Had a question for this week’s show you didn’t get to ask? Email 1smartmama@gmail.com or comment on this post for an answer!

Coming soon from 1 Smart Mama

Ongoing events

• Follow Leigh on BlogTalkRadio to be eligible for weekly giveaways!
  Go to www.blogtalkradio.com/1smartmama. On the left side of the page, under the image, click “follow,” and then register for a free account on BlogTalkRadio. (You can also use your Facebook account.) Once you’re signed in, you’ll be able to follow the show. As a follower, you’ll receive notifications about upcoming shows, and you’ll be eligible for the weekly giveaway of a book or product related to the show.
• To stay connected, “Like” us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/classicalconversations), and follow us on Twitter: @CC_Bookstore and @ClassicalConv.

Notes from today’s show

• To order your own copy of today’s giveaway, Climbing Parnassus, visit the CC Bookstore.
• Read a Q&A with the author, Tracy Lee Simmons, from the National Review Online.
• Alicia Glendenning is the Illinois State Manager for Classical Conversations.
• Jessica Herbert is the incoming Foundations/Essentials director for CC Tampa.
• Nikki Wilcox is in her first year at CC.
• To find a homeschool convention in your area, visit Great Homeschool Conventions, Home School Conventions, or Christian Homeschool Curriculum Conventions.
• Visit the CC Events Calendar to find conferences at which Classical Conversations will be present.
• Use the zip code finder at the top of the page at Classicalconversations.com to find a CC Community in your area.
• If you have fears about the results of homeschooling through high school, check out this PDF about The Challenge Difference.
• Learn more about the face of the home education movement from the National Home Education Research Institute.
• Classical Conversations’ Parent Practicums help instill confidence in parents, giving them tools and support.
• Nikki, on the long-term benefits of homeschooling: “I learned how to work independently, and to motivate myself, and I see so many ways that that has benefited my husband and I…We’re both very comfortable with just going, reading something on how to do it, and then doing it.”

Thanks for listening!

A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children…
–Proverbs 13:22

If you’ve been around me for any length of time, you’ve probably heard my gorilla story, about the conflicting messages that public school teachers face. Because most of us were educated in that same public school system, we have to fight to retrain our own minds as well as those of our children.

Classical education is all about modeling. One reason students struggle is because they don’t really know what they are to master, how to master it, or why they are to master it. No one models learning for them. Today’s parents were never given the tools of learning, and as a result, they cannot model them for their children.

For many parents, the gift of home-centered education is that we finally receive the education we never had. In Classical Conversations, we are reclaiming two generations at once. Imagine what happens when a husband and wife committed to life-long learning discover how to learn anything. Not only do they begin to restore the educational years that were lost to them, but they teach their children to never lose them in the first place.

Now imagine how well-equipped their children will be when the grandchildren arrive! I can’t help thinking of Ezekiel 37:25: “They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever.”

Well guess what? We’re getting a glimpse of it this week. We have an exciting set of guests for Leigh!@Lunch: Alicia Glendenning, Jessica Herbert, and Nikki Wilcox. These three women are part of a new movement we’re thrilled to see at Classical Conversations — second-generation homeschoolers.

Having been classically home-educated, both Alicia Glendenning and her husband Luke saw the value in home education. Alicia is the Illinois State Manager for Classical Conversations. Jessica Herbert’s appreciation of her own homeschooling experience gave her the heart to offer the same blessing to her own children. Jessica was homeschooled through high school and is the incoming Foundations/Essentials director for CC Tampa. Nikki Wilcox is in her first year at CC but not in her first year of homeschooling. She is the mother of four, with two already enrolled in CC.

These women’s stories are a beautiful reminder to rest in the Lord’s promise that “from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children” (Psalm 103:17).

Tune in Wednesday at 12 noon EST to join the conversation! Click here to go directly to the show.

On April 30, 1789, Washington was inaugurated as president. In his inaugural address, he asked the people of the United States to weigh his presidency by both his motives and his accomplishments.

