For anyone interested in hearing a response to Mr. Cain's 10-page criticism of CLAA (which I still have not received :001_huh:), William Michael has posted a response on the CLAA Family Forum, and he says will email it to anyone who requests it from him.

8FillTheHeart, You have wisdom. I sincerely thank you for sharing it...even with someone like me :).

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I apologize to the owner of this forum for trying to find the faults others find in a school that I have my child enrolled in. I got carried away. I am not looking for a book that describes the seven liberal arts as subjects. I was trying to find an actual school/curriculum led by an instructor that actively teaches them as subjects. Only time will tell if instructor-student and student-student interaction via the internet is any good for the development of dialectic and rhetoric. People seem to debate pretty intensely on blogs. I do not base my opinion about what is right or wrong on local, state, federal, etc. laws alone. I believe the Church has spoken definitely about corporal punishment (again CCC# 2223). I guess "the rod" can be interpreted figuratively, but I think if the Church did not want parents to ever use corporal punishment it would have just left that quote from the Bible out of the Catechism. Thank you for being charitable.

If we assume that online instruction/interaction is inferior to classroom instruction/interaction (unless there are curriculae that are better taught over the internet) and realize that more and more schools/colleges/universities are teaching classes via this online interaction (probably because it's cheaper), then we are in for an even "dumber" society in the future.

I did notice Dr. Campbell has not laid out his case against CLAA here, but I was wondering if he had already somewhere else which is why I asked for guidance. I really don't think he should waste his time writing one if he has not, but if he has, I just want to read it. "Chris has already said that he's happy to PM his 10-page treatise on CLAA to anyone who asks him for it." I did ask him to email it to me. He asked me "To whom should I address the email? You are new around here, aren't you?". I replied with my name and explained my relationship to CLAA and William Michael. I also told him "no hard feelings" if he doesn't want to send it to me. Of course, I don't know if he even received my reply or if he read it. He may have even sent it and I just haven't received it yet. Thanks for all your help.

Dr. Drew Campbell and cwlain did at one time admire CLAA. Now they obviously don't. Why? Have they explained their reasons elsewhere? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

First, I am new to this forum, and yes, this is the only thread I have read. And, furthermore, I was drawn here because William Michael and CLAA are being critiqued and I am interested to see in what way. I am the father of a child enrolled in CLAA, I am taking a few CLAA courses myself, including the Praeceptor Course, and I spent a week with William and other CLAA dads helping the Missionaries of the Poor in the Kingston, Jamaica ghetto. My experience with CLAA has been a great one. Of course, I am not one to equate "charity" with "niceness", so I do not have a problem William's occassional "harsh" tone or "spare not the rod" practice. I see "niceness" allowing people to sin everyday. And if spanking is illegal by state law, abortion is not, so I need a better reason not spank than simply "it's illegal" or "legal". The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC #2223) still allows wise use of physical discipline. This is simply what I believe. My concern is with the content of the educational material. I want my children to be educated with a curriculum and method at least similar to the Ratio Studiorum and no other widely available program seems to come close. It's like it has been completely abandoned by these Catholic homeschool programs. Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy...what other present-day school actually teaches these as subjects, not stages of development? (I'm not looking for "guidebooks" or "curriculum recommendations") If you know of one, or if know that CLAA's content is wrong, please let me know. I'm just a lowly pharmacist trying get a real education for my children (and myself). In Christ, Donnie