day soContinue reading “What Classical Teachers Want From Administrators”

If you’re in town, please come.

Conservatives are obsessed with pilling. Everybody is getting this-pilled and that-pilled. The pills aren’t even colors anymore. There are noun-pills and idea-pills. Even modest changes of mind constitute a pilling of some sort. “I wanted to go to Wendy’s for lunch but Tony Whopper-pilled me and we went to Burger King, instead.” “We were goingContinue reading “This-Pilled and That-Pilled”

Comic, but by no means a joke. This is wonderful. “By not cursing in rush hour traffic, thou hast found the way to divine contemplation/ And by working nine to five at a mind numbing desk job for twenty years to feed thy family thou hast broken the snares of the enemy/ By not judgingContinue reading “The Troparion of the Mediocre Saint Bob”