Liberal Studies Program – Enroll Today!

Where Have Our College Credits Been Accepted?

Here is a helpful link for parents and students who are deciding on our Liberal Studies Program this summer.

Online Latin Classes for 2011-2012 School Year

We are offering the following online Latin courses for the 2011-2012 academic year:

• Latin I: Introduction to Latin Thursdays beginning at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The first class is September 1.
• Latin II: Further on the Latin Road Fridays at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time. First class is September 2.

The course descriptions are below. Please note that class sizes are limited to 12 students.

Latin I: Introduction to Latin
The instructor will be Mrs. Anne Van Fossen. She has a master’s degree in Classics and has 9 years of experience teaching classical languages. Anne earned her Master’s degree in Classics from the University of California at Santa Barbara where she was awarded the Keith Aldridge Memorial Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement in the Classics and taught Greek Mythology, Classical Archaeology, Greek Civilization, and Greek Tragedy as a teaching assistant for four years. Anne earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics and Chemistry (summa cum laude) from Mount Holyoke College and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi Societies.

The course will use the Oxford Latin Course [OLC] – a series commonly used in both high schools and colleges in the United States. For Latin I we will be using Part One of the OLC. Half of the book will be covered each semester. The OLC offers a good mixture of both inductive and deductive learning. It includes a clear and systematic presentation of grammar with the regular use of extended readings so students can begin to absorb the patterns of a new language. The narrative passages detail the life of the Roman poet Horace and help students to develop an understanding of a critical point in the history of Rome – the transition from the Republic to the Empire during the times of Cicero and Augustus.

The text will be supplemented with chants, games, online activities and drills. Online class time is spent in reading Latin aloud, translating with the help of the teacher and the class, and going over homework as a group. Intriguing word histories (etymology) are discovered along the way.

Students will have the option of taking the National Latin Exam in the Spring semester.

Course Requirements:
Students should expect to work 30-45 minutes a day to complete homework assignments.

Latin I is open to students with little or no previous Latin.
Open to grades 7 to adult or with permission of instructor.

Specifics for Introduction to Latin:

• There will be 28 hours of class time each semester. Each class will be 2 hours long and will take place in one of our online classrooms. There will be 14 weeks of classes.
• The classes will be on Thursdays beginning at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The first class is September 1.
  
• Tuition is $395 per semester. If you register for both semesters you will receive a 10% tuition discount. Tuition will be $711 rather than $790.
• Family discounts are available for those who would like to enroll two or more students. The discount is 20% for all students after the first one.
• To take advantage of these family discounts you may enroll by mail sending the appropriate payment. You can also enroll with us by phone at 1-360-496-0007. Or you may simply enroll your students here online and send us an email at info@greatbooksdiscussions.org requesting your family discount. We’ll promptly mail a check to you in the amount of the discount.
• The course will continue with a second semester of 14 two hour classes to begin in January.
• Oxford Latin Course Part One will be the student text. The Oxford book may be purchased from our bookstore here.
  
• Class size limited to 12 students.

Questions?

If you have any questions regarding the Latin course feel free to write to Mrs. Van Fossen at annevan@west.net.

Latin II: Further on the Latin Road

Anne Van Fossen

The instructor will be Mrs. Anne Van Fossen. She has a master’s degree in Classics and has 9 years of experience teaching classical languages. Anne earned her Master’s degree in Classics from the University of California at Santa Barbara where she was awarded the Keith Aldridge Memorial Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement in the Classics and taught Greek Mythology, Classical Archaeology, Greek Civilization, and Greek Tragedy as a teaching assistant for four years. Anne earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics and Chemistry (summa cum laude) from Mount Holyoke College and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi Societies.

