by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Sep 16, 2010 | Articles, Schools & Other Organizations
Let’s face it—it is hard to speak clearly about classical Christian education. I have been studying it, implementing it and writing about it for almost 15 years and I still can become tongue-tied when someone asks me “What is classical Christian education?” I am always brushing up and revising my elevator speech.
That is why the recent article about Covenant Classical School (CCS) in Naperville, Illinois, is so remarkable. CCS is not an established school. It opened its doors barely a month ago with 87 students.
And yet journalist Jane Donahue of the Naperville Sun was able to crystallize the complex mission of CCS in a relatively short story. I am astonished that this happened. It usually takes new parents about a year to gain the kind of understanding displayed by Donahue. In her story, Donahue quotes a board member, head of school, teacher, two parents and a student. Taken together, the comments of these people tell us that Covenant Classical School:
- is a new school rooted in an old tradition
- has a classical curriculum (grammar, Latin, logic, rhetoric, music, etc.)
- employs a pedagogy appropriate to the developmental stage of students
- seeks to train students “to think, reason, read, write and speak well”
- learns from the best ideas, thinkers and literature of the past
- aims to build character: “Everyone is cheerful, friendly and thoughtful.”
- integrates biblical teaching and faith
- provides a joyful, warm environment
- develops community and strong bonds
I think this surpasses my elevator speech.
Here is the link to the article—compare it to your speech: Faith and Education Combine at Covenant
So how did the journalist figure this out? Somehow CCS has managed to pass on a clear concept of its mission to all members of its community—even a 12 year-old student. How is your school doing in this regard? We could all do worse than to take this article and seek to embody it and communicate it in our own schools. Pass this article along to your marketing director or head of school and to the board. Pass it along to your 12 year-old.
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Sep 8, 2010 | Articles
We all have something we want to change. It might be an organization; it might be your home. All of us, if we’re honest, want to change ourselves. If you work for a school, I am sure you can create a quick list of five items you would like to change that would improve the institution.
So how do you set out to make a change? Another book by Chip and Dan Heath might change the way you think about change. They have written Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, their second collaborative book. They also wrote Made to Stick, a book I enjoyed enough to make me pick up Switch.
One has to admire the way the Heath brothers write: they start with some entertaining anecdotes that illustrate the entire sweep of the book, a few stories that illustrate their premise that in order to affect change you must provide people with clear direction, ample motivation and a supportive environment. Change, they say, tends to follow a pattern and we should pay attention to that pattern. That is the heart of the book. But these three insights (seem basic don’t they?) come to life in the dozens of stories and studies that the brothers cite. Nothing is left to didactic prose. Metaphors, along with stories abound.
The brothers start their book recounting a study that showed that people will eat more popcorn if you put the popcorn in larger containers. The study showed that people eating out of large container would eat 53% more popcorn than those eating out of medium-sized container—even when the popcorn was five days old. Later on in the book the brothers cite another person who discovered that people will eat less food when it served on smaller plates. These studies point out that sometimes “what looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.” Change the environment, and you might change behavior. Certainly a good schoolteacher can tell you as much. Teachers spend a good deal of time setting up their room and creating and environment “that is conducive to learning.” Even a pleasantly-designed book (preferably a hardback) with a spacious and readable font is more likely to be read and enjoyed. I can still remember resisting several great books that came to me on crammed pages of newsprint with banal covers. The same book in hardback—where’s a comfy chair and a quiet place? What kind of books do you give your students?
The Heath brothers also cite a study that shows that people grow tired when they work for long periods exerting self-control. The study showed that a group of college students who had to resist eating freshly-baked chocolate-chip cookies became mentally drained while they instead completed an experiment in which they had to eat radishes (they were told the other group coming in would experiment on the cookies). When these cookie-resisters were asked to solve an unsolvable geometric problem as a group, they gave up after just eight minutes while the other, cookie-eating group spent nineteen minutes on the task, trying thirty-four times to solve the puzzle. The point: directly supervising your behavior is draining. Therefore what sometimes looks like resistance or laziness may just be exhaustion. Is there a school application? Sure. Think of those fidgety boys who must strain their little minds to keep pencil on paper during math class. Many are not worth teaching by 1pm, appearing lazy and disengaged. Are they simply mentally worn-out from supervising their behavior? Quite possibly. Why does recess bring them back to life? For twenty minutes they run about like mad men supervising virtually nothing. Mental strength returns.
In another place in Switch, the Heath brothers suggest that presenting others with a clear destination is crucial for motivating and leading people to change. Their first illustration features a first grade teacher who announced to her students that they would be reading as third graders (yes, third graders) by the end of the year. The teacher knew the reading standards for third grade and believed she could get the students to that level. The class, of course, was captivated and energized. They rallied to this noble goal and learned that they were scholars and addressed each other as such. A scholar, they learned, was easy to define: “A scholar is someone who lives to learn and is good at it.” At springtime her class was reading at second grade level and she held a graduation ceremony for them. By the end of the year, 90% of the class was reading at the third grade level. The Heath brothers maintain that a clear, ambitious goal (reading like third graders) united this class and dissolved their resistance to change. Does your school (or class, or leadership team) have a clear picture of the destination you seek? Can you define the character, knowledge and skill a graduate of your school should possess? Clearly, in writing?
