Tue 1 Aug 2006
The Circe Conference is not a curriculum fair. It is not even mainly for homeschoolers. I think this was the 6th Circe conference and they have names like The Celebration of Beauty, The Celebration of Order etc. This year’s conference was The Celebration of Knowledge.
Andrew Kern is the president and founder of Circe. He has written The Lost Tools of Writing. He is also the definition of grace. He seemed to know every person’s name at the conference. When he speaks he does not use the serrated edge. When I walked by Andrew the first day of the conference he looked at my name tag and said,
” Hi, Cindy. Did Tim get to come?” I was dumbfounded. I had only spoken to him briefly on the phone a couple of days before the conference.
Andrew’s definition of classical education speaks volumes about the man and the conference.
“Classical education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness and beauty so that, in Christ, a student is better able to know, glorify and enjoy God.”
The reason I felt so refreshed by the conference was that I came away feeling I needed to do less with my children not more. I didn’t get the usual conference panic that I was totally failing and would need to buy an entire catalog worth of products to fix the mess.
One evening in the hotel lobby, The Wild Bunch, was discussing what homeschool moms discuss: how we had all utterly failed with our older children, or something along those lines. Andrew came up and reminded us that our failures were pathways to God’s grace. Failure is a part of life and a part of school and a means of grace.
The conference was truly an epiphany for me. For years I have been hanging out at the edges of classical education and yet I didn’t feel I was truly classical in my approach. I didn’t really like the whole idea of the stages being rigid. I didn’t like reducing the early grades to singing silly songs. The Dorothy Sayers’ essay was discussed frequently at the conference and not denigrated in any way but it was acknowledged that perhaps in our search for a system we had missed Dorothy’s meaning.
The day I left for the conference Rick asked me a question that became the focal point of the conference for me. Somewhere in our conversations on Wednesday he asked me something like, “How do you fit classical education, especially Latin, in the agrarian model?” At least that is what I heard with my global brain.
When I left for the conference I knew there was an answer, I just didn’t know what it was. By the end of the first session, the universe in my mind quit tottering.
I have never wanted to put myself in the classical box. I have always felt that while I was drawn to classical ideas my homeschool wasn’t truly classical. Also if you label yourself classical or Charlotte Mason or anything of that nature, people conjure up all kinds of erroneous pictures of what you are doing. I came home from the conference more fully agrarian and more fully classical, and the dichotomy in my mind was gone.
I will be out of town again for a couple of days. When I come back I hope to make the agrarian classical connection and blog through my notes.
One of the main conference themes was leisure. Another was educating boys. I hope that I can encourage you by sharing my notes. I will also tell you what books I bought.
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Well I dont care what idea people conjure up I love the CM method of homeschooling. Ive been reading all about it all summer and I plan to use it with the help of Ambleside in the fall.
I’d love a conference like you describe. It sounds so wonderful.
Comment by mrsdarling (August 1, 2006 @ 11:32 am )
Oh Cindy, I want to be half you and half Carmon when I grow up. You two ladies have done so much for me. You just don’t know! I wish I could say to give Andrew a hug for me, but I know it’s too late this go-round. He’s a very wise man.
Comment by Kim (Coffee and a Muffin) (August 1, 2006 @ 6:31 pm )
Great post, Cindy; that’s how I felt, too.
Comment by Patti (August 1, 2006 @ 8:15 pm )
How interesting that you wouldn’t find agrarian and classical as complementary. Ironically, classical education was big in the old agrarian south (at least among the wealthy).
BTW, have you been to see the full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Nashville that was built in the late 1800’s? My kids loved it. I was a little leary of teaching about false gods to my younger ones, but since I was doing Greeks and Romans with the older ones, I did a quick couple of lessons on Greek gods/myths the few days before the trip so the field trip would have context for my kindergartener and 1st grader. I wasn’t sure how much they understood, but as we entered the hall with all the statues and a HUGE two story statue of Athena, my young son yelled out, “Look at all those FAKE gods!” All the cultured liberals looked disdainfully at us. I was so tickled with the word “fake”, because I had used the words “false” or “not real” when doing the lesson. When they use their own words, you know they have it. ~Amelia (my children suggested that Bedelia could go with it since I’m so nutty sometimes)
Comment by Amelia (August 1, 2006 @ 10:22 pm )
I’ll be glad to read your answer to Rick’s question, because it makes perfect sense to me too, though I doubt I could articulate it.
Comment by Kelly (August 2, 2006 @ 7:43 am )
I know Rick doesn’t “do” latin, but think about it-our agrarian founding fathers studied it as part of their grammar school education, and they were also taught the classics-Thomas Jefferson is a prime example of being classically educated while also being a true agrarian. The two go together quite well.
