Common Core's

THE CLASSICAL VOLUME 2, NUMBER 3 | FALL 2016 BRINGING LIFE TO THE CLASSROOM TM Differ$2.95 ence COMMON CORE’S FIVE-WAY POWER PLAY p. 10 • Fact and Fiction about the CC • Cracking the CC Mission • CC and Your Child’s Love of Learning ALSO... The Amanda Watson Story p. 28 The Fair Market Value of Classical Ed p. 24 Goals for the First 100 Days of School p. 7 ClassicalDifference.com The CLASSICAL The slightest knowledge READER of a great book is better 2 than the greatest A Comprehensive Reading Guide for knowledge of a slight K–12 Students —Aquinas book. Leslie Rayner and Dr. Christopher Perrin n this information age, it’s sometimes hard to know how to choose from the sea of options and resources that present themselves at every turn. When you are choosing what books your Ichildren will read, the stakes are especially high. That is why we have put years of research into The Classical Reader, collecting and analyzing the K–12 reading recommendations of classical educators from around the country, seeking those readings that have been important and pleasurable to generations of students. This pithy book includes recommendations for reading at each grade level, noting each selection’s level of difficulty and genre. The Classical Reader provides a way to keep a record of what your student has read and will also help you to plan future reading. This book is a valuable resource for every school and family for everything from book reports to reading for pleasure. The Classical Reader is a veritable cave of dragon loot, an embarrassment of riches that will provide years of instruction and delight and help to instill a lifelong love of reading. A sortable online version of The Classical Reader is available at ClassicalReader.com ClassicalAcademicPress.com Classical Subjects Creatively Taught 2 The Classical Difference THE CLASSICAL BRINGING LIFE TO THE CLASSROOM Providence Classical Christian School, Kirkland, WA Kirkland, Classical Christian School, Providence Difference Table of Contents ON THE COVER: Common Core’s Five-Way Power Play ................10 Goals for the First 100 Days of School ................. 7 The Fair Market Value of Classical Education ......24 Letters The Amanda Watson Story ..................................28 We welcome letters from our readers! Visit ClassicalDifference.com/letters. INSIDE: The Unfortunate “Liberal Arts Education” ............ 4 What's Online? Set Apart .................................................................. 6 • About Classical Christian Education Letters & Notes ........................................................ 9 • Latest News • Videos and Blogs Mock Trial ...............................................................18 Parents Speak ........................................................22 Carpe Diem Down the Hallway .................................................26 (LATIN EVEN MOM & DAD KNOW) School Snapshots .................................................32 Help your child seize the day! Support them by learning ACCS Member Schools ........................................34 more about classical Christian education. Find more, read more, and know more by visiting our website. The Carpool Lane .................................................36 Times & Seasons ...................................................37 ClassicalDifference.com Parting Shot ...........................................................39 NOTE: All citations, where necessary, are at ClassicalDifference.com/fall-2016-links disco. scio. vivo. THE CLASSICAL DIFFERENCE: Vol. 2, No. 3, Fall 2016. EDITOR IN CHIEF: David Goodwin. MANAGING EDITOR: Stormy Goodwin. DESIGN: Han- nah Grieser, Valerie Bost. COVER PHOTO: Val MacMahon. CIRCULATION: Beverlee Atwood. CONTRIBUTORS: Christopher Perrin, Amy Burgess, Sandy Watson, Jeanette Faulkner, Will Frazier. ILLUSTRATIONS: Hannah Grieser. COPY EDITORS: Deb Blakey, Susan Herrick. INFORMATION: The Classical Difference is a publication of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS). Views expressed in The Classical Difference do not necessarily represent the views of the association or our members. Our goal is to inform and expand the community of supporters of classical Christian education. The Classical Difference is published four times a year and is mailed, at the request of member schools, to parents who have enrolled in ACCS member schools. If you do not wish to receive this publication, please contact our offices at the email address below. If you wish this publication to be mailed to a friend or relative, please contact us. Gift subscriptions are available. ADVERTISING: [email protected]. SUBMISSIONS: The Classical Difference welcomes your submissions. If you have a quote, story, article, photo, letter or other submission, visit www.ClassicalDifference.com/submissions