The classical Christian educator might point out that lasting change comes from the heart of a child that is led to love God and neighbor. Furthermore, shouldn’t we be skeptical of change that is based on changing the environment? I found nothing Switch that contradicted changes that comes from spiritual transformation. But change as a broad concept cannot be reduced only to the spiritual dimension as profoundly important as that dimension is. And who can deny that our environment does contribute to our disposition, mood and work? The Heath brothers do not argue that change is determined by environment, just that it is one important factor that shapes change—along with other factors. The Heath brothers bring to us something akin to the wisdom literature of Scripture—they have observed practical ways humans are motivated, influenced and conditioned to change. We might read in the Proverbs that “the plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” (Pr. 21:5). The Heath brothers also reduce their findings to some proverbial expressions: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. Clarity dissolves resistance.
Switch just might do more that suggest some proverbial change for your school. It might help you change as well.
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Aug 26, 2010 | Articles
Here is a brief article I wrote for the Colson Center…recasting an insight from C.S. Lewis. Both science and theology have poetic elements.
The Poetry of Science and Theology
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Aug 20, 2010 | Education for Fun
When my children were younger I introduced them to Shakespeare by reading them several of the prose renditions (of Shakespeare’s plays) by Charles and Mary Lamb from their collection Tales from Shakespeare, first published in 1807. They very much enjoyed the stories, which are literary achievements in their own right, and were better prepared for the study of Shakespeare himself in their later education. Here is an audio recording of The Comedy of Errors by Charles and Mary Lamb. Gather your young ones around and see if they don’t enjoy it as mine did.
Comedy of Errors
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Aug 19, 2010 | Education for Fun
Just for fun…here is one of the most profound chapters from the New Testament in Latin….
John 1 in Latin: Classical Pronunciation
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Aug 12, 2010 | Interviews & Podcasts
Ashton Murphy has been studying Latin since the fourth grade at Grace Academy in Georgetown, Texas. After seven years of Latin studies, she was named as an overall top-performing Latin student at the national convention of the National Junior Classical League this August. In this interview, Ashton describes her love of Latin, the benefits and fun it has brought here and even recites a portion of a speech by Cicero (in Latin) that she recited in recent Latin oratory competitions. Interestingly, she cites observing the enthusiasm for Latin in older students as a primary cause of her early love of Latin. Now as a rising junior, she is sure to inspire younger Latin students, parents and teachers. If you have a Latin student or Latin class, be sure to have them listen to Ashton’s Latin adventure. Ashton says she might be headed for a career in journalism or law…but also loves art. I imagine she will be able to do several things well… Karen Moore, Ashton’s Latin teacher, also joins this interview.
Ashton Murphy2 8-10
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Aug 2, 2010 | Education for Fun
Not all that classical educators do is grave, somber and serious. What we do is important, but that should not make us self-important. In fact in my book, one mark of a good teacher is that she laughs a lot. And why not? The classroom is a funny place.
So anyone who has taught children for any length of time will find a good deal to laugh about. Here is an episode from my headmaster days that set the entire staff laughing. Colleen, our first grade teacher came bursting into my office with her hand over mouth, trying unsuccessfully to hold back her loud guffaws. She relayed the following… She had been teaching the class that week about the second coming of Christ during the Bible class. During that same week, a construction crew was completing a job installing new brick outside and had reached Colleen’s second story classroom window. Now the construction crew had placed thick, protective plastic over the window and also raised the scaffolding level with the base of the window. Just a few minutes after discussing the second coming, a student suddenly pointed to the window and shouted, “Look, it’s Jesus!” Sure enough, there was man with a long beard striding across the air in front of the second story window. Another student shouted, “And he’s smoking!” And indeed he was.
If you have a comic classroom story–let’s hear it.
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Jul 16, 2010 | Book Reviews
Every summer I read a few business books. The really good ones are actually filled with insight that not only help me as a publisher and consultant, but also illuminate other areas of the human enterprise. I put Jim Collins’ Good to Great in that category, as well as the Purple Cow by Seth Godin. Malcolm Gladwell’s books (though not strictly business books) are also generally enlightening—particularly The Tipping Point and Outliers.