The course will use the Oxford Latin Course [OLC] – a series commonly used in both high schools and colleges in the United States. For Latin II we will be using Part Two of the OLC. Half of the book will be covered each semester. The OLC offers a good mixture of both inductive and deductive learning. It includes a clear and systematic presentation of grammar with the regular use of extended readings so students can begin to absorb the patterns of a new language. The narrative passages detail the life of the Roman poet Horace and help students to develop an understanding of a critical point in the history of Rome – the transition from the Republic to the Empire during the times of Cicero and Augustus.

The text will be supplemented with chants, games, online activities and drills. Online class time is spent in reading Latin aloud, translating with the help of the teacher and the class, and going over homework as a group. Intriguing word histories (etymology) are discovered along the way.

Students will have the option of taking the National Latin Exam in the Spring semester.

Course Requirements:
Students should expect to work 30-45 minutes a day to complete homework assignments.

Latin II is open to students with previous Latin experience. Open to grades 7 to adult or with permission of instructor.

Specifics for Latin II: Further on the Latin Road

Bottom of Form

• There will be 28 hours of class time each semester. Each class will be 2 hours long and will take place in one of our online classrooms. There will be 14 weeks of classes.
• The classes will be on Fridays beginning at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The first class is September 2.
  
• Tuition is $395 per semester. If you register for both semesters you will receive a 10% tuition discount. Tuition will be $711 rather than $790.
• Family discounts are available for those who would like to enroll two or more students. The discount is 20% for all students after the first one.
• To take advantage of these family discounts you may enroll by mail sending the appropriate payment. You can also enroll with us by phone at 1-360-496-0007. Or you may simply enroll your students here online and send us an email at info@greatbooksdiscussions.org requesting your family discount. We’ll promptly mail a check to you in the amount of the discount.
• The course will continue with a second semester of 14 two hour classes to begin in January.
• Oxford Latin Course Part Two will be the student text. The Oxford book may be purchased from our bookstore here.
  
• Class size limited to 12 students.

Questions?

If you have any questions regarding the Latin course feel free to write to Mrs. Van Fossen at annevan@west.net .

To enroll:

Step 1: Email your student’s name, address, phone number, email address, and name of the desired class to info@greatbooksdiscussions.org .

Step 2: Make Payment. Tuition may be paid securely with a credit card online below or by phone at 800-331-6071. You may also send a check to:

Great Books Discussions
P.O. Box 756
Morton, Washington 98356

Before making your tuition payment please visit our Policies page.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to call us at 1- 360-496-0007. We are happy to speak with you.

New Online Class Added for the Ancient Greeks Online Class

New Class Added!
Fridays at 11 a.m.
First Year: Ancient Greeks
1st class 9/2

Online Class Schedule

Our Great Books Classes for 2011-2012 are Filling Up

THURSDAY

7/17/11 Update: This class is now FULL. 10:30 a.m First Year: Ancient Greeks 1st class is 9/1

There is still room in the Friday Greek class. Please see the schedule below.

Online Class Schedule 2011-2012

Great Books Readings for 2011-2012

Online Angelicum Great Books Program Enrollment Form for 2011-2012

“If you’re in the GB program right now, cherish this time! I really believe that you will never have another class quite as good as this one. Even though I have some very excellent teachers at …..college (which everyone should come to, by the way lol)… none of them will be able to compare to what Mr. Bertucci, Dr. Taylor, Dr. Redpath and Dr. Hancock have given me, the ability to think and ask questions. I know it seems like a fairly common thing to have, but frankly, it is grossly underdeveloped in many people. Just know how lucky you all are to have this, and I hope you all enjoy every moment of it as much as I did.” – comment on Facebook by one of our Great Books Students

Faith and Life for Grades 1-8: Now updated to the new translation of the Roman Missal!

