angela hormberg

Tag: TLS

  • “On Being Civilized: A Few Lines Amid the Breakage” by Tracy Lee Simmons — Commonplace

    I am working my way through this delightful collection of essays by Tracy Lee Simmons, which beckons the reader to gather round for a conversation on just exactly “What IS Civilization?” Following are some of my favorite quotes from the “Prologue”:

    “…this question [‘what is civilization]…really lies behind almost everything we do, with and without our children” (3)

    “We simply must consent to follow wiser people who know how to guide us” (5).

    “By [a] material or technological standard we can admit that no civilization has ever been more advanced than our own” but “when we look to those not-so-easily quantified measures–spiritual, aesthetic, or intellectual values, for instance–…we in the modern world may not pan out so well” (6).

    Education “that more or less systematic development of the soul and intellect” (7).

    “We are a blessed people, and the life well lived consists in acknowledging all of this boldly and without apology and without embarrassment–and in helping others to arrive at the same truth–starting with our children” (13).

    Works Cited

    Simmons, Tracy Lee. On Being Civilized: A Few Lines Amid the Breakage. Memoria Press, 2023.

    © 2024 Angela Hormberg

  • “Citizens of a Larger World” by Tracy Lee Simmons — Commonplace

    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:

    1. “the Vaguely Formed Mind”
    2. “the Impatient, Inattentive Mind”
    3. “the Time-Bound, Narrow Mind
    4. “the Cynically Formed Mind”
    5. “the Empty Mind”

    What Classical Education gives us instead:

    1. “the Disciplined Mind”
    2. “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