Video

Agree that it's not just books. I tried to show The Princess Bride to my 7th and 8th graders during the last week of school. They started complaining about 10 minutes in because it wasn't a cartoon!

I don’t know why but Hard Times is a favorite of mine.

Love your show and this topic. We homeschool with about 1/2 to 2/3 of our curriculum coming from Memoria Press. Love that you mentioned Andrew Pudewa - we use and so appreciate I.E.W. for writing. I have found that declaring an official “Reading Time” helps my kids focus for longer stints on their books. This helps the kids who have F.O.M.O. (the Fear of Missing Out) settle down and read their own book if they know the entire household is supposed to be quietly reading. For my little boys who are early readers, they have an assigned book or two (like Little Bear) and then they get library books that have an audio thingy attached (I think they are called Wonderbooks?) which reads the book aloud while they read along in the text of the book. This helps stretch out their reading time without overtaxing them. I dearly love reading aloud, and we do that as much as possible, but I also love audiobooks for family read-alouds (if the reader is skilled!). All that to say - I agree, one way to extend attention span in general is to gently work on increasing time spent on focused reading. Great topic, thank you!

It was a joy listening to you all 😄.

I always look forward to your podcast discussions. You usually begin with what people are readng and so I thought that I would share a mongraph that I am currently reading. We have had some suicides over the years at our modern school, two in one family even. As you have discussed philosophy and modern cultural trends like this podcast I suggest reading "Zombies in Western Culture, a Twenty -first Century Crisis" by John Vervaeke. His momigraph links to your discussion about attention span and the mind-numbing effect of digital media on children who have no way to gauge the effects...long term and short term on the development of the mind and character. Thank you for these wonderful discussions. God bless!

Awesome shirt, Jessica!

Read it for free at internet_archive, but I must say, it is filled with logical fallacies and missinterpretations of contemporary events. Livingstone's goal seems to have been to strengthen the British Class System that was being weakened by free thought and upward mobility of the working classes in the time period. Whenever you see well produced promotions of "Nostalgic Wisdom", you can be sure it is backed by those that want to keep you uneducated and powerless. The Classical Education promoted in the previous centuries was useless. It was a fake education used by the ruling classes to exclude outsiders. The holders of those degrees couldn't actually do anything. They collected rent, inherited political power, and played tennis. Imagine a place where you couldn't get a job or attend university unless you could speak Klingon.

Our family just got our daughter into a classical education based Christian private school and we are so blessed and over joyed to have this opportunity. We cannot wait to witness how this style of education will nurture her mind and her spirit. I’m just here looking for resources to grasp a full understanding of how to support her in this journey. ❤ thank you for your content and your efforts. ❤️

Suddenly lots of these snake oil promotionals are showing up in my feed. Selling lots of little dippers at the Pierian Spring ?

This is a fantastic topic! Thank you for sharing!

Whats the name of thr Shaker Poem mentioned just after 24:00 minutes? Thanks

I'm here to comment and support. Good video!

I’m starting kindergarten this fall with the oldest of my three children. This is an inspiration!

My oldest children, now in their early 20s, did lots of memorywork when they were young. By their teenage years they were memorizing several 10 minute speeches for speech and debate competitions. They recently told me how important this skill was and how much it helps them learn new material now.

What book did Tanya reference?

It's recite and excite (not drill and kill).

Thank you so much. I truly love the philosophical determination or conviction of memorizing something meaningful as a habit, rather than just making journaling a habit.

You can’t use knowledge you don’t have.

Excellent, awesome and inspiring video. I have a new goal now, Greek and Latin, alongside the vocational study I’m doing, Cybersecurity.

Sorry, but I have a degree in Latin and this is neither the reason to learn Latin nor the way to do it.

There is making a living and there is a classical education. In making a living as a doctor, accountant, engineer, nurse, etc. you need technical training. You will subsequently paid for the marketable skills you have acquired. There is nothing stopping someone from reading the classics. Socrates did not go to college. Spending time in college getting trained for something that has no market value is a very expensive mistake.

Thank you. Pax.

I find reading and writing go hand in hand when it comes to memorization for me.

Say it out loud 3x in a row per day, section by section. That always works for us.

Great podcast as always! You mentioned that your kids memorized all the counties in the world, do you have a suggestion or any tools to help with this? I’d love to try it with my kids as well 😊

You memorize things when you are young, and you come BACK to it when you are older. And then it's not so hard. Train a child up in the way they should go and they will not soon depart from it.

This podcast is a game changer. I don’t think I could use anything else after listening to all these episodes the past few months. You really start to see where other curriculum doesn’t even come close to what you get with MP.

This is why I left a new fun math program for Rod and Staff. What you talk about here makes so much sense.

