{"id":29,"date":"2009-05-10T18:51:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-10T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/10\/preparing-to-read-the-great-books\/"},"modified":"2012-04-27T20:30:48","modified_gmt":"2012-04-28T00:30:48","slug":"preparing-to-read-the-great-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/10\/preparing-to-read-the-great-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing to Read the Great Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Classical Writing’s recommended literature\u00a0selections<\/a>\u00a0are now available on our website.<\/p>\n

But I have since received several emails about how to prepare for (as well as how to tackle) reading what we call “Great Books”.<\/p>\n

Well, let’s start by saying that every classical school, every tutorial, every co-op, every curriculum, every Christian group may have a different list for what to read in terms of Great Books. Your list will not exactly be mine. And that is OK. The “western canon” is not carved in stone.<\/p>\n

Some have more modern books, some have more medieval books, some have an emphasis on Church doctrine, others prefer literature, and still others social, political, or philosophical emphases.<\/p>\n

My recommendations for preparation for Great Books studies below are based on the idea that the goal of Great Books studies is to UNDERSTAND (to enter into) the mind of the author behind each work. Not necessarily with the aim to agree with each author ultimately–we couldn’t possibly agree with them all–but with the aim to understand before we judge.<\/p>\n

The most important steps to prepare for Great Books classes or Great Books reading are<\/p>\n

1. Biblical literacy: <\/span>If you and your students don\u2019t know the Bible stories, Bible history\/timeline, and the \u2018orthodox\u2019 doctrines of the Church (little \u2018o\u2019, orthodox), you will struggle with understanding the minds behind many of the Great Books. [That means familiarity with basic doctrines of the Medieval Church, even if your family is not Catholic. It means knowing the creeds and the early councils of the Church, even if your family’s local church does not teach or make use of those directly.]<\/p>\n

2. Graeco-Roman mythology literacy<\/span>: READ ALOUD Edith Hamilton\u2019s Greek Mythology<\/span> (or a like volume of Greek myths) from beginning to end. Then read aloud children\u2019s versions of Iliad<\/em>, Odyssey<\/em> and Aeneid<\/em>. All this is to familiarize your students with all the deities, their oddities, and their stories.<\/p>\n

3. A good sense of history from antiquity to now\u2026<\/span>. You and your students need a time-line sense that knows when the Iliad<\/span> supposedly took place, when Socrates lived, what and when was the Golden Age of Greece, when Jesus lived, what Rome was like then, when the middle ages started, what difference is between the early middle ages and the late middle ages, when and what and why were the Reformation and the Renaissance\u2026 that sort of stuff.<\/p>\n

After that you READ aloud… and read alone. Read the Iliad<\/span> and Odyssey<\/span> aloud to each other. Read 19th century good literature (Dickens, Austen, Eliot, etc.), and then \u2018dare\u2019 to go backwards into the harder stuff. If you go back before the 1700s (before the eve of the novel) the reading consists mostly of epic poetry: Dante\u2019s Comedia<\/span>, Chaucer\u2019s Canterbury Tales<\/span>, medieval allegorical “morality” (as well as not-so-moral<\/span>) tales. And of course there is philosophy, political theory and theology back there too.<\/p>\n

Most homeschool moms and students don\u2019t have an easy time with Great Books at first because the language is wordy and antiquated and the thoughts are alien–many of them. The key is to plunge in and read a little every day. We can all read two pages of the Iliad<\/em> and attend to it carefully each day (IF we just do 2, even if it takes us a year to get through it). Lack of persistence and patience is what defeats most people with the Great Books, but if you have a regular read-aloud routine and if you stick with it and keep going in smaller chunks, your kids can handle it without being turned off.<\/p>\n

I would not recommend making it your goal to get through all anyone’s list of Great Books. Most lists go at a hair-raising pace. My take on Great Books is not to get through as many as possible, but to read thoroughly and well those few works that you do choose to read.<\/p>\n

It is somewhat odious to hear people say \u201cI read Machiavelli\u2019s The Prince<\/span>, but I don\u2019t know anything about it, other than the \u2018ends justify the means\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

If we do not dig in well enough to have somewhat of an idea of the work, or well enough to let the work penetrate our thinking at least a little, we may as well not have read it. I would say \u201cless is more\u201d when it comes to great books, and that a person who thinks he or she has read them all, but knows nothing about any of them is rather a \u2018dangerous\u2019 person. It brings about a surface attitude towards reading and understanding which will not stand a kid in good stead in the long run. Read WELL, read slowly, and think carefully, even if you only cover a few works. AND IF you have only a little time, hone in on the Greeks, on Plato\u2019s dialogues, on Greek plays (tragedies). There are few thoughts more profound than those\u2026 those and the early church fathers.<\/p>\n

Happy Mother’s Day,
\nLene<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Classical Writing’s recommended literature\u00a0selections\u00a0are now available on our website. But I have since received several emails about how to prepare for (as well as how to tackle) reading what we call “Great Books”. Well, let’s start by saying that every … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[44,45,12,46],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-classical-education","category-literature","tag-great-books","tag-history","tag-home-education","tag-pedagogy","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2o4IY-t","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classicalwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}