Category Archives: The Classroom

For most of the year, I was ready to call Blackberry the best film of the year (and you really ought to see it), but no, it’s The Holdovers. A truly lovely film that heavily recalls the early work of Tobias Wolff, Peter Bogdanovich, and maybe a little bit of JD Salinger.

Book III: God first appears/Three is the number of the Trinity Book IV: Man first appears/Four is the number of man, the earth Book VII: Creation is first described/Seven days in the creation week Book VIII: Sex is first described/Eight is the number of new beginnings Book XIII: The twelve tribes of Israel are firstContinue reading “Numerology In Paradise Lost”

In addition to the four 2021-2022 classes already announced, next year I am offering a class through GibbsClassical.com specifically for humanities teachers. Young teachers have it rough. To begin with, they are often only a few years older than their students. A lack of experience often leads to a lack of confidence, and yet youngContinue reading “A Class For Humanities Teachers”

When teaching the Comedy, it is often the same student who claims that “all sin is the same in God’s eyes” that also most heartily objects to Dante’s insinuation that gluttony is worse than lust.

Today, my sophomore Humanities class began a four week study of Hamlet, and I opened our time in the play with a few comments on Harold Bloom’s introductory essay to Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. The lecture is available to download by clicking here.

Today, one of my more capable rhetoric students said she practiced her speeches in different accents, which made her more aware of the words she was speaking. Quite clever. Such awareness is often quite difficult for rookie writers, so I was doubly impressed.