He writes, “The vision of Christian education is radical because it stems from the conviction that any and every education is rooted (Latin: radix) in some worldview, some constellation of ultimate beliefs.”  I love this image, especially given our recent conversations about astronomy and the quadrivium as well as the Mandala Fellowship.

Smith goes on to remind us that it is not enough for Christian education (whether in a private school or a home school) to provide a “safe” education:

“The impetus for Christian schooling is not a protectionist concern, driven by fear, to sequester children from the big, bad world. Christian schools are not meant to be moral bubbles or holy huddles where children are encouraged to stick their heads in the sand.

Rather, Christian schools are called to be like Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia: not safe, but good. Instead of antiseptic moral bubbles, Christian schools are moral incubators that help students not only to see the glories of God’s creation but also to discern and understand the brokenness of this fallen world.”

He adds, “In short, Christian schools are not a withdrawal from the world; they are a lens and microscope through which to see the world in all its broken beauty.”  What does a lens do? It gathers light and either converges (focuses) it or disperses (spreads) it. Some lenses correct our vision. Some magnify an image and enable us to see details more clearly. Others lenses can light a fire.

As theologian Robert Lewis Dabney wrote in the late 19th century, “Every line of true knowledge must find its completeness as it converges on God, just as every beam of daylight leads the eye to the sun.”

What a beautiful illustration of true education!

(*This article was linked through the Acton Institute blog.)

He writes,

I had the honor of being one of the first male full time tutors in Greensboro. Two of them that I know of are graduating from college tomorrow, one is getting married in July and many others are in different parts of the country fulfilling their dreams. I am so proud of all of them.

Congratulations to the Challenge B class of 2003-2004! You have come far, and I wish you great success on all of your future endeavors. Thank you for making us so proud.

And a rousing congratulations to Ben, also! Thank you for being an ambassador to all the Smart Dads out there who want to take a more active role in their families’ home schools.

Do you have a story about an early Classical Conversations community? If so, we would love to hear it! Leave a comment here or share photos and stories on Facebook (www.facebook.com/classicalconversations) or Twitter (@ClassicalConv), using the hashtag #classicaled.

Ongoing events

• Follow Leigh on BlogTalkRadio to be notified as additional shows are posted.
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Notes from the show

• The Mandala Fellowship will be a 10-month residential program in Moore County, North Carolina for students ages 18-21. Starting in June of 2013, twenty-four young adults (twelve men and twelve women) will be invited to participate in the first year of the Mandala Fellowship. They will work and study as a community as they investigate the Quadrivium.
• The Quadrivium completes the remaining four of the seven liberal arts. It includes arithmetic (how numbers work), geometry (how shapes work), harmonics (how numbers move in space), and astronomy (how shapes move in space). Andrew Kern of the CiRCE Institute described this in greater detail on an earlier Leigh! @ Lunch.
• Psalm 96:6 provides the program’s statement of mission and purpose.  A guiding question will be, “How do the complexities of the creation converge with the unity of our faith?”
• We use the image of the mandala, from the Sanskrit word for “circle”, because it refers to the convergence of complexity and unity. One example is the early diagrams of the harmony of the stars in Johannes Kepler’s 1609 New Astronomy (De motib. stellae Martis). Listen from 30:00 to 34:04 to hear why we have chosen these (often misunderstood) terms.
• The fellowship is not a gap program for students who are not yet ready for college, or a preparatory program, or a graduate program. It is an opportunity for young people to get together without the burden of credits and assessment to contemplate as Scripture calls us to do.
• The fellowship will combine active studying of the Quadrivium arts—music in theory and practice, mathematics, and astronomy in theory and observation—with internships, service projects, and travel experiences.
• The annual Mid-Atlantic Star Party in Robbins, N.C. (Moore County) draws people from all over the world because of the ideal conditions for looking at the nighttime skies. This will be a regular event for the Mandala Fellows.
• A two-week European tour is planned for August and will be included in the cost of tuition. In the fall, students will hike 17 miles down the Appalachian Trail. They will take a ski trip during the winter. At the end of the term, we will invite parents and members of the community for a Mandala Celebration of the students’ accomplishments, including art and music projects.
• The first group of students will be chosen by December 31, 2012, so students should begin the application process early. Information will be available soon at MandalaFellowship.com. For now, email CustomerService@classicalconversations.com with questions or to request an application. The most important qualification will be the student’s desire and willingness to learn.
• The cost of the program will be $15,000 for the year, which will include housing, meals, travel, tuition, and most supplies and books.

Thanks for listening!

Christina Rossetti, [Sonnets are full of love]

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.

All four arts of the Quadrivium—and notice that Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music are arts, not subjects—deal with numbers and measurement. Arithmetic is synonymous with number; geometry is defined as number in space; harmony is understood as number in time; astronomy encompasses number in both space and time.

