Is Teaching the Classics Secular?

[christine in al]

Is see there is a " World Veiw" suppliment.

 

Is the basic" Teaching the Classics ( the $80 seminar) Secular or Christian?

 

I'm sitting here about to spend alot of money ( AGAIN) and I want to not shoot myself in the foot.

 

~c.

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

:lurk5:

[Renaissance Mom]

Teaching the Classics is a straight-forward seminar for teachers/teaching moms on how to teach the basics of literary analysis using any book or story. The author and lecturer is Christian and includes his worldview in his comments and lecture. He strongly encourages using the Socratic questions he includes to help the student identify the author's worldview as part of the literary analysis. The story examples he uses in the seminar are not from religious sources.

 

Does he mention his faith? Yup. Does he shove it in your face? Nope. Do you have to agree with him to get the full benefit of how to teach the classics? Nope.

 

It's a great program for anyone who needs help in teaching literature. I've gotten a lot out of it.

[Lisawa]

Hi.:) I have both Teaching the Classics and the World view. I recently purchased the world view and have not used it yet. The teaching the classics I use all the time.

I honestly do not think you have anything to worry about. They are teaching you analysis (A Socratic Method) for literature. That itself is not Christian. They use good classical literature or good books as starting points. The curriculum or program itself is for you to teach analysis.

 

See here: Teaching the classics basic principles

 

What is Teaching the Classics

 

Teaching the Classics is scroll to page 2

 

Student Essay Sample

 

I hope that helps. Its a fantastic program. Its helped teach me to teach my peeps.

 

Is see there is a " World Veiw" suppliment.

 

Is the basic" Teaching the Classics ( the $80 seminar) Secular or Christian?

 

I'm sitting here about to spend alot of money ( AGAIN) and I want to not shoot myself in the foot.

 

~c.

[Julie of KY]

Agreee with Renaissance Mom. The author definately states his faith in a few comments, but nothing about the teaching hinges on his faith, it's just a part of who he is - you don't have to agree.

[Sunshine State Sue]

I just finished watching the DVDs a few weeks ago. The only thing that irritated me was their discussion of the story Martin the Cobbler by Leo Tolstoy. He heard a voice saying that Christ was going to visit him. The next day, he invited several helpless souls in while he was waiting for the Christ. At the end of the day, he remembered the verse about "what you do unto your brethren, you do unto me". The story was fine. Part of the discussion was about the question, "Does the story in this particular time of the characters' lives make the story better?" One of the women implied that it mattered greatly. You see, Martin was older, therefore he would be thinking about his death, and what might happen in the afterlife.

 

Now, my belief of the afterlife is probably quite different from that woman's belief of the afterlife. It irritated me that she assumed that everyone was going to think like her. At home, that would lead to a discussion about the different beliefs that people might have.

 

Now, if the entire DVD had been like that one bit of discussion, I'd be chucking it all out the window. But, that was maybe 2 minutes in the 5.5 hours of the DVD.

 

I think it's beneficial.

 

HTH!

[christine in al]

Thanks to each of you. I'm okay with folks coming from their particular viewpoint, but the "shoving in my face" causes a gag reflex. I sure don't want to pay money to be preached to. ( bad grammar I know)

 

Thanks for the heads up about the moment about the Tolstoy.

 

Sincere thanks to all who replied.

~c.