May 17, 2006
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Guide Me
I remember attending an ACCS (Association of Classical and Christian
Schools) conference eleven years ago. By the last day I had brain bulge
and was overwhelmed with all the information. The very last session
was “How to Educate Yourself.” Chris Schlect brought in a huge stack of
books and handed out a reading list. Until that
point I had considered myself well-read, but I couldn’t put a check
mark next to a book until I’d come to about 63 on the list.I learned to teach myself as I taught my kids; I leaned on any
support I could find. Using the “one chapter ahead” method, I taught
Homer, Virgil, Spenser and Shakespeare to homeschool co-op classes. But I was not without help. My
beloved Latin teacher, Bernie, taught me so much more than Latin during our weekly classes. He told the stories behind the translations; he brought in his twice re-bound Greek Homer and whet our appetites. He was the best tour guide, and only a phone call away.When Bernie moved, I relied on books to guide me. This year we have read through some major texts of ancient civilization. The books above have helped us understand what we’ve been reading. These have been great resources. Our primary guide has been Omnibus I and I can only sing its praises with a loud voice and a thankful heart. I believe that good questions are at the heart of good teaching. Omnibus is full of good questions. Peter Leithart is unparalleled for challenging my thinking. There’s a world full of chiasms that I’ve never seen before reading him. The others have been good books to dip in and read portions.
BUT!! Next year!! How is this for the ABCs: Augustine, Beowulf, Chaucer, Dante and Eusebius. I’m salivating… I always find May challenging. I’d much rather invest my time and thoughts in the year ahead then finish our task at hand. It’s more fun to check out catalogs, read reviews, and dream of the ideal school year than to correct papers and corral wandering thoughts.
Comments (3)
My sentiments exactly regarding the merry month of May! I have just a bit left to do, and, I want to end well. Now, about the books… (I especially love the intro to Heroes of the City of Man). I’m hoping to be able to do my reading list over this next year also. I feel a bit brain dead at the moment, so I have been spending more time outside. I really do miss Mr. Fenik’s classes. I think I am a predominatly audio learner. I appreciated the opportunity to watch him teach as well as learn from him. Those were nice evenings weren’t they?
Sounds like a great year to look forward to!
I am continally referring to Mr Fenik, it seems my class is as familiar with him as our class was! I plan to purchase a 6th edition hardback this next week. I will be adding all my notes and so forth. Might I borrow your book and add your notes and scribbles to mine to get an even richer resource?
I also intend to purchase the 4cd set that has all the vocab lists, Sententiae Antiquae, all chapter readings and the Loci Antiqui Immutatique… This seems a good thing because every so often I find my self doubting how I pronounce a word or two.
I do love my long suffering class of 8th/9th/10th graders! My goal for this year was ch 15. We have done 1-11(one ch. per two weeks plus) and 12-14 one week each, sort of a mad dash to the magic number 15, and then I realized that we have done the number work for the Latin exam and so we will intro 16 the last two days of class this week. I want a specail project for the last day, maybe art or some other thing…
As Crista is officially done one of these days, I want to set about my second education in a serious manner. I may even take up Sudoku (not that fond of munber puzzles, buit see the brain benefit).