Have you ever wondered why the Bible spends entire chapters describing the dimensions of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 6-7)? The meticulous attention to detail is a model of excellent craftsmanship, but it is also puzzling. Even Solomon asked, “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27).

Well, many generations later, he had his answer. The Word became flesh. The Eternal entered time. Language and space were reunited at the Incarnation in the person of Immanuel, God-with-us. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Christ], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).

That’s why we cannot afford to neglect the physical arts of the Quadrivium. These arts, just as much as the language arts of the Trivium, reveal the Lord’s character and His great plan of redemption.

Today, I challenge you to take a second look.

Should—This is an auxiliary (helping) verb telling us more about the verb “be.” Specifically, “should” is a modal verb (one that only exists in auxiliary form). It describes what is right or correct, and it also recommends action in order to achieve what the sentence says “should” be. It expresses obligation and expectation: we have a responsibility not to feel excluded.

No realm—As an adjective, “no” means “not any.” Think about it. What are some realms of human endeavor? Sending rockets into space. Giving a speech before Congress. Performing in one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Cooking a seven-course meal. Solving a differential equation. Building a house. Weaving a tapestry. Painting a still life. Playing one of Beethoven’s sonatas.

Are you backpedaling yet?

Let’s draw a useful distinction here. I may never paint the next Mona Lisa. Playing professional basketball is not part of my ten-year plan. However, I can learn the mechanics of accurately shooting a free throw. I can learn to draw the basic lines and strokes that Da Vinci used.

Each of us is gifted in certain areas, and furthermore, we may struggle against physical or mental limitations all our lives. That doesn’t mean we have to feel excluded from a particular realm of human endeavor. (See below.)

Human endeavor—When I was typing this sentence, my brain was tempted to switch out the less familiar “endeavor” for the more familiar “experience.” What a difference that would make!  An endeavor is a strenuous effort, an attempt. It comes from the Middle English “endeveren,” which comes from the phrase “putten in devoir,” which means “to make an effort, assume responsibility.” By contrast, “experience” refers to actual participation or acquired knowledge: the end, not the journey.

I think about Helen Keller. Deaf and blind, she nonetheless made strenuous effort throughout her life not to be constrained by her physical limitations. She “heard” Franklin D. Roosevelt speak by touching his lips. She felt the vibrations of the great violinist Jascha Heifetz. She endured frustration and struggle to graduate from college and become an international speaker. There was no realm of human effort beyond her reach.

Finally,

Feel yourself excluded—Notice that the sentence does not say “from which you are excluded.” I do not want to minimize the challenges that we all face. Political upheaval, violence, persecution, poverty, and illness exclude many people around this nation and the world from the privileges we enjoy. We are called to be representatives of Christ in those situations, serving, healing, and restoring as we are able.

But whatever our circumstances, we ought to attempt to live fully and freely as children of God.  Even though we may not accomplish (“experience”) something concrete in return for our efforts, we are still free to try (“endeavor”).

To say, “That’s not for me. I’m not a math person,” or “I could never learn Latin; I only do well with numbers” is to feel yourself excluded from a realm of human endeavor. Instead, we should say, “Math is difficult for me, but I will work hard to master basic arithmetic so that I can model determination for my nine-year-old daughter.” Or, “I love the beautiful order of mathematics, so I will work hard to understand the structure and order of language.”

Now, let’s put it all back together. Say it with me slowly: “There should be no realm of human endeavor from which you feel yourself excluded.”

Is that true in your life? In your schooling? More importantly, do you long for it to be true? If so, I encourage you to register for one of our *free* Parent Practicums. This summer, let’s continue to wrestle with this concept of Meeting the Challenge.

Let’s make an effort to replace the feeling of exclusion with one of delight.

* Visit our Event Calendar to find Parent Practicums in your area. Register online today!

While children may learn how to solve specific kinds of math problems from a computerized instructor, they will not learn how God created math as the language of the universe and gave it to us as a gift to uncover His wonders.
– “The Promise of Education Technology“

As a homeschool parent, do you wonder whether or not to use technology in your home school, and if so, how to use it wisely? With so many new devices clamoring for our attention daily, it takes determination and self-control to make technology a learning tool, not a dictator of our lives.

The May issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (Digital) is all about this important question. In it, you can read my article “The Promise of Education Technology” (beginning on page 58), as well as thoughtful commentaries by Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute, Karen Andreola of Charlotte Mason, Diana Waring of History Revealed, and many others.

Read the articles; then close your computer and go talk about the ideas with your family. I promise—your new iPad won’t run away to summer camp while you’re gone.

What a ridiculous question that is!

Being a stay-at-home parent is more than a full-time job; it’s closer to three, four, or five different full-time jobs, only one of which is “educator.”  Even during the summer months, we run between art camps, science fairs, homeschool conventions, doctor’s appointments, shopping trips, family vacations, weekends at the lake, swimming lessons, and sporting events.