On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love…On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my Country called me… could not but overwhelm with dispondence, one, who, inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpractised in the duties of civil administration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions, all I dare aver, is, that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance, by which it might be affected. All I dare hope, is, that, if in executing this task I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof, of the confidence of my fellow-citizens; and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me; my error will be palliated by the motives which misled me, and its consequences be judged by my Country, with some share of the partiality in which they originated.

As we celebrate Washington’s Birthday today, also known as Presidents’ Day (officially celebrated since the late 1800s), we have the opportunity to do just that. We study history and government to judge each president’s actions and decisions. We examine his duties in Article II of the U.S. Constitution:

Clause 1: The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

Clause 2: He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

Clause 3: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Then, we use tools acquired from studying literature to read the president’s speeches and letters. We attempt to gauge his motives, principles, and worldview. In the process, we learn to celebrate each president’s heroism and accomplishments while acknowledging weakness and sin.

Ultimately, as Washington says in his speech, human frailty sends us back to the One whose providential aid, both then and now, “can supply every human defect,” “consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the People of the United States, a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes,” and “enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success, the functions allotted to his charge.”

Happy Presidents’ Day!

Stratford Caldecott, in his book Beauty for Truth’s Sake, begins a discussion on the reality of beauty which is, of course, a major discussion within the quadrivium. One of the goals of the quadrivium is to equip man to discuss real space.

I found these ideas on why “beauty is essential, and what happens when it is neglected…from Hans Urs von Balthasar in his seven-volume work The Glory of the Lord” especially inspiring:

“We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance” (30).

Elsewhere he describes what happens when the relationship that should exist between nature and grace is destroyed, and beauty is lost after all: Then the whole of worldly being falls under the dominion of “knowledge,” and the spring and forces of love immanent in the world are overpowered and finally suffocated by science, technology and cybernetics.

The result is a world without women, without children, without reverence for love in poverty and humiliation—a world in which power and the profit-margin are the sole criteria, where the disinterested, the useless, the purposeless is despised, persecuted and in the end exterminated—a world in which art itself is forced to wear the mask and features of technique. (31)

Thus the person who sneers at beauty “can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love” (32).

Prayer can only be motivated by a love that reveals the beauty we long for, denial of which cuts off at its root the ability to pray.

Come here more in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 10. Register at towardthequadrivium.com.

Love, Leigh

Had a question for this week’s show you didn’t get to ask? Email 1smartmama@gmail.com or comment on this post for an answer!

Coming soon from 1 Smart Mama

Ongoing events

• Follow Leigh on BlogTalkRadio to be eligible for weekly giveaways!
  Go to www.blogtalkradio.com/1smartmama. On the left side of the page, under the image, click “follow,” and then register for a free account on BlogTalkRadio. (You can also use your Facebook account.) Once you’re signed in, you’ll be able to follow the show. As a follower, you’ll receive notifications about upcoming shows, and you’ll be eligible for the weekly giveaway of a book or product related to the show.
• To stay connected, “Like” us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/classicalconversations), and follow us on Twitter: @CC_Bookstore and @ClassicalConv.

Notes from today’s show

• To see details about today’s giveaway, the 2011 Toward the Quadrivium event 3-DVD set, visit the CC Bookstore.
• Rivendell Sanctuary is sponsoring the 2012 Toward the Quadrivium event. One of our previous speakers, Nancy Pearcey (listen to her interview on L@L now), is a cohort leader of Rivendell’s junior college program.
• Dr. Stokes is a Senior Fellow of Philosophy at New Saint Andrew’s College.
• His family has worked closely with The Logos School in Moscow, Idaho.
• Plato’s Republic lays out the seven studies of a true leader — the seven liberal arts of the Quadrivium — in its discussion of education and the philosopher-king.
• Patrick Henry College, Bryan College, and Saint Thomas Aquinas College are other examples of colleges with a strong emphasis on the liberal arts.
• Dr. Stokes has written A Shot of Faith (to the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists (coming in April), in part as a response to books by “new atheists” such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins.
• He is the author of biographies on Isaac Newton and Galileo as part of the Christian Encounters series, aimed for college students to adults, but accessible to students middle school and up.
• Daniel Dennett is the author of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life.
• Nancy Pearcey’s book The Soul of Science explores the history of science as an expression of faith.
• Alvin Plantinga is a professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, recently retired, who was very influential for Dr. Stokes. He is the author of: 
  • Warranted Christian Belief (2000)
    
