A glimpse inside Hillsdale College's network of classical schools across the country.
“If I had been called upon a year ago, when I was only 95, to address you this afternoon, I would, no doubt, have spoken of the importance of liberal arts education for the preservation of civilization. But now I will only tell you, ‘be sure you have memorized a few poems to keep you company through whatever lies ahead.'”
Louise Cowan
Louise and her husband Donald Cowan joined the University of Dallas in 1959 as chair of the English and physics departments respectively.…
…Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven far journeys, after he had sacked Troy’s secret citadel. Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of, many the pains he suffered on his spirit on the wide sea, struggling for his own life and the homecoming of his companions. Even so he could not save his companions, hard though he strove to; they were destroyed by their own wild recklessness, fools, who devoured the oxen of Helios, the Sun God, and he took away the day of their homecoming.
Unintended Consequences: How Four Kids’ Classical Education Affected Mom and Dad
by Kyle Swartz, the parent of four students at Founders Classical Academy of Leander: Anna (Class of 2019), Emily (’20), Jonah (’23), and Michael (’26)
We all want what’s best for our kids. What our kids to be happy in this life. We want them to live well. But what is “good,” and what do we mean by “well”?…
…The moneymaking life is characterized by a certain constraint, and it is clear that wealth is not the good being sought, for it is a useful thing and for the sake of something else.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
…Fix your eyes on the greatness of Athens as you have it before you day by day, fall in love with her, and when you feel her great, remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action… So they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received, each for his own memory, praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of all sepulchers, not that in which their mortal bones are laid, but a home in the minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir the speech or action as the occasion comes by.
…By being so long in the lowest form [at Harrow] I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys…. I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence–which is a noble thing. Naturally I am biased in favor of boys learning English; I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honor, and Greek as a treat.
On Friday, January 26, 2018, Founders Classical Academy of Leander welcomed Texas state representative Tony Dale and friends of the school to campus for National School Choice Week. Here are Dr. O’Toole’s remarks from the event.
At Founders Classical Academy, we think that school choice is the way forward because implicit in the idea of a charter school is an essential truth about parents and children.…
…It is not enough that you should understand about applied science in order that your work should increase man’s blessings. Concern for man himself must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors, concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods–in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind.