Señor Boethius wrote:More questions: if given the choice, would you put your kid in a school which teaches a classical curriculum? Do you regret not having one? Have you had one, and do you recommend it?
Ianus wrote:If the Classics were nurtured, instead of ignored, perhaps we may be able to return to a virtuous and enlightened age.
Ianus wrote:Here in Australia, I'm of a rare breed. Classics and renaissance literature are dying, ever so slowly. At Melbourne University for example, many Renaissance Literature courses are being replaced with 'pop-culture' courses on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Desperate Housewives, to give some examples.
I mean, come on, Buffy the Vampire Slayer???
In fact, at my high school I'm considered strange because I read Ovid!
Señor Boethius wrote:As for schools dumbing down their curriculum, this has been going on for a long time. The idea that students should choose their own classes is a great misfortune; schools treat students like customers instead of students. Harvard started the fad back in the early 1900's, I believe, and other schools followed. If given a choice, what 18 year old would choose Ovid over Buffy? (Present Textkitters excluded, of course).
the Classics are something which must be approached, not something which can be imposed upon somebody
I am wary of somebody who does not know me well giving me an exact prescription for what I study. Something deep inside me resists being put dispassionately into an educational formula, to be processed in some standardized education machine.
Señor Boethius wrote: I think a college like St. John's is ideal for a liberal arts education.
Señor Boethius wrote:Imagine a school where the students start learning Latin, Greek, math, and geography from a very young age. Imagine those students having a sequential curriculum that taught them history and literature and science so they could actually see how everything relates to each other. Imagine students in high school reading Homer and Plato in Greek and Ovid and Seneca in Latin. This has happened in the past for a few lucky individuals. Imagine, GlottalGreekGeek, other students taking Greek with you and a teacher competent to teach it. Perhaps this is a dream, but if done correctly, it would be an amazing liberal arts education. If done incorrectly, it would be the nightmare that you fear.
Francisco de Quevedo's Desde la torre:
Retirado en la paz de estos desiertos,
con pocos, pero doctos libros juntos,
vivo en conversación con los difuntos
y escucho con mis ojos a los muertos.
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