  • Warrant and Proper Function (1993)
  • Warrant: the Current Debate (1993)
  • Does God Have a Nature? (1980)
  • God, Freedom & Evil (1974)
  • The Nature of Necessity (1974)
  • God and Other Minds (1967)
• Dr. Stokes says that ideally, by the time students finish high school, they should be able to understand the basics of Calculus. Before we can accomplish this goal, we must solidify the basics of math education.
• He recommends teaching high school geometry through Euclid’s method in Elements.
• He says that having basic arithmetic mastered is key to these upper level math goals. (See chapter 6 of The Core.) “Don’t have them pass go until they know those things.”
• Dr. Stokes says math is not just for “math geeks.” Rather, “Understanding mathematics…is not a luxury. You have to know it. If you don’t, you really can’t say you understand the liberal arts or classical, Christian culture. It’s that important.”
• Leigh recommends Beauty for Truth’s Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education by Caldecott, which presents a similar idea.
• Find out more about Dr. Stokes’s interests and projects at nsa.edu/academics/mitchellstokes.php.
• Go to Towardthequadrivium.com to find out more about this year’s event and to register.

Thanks for listening!

Had a question for this week’s show you didn’t get to ask? Email 1smartmama@gmail.com or comment on this post for an answer!

Coming soon from 1 Smart Mama

Ongoing events

• Follow Leigh on BlogTalkRadio to be eligible for weekly giveaways!
  Go to www.blogtalkradio.com/1smartmama. On the left side of the page, under the image, click “follow,” and then register for a free account on BlogTalkRadio. (You can also use your Facebook account.) Once you’re signed in, you’ll be able to follow the show. As a follower, you’ll receive notifications about upcoming shows, and you’ll be eligible for the weekly giveaway of a book or product related to the show.
• To stay connected, “Like” us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/classicalconversations), and follow us on Twitter: @CC_Bookstore and @ClassicalConv.

Notes from today’s show

• To see details about today’s giveaway, the Classical Acts and Facts History Cards (coming soon!), visit the CC Bookstore.
• The Foundations Guide, 4th edition is now on sale! Order your copy today.
• On the CC Bookstore website, find sample pages from the new edition as well as graphics describing the changes. If budget is a concern, you can still use your 3rd edition guide with the help of these resources.
• New supplementary resources such as audio CDs and flashcards will be arriving soon. As each new product becomes available, CC families will receive notice in the Postcards newsletter as well as in a separate product release email.
• The Veritas Press timeline is still referenced in the appendices of the Foundations Guide, for families going through a transition period. Directors will have access to a transition document they can share with their families to help with the change.
• Other new products coming soon are the Geography Trivium Tables for cycles 1-3 and the Latin Trivium Table. See a visual sample on the CC Bookstore. The layout will be similar to the Quid et Quo and English Grammar Trivium Tables.
• Listen to the archive of Denise and Kathy Sheppard’s conversation about Latin on Leigh!@Lunch a few weeks ago.
• Check out the new 2012 online magazine/catalog for more products from Classical Conversations as well as articles about classical education, testing, homeschool dads, Latin, and more.
• The CC Writers Circle blog has been updated to include more search features. Go to www.classicalconversations.com/easyblog to see the new features. To subscribe or comment, log in to CC Connected (either as a subscription or a guest member). This blog is part of the free portion of CC Connected.

Thanks for listening!

