Monica, The Well-Trained Mind Academy is offering German this fall. Live instruction and plenty of practice. We're excited about this course--the instructor is a Ph.D. in German with university teaching experience, and she's coming on board with WTMA to help develop a whole department of online foreign language instruction. German II will be offered next year. http://www.wtmacademy.com/courses/classes/german-i/ HTH, SWB

It's actually important to know whether someone went back and changed a post from its previous form, especially when other posters react strongly to what was originally said. And it's also important for you all to know when (for example) I have edited a post while moderating.

Oh, and here's a description of the changes. http://susanwisebauer.com/blog/publicity/the-4th-edition-of-the-well-trained-mind-whats-new/

http://www.amazon.com/Well-Trained-Mind-Classical-Education-Fourth/dp/0393253627/

Hi, newbies! You'll get many more answers if you post these questions on the General Education or K-8 Education boards. Much more traffic there! SWB

This works. :) You can also report the topic with the note "Please pin" or PM a moderator.

Responses to deleted post were removed. Kinsa's post left since it explains the deletion. Back to our regularly scheduled programming. SWB

Instantly became political. And some very tacky posts celebrating the death of another human being. Not here. SWB

TammyS, ramp down the sarcasm. It doesn't work well online. Thanks.

TammyS, ramp down the sarcasm. It doesn't work well online. Thanks.

This thread has been very thoughtful and civil so far. Let's keep it that way--which means no critical blanket statements about entire belief systems. Thank you.

mom2bee--we'd just appreciate any reviews that would help other parents decide whether or not (or what) to purchase, no matter where you actually bought the items. (The reviews are about the books, not the customer service.) peaceful isle: thank you for trying, and I'm so sorry about the error! We'll investigate. SWB

Dear boardies, Our (semi)new store site has a user-review feature. For any of our books, you can post a review, a photo, a video, or all three. We'd love to see these filled out a bit. If you've used any of our materials, would you consider contributing? http://www.peacehillpress.com Click on a product and scroll down and you'll see the "Leave a review" link. THANKS. SWB

Dear boardies, with some reluctance, we have decided to delay our next summer series. We have been working to develop the 2016 summer series into an even higher-quality online conference, with more speakers, a wider range of topics, and better technology (primarily, a system that will allow us to archive both video and audio of presentations, along with slides, for attendees who can’t make the live session). Although we’re making progress, I have realized that we need some additional time and staff to do a truly excellent job on our next conference. So I’ve made two executive decisions. First, we’re holding off on our next online conference until 2017. We'll keep you posted. Second, we’re using the existing infrastructure of the Well-Trained Mind Academy to offer parents fall and spring training, rather than summer workshops. For years, parents have been telling us how much they would like to tackle meaty academic subjects, both for their own self-improvement and to make them better teachers. So the WTMA Dean, Julia Kaziewicz, is working with me to develop semester-long classes for parents that can lead to a certificate of achievement. I’m planning to teach a literature class; Dr. Kaziewicz will be teaching a history and culture seminar; and we have several other wonderful faculty members who will be offering other classes. I'll be posting more details shortly! SWB

Dear boardies, with some reluctance, we have decided to delay our next summer series. We have been working to develop the 2016 summer series into an even higher-quality online conference, with more speakers, a wider range of topics, and better technology (primarily, a system that will allow us to archive both video and audio of presentations, along with slides, for attendees who can’t make the live session). Although we’re making progress, I have realized that we need some additional time and staff to do a truly excellent job on our next conference. So I’ve made two executive decisions. First, we’re holding off on our next online conference until 2017. We'll keep you posted. Second, we’re using the existing infrastructure of the Well-Trained Mind Academy to offer parents fall and spring training, rather than summer workshops. For years, parents have been telling us how much they would like to tackle meaty academic subjects, both for their own self-improvement and to make them better teachers. So the WTMA Dean, Julia Kaziewicz, is working with me to develop semester-long classes for parents that can lead to a certificate of achievement. I’m planning to teach a literature class; Dr. Kaziewicz will be teaching a history and culture seminar; and we have several other wonderful faculty members who will be offering other classes. I'll be posting more details shortly! SWB

ChocolateReign and Carol in Cal, You've both stated your opinion. Please take further discussion between the two of you to PM and let the thread continue. SWB

Great idea! I talked it over with our headmaster Steve Otto and dean Julia Kaciewicz today, and we're investigating the possibilities. Will keep you posted!! SWB

If you talk about water and pollution, the thread stays up. Politics, it comes down.

Really? Is it that hard to abide by my request? I suppose so. Let me try again. To respond to a post like the OP by starting a thread about how wrong it is to thank God is a violation of a long-standing board rule--you know, the one that says, "Don't leap into a thread asking for Halloween costume ideas in order to condemn the OP for celebrating Halloween." That's exactly what happened here. Want to start a new thread on the new topic? Sure, go ahead. Argue away. I've tried to encourage posters to do so. But please stop torpedoing threads begun with innocent intent by starting a religious debate. That turns this board into a hostile place. The same would be true of responding to a thread begun with a non-religious assumption by attempting to show the OP that, actually, she should believe in God. This seems very simple to me, and I'm extremely frustrated by the continuing disregard for forum rules. Please reread them. Thank you. SWB

1) Albeto, quit sidetracking the thread. Start a new one if you want to argue about Christianity (again). 2) The rest of you, stop attacking Albeto (again). Enough said. SWB

Privacy concerns.

Against board rules.

Potstirring AND violation of board rules.

And I think we're done.

Because that was just gratuitous pot-stirring.