Note for Our Angelicum Parents: We are currently updating our religion lesson plans for the new editions. If you have received an older version of the lesson plans for religion grades 1-8, please email us for a new version. Thanks! info@angelicum.net

Faith and Life now updated to the new translation of the Roman Missal!The Faith and Life religious education series is now in its Third Edition, with texts and activities fully updated to the new translation of the Roman Missal to be implemented in Advent 2011. The Faith and Life Third Edition series presents Catholic teaching using the time-tested ecclesial methodology and spiral development of catechesis, in a beautiful, student-friendly, comprehensive format.It is excellent for grades 1-8 in Catholic schools and parish catechetical programs as well as at home.The Faith and Life series is fully correlated with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and features increased use of Scripture to complement the series’ outstanding presentation of Catholic doctrine and practices. The teachers’ manuals were updated (2009/2010) with spiral bindings, a new interior layout of the lesson plans and inserted student text along with several additional features making it easier for teachers to plan lessons and teach in the classroom. Review the improvements to the teachers’ manuals.What is the difference between Faith and Life Third Edition and Faith and Life Revised Edition? Faith and Life Third Edition is a minor updating of the Revised Edition so that the text conforms to the new liturgical translation of the Roman Missal which will be implemented in Advent 2011. The Third Edition is not a major revision of the Faith and Life series. In fact, on average only ten student text pages per grade and six activity book pages per grade were affected by the new liturgical texts. Review the changes to the text.Do I need to replace my Revised Edition Teachers’ Manuals if I purchase the Third Edition Student text and Activity books? No, the Revised Edition Teachers’ Manuals can be used with the Third Edition Student text and Activity books for each grade. A listing of changes between the two series due to the new Roman Missal is available in the downloads section of this website. Because the changes are few and listed by chapter and lesson, a teacher can easily anticipate where some minor liturgical text or reference has changed and plan for it or make note of it in the Teacher’s Manual itself.
Faith and Life provides: clear, comprehensive, and exciting presentations of Catholicism tailored to different grade levels catechesis corresponding to the four pillars of the Catechism, covering Catholic doctrine, morality, sacraments, and prayer emphasis on forming young people to live the Catholic faith by balancing affective and experiential aspects of catechesis with a systematic presentation of Catholic doctrine biblically based presentations of salvation history questions and answers that synthesize and distill key doctrinal elements to be mastered by students beautiful, inspirational, and instructive art Activity Books Designed for classroom or home use Feature creative activities for review, reinforcement, and enrichment of each lesson		Student Texts: have been declared to be in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church by the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on the Catechism also conform with the Vatican’s General Directory for Catechesis incorporate specific references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church incorporate even more Scripture into the student texts and activities Teachers’ Manuals feature: a new 2 page lesson planning layout that incorporates both the inserted student text (highlighted for the specific lesson) and the teacher’s activities into a single lesson-structured text. spiral binding for easy stay open placement and photocopying four lessons and a review for each chapter, so teachers can conveniently pace their lessons to cover one chapter per week, if they choose prayers, supplemental materials for teachers, Catholic culture boxes with information on saints and other resources for teachers new quizzes and tests with answer keys

New Contact Information Posted for the Angelicum

Dear Parents and Students,

As the Angelicum continues to grow, we have had to get more phone numbers for parents and students. Please visit our contact page for updated information.

CONTACT PAGE ON ANGELICUM

Education Is More Than Instruction

by Albert Jay Nock

Excerpted from The Theory of Education in the United States (1932).

The subject that I am appointed to discuss is the theory of education in the United States. This discussion has its difficulties. It brings us face to face with a good many serious disappointments. It calls for the re-examination and criticism of a good many matters which seemed comfortably settled, and which we would rather leave undisturbed. The most discouraging difficulty about this discussion, however, is that apparently it cannot lead to any so-called practical conclusion; certainly not to any conclusion, as far as I can see, which will at all answer to the general faith in machinery as an effective substitute for thought, and the general reliance upon machinery alone to bring about any and all forms of social improvement.