Currently, the first scheduled standardized tests are set for March, so register today for lower costs. As you gear up for testing season, listen to the archive of Shannon Brown’s interview on Leigh!@Lunch. Her words will encourage you that it’s possible to reduce anxiety and even learn to celebrate the testing process.

A Memory Master is a student who has mastered all of the material for a given Foundations cycle. This optional track was designed to encourage excellence in subject grammar memorization and recitation, skills that serve students well along their educational journey. (Read more about the Memory Master Challenge here.) What does a Memory Master look like? Here is a video of one of our students, Emily, presenting her knowledge of Geography and Math.

Visit ClassicalConversationsBooks.com to purchase these resources today.

Had a question for this week’s show you didn’t get to ask? Email 1smartmama@gmail.com or comment on this post for an answer!

Coming soon from 1 Smart Mama

Ongoing events

• Follow Leigh on BlogTalkRadio to be eligible for weekly giveaways!
  Go to www.blogtalkradio.com/1smartmama. On the left side of the page, under the image, click “follow,” and then register for a free account on BlogTalkRadio. (You can also use your Facebook account.) Once you’re signed in, you’ll be able to follow the show. As a follower, you’ll receive notifications about upcoming shows, and you’ll be eligible for the weekly giveaway of a book or product related to the show.
• To stay connected, “Like” us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/classicalconversations), and follow us on Twitter: @CC_Bookstore and @ClassicalConv.

Notes from today’s show

• To purchase your own copy of today’s giveaway, the Trig-Trainer, visit the CC Bookstore.
• James Nickel is the author of Mathematics: Is God Silent? (Ross House, 2001).
• Mr. Nickel’s website is biblicalchristianworldview.net. Here, you can find articles, essays (see Mathematical Circles), quotes, and news updates.
• Coming soon! Mr. Nickel will be an adjunct professor at Rivendell Sanctuary, an 18-month junior college with a biblical worldview in Minnesota. Nancy Pearcey has also taught through this program.
• The Geometer’s Sketchpad is a software resource that Mr. Nickel recommends to help students visualize trigonometry.
• Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and astronomer from the 6th century B.C. He authored the Pythagorean Theorem to describe the ratio of triangles’ sides and angles. The classic “3-4-5″ rule, used in architecture, derives from this theory.
• Pythagoras used theories of harmonics to describe the movement of the moon and planets (The Music of the Spheres). Read astronomer and physicist Johannes Kepler’s 1619 publication The Harmonies of the World, which explores the same concept.
• Even President James Garfield wrote a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem! Read his and others’ proofs here. Other scientists and mathematicians build on Pythagoras’s and Kepler’s work. Even Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion develop from it.
• According to Mr. Nickel, the last mathematician to grasp mathematics in its entirety was the German Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855).
• Mr. Nickel recommends Jerry P. King’s book The Art of Mathematics to find the connection between worship and utility in math.
• One of our listeners also recommends The Star of Bethlehem, a DVD that demonstrates the beauty of astronomy.
• In his devotional My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes, “Nature to a saint is sacramental.  If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in Nature.  In every wind that blows, in every night and day of the year, in every sign of the sky, in every blossoming and in every withering of the earth, there is a real coming of God to us if we will simply use our starved imagination to realize it.”
• The difference between Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry is explained here. Euclid’s Elements, dealing with the geometry of flat space, was written around 330 B.C. Read it here.
• In studying mathematics, Mr. Nickel says, “Biblical Christians need to set the standard, even though ‘they’ have already set it…The Christian goes a step further…Don’t just rely on your math textbook. There’s a ton of extra resources out there.” Find and order some of those resources on the Mathematical Circles section of Mr. Nickel’s website.

