Contents:

The post Liber Amicorum: Essays and Reflections in Honor of Andrew Kern appeared first on Classical Education Books.

Welcome to The Lost Tools of Writing Level III, the next stage on your journey to mastery of thought and communication. Through LTW III, you’ll solidify the foundations that you laid in LTW I and II, develop advanced writing skills, master additional forms of persuasive address, and even begin to practice tools you’ll use for the arts of verse and storytelling. Most importantly, the skills you gain through LTW III extend beyond academics to your life in the world and the deeper questions you ask in your heart and mind.

The heart of The Lost Tools of Writing Level III is the deliberative address, the immediate purpose of which is to determine whether an action should be taken. The bigger purpose is to grow in wisdom and prudence by practicing making difficult decisions from which you can learn principles and habits of decision making for your own life and community.

When you write your deliberative address, you practice thinking imaginatively and strategically.

Thinking Imaginatively

In LTW III, you imaginatively enter a historical or literary situation, in which you assume a perspective, generate an issue, find a necessary question, and attempt to persuade your audience (the decision-maker) to act: either to implement a change (the proposal) or to maintain the status quo. To do so, you will need to get to know your audience and then present the advantages: honor and/or utility.

As always, you develop your argument through invention, using the common topics already learned plus the special topics that apply to a deliberative address. In addition, you will add three new and powerful tools to your box: the modes of persuasion, the four causes, and analogical reasoning.

As we mentioned above, perhaps the most significant difference between judicial and deliberative thinking is that the former is directed toward the past and the latter is directed toward the future. The problem you run into when you have to make decisions about the future is obvious: you don’t know it. In real life, that means any decision you make is, to some extent, uncertain. It takes maturity to accept this when an issue matters to you.

It raises yet another challenge for you when you deliberate about a narrative: when you have completed a story, you know the whole thing, including what follows your issue. You know the future, but your audience, being stuck in the world of the story, does not.

To make your address more realistic, therefore, you must pretend (you can think about the irony of that later!). Specifically, when you develop your LTW III addresses, you pretend that you are in the same time frame and location as your audience, which means that you also do not know the future, including the outcome of your proposal.

By pretending in this way, you create an artificial limitation on your own knowledge that matches the real limitation we all experience in reality.

Practically, that means that for the sake of the LTW III deliberative address, neither you nor your audience can know or use any information or events that happen from that point forward. You are allowed to make predictions about possible results to a decision, but you cannot say that something will happen because it happened in the story. You will read how to do this in Invention Step Three below.

In short, you pretend to meet the decision-maker in his situation where you assume a perspective and deliberate on the issue so that you can persuade him to act on your thesis (e.g., Hamlet should or should not kill Claudius in the chapel). You build your case with an eye to an unknown future.

Please note that we use the terms “audience” and “decision-maker” interchangeably. Your goal is to persuade this audience or decision-maker. The mention of a goal gives rise to the idea of strategic thinking, which includes identifying goals and the means to reach them.

Thinking Strategically

When you develop your deliberative address, your goal is to convince your audience to perform an action. You must make a strong case and present it to your audience in a compelling manner. When you have done so, you have written a successful address.

The overall strategy of a deliberative address

When you seek to show a decision-maker that he should or should not act in a particular way, you must first persuade yourself, then your audience.

To do so, you ask a few questions:

• What is the necessary question?
• What is the issue?
• What is the status quo?
• What do the common topics reveal about the issue?
• What are the potential advantages or disadvantages to be experienced by the decision-maker and/or the community through the proposal and through the status quo?
• What do the principles of logic, the four causes, and analogical reasoning contribute to my deliberations?

In addition, you will learn to use principles of logic to further develop both sides of your argument. These are explained in detail in the lessons; however, here are some questions that logic gives rise to:

• If the thesis and proof, and the counter-thesis and refutation are converted into a syllogism, what premises are revealed?
• Are the assumed premises true?
• How can they be proven or refuted?
• What additional propositions can be derived from the ideas already generated?

Once you have completed your invention and chosen a side to defend, you fashion your argument in a way that is easy to follow and that emphasizes the most important points. The deliberative outline is essentially the same as the other persuasive outlines, but you will adapt the elements (amplification, narratio, proof, etc.) to the needs of the deliberative address. Details on the elements can be found in the lessons.