Add to that the pressure of keeping up with the latest fads in education and technology, and it’s no wonder that we’re left feeling weary. As David Hicks writes in Norms & Nobility,

“To be sure, the world’s fight and the soul’s salvation are supposed to be timeless themes, but within the context of contemporary literature on education, they sound like the wailing of a flute in the Phrygian mode, antiquated and foreign. [...] There is no room in the elaborate federal grant scheme for a Montaigne, a Kant, or a Van Doren. This research into timely issues affecting our schools and children has supplanted the timeless concerns of the older writers, and in the process, much of the debate over educational policy has centered around how our policy is formulated rather than around what it is or should be” (2).

That’s one of the things I love about classical education. At its heart, classical education asks simple, timeless questions such as “What is man, and what are his purposes?” It challenges, equips, and invigorates the imagination. Its supreme task is to cultivate the human spirit; as Hicks says, “to teach the young to know what is good, to serve it above self, to reproduce it, and to recognize that in knowledge lies this responsibility” (13).

What Hicks does not emphasize is the simple fact that classical education is also the most timely form of education there is. It trains us through the trivium to contemplate ideas that are timeless and point us toward eternity, but through the quadrivium it also teaches us to apply those ideas to the space in which we live right now.

At its heart, classical education liberates us from the demands of timeliness and frees us to celebrate the timeless pursuit of knowing God and making Him known–both now and forever.

What a timely reminder!

Monday is a challenging day for me, because it means that the weekend is over and I have to return to the ordinary stresses and responsibilities that test my strength daily. Returning home from a conference or practicum that provides fellowship and encouragement can be especially disheartening. Catching up on laundry doesn’t feel like much of a victory, does it?

At the end of this weekend’s 2:1 Conference, Rachael Carman of Apologia Books spoke about the pursuit of joy in homeschooling, and I wanted to share one of her illustrations with you this evening. I was encouraged by her words, and I hope you will be as well.

During her talk, Rachael pointed out the similarities between the story of Nehemiah and our own stories:

• …how he grieved over the destruction of a city and the fate of its people as exiles, the same way we grieve over the brokenness of our families and our education.
• …how he called the people to gather as families, not by grade and not according to “tracks” of strength or weakness.
• …how he instructed them to carry both building tools and a sword, just as we aspire to excellence in our curriculum but know that the word of God is our only strength.
• …how these tools enabled Nehemiah and the people of Israel to rebuild a wall, just as we seek to rebuild our families, our education, and our nation.

She reminded us that we are called (in the midst of our particular set of circumstances) to choose joy not as a transitory feeling, but as a reflection of the certain hope that we have been redeemed. We are called to trust His strength, not our own, to rebuild the damaged cities over which we grieve.

What is the “broken wall” in your life? Where do you long to see God’s restoration working?

As I contemplate the broken places in my own life, I am encouraged and challenged by the promises in Nehemiah’s prayer for Jerusalem:

“O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. …Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples,  but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today…” (1:5-11).

Thanks for reading along with me this weekend!

–Jen

Click here to read other 2:1 Conference Recaps by some of the many smart, talented women who attended.

Good morning! It is a gray and cloudy day here at the Holiday Inn outside of Washington, D.C., but the coffee is already brewing, and that signals the start of a good day.

This weekend, I’m representing Classical Conversations at the 2:1 Conference for homeschool bloggers and lovers of social media in all forms. (Follow the conference on Twitter using the hashtag #2to1conf).

Being surrounded by all of these funny, engaging women is a little intimidating, but also extremely encouraging. Not only do I have the chance to hear their personal stories about faith and passion for learning, but I also get a sneak peek at the ways they’re using social media to influence their communities, both local and global.

As part of the conference, one of the other sponsors, Peter Pollock of NewBlogHosting.com, gave attendees a chance to participate in a fundraiser to build wells for villages in Africa through World Vision.

Here I am, wearing one of their t-shirts.  Just for that minor effort on my part, New Blog Hosting will donate $10 to the “well fund.” If you’re ready to step away from free blogs and are looking for a host, it might interest you to know that New Blog Hosting donates $15 to the fund for every new hosting plan they sell. You can find out more at their website, where you can also donate to the fund yourself.

Lest all of the opportunities of this virtual world we live in leave you feeling overwhelmed and inadequate, I want to close with an observation made by the opening speaker at the conference, Rebecca Powell. In her talk, Rebecca reminded the women and men in the room that friends (virtual or IRL) do not form your identity; jobs, blogs, and online personae do not constitute your identity; and even homeschooling and parenting do not determine who you are.

Rather, as she said it so well, “Once you know that God has chosen you, that’s what you rest in.” The rest, while not silence (sorry, Hamlet), is distinctly secondary.

–Jen