Further reading

• Mr. Nickel’s first published work was the essay “The Love of God,” printed in New York pastor Malcolm Smith‘s monthly report “The Living Word.”
• Learn more about his background and the reasons he wrote the book in “Why James Nickel Wrote ‘Mathematics: Is God Silent?’” (PDF).
• The title of Mr. Nickel’s book came from Larry Zimmerman’s series of essays in The Biblical Educator newsletter.
• The book Foundations of Christian Scholarship: Essays in the Van Til Perspective started Mr. Nickel on his journey toward biblical teaching. Professor Vern S. Poythress’s essay “A Biblical View of Mathematics” was particularly influential.
• A selection of the math books that Mr. Nickel used to begin his study of the history of mathematics includes: James R. Newman’s four-volume The World of Mathematics, An Introduction to the History of Mathematics by Howard Eves, Mathematics by David Bergamini, and Mathematics in Western Culture by Morris Kline.
• Also by Morris Kline: “Mathematics: From Precision to Doubt in 100 Years” in Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty (1980) and Mathematics and the Physical World.
• Another author responds to the need for Christian curriculum in math and science is R. J. Rushdoony. His monthly Chalcedon Report has now become the Chalcedon website. Works by Rushdoony include Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum, The One and the Many, By What Standard? and The Mythology of Science.
• Stanley L. Jaki is the author of The Road of Science and the Ways to God and Science and Creation: From Eternal Cycles to an Oscillating Universe.
• One of our listeners also recommends Mathematics for the Millions by Lancelot Hogben.
• Find more resources on the “Links” page of BiblicalChristianWorldview.net.

Thanks for listening!

What is more, doing math is a little like playing the violin: it takes a lot of practice to reach a level of proficiency, and until you reach proficiency, neither pursuit feels or sounds pleasant.

And then you have the vague concept of “biblical math.” What does that mean?  Are we supposed to substitute “shekels” and “pigeons” for “apples” and “oranges” in all of our children’s word problems? Do we use Noah’s ark to teach binary numbers? Or is there more to it than that?

This is the point where many of us throw up our hands and admit defeat. If math itself is so difficult, how can we hope to teach it in accordance with a Christian worldview?

These are tough questions, but we need to be asking them.

2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” If we claim that Christ is Lord of the entire universe, we have to include math in that equation.

Thankfully, we’re not alone in seeking answers. Tomorrow’s guest on Leigh@Lunch, James Nickel, is the author of Mathematics: Is God Silent?. He will also be a speaker at our Toward the Quadrivium event in March. A math lover, Mr. Nickel has dedicated his life to the question, “How does one teach mathematics from a truly Biblical Christian perspective?”

It may encourage you to hear that he wasn’t born knowing the answer. If you haven’t read the book yet or are hearing about James Nickel for the first time, I encourage you to check out a short (20-page) essay explaining why he felt led to write this book and describing his quest to understand how mathematics fits into the handiwork of God. In it, he describes a moment of revelation that occurred when he began to study the history of mathematics:

Kline also quoted some amazing statements made by Johannes Kepler – psalms of praise to God as a result of his planetary observations. I had never seen or heard anything like it! Here is one quote from Kepler’s 1619 publication The Harmonies of the World:

“The wisdom of the Lord is infinite; so also are His glory and His power. Ye heavens, sing His praises! Sun, moon, and planets glorify Him in your ineffable language! Celestial harmonies, all ye who comprehend His marvelous works, praise Him. And thou, my soul, praise thy Creator! It is by Him and in Him that all exists. That which we know best is comprised in Him, as well as in our vain science. To him be praise, honor, and glory throughout eternity.”

It was through the careful study of Kline’s book, Mathematics and the Physical World, that my eyes were opened (so, “this” is what all “that” meant in college!). I entered the mathematical Elysium; a region furnished with rich fields, groves, shades, streams – a domain of delight consisting of the pleasurable beholding of God’s great and marvelous works as per Psalm 111:2, “The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.”

I hope you’ll join us tomorrow!

Math may always be a challenging “foreign language” for some of us, but as we share glimpses of the purpose and glory of math, we can all be encouraged to keep stumbling forward toward the next “aha!” moment. Working together, we can demolish the argument that God has nothing to do with mathematics.

Read the complete essay: Why James Nickel Wrote “Mathematics: Is God Silent?” (PDF)