or www.ClassicalDifference.com/letters. Submissions may or may not be published or compensated. Compensation is dependent upon length and placement. CONTACT: [email protected]. COPYRIGHT: ©2016 by the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS). All rights reserved. A publication of the ACCS. WEBSITE: www.ClassicalDifference.com. ■ WELCOME TO THE CLASSICAL DIFFERENCE The Unfortunate “Liberal Arts Education” What’s in a word? pursued business. When I found “classical Christian education” (CCE), the sound of its close relative, “liberal arts education,” made me assume that it must be as impractical as you can get. Even today, though I have learned what the words really mean, I struggle with the term because I know that newcomers have to shovel past the name itself. If we were to analyze the phrase “liberal arts education,” “liberal” is the word furthest from the mark. Today, it refers to left-leaning progressives, socialists, and those who think “protest” is a profession. Wherever you stand politically, none Dominion Christian School, Oakton, VA Oakton, Dominion Christian School, of these are related to the original term. Originally, “liberal” referred to the education of free-thinking people. This was opposed to “slavery.” Servants, slaves, mer- chants, soldiers, and guildsmen practiced the “servile [service] arts.” You didn’t want any of these guys to think for themselves. That kind of thing was just asking for a re- volt. Back then, those who were educated “liberally” were leaders and thinkers who needed to be wise, and needed to per- suade others to follow them. Enter the Protestant Reformation. If every man is liberated in Christ, we have a new responsibility. When America was “There was a boy called Eustace Clar- “liberal” as opposed to conservative, founded, our Protestant fathers realized ence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” “arts” as a euphemism for joblessness, that farmers, brewers, cobblers, and —C.S. Lewis, and “education”—a hoop-jumping, bankers also moonlighted as the king. So, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader time-passing exercise everyone needed to have that consumes the first liberal (think-for-them- Dig up a treasure, and you quarter of your life. I Farmers, brewers, selves) minds. In those even knew better, but it cobblers, and days, it simply wouldn’t have to clean off some mud. didn’t help with my first do to have a population The first words I heard when I impression. bankers also of sheep in a democra- asked, “What is classical Chris- My loves in high moonlighted cy. Come to think of it, tian education?” were, “It’s school were history as the king. it doesn’t work very well and chemistry. I chose now, either. like a liberal arts education.” chemistry in college be- “Art” is the most My mind locked immediate- cause it seemed more practical. When it deeply corrupted word of the three. ly on an unfortunate image: turned out not to be practical enough, I “Starving artists,” “art for art’s sake,” and 4 The Classical Difference WELCOME TO THE CLASSICAL DIFFERENCE ■ “modern art museums” come to mind. virtue. There were plenty of skills to be Christian universities, which have long Savor the impractical! Two hundred years learned in school, but those skills became hired professors educated in progressive ago, art was simply anything created by knowledge that was put to use in the exer- systems, have liberal arts programs that a human for a purpose—very useful and cise of the mind. It was an active process fail to represent the classical understand- beautiful stuff. Those who created paint- that involved Socratic discussions, deeply ing of liberal arts. ings, sculptures, and litho- important literature, trained Unfortunately we can’t choose our graphs were artisans who logic, debates, philosophy— names. And, unfortunately for Eustace decorated things. Other arti- “Education” most of all, it was formative and the liberal arts education, you just sans made carriages, barrels, as a word in the souls of the students. have to make the best of it. So now that or bound books. Engineer- was simply But the Eustace Scrubb you’ve bought the field and dug past the ing, medicine, computer pro- problem gets worse. Because mud that is the “liberal arts” name, I think gramming, and high finance hijacked. nearly all collegiate educa- you’ll look into the box, as I did, and find are some of today’s “arts.” But tion was liberal arts edu- something well worth pursuing. the specific category of “liberal arts,” then cation until a century ago, the “Liberal — David Goodwin and now, speaks of the set of tools used by Arts” name has been infected by the pro- free men to lead and live wisely. gressive takeover of higher education.

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