I just finished my final essay for my final class for my Masters in Classical Liberal Arts Education from Belmont Abbey. The books on my essay’s bibliography are shown here. These are not all the books on the syllabus. This last class was on the ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy. With many proofs from these texts, I demonstrated that the experience of story in the human soul is essentially the same experience as reality in the human soul, which makes stories as powerful and formative and serious as we all know they are from experience. 

Stories have been the heart of our homeschool. They have formed our souls, especially those we have read more than once. And in the case of the Gospel, a story has saved our lives and changed us forever. So I can’t think of a better way to end this intellectual journey than to be able prove to myself rationally what I have known poetically all along. 

After reading my essay aloud to my family and discussing it, Dwayne tells me he is glad I can cook again now that I’m done and tells the girls, “Get ready for vegetables!” To this, Avril expresses real relief and thankfulness, “Oh good! I can’t remember the last time I had a carrot!” To his credit, Dwayne has been the one cooking for several days to give me time to work, but he would agree he cooks like a bachelor who is trying to bulk. 

Praise and glory be to God. He is the great good from which all lesser goods come to us. My heart is full. My soul is formed. To quote Taylor very loosely, I’m feeling at home with the best of the things that exist, because I have taken their substance into the parlor of my soul.

Sharing the Salt

I recently attended a conference at Belmont Abbey for students of Classical Liberal Arts Education was that was entitled “Sharing Salt." 

It's based on a quote from Book 8 of Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics," his chapter on friendship. The quote says, “It is not possible for people to know each other until they have eaten together the proverbial salt.” So for a few days, those at the conference got to "share salt" by reading and discussing that portion of Aristotle’s Ethics, a portion of The Gospel of John, Willa Cather’s short story “Two Friends,” and John Henry Newman’s sermon on “Love of Relations and Friends." 

I’m grateful for my friends- those at home, and these friends at school, too. The best sort of friends need to be what Aristotle calls “alike in virtue" in the sense that they seek truth together and want to embody truth in virtue, the greatest of which is love of Jesus Christ. 

At the conference, we shared a supra dinner, an amazing experience that lasted for hours and was a true foretaste or the fellowship and overflowing thankfulness and joy believers will share in Heaven. 

We also got to hear from several leaders in Classical Christian Education at the conference, who spoke to us on "salty" topics like "Whether or not Classical Education can be taught in a secular setting" with both sides powerfully represented and "What are the heresies present in current Classical Christian education?"  

I have come home fascinated, and therefore, refreshed and inspired to get back to work in my home and homeschool. 

I'm also dreaming and preparing for work outside my homeschool someday, but... not yet. After all, John Henry Newman says, “The best preparation for loving the world at large, and loving it duly and wisely, is to cultivate an intimate friendship and affection towards those who are immediately about us.”

The Quarrel Between Poetry and Philosophy

I've got one more class before I earn my masters in Classical Liberal Arts Education from Belmont Abbey. 

And I'm devastated. 

I want to continue going to graduate school, because there are a few more graduate-level classes that I have heard about from my classmates that I don't want to miss- one on the quadrivium that includes Euclid, another on rhetoric that includes speeches from Cicero through Lincoln, and one on faith and reason that includes Aquinas.

So obviously, I want to take them all. 

Alas. 

Technically, I have only one more class before I am done. 

But, thankfully, this class includes Plato's Republic. 

I did not want to finish graduate school without reading that book. 

This class also includes Aristotle's Poetics for which I am thankful. 

I love all things Aristotle. 

My graduate studies started with his Categories; It will end with his Poetics, and that seems just as it ought to be in liberal arts education. 

This class also includes The Oedipus Cycle. 

I have only read Oedipus Rex, so I am curious about the other two. Of course, I have heard of Antigone, but I have not read it yet. 

I can't say enough about the effect this course of study has had on my soul and my intellect and my understanding of education. 

So as I begin what may be my last class, my heart is full of gratitude that the Lord's will for my life included this beautiful journey through the Classics. 

Another Semester Begins

 

Another semester of graduate school is well underway. I'm working towards a masters in Classical Liberal Arts Education through Belmont Abbey. We've already read, discussed, and written on Augustine's On Christian Doctrine. This week and next we are reading Beothius' The Consolation of Philosophy. This has been the most beautiful, challenging, soul-edifying education. 

Masters in Classical Liberal Arts Education

My third course for my masters degree began this week- Great Books in Education. This eight-week term includes Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle and several, shorter works or excerpts by Aquinas, Augustine, Basil, Lewis, Montessori, Newman, and Dewey.