Finally, your argument deserves and needs to be expressed appropriately, which means clearly, coherently, cohesively, and effectively. You ask questions like the following:

• Does the sentence express its idea clearly and efficiently?
• Is each paragraph coherent (i.e., does it communicate a single idea)?
• Is each paragraph cohesive (i.e., do its sentences link in an orderly, logical sequence)?
• Are the schemes and tropes used in appropriate ways and places in the address?

The post The Lost Tools of Writing: Level Three – Complete Set appeared first on Classical Education Books.

Welcome to The Lost Tools of Writing Level III, the next stage on your journey to mastery of thought and communication. Through LTW III, you’ll solidify the foundations that you laid in LTW I and II, develop advanced writing skills, master additional forms of persuasive address, and even begin to practice tools you’ll use for the arts of verse and storytelling. Most importantly, the skills you gain through LTW III extend beyond academics to your life in the world and the deeper questions you ask in your heart and mind.

The heart of The Lost Tools of Writing Level III is the deliberative address, the immediate purpose of which is to determine whether an action should be taken. The bigger purpose is to grow in wisdom and prudence by practicing making difficult decisions from which you can learn principles and habits of decision making for your own life and community.

When you write your deliberative address, you practice thinking imaginatively and strategically.

Thinking Imaginatively

In LTW III, you imaginatively enter a historical or literary situation, in which you assume a perspective, generate an issue, find a necessary question, and attempt to persuade your audience (the decision-maker) to act: either to implement a change (the proposal) or to maintain the status quo. To do so, you will need to get to know your audience and then present the advantages: honor and/or utility.

As always, you develop your argument through invention, using the common topics already learned plus the special topics that apply to a deliberative address. In addition, you will add three new and powerful tools to your box: the modes of persuasion, the four causes, and analogical reasoning.

As we mentioned above, perhaps the most significant difference between judicial and deliberative thinking is that the former is directed toward the past and the latter is directed toward the future. The problem you run into when you have to make decisions about the future is obvious: you don’t know it. In real life, that means any decision you make is, to some extent, uncertain. It takes maturity to accept this when an issue matters to you.

It raises yet another challenge for you when you deliberate about a narrative: when you have completed a story, you know the whole thing, including what follows your issue. You know the future, but your audience, being stuck in the world of the story, does not.

To make your address more realistic, therefore, you must pretend (you can think about the irony of that later!). Specifically, when you develop your LTW III addresses, you pretend that you are in the same time frame and location as your audience, which means that you also do not know the future, including the outcome of your proposal.

By pretending in this way, you create an artificial limitation on your own knowledge that matches the real limitation we all experience in reality.

Practically, that means that for the sake of the LTW III deliberative address, neither you nor your audience can know or use any information or events that happen from that point forward. You are allowed to make predictions about possible results to a decision, but you cannot say that something will happen because it happened in the story. You will read how to do this in Invention Step Three below.

In short, you pretend to meet the decision-maker in his situation where you assume a perspective and deliberate on the issue so that you can persuade him to act on your thesis (e.g., Hamlet should or should not kill Claudius in the chapel). You build your case with an eye to an unknown future.

Please note that we use the terms “audience” and “decision-maker” interchangeably. Your goal is to persuade this audience or decision-maker. The mention of a goal gives rise to the idea of strategic thinking, which includes identifying goals and the means to reach them.

Thinking Strategically

When you develop your deliberative address, your goal is to convince your audience to perform an action. You must make a strong case and present it to your audience in a compelling manner. When you have done so, you have written a successful address.

The overall strategy of a deliberative address

When you seek to show a decision-maker that he should or should not act in a particular way, you must first persuade yourself, then your audience.

To do so, you ask a few questions:

• What is the necessary question?
• What is the issue?
• What is the status quo?
• What do the common topics reveal about the issue?
• What are the potential advantages or disadvantages to be experienced by the decision-maker and/or the community through the proposal and through the status quo?
• What do the principles of logic, the four causes, and analogical reasoning contribute to my deliberations?

In addition, you will learn to use principles of logic to further develop both sides of your argument. These are explained in detail in the lessons; however, here are some questions that logic gives rise to:

• If the thesis and proof, and the counter-thesis and refutation are converted into a syllogism, what premises are revealed?
• Are the assumed premises true?
• How can they be proven or refuted?
• What additional propositions can be derived from the ideas already generated?

Once you have completed your invention and chosen a side to defend, you fashion your argument in a way that is easy to follow and that emphasizes the most important points. The deliberative outline is essentially the same as the other persuasive outlines, but you will adapt the elements (amplification, narratio, proof, etc.) to the needs of the deliberative address. Details on the elements can be found in the lessons.

