The Real Nutcracker
It’s the time of year when many people like to watch Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet. But did you know that in the story on which it is based, the evil mouse king is in fact not defeated by Marie’s shoe, but …
The Medieval and Humanist Inspiration for UD’s Living Latin Curriculum
One of my main inspirations for UD’s Living Latin curriculum, for which I am currently writing Level 1 (K-4th grade), came from an appendix in a book on St. Ignatius’ Idea of a Jesuit University (1954), by Father George Ganss (1905-2000). In this appendix entitled “Historical Sketch of the Teaching of Latin,” Fr. Ganss shows that up until the 1700s, and especially during the Middle Ages and Renaissance Humanism, Latin was taught as a living language, and this corresponds to different objectives than today: “[M]odern methods of teaching Latin aim chiefly to impart knowledge about the language and its literature. In contrast, the ancient methods in the 13th and in the 16th centuries aimed chiefly to develop an art – the art of speaking, reading and writing the language” (p. 226).
Professional Development for K-12 Classical Schools
The UD K-12 Classical Education team has been offering Professional Development for classical educators over the last 12 months. Most recently the team visited five schools and led teachers through the process of creating Socratic questions for any subject. As …
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