So, the article was behind a paywall, but damn! More of this, please...!

From the #ChronicleOfHigherEd - St. John’s College Is Weird. Maybe Yours Should Be More Like It.

Its #GreatBooks approach is #anachronistic, and spreading

By Beth McMurtrie

"Seeking to understand the unique culture of learning that distinguishes St. John’s College, The Chronicle of Higher Education's Beth McMurtrie traveled to the Annapolis campus in January, where she watched 13 sophomores and two tutors gather around a table in McDowell Hall to discuss Dante's Purgatorio.

"Tutor Emily Langston opened that evening's seminar by reading a passage about Dante seeking freedom, and then asked the room a deceptively simple question: In what sense is he free? And has his understanding of freedom changed?

" 'The students opened their marked-up paperbacks, flipping pages as they considered the questions. There was not a laptop or a cell phone in sight. Then they began an increasingly rare activity on college campuses today. They discussed, for more than two hours, a complicated work and the deeper questions it presents.'

"McMurtrie also spoke with multiple Johnnies and tutors, weaving their reflections throughout the resulting profile while exploring how the college's Great Books-based pedagogy has become a model for other institutions—and how a time-tested classical education can be revolutionary in modern times."

More about #SaintJohns #GreatBooks #Curriculum

St. John’s Reading List: A Great Books Curriculum

"St. John’s College is best known for its reading list and the Great Books curriculum that was adopted in 1937. While the list of books has evolved over the last century, the tradition of all students reading foundational texts of Western civilization remains. The reading list at St. John’s includes classic works in #philosophy, #literature, political science, psychology, #history, religion, economics, math, chemistry, physics, biology, #astronomy, #music, #language, and more.

To see the reading list organized by class year and subject matter, scroll down. Or view a simple list organized alphabetically by author. Learn more about classes at St. John’s and the subjects students study."

https://www.sjc.edu/academic-programs/undergraduate/great-books-reading-list

#ReadABook #NoSmartphones #Education #FoundationalTexts #ClassicalEducation #NoAI #AnapolisMD

The Classical Learning Test Takes Aim at the SAT–ACT Duopoly

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.educationnext.org/the-classical-learning-test-takes-aim-at-the-sat-act-duopoly/

I'm in awe right now, but I need some advice. For several years, I've been seeking the book that Beau Brummell used to learn Latin. I know it was Introduction to the Latin Tongue for the use of Youth. There were many different editions, including The famous, but later, Eton Latin Grammar. He attended Eton from 1786 to 1794. I have a digital copy of one published in 1795, wich fits the timeframe perfectly, but it's a mess when trying to read the "full text" with NVDA (my screen reader) or to convert the pdf to text. Likewise, I have one from about 1824-5 that is a reprint of 1795, and though it's a bit clearer, it's still full of errors. The hard copy reprints I've found are all pictures of the originals, not cleanly retyped. Just now, I found an original 1824 edition, and it's in clean condition! I'm quite afraid, because I am totally blind, and in order to read it, I must hold it and turn the pages so that my software can scan it! I can either use my ArX Vision, which I wear on my head, or my Pearl Document Scanning Camera with Openbook. Either way, I would be touching a book that's 200 years old! However, no one seems to have a modern copy that is retyped. All are just pictures of old editions, and when I try to convert the pdfs to txt, or to read the pre-made html versions (all at the Internet Archive), they are full of errors! This would be fine in English, but I'm using the book to learn Latin!

abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetai…

As a side note, here is my post in which I explain my search for a Latin tutor. I have not yet found one. If you think you can help me, please read said post before simply writing that you are a tutor. I am not using modern methods or pronunciation.

dandylover1.dreamwidth.org/768…

Finally, this is the syllabus for the pre-1868 Eton College curriculum that I created after a lot of research. It includes links to the books I plan to use, as well as extras.

dandylover1.dreamwidth.org/994…

#BeauBrummell #books #Brummell #classicaleducation #education #Eton #EtonCollege #Language #Latin #Learning #nineteenthcentury #syllabus #TraditionalEnglishPronunciation #teacher #tutor

Someone had the ambition to read Winnie the Pooh in Latin.

That person isn't me.

#books #bookstodon #winniethepooh #aamilne #Latin #classicaleducation #humor

Should #classicalEducation appeal to politically #conservative people who are paranoid about #wokeism?

Does “#Western” thought heroize only White, male #Christians?

This longish piece in the #NewYorker sketches the history of #classical #ducation, its #progressive proponents (like #JohnDewey), its recent proponents on the right (like #RonDesantis), and more.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/18/have-the-liberal-arts-gone-conservative

#edu #history #philosophy #logic #religion #politics #USA

Which of these '#Compliance #Classics' would you read first? 📚✨💻

📖 20,000 Leagues Under the Data Center, by Jules Verne
📖 To Kill a Data Center, by Harper Lee
📖 Moby Data Center, by Herman Melville
📖 War and Compliance, by Leo Tolstoy
📖 The Importance of Being Compliant, by Oscar Wilde
📖 The Call of the Data Center, by Jack London
📖 The Lord of the Data Center, by J.R.R. Tolkien
📖 Alice's Adventures in the Data Center, by Lewis Carroll
📖 Data Center Expectations, by Charles Dickens
📖 The Data Center in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

Any others you would add to the list? With generative #AI, we can start a literary revolution with these ideas!

#DataCenter #DataCenters #ClassicLiterature #ClassicalEducation

"Ordinary pastors, however, must be able to use Latin. They cannot do without it any more than scholars can do without Greek and Hebrew." - Martin Luther, 'Sermon on Keeping Children in School' (Am. ed. v.46, p. 233)

#Latin #ClassicalEducation