Food for Thought ~ Memory, Liberal Arts, Science, and More

 

:: How Memorization Feeds Your Imagination @ The Gospel Coalition

This is a fantastic series. Go read it!

But the craft of memorization is not just for our internal uses; like most crafts it has practical application. “As an art, memory was most importantly associated in the Middles Ages with composition, not simply with retention,” say Carruthers. “Those who practiced the crafts of memory used them—as all crafts are used—to make new things: prayers, meditations, sermons, pictures, hymns, stories, and poems.”

:: What are the liberal arts? @ Simply Convivial

Need a concise introduction to the liberal arts? Here it is!

:: We don’t need more STEM majors. We need more STEM majors with liberal arts training. @ The Washington Post

To innovate is to introduce change. While STEM workers can certainly drive innovation through science alone, imagine how much more innovative students and employees could be if the pool of knowledge from which they draw is wider and deeper. That occurs as the result of a liberal arts education.

:: How Geography is History’s Secret Weapon @ AfterThoughts

It is so easy to read history as a child and never grasp the significance of geography — all these faceless people and characterless settings we read about. And I tend to be drawn to the ideas of history, it’s true. But at the end of the day, one of the primary ways God has directed history is through creation’s topography.

:: The unexpected math behind Van Gogh's "Starry Night" - Natalya St. Clair @ TED-Ed

(For some art, math, and astronomy. Thanks for the share, Kristin Grear!)

 

:: Why Charlotte Mason Families Should Study Astronomy @ AfterThoughts

In my opinion, observation is the true heart of all education. Indeed, education is most effective when it arises from a natural curiosity, an innate desire on the part of the student to know and understand. This is especially true of science education, which is, after all, nothing more than the close, methodical observation of God’s natural world.

:: The above article leads so nicely into the Classical Conversations Parent Practicum topic for this season: The Art of Inquiry.

We’re excited to announce that the 2015 Parent Practicum theme will be science, emphasizing the building nature of science explorations: they lead to understanding and AWE. We begin with the grammar stage of curiosity and wonder, through the dialectic, and end with the rhetoric stage of awe in the face of dawning understanding. Wonder to wonder!