Finally, your argument deserves and needs to be expressed appropriately, which means clearly, coherently, cohesively, and effectively. You ask questions like the following:

• Does the sentence express its idea clearly and efficiently?
• Is each paragraph coherent (i.e., does it communicate a single idea)?
• Is each paragraph cohesive (i.e., do its sentences link in an orderly, logical sequence)?
• Are the schemes and tropes used in appropriate ways and places in the address?

The post The Lost Tools of Writing: Level Three – Videos appeared first on Classical Education Books.

Here’s how it works: 

Step 1) When you purchase the complete set of the new edition (or access to just the streaming subscription) we will email you a password giving you lifetime access to the videos. This is not a yearly subscription, which requires annual payments.

Step 2) Then, when you head over to CiRCE’s media page, you will enter the password to unlock the videos.

Step 3) Watch to your heart’s content – and enjoy!

To learn more about The Lost Tools of Writing and read FAQs, please click HERE

You may also find our Lost Tools of Writing workshop at home helpful!

The post The Lost Tools of Writing: Level One – Online Instructional Videos Subscription appeared first on Classical Education Books.

• A focus on the common topic of comparison

• Comparing for understanding or for assessment

• Understanding a new kind of writing after the persuasive essay

• Foundational metaphor plus more complex metaphors

• Plenty of review

All-in-one combination Student Workbook/Teacher Guide. LTW: Comparison Essays does not have a separate teacher guide.

Welcome to The Lost Tools of Writing: Comparison Essay. This semester-long program provides a way for students to gain more practice in foundational thinking skills plus practice in writing a different kind of essay. Through LTW: Comparison Essays, students will solidify the foundations laid in LTW I, develop deeper thinking skills, master an additional form of essay-writing, and delve more deeply into analogical thinking with different kinds of metaphor-writing. The skills students gain through LTW: Comparison Essay extend beyond academics to life in the world, cultivating more refined and careful thinking about people, things, ideas, and their own decisions.

LTW: Comparison Essays fulfills the purpose of understanding people, things, or ideas more deeply, or assessing whether one is better or in some way more desirable than another. The bigger purpose of these thinking and writing skills is to grow in wisdom and prudence by practicing making finer distinctions and better decisions. Students can learn and practice principles and habits of decision-making for their own lives.

Deeper Thinking  

The goal of using the common topics is not to think about the topics, but to think with them. Just as repeated practice allows a player to throw a football without thinking about how to grip it or a musician to play a piece of music without thinking of where to put her fingers, repetition allows us to internalize thinking skills so that we can put our focus where it needs to be: on the people and things in our decisions. Internalizing the means of thinking frees us to think about about our decisions and the people, places, and things that are in them—to think with the tools and not about them.

A Different Kind of Writing

By writing comparison essays after persuasive essays, students will be able to compare the two kinds of writing to each other. They will find that all writing requires coming up with something to say (invention), organizing the material (arrangement), and expressing ideas in a fitting way (elocution). Further, they will see that the common topics and elocution tools they learned in Level I have prepared them to complete any kind of writing. As long as they are given an outline (those forms that come to us by tradition and make each kind of writing what it is) they can execute any kind of writing.

The Overall Picture of a Comparison Outline 

When we compare two items we can do so for different reasons. Sometimes we want to assess which one is better than the others. But sometimes, as is often the case with studies in history and literature (and friendships), we simply desire to gain a deeper understanding of both people. Comparison essays can help us gain understanding.

Sometimes we compare because we do need to choose one thing over the other. We can only attend one college, play a limited time in a recital, and eat one meal for lunch. Comparing can help us find the similarities and differences we need to know in order to decide which choice is best. Also, deciding repeatedly about our writing hones our ability to make wise decisions when they matter in our lives. Comparison essays cultivate that skill.

Outlines

Three outlines are presented in this book of comparison essays. The first is simple; then complexity builds with each successive outline. The third outline is repeated in Essay Four to allow for more practice with the most difficult form. You will find the block outline used when comparing is for the purpose of further understanding. The point-by-point outline is used when we make an assessment about which item is better.

Elocution

Elocution begins with a review of Level I’s metaphor lesson. Succeeding lessons build on that foundation, leading the students to create the more complex expanded metaphor, leading them into more and more analogical thinking.

