"Returning to School", or "I Can't Think of a Witty Title."

Torrey Academy, the program I teach full time for, begins in full next week. I'll be teaching a full slate of classes--two "Inklings" classes, which are the introductory level classes, and two "Foundations of American Thought" classes, which is a second year class. Torrey Academy is loosely a "great books" program. Though not comprehensive, it does focus on reading primary sources in each of its classes. As a tutor for the program, I make it my goal to awaken my students from their too-often moribund lives and call them to a deeper, more reflective life. It is my job to foster a love of true virtue in my students, a love of Truth and Goodness and Beauty. Katherine Kertson tells of one teacher who uses great books to do the same, a teacher who is more experienced and successful than I:

Lasseter wants to call young men to be fighters for the good. He's got a powerful arsenal in this struggle: great books. "Literature is a teaching tool for getting young people to understand themselves and their place in the world," he says. Classical literature is rich in lessons of character, but often gets a bad rap because of its archaic language and unfamiliar settings. So Lasseter chooses classics with "guy appeal," tales that feature both the clash of warriors and the clash of great ideas.

As they say, read the whole thing.