This past Wednesday through Friday I spent in Baltimore at the Circe Institute's Conference. They have been holding this conference for 12 years and I am finally attending. So late to the party! If only I had started 12 years ago! Oh well. No time for regrets. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience; very heady and intellectual, joyful and spiritual. The Circe Institute is a consultant group for private Christian classical schools and homeschoolers. It has a different vision of classical education than say Susan Wise Bauer's. Its vision is based much more on the actual ancient pedagogy of education rather than the neo-classical understanding that rather permeates what we consider classical education today. This neo-classical view is largely spawned from Dorothy L. Sayer's essay Lost Tools of Learning and subsequently on Douglas Wilson's further development of those ideas. Circe is really more aligned with Charlotte Mason and Mortimer Adler's take on education. It is a nice ecumenical atmosphere where all stripes of Christians feel welcome, that is those Christian who love classical education and these tend to be the more orthodox and traditionally oriented Christian. As Circe's motto states, education is really about 'cultivating wisdom and virtue.' So it isn't necessarily about getting good grades in Algebra or getting into an Ivy League school and that sort of thing, rather it is about meeting the student where they are, always remembering they are made in God's image, and realizing that the teacher's place is to educate that child so that they may be more fully human and glorify God by their lives.
This understanding of classical education actually jives very well with many principles of unschooling, especially Christian Unschooling. Of course it is not to be confused with unschooling, but it does have a very joyful and relaxed feel to it, that always respects the child and always trusts that children were created to learn because they have souls that crave God. Everyone is born with a desire for the Good, the True and the Beautiful. Education is cultivating that desire and feeding it with the great classical works of literature and philosophy.
Wednesday morning, my friend Joanna picked me about a little after 7:30 a.m. We then embarked on the great adventure of getting to Baltimore through rush hour traffic. We only managed to get really lost once! We got to the conference a little before 10:00 a.m. so we missed Andrew Kern's opening talk. The theme of this year's conference was A Contemplation of Judgment. Every year the conference is a contemplation of something.
I think right now I'll just list all the talks I attended and then have separate posts based on my notes, impressions and reactions to each session.
The next plenary talk (meaning it was given to all attendees at one lecture) was John Hodges whose talk was entitled: Aesthetic Judgment: Where Do We Draw the Line? John Mason Hodges is a joyful, exuberant, lovely man!
Next were the breakout sessions where you had to choose from among several interesting topics and speakers. I chose Christopher Perrin's What I Learned at St. John's College. Loved it!
Next another break out session; this time I went to a talk by Paula Flint about classical and special education entitled Who's in the Lifeboat? Judging Kids Who Aren't Advanced. This session was completely what I needed to hear.
That first day ended with a panel discussion featuring John Hodges, Carol Reynolds and Ken Myers entitled A Fair Hearing; Evaluating Musical Meaning. Wonderful lecture on music history.
Thursday:
Began with a plenary session talk by an University of Virginia professor, Vigan Guroian entitled The Beauty of the Nightengale's Song: A Reading of Hans Christian Anderson's Nightengale. Joanna next to me cried the whole time through this incredible analysis of this fairy tale. It was so poignant and beautiful speaking to very deep truths.
Next up was Ken Myers on The New, the Cool, and the Sensational: Judgment in the face of popular culture's pseudo-transcendentals. Ken Myers is a great speaker!
The first breakout session of this day that I attended was Carol Reynolds, Why We are Judged by Our Melodies. Wonderfully quirky and in love with her subject matter. This was basically about music history as well.
Next I went to Martin Cothran's Les Miserables vs. Schreck: The Difference between Heroic and Ironic Literature and the Difference it Makes. I didn't know what to expect and was both impressed and entertained by what he had to say.
Lastly, I attended Leah Lutz's seminar on Writing Standards; Tools of Assessment. Wise and practical how tos on the very difficult art of assessing student writing.
I did not attend the evening banquet on Thursday. This is where the Circe Institute gives their Paideia Prize to an educator they believe encompasses the idea of cultivating wisdom and virtue. This year's winner was Peter Kreeft. I love Dr. Kreeft and have listened to various lectures and classes by him as well as read several of his books. But I gave him up for my husband who came over to Baltimore so we could have a fun date. And we did have a very nice date. We ate out at La Tasca, a Spanish tapas place with great food and a view of the harbor. Unfortunately it was incredibly hot and muggy. Afterwards, we got some ice cream at Marble Slab Creamery and then walked around the harbor just long enough to eat it. While we were walking and right by the U.S.S. Constellation they shot off a cannon! It was quite startling and loud!
Friday morning, after having breakfast with Rick (where we had an interesting conversation with two Latin American Episcopalian missionaries (!!) who had trained at Seattle University (a Jesuit school!), I returned to the conference and finally got to listen to Dr. Kreeft give us a philosophy lecture on the 19 types of judgment. I took copious notes! I was thrilled to get to introduce myself to him afterwards and have a brief conversation with him. This might have been the highlight of the whole conference for me.
Next there was a panel discussion on the topic: How Now Should we Grade? A Panel on Assessment. The panel consisted of John Hodges, Cindy Rollins (a longtime homeschooling mom of many), Laura Berquist (of Mother of Divine Grace), Christopher Perrin and Debbie Harris. All these educators had so much wisdom to share. I was especially blown away by Christopher Perrin and Debbie Harris. More on them later.
The closing plenary session was by Andrew Kern, who started this whole thing many years ago and opens and closes the conference. Truly it was like listening to a homily. This man is so profoundly steeped in living out his Christianity. It was titled: A Contemplation of Judgment: Putting Away Childish Things. Very profound reflections.
The thing I didn't expect from the conference was the humor and warmth. We spent of lot of time laughing and clapping! It really was a retreat-like experience where we prayed together and were constantly exhorting each other to grow in our relationship with Christ. A beautiful, life changing experience.
Thank you, Jesus (via the Circe Institute)!
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