Roman Roads Press Blog

Author: Daniel Foucachon

The Education of the American Founders

by Daniel Foucachon on Posted on

“Dad had enough gall to be divided into three parts,” opens one of America’s beloved tales, Cheaper by the Dozen, published in 1948. To the audience of the day, this colorful description would evoke a commonplace pun from the ubiquitously read Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars, which opens “All Gaul is divided into three parts” (or Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres as the Latin student would have had to translate). The chances are, neither you nor your children have read Julius Caesar and his famous Gallic Wars. However, your grandparents very likely did, and nearly every educated (certainly college … Continue Reading “The Education of the American Founders”

Men, Carry Your Father

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As a boy I lived for a period in Florida, the capital of retirement homes. As a result, for various reasons, we visited a few of these homes. They were nice. Like little vacation villages. Yet they were also tragic. This is where the most essential members of our society spent their most important years.  We were living in Florida because my grandfather was dying of cancer, and we lived with him during his last days. He never lived in a retirement home, and died Christmas morning in his own bed, surrounded by family. What a gift to him, but … Continue Reading “Men, Carry Your Father”

Don’t throw out your turkey carcass!

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“Here, ladies and gentlemen, is an eminently practical book. And an eminently wise book.I highly recommend his book; even if you buy it for yourself and never lend it out, if taken to heart it will be a gift to others.I recommend it because it is full of joy and gratitude. It is difficult to find a book that talks about what food is for, and what people are for, that doesn’t become either pedantic or shrill. Joy and gratitude are the solution to that. There is such a thing as good food, what food ought to be. And thinking … Continue Reading “Don’t throw out your turkey carcass!”

Q/A: Old Western Culture Credits without Reading

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There was a question from a parent asked in the comment section of a YouTube video (embedded below) that I think might benefit other families that use Old Western Culture. Q: Thanks for the video! How would you recommend assigning credits if the student only watched the videos? A: That’s a great question! It opens up the somewhat complicated question of credits altogether. I will answer in two ways.   First: While how this is enforced may vary by state, we would strongly affirm the fundamental rights of parents to be primary educators and decision makers for k-12 education. Often homeschoolers are held to a … Continue Reading “Q/A: Old Western Culture Credits without Reading”

Logic: A Science and Art

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Is logic a science or an art? Of course, a logician would answer Yes, and here is why. A science is a systematic study of some aspect of the natural world that seeks to discover laws (regularities, principles) by which God governs His creation. Whereas botany studies plants, astronomy studies the sky, and anatomy studies the body, logic studies the mind as it reasons, as it draws conclusions from other information. Logic as a science seeks to discover rules that distinguish good reasoning from poor reasoning, rules that are then simplified and systematized. These would include the rules for validity, of inference and replacement, and … Continue Reading “Logic: A Science and Art”

We Need Stories

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Once upon a time there was a horse that couldn’t be tamed. He was young and strong, nervous and rangy. King Philip wanted to ride him in battle, and every man of the king’s army looked on that beautiful horse with admiration. But man after man could not tame him; with wild, frantic energy he started and bucked at every battle-hardened solder that tried to get close to him. After many men had failed they were about to declare him untamable and send him back into the wild, when the king’s young son stepped forward and said, “Father, I can tame … Continue Reading “We Need Stories”

Why Old Western Culture has no self-graded quizzes

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Several years ago we produced self-grading quizzes for a unit of Old Western Culture as a trial. They worked great, and demonstrated that students were paying attention to the material. But we decided not to publish them. Here is why. While self-grading quizzes can be very useful, especially for subjects like math and language, we wanted to emphasize the “recitation,” or Socratic dialogue use of the workbooks for Old Western Culture. Ideally, the workbooks shouldn’t be used for mere comprehension, even if they accomplish that, but as a jumping point for discussion. Grappling with the questions from the lectures and readings … Continue Reading “Why Old Western Culture has no self-graded quizzes”

Eucatastrophe

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“This emotional rollercoaster that Tolkien puts us on – puts Éomer on – this swinging us from one extreme of Éomer’s sense of despair and impending defeat, to the thrill of discovering that what you thought was your enemy coming to kill you was in fact your friends and allies coming to rescue you. That’s what Tolkien calls “Eucatastrophe,” and that’s how Tolkien would have us read, and to feel, and to experience, the Gospel.” – Jonathan McIntosh, Old Western Culture, The Novels. Christ’s death and resurrection was the ultimate eucatastrophe in the history of mankind. The darkest moment, greatest … Continue Reading “Eucatastrophe”

What Does Jesus Have to Do with STEM? – Dr. Mitch Stokes

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This article originally appeared in Digressio Magazine, Vol. 4. Listen to the audio version of this article. [dropcap]S[/dropcap]tephen Hawking, who recently passed away, was the most famous physicist since Albert Einstein. And rightly so: he held the same Cambridge professorship that Sir Isaac Newton held, the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics. But, unlike Newton, Hawking was an atheist. Similarly, Richard Dawkins, an emeritus fellow at Oxford and the world’s most famous biologist, is an outspoken opponent of religion. Hawking and Dawkins both say that their respective sciences show that there is no God. To many people, this seems like pretty good … Continue Reading “What Does Jesus Have to Do with STEM? – Dr. Mitch Stokes”