All the skills that students learned in every canon of Level I can be applied in these comparison essays since Level I skills are universal thinking, organizing, and writing skills. Sometimes the review will be more obvious and sometimes less so. But in LTW: Comparison Essay you will be led through a way to expand on Level I skills through a different kind of writing with many lessons and benefits of its own.

The post Lost Tools of Writing – Comparison Essay Complete Set appeared first on Classical Education Books.

• A focus on the common topic of comparison

• Comparing for understanding or for assessment

• Understanding a new kind of writing after the persuasive essay

• Foundational metaphor plus more complex metaphors

• Plenty of review

All-in-one combination Student Workbook/Teacher Guide. LTW: Comparison Essays does not have a separate teacher guide.

Welcome to The Lost Tools of Writing: Comparison Essay. This semester-long program provides a way for students to gain more practice in foundational thinking skills plus practice in writing a different kind of essay. Through LTW: Comparison Essays, students will solidify the foundations laid in LTW I, develop deeper thinking skills, master an additional form of essay-writing, and delve more deeply into analogical thinking with different kinds of metaphor-writing. The skills students gain through LTW: Comparison Essay extend beyond academics to life in the world, cultivating more refined and careful thinking about people, things, ideas, and their own decisions.

LTW: Comparison Essays fulfills the purpose of understanding people, things, or ideas more deeply, or assessing whether one is better or in some way more desirable than another. The bigger purpose of these thinking and writing skills is to grow in wisdom and prudence by practicing making finer distinctions and better decisions. Students can learn and practice principles and habits of decision-making for their own lives.

Deeper Thinking  

The goal of using the common topics is not to think about the topics, but to think with them. Just as repeated practice allows a player to throw a football without thinking about how to grip it or a musician to play a piece of music without thinking of where to put her fingers, repetition allows us to internalize thinking skills so that we can put our focus where it needs to be: on the people and things in our decisions. Internalizing the means of thinking frees us to think about about our decisions and the people, places, and things that are in them—to think with the tools and not about them.

A Different Kind of Writing

By writing comparison essays after persuasive essays, students will be able to compare the two kinds of writing to each other. They will find that all writing requires coming up with something to say (invention), organizing the material (arrangement), and expressing ideas in a fitting way (elocution). Further, they will see that the common topics and elocution tools they learned in Level I have prepared them to complete any kind of writing. As long as they are given an outline (those forms that come to us by tradition and make each kind of writing what it is) they can execute any kind of writing.

The Overall Picture of a Comparison Outline 

When we compare two items we can do so for different reasons. Sometimes we want to assess which one is better than the others. But sometimes, as is often the case with studies in history and literature (and friendships), we simply desire to gain a deeper understanding of both people. Comparison essays can help us gain understanding.

Sometimes we compare because we do need to choose one thing over the other. We can only attend one college, play a limited time in a recital, and eat one meal for lunch. Comparing can help us find the similarities and differences we need to know in order to decide which choice is best. Also, deciding repeatedly about our writing hones our ability to make wise decisions when they matter in our lives. Comparison essays cultivate that skill.

Outlines

Three outlines are presented in this book of comparison essays. The first is simple; then complexity builds with each successive outline. The third outline is repeated in Essay Four to allow for more practice with the most difficult form. You will find the block outline used when comparing is for the purpose of further understanding. The point-by-point outline is used when we make an assessment about which item is better.

Elocution

Elocution begins with a review of Level I’s metaphor lesson. Succeeding lessons build on that foundation, leading the students to create the more complex expanded metaphor, leading them into more and more analogical thinking.

All the skills that students learned in every canon of Level I can be applied in these comparison essays since Level I skills are universal thinking, organizing, and writing skills. Sometimes the review will be more obvious and sometimes less so. But in LTW: Comparison Essay you will be led through a way to expand on Level I skills through a different kind of writing with many lessons and benefits of its own.

The post Lost Tools of Writing – Comparison Essay Videos appeared first on Classical Education Books.

These videos provide additional teaching instruction for the Lost Tools of Writing Level 2. There’s a video for every lesson, one video each week, about 10-15 minutes each.

To view the videos you will need a password, which will be emailed to you upon completion of the order.

To learn more about The Lost Tools of Writing and read FAQs, please click HERE

The post The Lost Tools of Writing: Level Two – Online Instructional Video Subscription appeared first on Classical Education Books.

The Lost Tools of Writing Level Two, features eight new lessons (and thus eight new essays), each of which enable you and your students to dig – and think – deeper.