Comment by Joanna (August 2, 2006 @ 3:02 pm )
Cindy, this sounds like a great conference. I love his definition of classical education. I wonder how it squares with Susan Wise Bauer’s or Doug Wilson’s.
I have felt the pressure this summer of not doing enough with my children but lately the Lord has freed me of a lot of that and I’m done trying to copy anybody else’s style. I met someone at the Southeast Homeschool Convention who is a Charlotte Mason fan and she’s even a part of a CM support group in the area. I feel I’m more drawn to that style but also like to throw in some classical philosophies. Thanks for writing so honestly about your expectations and fears and failings (perceived or real). It’s very encouraging.
Blessings.
Comment by Meredith B. (August 2, 2006 @ 3:39 pm )
Cindy,
Thank you for sharing your conference experiences. I would have loved to attend! Like you, I’ve been inspired by the simple, essential, elegance of the Classical model, but am reluctant to give up certain elements of the CM inspired education that we love. Yet sometimes, especially when I try to plan too much or too many different subjects, I feel like we end up “nibbling at crumbs” rather than feasting on important ideas…
Also, I’ve been inspired by your writings about Morning Time and have tried to incorporate something similar into my plans for the coming academic year.
Thanks very much for taking the time to share your new insights. I’m looking forward to reading more.
~Ann
Comment by Ann (August 2, 2006 @ 6:40 pm )
Anxious to hear more. I think I will go on their website and see if they have any CDs from the conference.
Comment by laura (August 2, 2006 @ 9:37 pm )
Amen, Amen, and Amen! That’s for coming away from the conference without feeling overwhelmed, for your epiphany about classical education being compatible with an agrarian outlook and not being about a rigid formula, and (last, but not least) for that nice little metaphor about the serrated edge. (If my quotes are off, that’s because I can’t read your entry at the moment.)
I used to call our family classical unschoolers, because we are too urban to call ourselves agrarians. And then I dropped the “classical,” because I didn’t like the grammar stage or the strict curriculum ideas. But I think that “classical agrarian,” oddly enough, may be pretty close to a true description of where we are in spirit, if not in circumstances. Thank you for speaking about this. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of what you have to say.
Comment by Laura A (August 3, 2006 @ 7:59 am )
We don’t do Latin, but I hope it’s clear that we don’t have any objections to other folks doing it as long as they have their reasons. And I’m always eager to hear the reasons folks do Latin, or anything else we’ve chosen not to do—they could very well change our minds.
Comment by Rick Saenz (August 3, 2006 @ 8:46 pm )
I am back from visiting Tn. I have enjoyed all the comments. I can’t blog again until Valerie gives me the OK. She is moving me over to another server or something technical like that.
Comment by Cindy (August 4, 2006 @ 7:53 am )
Rick,
I hope I didn’t make it sound like you were being negative. It was just that I went to the conference with those questions in my head because of our conversation. I am always trying to figure out why I want my children to learn Latin. I know that I do I am just always searching for the why.
I enjoyed our conversation and I am so glad I talked to you before I went. It was just an epiphany for me how closely related the 2 were.
Being such a fluff brain it doesn’t bother me at all that someone else homeschools differently than I do. That is probably a good idea
Comment by Cindy (August 4, 2006 @ 8:13 am )
Cindy,
Not negative at all. I know it can sound as if I’m demanding a justification when I ask people why they study Latin or some other thing we don’t do. But I’m really just curious to hear how other folks think through these matters for themselves.
(And, yes, I am trying to gently point out that we each ought to think through these things for ourselves.)
Comment by Rick Saenz (August 4, 2006 @ 11:08 am )
I am thinking this would make for a great blog discussion. I think people have valid answers on both sides. I myself have been on both sides of the fence and also believe in the seasons of life method and Providence when dealing with Latin as a homeschool subject.
Comment by Cindy (August 4, 2006 @ 3:40 pm )
“One evening in the hotel lobby, The Wild Bunch, was discussing what homeschool moms discuss: how we had all utterly failed with our older children, or something along those lines. Andrew came up and reminded us that our failures were pathways to God’s grace. Failure is a part of life and a part of school and a means of grace”
How wonderful! And just what I needed to hear!
We too are always questioning the things that people do (apparently) because it is just “what is done”. We don’t want to do anything without thinking it through and be able to give our children the reasons why…how else are they going to figure it out for themselves when they need to?
In the homeschooling movement, along with any other kind of “movement” there is a huge temptation to follow the crowd so as to fit in SOMEWHERE!
It took a lot of getting used to on my part, but my husband is definitely a “Why?” person, not a “why not?” person. In the beginning of our homeschooling journey, it was very stressful to me to not be doing what everyone else expected it is a little easier now, but I have my moments!
Comment by Margaret in VA (August 8, 2006 @ 7:52 am )