If Socrates had come before the Athenians with some fine new piece of machinery like a protective tariff, workmen’s compensation, old-age pensions, collective ownership of the means of production, or whatnot – if he had told them that what they must do to be saved was simply to install his piece of machinery forthwith, and set it going – no doubt he would have interested a number of people, perhaps enough to put him in office as the standard-bearer of an enlightened and progressive liberalism. When he came before them, however, with nothing to say but “Know thyself,” they found his discourse unsatisfactory, and became impatient with him.

So if a discussion of our educational theory could be made to lead to something that we might call “constructive” – that is to say, something that is immediately and mechanically practicable, like honor schools or a new type of housing or a new style of entrance examinations – one might hope to make it rather easily acceptable. There seems no way to do this. The only large reforms indicated by a thorough discussion of the topic are such as must be put down at once as quite impracticable on general grounds, and the minor mechanical changes that are indicated seem also impracticable on special grounds, besides having the appearance of uncertain value and therefore being unlikely to command interest.

Yet notwithstanding this rather barren prospect for our discussion, one thing may perhaps redeem it from absolute sterility – which is that we are presumably always better off for knowing just where we are, and for being able to identify and measure the forces which are at play upon us. I do not wish to adduce too depressing a parallel in saying that diagnosis has value even in a hopeless case. Hopelessness in many cases, for instance in cases of incipient tuberculosis, as you know, is circumstantial, and circumstances may change; it is almost never flatly impossible that they should change. Diagnosis, then, has obvious value when it shows only that in those circumstances the case is hopeless; and even when it reveals the case as hopeless in any circumstances, it affords at least the melancholy satisfaction of knowing just where one stands.

We may observe then, in the first place, that our educational system has always been the object of strong adverse criticism. No one has ever been especially well satisfied with it, or well pleased with the way it worked; no one, I mean, whose opinion was at the same time informed and disinterested, and therefore worth attention. Late in the last century, Ernest Renan said that “countries which, like the United States, have set up a considerable popular instruction without any serious higher education, will long have to expiate their error by their intellectual mediocrity, the vulgarity of their manners, their superficial spirit, their failure in general intelligence.” This is very hard language, and I do not propose, for the moment, that we should undertake to say how far its severity may be fairly regarded as justifiable.

I may, however, ask you to notice two things: first, the distinction which M. Renan draws between instruction and education, and second, his use of the word intelligence. We shall not lay down a definition of education in set terms here at the outset of our discussion; I think it would be more satisfactory if, with your permission, we should gradually work toward the expression of our idea of what education is, and of what an educated person is like. It is sometimes, indeed often, difficult to construct in set terms the definition of an object which we nevertheless recognize at once for what it is, and about which we have no possible manner of doubt. I could not to save my life, for instance, make a definition of an oyster; yet I am sure I know an oyster when I see one. Moreover, in looking at an oyster, I can point out a number of differentiations, more or less rough and superficial, perhaps, but quite valid in helping to determine my knowledge. So in gradually building up an expression of our idea of education, we find the distinction drawn by M. Renan especially useful.

Perhaps we are not fully aware of the extent to which instruction and education are accepted as being essentially the same thing. I think you would find, if you looked into it, for instance, that all the formal qualifications for a teacher’s position rest on this understanding. A candidate is certificated – is he not? – merely as having been exposed satisfactorily to a certain kind of instruction for a certain length of time, and therefore he is assumed eligible to a position which we all agree that only an educated person should fill. Yet he may not be at all an educated person, but only an instructed person. We have seen many such, and five minutes’ talk with one of them is quite enough to show that the understanding of instruction as synonymous with education is erroneous. They are by no means the same thing. Let us go no further at present in trying to determine what education is, but merely take note that it is not the same thing as instruction.

Let us keep that differentiation in mind, never losing sight of it for a moment, and considering carefully every point in the practice of pedagogy at which it is applicable. If we do this, I venture to predict that we shall turn up an astonishing number of such points, and that our views of current pedagogy will be very considerably modified in consequence. An educated man must be in some sort instructed; but it is a mere non distributio medii to say that an instructed person must be an educated person.