In LTW I, your students learned the basics of constructing a persuasive essay. By implementing the three canons of classical rhetoric – Invention, Arrangement, and Elocution – your young writers learned the process of crafting a coherent written argument, starting with the blank slate and ending with a complete and thorough essay. Our goal in LTW I was not so much to worry about the kind of persuasive essay the students were writing so much as it was to ensure they were growing increasingly comfortable with the steps necessary to create it.

In LTW II, however, you’ll continue your study of classical rhetoric by studying the judicial address, which refines the persuasive essay taught in LTW I. So just as the elements of LTW I build upon one another, so LTW II builds upon LTW I.

Through the eight lessons/addresses in LTW II, your students will work within the framework of the three canons, but each will be aimed at this new kind of address. This familiarity will empower you as a teacher and will provide confidence for your students.

Much is familiar: You will recognize the invention charts, the arrangement templates, and much of the format. But a lot is new as well. Featuring clarified teaching materials (with new discussion tips, simplified assessments steps, and improved examples), this new edition is the ideal follow-up for any teacher or student who is familiar and comfortable with LTW I.

To learn more about The Lost Tools of Writing and read FAQs, please click HERE

The post The Lost Tools of Writing: Level Two – Teacher’s Guide (2nd Edition) appeared first on Classical Education Books.

The Lost Tools of Writing Level Two, features eight new lessons (and thus eight new essays), each of which enables you and your students to dig – and think – deeper.

In LTW I, your students learned the basics of constructing a persuasive essay. By implementing the three canons of classical rhetoric – Invention, Arrangement, and Elocution – your young writers learned the process of crafting a coherent written argument, starting with the blank slate and ending with a complete and thorough essay. Our goal in LTW I was not so much to worry about the kind of persuasive essay the students were writing so much as it was to ensure they were growing increasingly comfortable with the steps necessary to create it.

In LTW II, however, you’ll continue your study of classical rhetoric by studying the judicial address, which refines the persuasive essay taught in LTW I. So just as the elements of LTW I build upon one another, so LTW II builds upon LTW I.

Through the eight lessons/addresses in LTW II, your students will work within the framework of the three canons, but each will be aimed at this new kind of address. This familiarity will empower you as a teacher and will provide confidence for your students.

Much is familiar: You will recognize the invention charts, the arrangement templates, and much of the format. But a lot is new as well. Featuring clarified teaching materials (with new discussion tips, simplified assessments steps, and improved examples), this new edition is the ideal follow-up for any teacher or student who is familiar and comfortable with LTW I.

Please note that the complete set of the LTW II includes one Student’s Workbook. A separate workbook must be purchased for each additional student using the program.

The post The Lost Tools of Writing: Level Two – Student Workbook (2nd Edition) appeared first on Classical Education Books.

Tales Wonder Volume 1
Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, The Little Mermaid, Rumpelstiltskin, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella

Tales of Wonder Volume II provides eight more of the most popular (and essential) fairy tales ever told, as recorded by Andrew Lang, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen. Included within each story are questions to ask while reading aloud to your children or students. At the end of each tale are additional questions to ask after the reading, as well as tips for listening for echoes. No matter how old your students are, Tales of Wonder offers a context for contemplative reading and deep thinking about some of the most lively and enjoyable stories ever told.

Tales of Wonder Volume 2:
Sleeping Beauty, The Emperor’s New Suit, The Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Three Little Pigs, The Golden Goose, Jack and the Beanstalk 

“[The fairy tale] stirs and troubles him (to his life-long enrichment) with the dim sense of something beyond his reach and, far from dulling or emptying the actual world, gives it a new dimension of depth. He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: The reading makes all real woods a little enchanted.” – C.S Lewis

The post Tales of Wonder Set appeared first on Classical Education Books.

In this short collection of incisive yet playful essays, Mayo invites readers into a long-neglected tradition of literary meditation: the art of “thinking with Shakespeare.” He returns to classics like Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Henry V and mines Shakespeare for joy. He models an accessible approach to reading the plays not only as academic subjects or scholarly artifacts, but as quarries of wisdom. Along the way, readers will discover insights into subjects close to the heart of classical education—poetic knowledge, imagination, and the cultivation of virtue.

The post Good in Every Thing: Meditations on Shakespeare appeared first on Classical Education Books.

The Lawgivers 

The post The Statesmen: The Parallel Lives of Cato the Younger and Phocion of Athens appeared first on Classical Education Books.