What Tracy Lee Simmons calls “reminders” in Citizens of a Larger World may be new thoughts to some of us. Here are some of my favorite quotes from this little gem.
“Classical education…[is] based on the idea, first, that the mind and soul must be formed, not simply fed. It’s also based upon an idea that, yes, we must learn to think, but we must also be given something solid to think about.”
“[I]nterested people are, in the end, interesting people.”
“[W]e’re aiming primarily not for skills but formation — two categories, by the way, which need not be mutually exclusive. It’s possible for the same person to both rattle off Latin irregular verbs and change a tire.”
“Classical education pushes back upon at least five trends or maladies that have practically disabled…the modern mind”
His list of five trends or maladies:
- “the Vaguely Formed Mind”
- “the Impatient, Inattentive Mind”
- “the Time-Bound, Narrow Mind
- “the Cynically Formed Mind”
- “the Empty Mind”
What Classical Education gives us instead:
- “the Disciplined Mind”
- “the Reverent Mind”
“A classically guided school…[is] a garden.”
Works Cited
Simmons, Tracy Lee. Citizens of a Larger World. Memoria Press, 2024.
© 2024 Angela Hormberg
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