Thank you for this conversation on memorization. I’m homeschooling my kiddos and so many of the moms in the homeschool world make memorization seem like the devil himself and the destroyer of the joy of education. My oldest is going into 4th grade and I’ve realized how the lack of emphasis on memorization has been really inhibiting him in some areas. He incredibly gifted in math but we had to go back because he didn’t have his math facts memorized and started to struggle. This year memorization will be the cornerstone of our schooling and I’m so excited to see the positive changes that will come from it. I truly think the hatred of memorization is a modern day attack on a true education.

Just wanted to say that I love these podcast episodes, please keep doing them!

Thank you for advocating memorization! “Memorization frees the mind”! I’m a big fan of memorizing things in learning, especially math facts for the young learners. Little anecdotal story: I had to fight my husband over teaching my son memorizing math facts because he thinks memorization “limits” the ability to process logic.

I was teaching my four year old the story of Samuel, and how he needed to be quiet and listen to hear God. She jumped in with "just like the wise old owl! The less he spoke the more he heard!". It really does all tie together and it is beautiful to watch. Once again, a wonderful discussion! Im looking forward to seeing how else MP is going to enrich my child's life 💕

I found a marvelous book that attacks memorization in a new way. The book, "Ranieri Reverse Recall" by Luke Amadeus Ranieri. It makes the process simple in the sense of starting to memorize from the end forward. Each iteration includes starting with the last sentence, so as you move along you are repeating everything and adding a sentence at a time. Well worth teaching to all students. Luke gives lessons from his life, such as learning Latin, Greek and becoming an Army helicopter pilot, memorizing all the specifications and emergency procedures.

As an adult memorization is considered to be difficult, boring, a chore to be avoided. With children, memorization is like a game to play. They don't see any difficulties, they just see the fun of achieving a goal.

I believe the memorization necessary in learning Latin is an outstanding reason to study Latin. Memorizing declensions and conjugations are perfect for developing the mind.

Where are the memory and recitation practice found in the curriculum?

I really appreciate and enjoy these discussions. I enjoy seeing the close friendship between you all. Wonderful encouragement to stay the course of classical learning. Thank you so much for sharing.

I was a public school teacher and part of my duties was to have my students learn the European and African countries. During conferences with parents, multiple were upset at this because they thought their students could just look it up. Philosophically, and granted I was young and had little to back up my convictions, I thought memorization practice was useful for brain health and to build confidence as a learner. It was jarring how few agreed with me and they removed that aspect from the curriculum. The next year I became pregnant with my first child and my husband and I decided that I would stay home and homeschool.

I agree with the importance of math facts. My oldest is approaching 4th grade, and doesn't have any multiplication memorized aside from the 2's. But she can skip count effortlessly by 3s,4s,5s,6s,7s,8s,9s, 10s, and 11s. Do you have any tips on how to memorize multiplication facts? We do drills and flash cards, but she always ends up needing to skip count to reach the answer.

This discussion was good but too focused on Rufus and Sheppard. In my mind, Norton was the protagonist of the story and the subject of the title. He was the first character in the book that was described as lame after all - pp447 line 5, ""I don't know", the child said lamely." From that perspective, the ‘reason’ for Norton doing what he did is plainly written a bit father down the passage you read out loud.-- “”When I’m dead will I go to hell or where she is?” Norton asked. “Right now you’d go where she is,” Johnson said, “but if you live long enough, you’ll go to hell.”” So Rufus explicitly told Norton what he needs to do in order to unite with his mother 'right now'. If you are reading with Norton's reception in mind, you can imagine how these words would have struck him like thunder. Of course, Sheppard, being the obtuse father he is, dismissed the comment immediately and didn’t even think about how it would impact Norton who he didn't think was bright enough to be affected by anything Rufus said. Another passage that I think is important but wasn’t mentioned in this discussion is the considerably lengthy part where O’Connor writes from Norton’s point of view. This passage really got my attention because I've rarely seen O'Connor switch povs within her short stories. It starts with a scene where the boy sits in the dark surrounded by the flower seeds. Whenever there’s a lightening, it lights up the ‘garden’ around him. Remembering that his mother was a nature lover, who liked to eat outside, this scene may be a metaphor or Norton's inner landscape - he's lost and is desperately looking for ways to find his way back - to her, in to her garden of love, back to the time when his father didn't constantly judge and condemn him to be selfish and 'not bright enough'.

Does MP press uses memorization through Music?

Love it ❤

What if Donald Trump is Coriolanus reincarnated? Does anyone see anything personalitywise about the two that would definitively rule this possibility out? I mean I died in Ancient Rome when Vesuvius blew but I was never more than a mere centurion.

Amen❤

Thank you for the encouragement!

Lists make actionable steps of these great discussions! I love these and am beginning my first book from the list tonight!

I love Mario Reading's books, wouldn't call them christian, but the main character in his books is always a religious person, a Christian. And they're quite witty and interesting. That's an ITV production, an excellent tv series Hornblower with Ioan Gruffudd.

Excellent!!

Does anyone know the name of the painting at 1:12?

Don Quijote is so funny!