Classical Rhetoric by Memoria Press

[swimmermom3]

If you have used Classical Rhetoric by Memoria Press, would you please let me know what you thought of it. Was it easy to use? Did you respect the scholarship? Did your student think it was of value to them?

[swimmermom3]

Nobody here? That would mean it is money that I don't need to spend. :D

 

And it's not like I don't have enough scheduled to keep Sailor Dude busy until he is 30.

[mumto2]

It is something I have planned for dd too. I can't remember seeing anything about it on the boards. She is planning to do their material logic course this summer/fall and start that next winter. It arrived last week. She has enjoyed the TL materials and has learned much. That is all I can speak too.

[elegantlion]

I own it and started it for myself. I made it through a few lessons. I have comments, I will add when not on my phone.

 

 

ETA: I made it through a few lessons. I like that it breaks Rhetoric down into readable chunks. Part of my issue is that the answer key is simply an answer. When they ask you to explain a passage the answer key gives Aristotle words without breaking down what they mean. It was confusing to me because I need a bit of a translation, break it down a bit. Again, I only got through a few lessons, so I don't know if that concern is addressed later or not.

 

I used Farnsworth's Rhetoric instead of the Figures of Speech, Farnsworth is set up similarly and I like it better. I own and have read portions of How to Read a Book. I like Adler, he's wordy, but really answers every detail I need.

 

I set the whole thing aside because of time constraints. I notice they now have DVDs, I'd look into those for anyone considering this curriculum.

 

If you want ds to read Aristotle, I'd recommend Aristotle for Everybody. Adler breaks down Aristotle into modern verbiage. Ds and I still talking about some on the concepts in this book. If you want ds to read real Aristotle, I like this edition, The Basic Works of Aristotle. ds just got his copy this week. We had a huge talk last night about life. He grabbed the copy and was considering starting to read "Logic" before he went to bed. Whether he did or not, I don't know. The fact he was considering it was enough.

 

If you want to teach Rhetoric, I don't know. But that's my thoughts. Reading through Aristotle's Rhetoric is one of MY goals, so I will pick up the curriculum again at some point. Ds will do a rhetoric class in a future year, what I chose to teach that remains to be seen.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I've been wondering about this too. We've already read and discussed in depth "How to Read a Book" and "Aristotle for Everybody" so it sounds like this would cover ground we've already studied?

[elegantlion]

I've been wondering about this too. We've already read and discussed in depth "How to Read a Book" and "Aristotle for Everybody" so it sounds like this would cover ground we've already studied?

 

If you look in the epilogue of Aristotle for Everybody it references which sections/books of Aristotle Adler covers. It looks like chapter 19 is the only chapter that really deals with Rhetoric, and that's only one section. So Memoria Press' book would cover different topics.

 

I don't know of another book that teaches Aristotle's Rhetoric. There might be, I just don't know it. IEW has their rhetoric program, but it's a teaching of the progymnasmata, beyond that I know nothing about it.

 

There are many other books to learn the subject of rhetoric. I haven't explored beyond Corbett and the Memoria Press book.