Teach me to care and not to care.
This often happens: a taste or two into a $15 bottle of red, I think, “This is so good, I should go back and buy a case.” And yet, halfway through the second glass, I think, “This is actually a bit too sweet to be all that interesting.”
It is easy to confuse sweetness, which is easy to like, for goodness.
“Of all sentient beings, humans are unique in this: once spiritually broken, they can be repaired. Like angels, man may fall. Like animals, man may die. But unlike angels and animals, between the falling and the dying, a human being may be restored to God.
A classical education is the education that naturally follows from this premise.”
-From Only Man Can Be Healed, my latest for CiRCE
I bought this one on the basis of hot recommendations from Sofia Coppola and Nick Hornby (both of whom I trust pretty far) and found it so good, I had to pace myself to make it last.
I liked it so much, in fact, that I really didn’t care how badly it ended (I am terribly picky about endings), but I found the last twenty pages immensely satisfying. The best new novel I’ve read since My Year Of Rest and Relaxation.
I’m On A Roll This Time, the latest episode of Proverbial, begins a run of shows devoted to the sayings of Boethius.
First up: “Bad fortune is of more use to men than good fortune.”
On June 9, at 8:00pm EST, I am delivering “Reconciling Beauty and Progress,” a free webinar for newsletter subscribers to GibbsClassical.com.
Beauty is rightly understood as an overflow, a surplus, and a gratuity. Beauty contributes nothing to our survival. Beauty is luxury and privilege. On the other hand, progress is now a cultural pursuit typically associated with Marxism, socialism, egalitarianism, and equality. What could beauty and progress possibly have to do with each other? Quite a bit, in fact.
In this forthcoming webinar, I will address the hidden, paradoxical connection between a traditional understanding of beauty and a common-sense approach to cultural progress.
This video will not be available as a recording.
“A Presbyterian teacher should sound like a Presbyterian, not ‘a Christian.’ A Lutheran teacher should sound like a Lutheran, not ‘a Christian.’ An ecumenical school must be on guard to not create an image of ‘a Christian’ for students which is generic, vague, non-committal, and more concerned for diplomacy than truth. I would rather my own daughters hear about the rapture from their teachers—an idea I do not take seriously—than for them to constantly hear ‘everybody believes different things about the future.’ That’s just secularism with a cross on top.”
-from Keeping An Ecumenical Project From Becoming Generic And Gutless
“As a philosophy teacher, I think coaches have it pretty good. Coaches never struggle to convey the importance of their work. Because the work of coaches is more important than the work of teachers, coaches are allowed to speak to students passionately, realistically, and without sentimentality. Part of the reason kids take sports seriously is because coaches yell, ‘Get your head in the game, Mason! Quit messing around! What’s wrong with you?!’ when they need to.
Philosophy teachers aren’t allowed to talk like that, though. In most cases, philosophy teachers have to say encouraging piffle like, ‘So, you’ve done some interesting things in this essay, and I see some positive signs of good progress, but I still think you can make improvements in the following areas.’ Sounds real important, right? Yawn.“
-From We Need Fewer Philosophy Teachers And More Philosophy Coaches, my latest for CiRCE
Registration is now open on GibbsClassical.com for all 2021-2022 classes. There are a limited number of Student level openings in Foundations of Modern Politics, British Ladies of the Nineteenth Century, The Divine Comedy for Beginners, and Modern Romance: The Cult of Courtly Love in Theory, Literature, and Film. All these classes have an Auditor option, as well. Additionally, there are 16 slots open for Teaching High School Humanities for Beginners.
The 2021-2022 year is a significant expansion on last year’s GibbsClassical.com offerings. I am deeply grateful for all the interest shown in my work and for the support of readers, subscribers, and Proverbial listeners. Thank you very much.
“What is Christian Culture? It is essentially the Mass. That is not my or anyone’s opinion or theory or wish but the central fact of two thousand years of history.”
-John Senior, The Restoration of Christian Culture (1983)
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 young teachers have a habit of creating overly ambitious lesson plans. When they fall behind, they lose sight of the real purpose of a classical education, which is the cultivation of virtue. I have been there myself.
In Teaching High School Humanities for Beginners, I am offering instruction to young humanities teachers on a wide range of issues, from lecturing to writing letters of recommendation. While the class runs (between September 7 and December 7), teachers enrolled in this class can email me their catechisms, quizzes and assessments, parent emails, replies to parent emails, and questions about individual student/faculty issues and receive a response within 36 hours. This class is geared toward first through third year humanities teachers, although seasoned veterans are free to enroll, as well.
My goal is to give young humanities teachers the instruction and perspective they need to be confident and competent behind the lectern. I take a common sense, unsentimental approach to classroom management and welcome blunt questions about everything related to school life. Registration will open for Teaching High School Humanities for Beginners (and all four other 2021-2022 GibbsClassical.com classes) this Friday, May 21st.
Enrollment is limited to 16.
Here are the rest of the details:
Teaching High School Humanities for Beginners / 14 weeks ($450)
Tuesday evenings at 8:00pm EST, September 7 through December 7
Class sessions run 65 minutes.
Curriculum: The Restoration of Christian Culture by John Senior; The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis; Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy
A few topics covered in this course: The current state of classical Christian education (and the individual teacher’s place within the movement); choosing and defending your curriculum; the “discipleship model” of education (and its relative merits); the “read and discuss” lesson plan; life outside the classroom & negotiating school politics; writing and grading good assessments; classroom management; parent management; the character and personality of the teacher as a teaching tool; the art of the lecture.
There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity.