Lavender and Roses

Tuesday, April 29

A fresh wave of learning

My books have arrived, and I've enjoyed settling down to read my way through them.  I've been encouraged. I've remembered what the point of a Classical education is - the cultivating of the mind to recognize truth, beauty and virtue. A simple statement, but it lets me focus what we are trying to achieve and the path for the journey. In the last year I've struggled to see the point of lots of what we do. Other things I love but couldn't say why. Always its seemed strange to admit that that we do both Greek and Latin.  What I have discovered is the purpose behind what we do, or at least I have re-found it under the programs that were supposed to make it easier. I have also come to see that each of us needs to put that journey together for ourselves. There isn't classical in a box, because it isn't a set course of study, its a conversation, a journey.  Along the way are tools to be mastered, a command of language, tools for thinking and analyzing, ways of thinking, and a vista of history and thought that gives us a backdrop against which to evaluate our understanding of what it means to be human. We are still mastering the tools, learning to read, learning how English works, discovering the precise  thinking of Latin, and the creativity of Greek,  surveying the highs and lows of history, learning to observe our world and storing away ideas to chew on later. I need to work through what we need to acheive on the journey for each skill. The pressure to finish the text, complete the program in this year - has faded in light of a process of learning how to learn, how to think and how to express oneself.  The united whole will be challenging and I'm not ready to go their yet. but we are still surveying the landscape seeing the big picture. The time will come to dig deep.

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