Teaching Parents

[AnnCom 0]

I had planned on commenting in class tonight but we ran out of time. This isn't really poetic per se but I just wanted to comment on the topic addressed in class of teaching the parents. 

In my son's classical school, one of the high school literature teachers started a book club for parents and other teachers. From what I understood, the plan is that they would teach the high school literature curriculum to the parents over a course of a few years (one book at a time).  They started with the Iliad and every time I was able to attend, it was absolutely wonderful and so enriching for me. I had read the book before but hadn't had the opportunity to sit at a table with a teacher and others discussing it. The point to starting the book club was that it would open discussion between the students and the parents when the student studied the same book in High School.  My son will be studying the Iliad this next year and I can't wait to discuss it with him (especially now that I had a refresher). 

Anyway, I thought I'd mention it because as a classically based educator I can connect with my kids as they learn classically.  However, many parents haven't had the opportunity to study classical literature or, as in my case, the school might be reading books that weren't part of my classical curriculum growing up.   I think it's really important for the parents to be able to have discussions with their children about what they're learning as well as have an opportunity to get to know that child's teacher.  Just wanted to share

[Anne Rowland 1]

As a non-classically-educated person myself, I'll second that. ? 

I go to the Memoria Press Sodalitas conference/retreat every year, and one of the highlights for me is Martin's Book Club, where Martin Cothran (a writer and director for Memoria Press and Highlands Latin School) uses a break-out session to talk us through a short story as if we were in a lit class with him. This year was a bonus because they had a teacher from their upper school (high school) who did a session for homeschool parents on teaching upper school literature, and he did the same thing. We read through Tennyson's Lady of Shallot together and then he led a discussion for us, as if we were his class. It is extremely helpful for me to see classical teaching modeled so that I have something to imitate. It is also very helpful for me to actually be learning!

So from all sorts of perspectives, I think finding a way to teach the parents is a wonderful idea.

[Anne Rowland 1]

I got an e-mail from CIRCE this week advertising a Great Books Challenge for parents. It looks great to me. If anyone is interested here's the link.

https://romanroadsmedia.com/great-books/?mc_cid=c32c67a45c&mc_eid=c804944532&mc_cid=06ff4a619a&mc_eid=3ea9707c17

(Not trying to advertise for a non-ClassicalU company. Just don't know what's available where, and I think CIRCE is more of an umbrella org for several of the classical groups, including this one, right?)

[Alicia Rabess-Vasquez 0]

I have also registered for the Roman Roads Great Book Challenge for Parents. That’s a mouthful! I am doing the third module in Year 2 The Greeks , Early Christianity. These are taught by Wes Callihan who also teaches here and at CLRC. As parent educators we have to do all we can to support our own learning and nurture our own sense of joy and wonder. I am so thankful for these opportunities. 

[Br. James 5]

Wonderful.  This all sounds good.  Looks like we hit upon a real need and desire about the re-education of parents, of whatever we might call it.  My experience in this audience of teaching parents, adults in general, is that they can bring so much real-time experience to the classics, whereas, school age students have to rely more on imagination and a (naturally) limited memory to their particular culture they have experienced so far.