THE CLASSICAL VOLUME 6, NUMBER 1 | SPRING 2020 BRINGING LIFE TO THE CLASSROOM TM $2.95 A WORLD of WORDS p. 4 INSIDE ... The Transformation of Charity Kim p. 14 Hijacked by Lunatics p. 18 Free Speech: It Might Not Be What You Think p. 22 A WORLD of WORDS Flip the Script on Ford v Ferrari p. 30 ClassicalDifference.com Prepare for your future by studying the past. Data breaches. False news stories. Corporate fraud. Social media addiction. Without a rigorous understanding of the liberal arts, you’re stuck making decisions based on assumptions and good intentions. At The King’s College in New York City, you’ll study history’s enduring questions so that you can lead and thrive in a changing world. THEKINGSCOLLEGE @ See it for yourself at Summer Academy 2020: tkc.edu/sa ADMISSIONSOFFICE@ TKC.EDU | 212-659-7200 | 56 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10004 2020-accs-printad.indd 2 1/13/20 3:36 PM THE CLASSICAL DIFFERENCE: VOL. 6, NO. 1, SPRING 2020. EDITOR IN CHIEF: David Goodwin. 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ADVISORY PANEL: NOTES: ClassicalDifference.com/notes LESLIE COLLINS: Covenant Academy, Cypress, TX PHOTOS: ClassicalDifference.com/photos SONMIN CRANE: Rockbridge Academy, Millersville, MD SUBMISSIONS: ClassicalDifference.com/submissions LISA KNODEL: Mars Hill Academy, Mason, OH Prepare for KAREN MOORE: Grace Academy of Georgetown, Georgetown, TX JULIE NAGEM: Westminster Academy, Memphis, TN your future by MICHELE VERNON: The Ambrose School, Meridian, ID studying the past. WANT TO JOIN? Be encouraged, informed, and connected. Subscribe to our blog, The Classical Difference Today. Data breaches. False news stories. TODAY Corporate fraud. Social media addiction. Without a rigorous understanding of the liberal arts, you’re stuck making ClassicalDifference.com/subscribe decisions based on assumptions and good intentions. At The King’s College Scottish Reformation Tours in New York City, you’ll study history’s THE CLASSICAL VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 | enduring questions so that you can lead Correction BRINGING LIFE TO THE CLASSROOM WINTER 2019 Christ Centred. Christian Led. TM $2.95 and thrive in a changing world. THEKINGSCOLLEGE In the article “The Eliot Soci- Custom Tours @ THE REDWOODS of ety” appearing on page 20 of the OUR FAITH BY KEITH AND KRISTYN GETTY previous issue (Volume 5, Num- p. 10 INSIDE ... From Disney animator to classical teacher ber 4, Winter 2019), the author Vapor p. 16 trails of Christianity “Retraditionalization” p. 4 “Anyone who doesn't want to miss out on the was listed as Sonmin Crane. The p. 28 reformational history of Scotland should get in actual author was Liz Horst. We See it for yourself at Summer apologize for this misunder- touch with Scottish Reformation Tours.” ClassicalDifference.com Academy 2020: tkc.edu/sa standing, and we are grateful to N.D. Wilson both Sonmin Crane and Liz Horst for their reformationtours.org work on behalf of The Classical Difference! Vol. 6, No. 1 | Spring 2020 3 ADMISSIONSOFFICE@ TKC.EDU | 212-659-7200 | 56 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10004 2020-accs-printad.indd 2 1/13/20 3:36 PM In This Issue All citations: ClassicalDifference.com/2020-spring ON THE COVER: INSIDE: RHETORIC How Senior Thesis Transformed a Life ....14 Welcome .......................................................... 6 is part of the trivium—grammar, Hijacked by Lunatics ....................................18 Set Apart ........................................................10 logic, and rhetoric—the foundation Free Speech: It Might Not Be Times & Seasons ..........................................21 of classical education. To learn What You Think ............................................22 CALLED ..........................................................26 Flip the Script ................................................30 Around the Country .....................................34 more about the trivium, visit ACCS Member School List .........................36 COVER: The Ambrose School graduation, ClassicalDifference.com/trivium. courtesy of Pictoria, photo by Valerie MacMahon Parting Shot ...................................................39 4 The Classical Difference RHETORIC in a classical