This is the first post in a series containing various information from my CC Parent Practicum speaking notes for those interested. If you attended the practicum and have questions or requests for specific information, please leave me a message in the comments or email me at heidi (at) poetsgarden (dot) com.
Classical, Christian Education
A good introduction to the form of Classical Education:
What is a Classical Christian Education? @ Family. Your Way.
The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers (the complete essay)
Leigh Bortins and Andrew Kern discussing the seven liberal arts with a focus on the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). Phenomenal.
Mathematics
The best article I have read about the mathematics within the framework of classical education (don’t miss this one!):
The Purpose of Mathematics in a Classical Education by Thomas Teloar @ The Imaginative Conservative
“The study of mathematics should instill in students an ever-increasing sense of wonder and awe at the profound way in which the world displays order, pattern, and relation. Mathematics is studied not because it is first useful and then beautiful, but because it reveals the beautiful order inherent in the cosmos.” (from The Education Plan of St. Jerome Classical School, Hyattsville, MD)
And
“The mathematics curriculum in a classical education will seek to promote the understanding of order and harmony in the universe. Mathematics, as a language, reveals this order and harmony, yet it should also be lifted from this concrete foundation and brought into the world of the abstract. The study of mathematics will engage this endeavor by training students in the context in which the discovery of its concepts arose as well as the reasoning which provides its structure. Although the study of mathematics has fallen well short of this purpose in modern times, its implementation will deepen a classical education.”
How to Teach Math Classically by Bill Carey:
Bill Carey on Math as A Humanities Subject (If you have the time, watch this video. The quality isn’t great, but the content is excellent!) This video was recorded before a group of high school students at a classical school and would be a fun one to share with your own students!
Thank you for posting such rich and interesting ideas about math and how it is so connected to humanities. I watched the videos of Bill Carey and he encouraged me to relax a bit more with teaching math and look at the history behind it. His perspective is brilliant! Thank you so much for your posts Heidi! We are excited to be joining a CC just starting in our town. I never would have gone to the info. meeting if I had not known about CC through your blog. Thank you!!
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