An equally useful distinction comes out in M. Renan’s use of the word intelligence. To most of us, I think, that word does not mean the same thing that it means to a Frenchman, or that the word Intelligenz means to a German. To a Frenchman like M. Renan, intelligence does not mean a quickness of wit, a ready dexterity in handling ideas, or even a ready accessibility to ideas. It implies those, of course, but it does not mean them; and one should perhaps say in passing that it does not mean the pert and ignorant cleverness that current vulgar usage has associated with the word.

Again it is our common day-to-day experience that gives us the best possible assistance in establishing the necessary differentiations. We have all seen men who were quick-witted, accessible to ideas, and handy with their management of them, whom we should yet hesitate to call intelligent; we are conscious that the term does not quite fit. The word sends us back to a phrase of Plato. The person of intelligence is the one who always tends to “see things as they are,” the one who never permits his view of them to be directed by convention, by the hope of advantage, or by an irrational and arbitrary authoritarianism. He allows the current of his consciousness to flow in perfect freedom over any object that may be presented to it, uncontrolled by prejudice, prepossession, or formula; and thus we may say that there are certain integrities at the root of intelligence which give it somewhat the aspect of a moral as well as an intellectual attribute.

Besides having laid up the benefit of a couple of extremely valuable fundamental distinctions, we are now perhaps in a position to discern more clearly the force of M. Renan’s criticism of our educational system. Some 10 or 15 years after M. Renan made these observations, we find a curious corroboration of them which is especially worth citing because it was made by one upon whom no suspicion of superciliousness can rest. Walt Whitman was “the good grey poet” of the common life, the prophet of the social mean. His love for America and his faith in its institutions may, I believe, be admitted without question. His optimism was robust and obtrusive; one might call it flagrant.

Yet we find him reflecting with great severity upon “a certain highly deceptive superficial popular intellectuality” which he found existing in our society of the late 1870s. He goes beyond this to say that “our New World Democracy,” whatever its success in other directions, “is, so far, an almost complete failure in its social aspects, and in really grand religious, moral, literary and aesthetic results.”

M. Renan was a foreigner and an academician, and his criticism, we may say, is to be taken subject to discount; he could not be expected to appraise properly the spirit of America. Well, but, here we have Whitman who was just the opposite of a foreigner and an academician, who is accepted everywhere and by all as of the very spirit of America – here we have Whitman bearing out M. Renan’s criticism at every point.

What is an educational system for, one may ask, if not to produce social results precisely opposite to those which M. Renan testified before the fact, and Whitman testified, after the fact, were characteristic of our country? If our system, then, could do no better than it was doing, it should be forthwith taken in hand and overhauled.

Fifth Grade Angelicum Literature Guide is now in print!

Update for July 8, 2011: The literature guides for Nursery, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th are now in print. Links are below for ordering. 

Fifth Grade Literature Guide is now in print! Click to order.

Dr. James Taylor

Our Good Books Literature Guides for Nursery though 8th grade come with a full-color front cover, Answer Key for each guide, True/False questions, and Essay questions to encourage young writers, and a synopsis of each book.  The Nursery, Preschool and Kindergarten  Guides will depart from the layout and presentation of the guides for grades 1-8 so as to appeal to younger children.  We will update this page as more guides are published.   

Our Good Books Literature Guides were written by Dr. James S. Taylor, author of the widely acclaimed Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education.  Dr. Taylor took his first formal course in Children’s Literature from Dr. Dennis Quinn at the University of Kansas and had many conversations concerning these poems and stories with his colleague, Dr. John Senior.  He has taught Children’s Literature at the high school and college levels for nearly two decades.

“What I have to say about the selections in these guides draws from my childhood memories and adult reflections as well as my conversations with Quinn and Senior.  None of the age and literature categories used in the Angelicum Academy Good Books grade list are absolute.  Think of the Good Books (grade levels) as notes of music with the freedom to work up and down the scale as you see fit.”