Christian school does not stop at “speech” or “writing” class. Rather, it teaches a way of thinking—a point of synthesis where things make SENSE TOGETHER. In that way it is a perfect name for the upper grades, where everything learned in the grammar and logic years comes together. But at a deeper level, Rhetoric is training to RIGHTLY ORDER thoughts, impulses, and ideas using that learning. It is a study in antithesis—OPPOSITES AND CONTRASTS—and it is a study in asking the question, “Is this better than that?” Or, “Is this more valid than that?” Rhetoric, like all art, has an END RESULT. As a painter, what are you doing? You are learning to view the world (and your imagination) in a specific way, and from that view to reproduce IMAGES—using specific skills. As a rhetorician, what are you doing? You are learning to view the world in a specific way, and from that view to rightly order your LOVES—using specific skills. Here’s the mistake we often make. If you ask Michelangelo what “art” is, we like to think he would answer that it’s CREATING beauty, not painting a picture or making a sculpture. He used all sorts of mediums—canvas, paint, stone, fresco. Each required all kinds of techniques. As art has many mediums, so does Rhetoric: speeches, stories, podcasts, tweets. If the ultimate purpose— the beautiful end result—of Rhetoric is the correct ORDERING of affections, then we Coram Deo Academy, Dallas, TX Dallas, Academy, Deo Coram can teach our kids to use speaking, writing, and reading to achieve that purpose. And along the way, they will learn the techniques and skills of logic, eloquence, perception, discernment, and understanding that will BENEFIT them for a lifetime. Vol. 6, No. 1 | Spring 2020 5 ■ WELCOME TO THE CLASSICAL DIFFERENCE passions to align with the progressive/ humanist’s viewpoint. Most of us are Rhetoric: Tectonic Plates incapable of purposefully connecting the underlying axiom, about who we are and what we’re here for, to our ev- or Icing on the Cake? eryday lives. We are enslaved because we do not know how to be free. Good rhetoric makes the world make sense This is where the liberal art of “rhetoric” comes in. It’s called “liber- What if we were created? watchmaker’s” greatest achievement. al” (from the Latin “liber” meaning And thus, Hitchens offered an oppos- “free”) because it trains the mind to What if the Creator had a ing set of axioms: What if Man is the probe down to unstated, underlying greatest and highest of all creatures, assumptions, and therefore be free to purpose when He creat- the pinnacle of evolution? What if Man think independently. orders all things according to his pur- ed? What if that purpose poses? These two juxtaposed sets of Do they believe they were axioms, Christian and humanist/pro- created to glorify God? was to glorify Himself? gressive, represent the bedrock world- view foundations of our day. Hitchens Or do they believe they These axioms are a nightmare to was not a prophet; he was more like a are gods who can define some, like famed atheist Christopher town crier. He simply explained what Hitchens. Hitchens argued in his book was already implicitly accepted as reality their way? Our kids God Is Not Great that the God of the “truth” for a large swath of our culture. will end up on one side of Bible is a megalomaniac. I can see his These two opposed sets of axioms point. But only because I can see his form what I call the “Grand Antith- the fault line or the other, point of view. esis” in our day. Through cultur- or they will be buried As Hitchens saw things, the uni- al appeasement, twentieth-century beneath the mountain verse is an accident that ever improves Christians have unknowingly allowed through evolution. Man is this “blind others to shape our loves, virtues, and range in between. 6 The Classical Difference WELCOME TO THE CLASSICAL DIFFERENCE ■ their way? Our kids will end up on one side of the fault line or the other, or they will be buried beneath the moun- tain range in between. They will either be caught in the undertow of ideas that lead to destructive and miserable lives, “The only basis for genuine or they will be perched atop the conti- nental shelf, standing against the flow human rights and dignity is of the errant views of our age.