Well this summer I have found another business book of universal value—Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by brothers Chip and Dan Heath. Chip is a Stanford business professor and Dan is a consultant and entrepreneur. The book sets out to explore what makes idea memorable and transferable—or what makes them sticky. They proceed inductively, looking at scores of sticky ideas and seeking to discover what traits are common to them all. The book is set up similarly to Collin’s Good to Great in which a team of graduate researches (led by Collins) set out to discover what common traits described companies that evolved from good to great companies. Jus as Collins discovers some six “Good to Great” principles, so the Heath brothers discover six “key qualities” that make ideas stick:
1. Simplicity: How do you strip an idea to its core without turning into a silly sound bite?
2. Unexpectedness: How do you capture people’s attention…and hold it?
3. Concreteness: How do you help people understand your idea and remember it much later?
4. Credibility: How do you get people to believe your idea?
5. Emotional: How do you get people to care about your idea?
6. Stories: How do you get people to act on your idea?
Now several of these key qualities resonated with me because of my study of rhetoric….and G.K. Chesterton (I did my dissertation on paradox in the apologetic of Chesterton). It is interesting to me that the Heath brothers proceed as businessmen doing an empirical study of what makes ideas sticky, and discover some key rhetorical principles in the process. If they had studied rhetoric (and there is no evidence in the book that they have), they would have also learned that ideas become persuasive and compelling when they characterized by ethos (credibility) and pathos (emotion). Under the canon of style, they would have learned the importance of being concrete, using effective metaphors and analogies. By studying the canon of invention they would have learned how important it is to determine what the discrete issue is for which one should argue (simplicity); by studying the canon of arrangement they would have discovered the importance crafting an arresting introduction that grabs and holds attention. The Heath brothers tell us that we need more fables to focus our attention and create concrete meaning. The first exercise of the ancient pre-rhetoric exercises (the progymnasmata) was a fable exercise. Virtually every important idea in the book is a restatement of a classic principle of rhetoric.
All this makes me very happy. Made to Stick is modern-day rediscovery and validation of ancient rhetoric without the authors even knowing that is so. Rhetorical theory could have taught them all their key qualities of sticky ideas and yet it is all the more romantic and gratifying that they discovered these qualities for the first time without hearing them first from Aristotle, Quintillian or Cicero. The business department has quietly joined arms with the classics department; the Heath brothers have done some of the same empirical work that Aristotle did 2500 years ago. For Aristotle too, studied what “key qualities” made ideas compelling, persuasive and “sticky.” Both Aristotle and the Heaths have studied intensely some important aspects of human nature. The Heaths site various modern examples of sticky ideas from army leadership to anti-smoking campaigns. Aristotle cites examples of ceremonial, forensic and political speech set in ancient Athens. But Aristotle and the Heaths are both seeking to uncover something crucial to human beings—what makes us remember and act upon an idea.
Chesterton too was called up by Made to Stick. Chesterton says that the chief pleasure of man is surprise. As I read through chapter on surprise (the chapter title is “Unexpected”) I could hear Chesterton laughing in the background. We all do love surprises don’t we? Chesterton also says that the reason we go to hear someone give a speech is precisely because we expect to hear what we don’t expect to hear—or else why go at all? He also believed it was necessary to startle people awake by using paradox to help people “see” the truth that was right before them, yet unseen. Chesterton was a master of paradox, but paradox that illuminated and did not merely entertain. Thus he commonly said such things as “the madman is not the man who has lost his reason, but the man who has lost everything but his reason.” Well paradox is a rhetorical trope and a very effective attention-grabber and sustainer. While the Heaths don’t use the word paradox, they do understand well the basic impact of surprise—“it jolts us to attention.”
Finally, Made to Stick, has (and makes) obvious application to teachers. Teachers are daily purveyors of ideas. Teachers are obliged to make good ideas stick. How can this be done? A teacher could do worse than to strip the idea down to its core (simplicity), teach the idea as a surprising mystery to be solved, create tension and debate in the classroom (surprise), and generously stir in concrete language, visuals (concreteness), credible authority and evidence (credibility) along with an appeal to human emotion (emotion) and finally enfolding the wisdom of the idea in a compelling story or two (story). It turns out that what makes ideas stick are what make teachers stick as well.
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Jul 8, 2010 | Interviews & Podcasts
How to Advance a Classical School: An Interview with School Development Expert Peter Baur. Peter Baur has spent his professional career helping schools grow and develop and has spent nearly 10 years helping advance Westminster Academy of Memphis, TN. Peter talks of how crucial it is to create a clear mission then clearly communicate it through every staff person, every event, every opportunity. New classical schools will benefit greatly from Peter’s experience and wisdom.
Peter Baur Interview
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Jun 30, 2010 | Interviews & Podcasts
Recently we interviewed Karen Moore, veteran Latin teacher and author from Grace Classical Academy of Georgetown, Texas. In this interview, Karen cogently describes the benefits of studying Latin and offers a variety of insights and advice to new Latin teachers and to those curious about the value of studying Latin. Karen is a unique blend of Texas and Rome–and is articulate as she is passionate. Click any of the links below to hear veteran Latin teacher Karen Moore share a variety of insights, recommendations and advice relative to the teaching of Latin.
Karen’s Bio and Introduction
Reading Latin
Latin Pedagogy Bike Riding
Why Latin
More Benefits to Latin
Growing an English Vocabulary
Improved Scores
Mental Training
Kid’s Favorite Subject
Teaching Tips
National Latin Exam
Advice to New Latin Teachers
