Mid-nineteenth century. This small book is a classic on the basic principles of teaching and should be read by everyone who engages in any kind of teaching at all, formal or informal. His principles are simple, full of wisdom and worth a great deal of thought. The Seven Laws of Teaching has been a well-worn tool for classical educators. Little did we know the version most of us had had been long stripped of the extensive Christian understanding and application the author had originally included. Now the original is back! Five stars! Soft 162p

A fantastic medieval treatise on the Trivium. Throughout this masterpiece, John makes a persuasive case that ³Just as eloquence, unenlightened by reason, is rash and blind, so wisdom, without the power of expression, is feeble and maimed. Speechless wisdom may sometimes increase one's personal satisfaction, but it rarely and only slightly contributes to the welfare of human society² (10, 11). Regarding the value of eloquence, John states that ³fluency is advantageous only when it is oriented to the acquisition of wisdom² (92).

Martianus Capella, The Marriage of Philogy and Mercury. The preferred edition is Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts (two volumes), translated and introduced by Stahl, Johnson and Burge (New York, Columbia University Press, 1971) Capella describes the seven liberal arts in highly allegorical style, which made it appealing to later mediaevals despite the fact that Martianus wasn't a Christian. He wrote at the turn of the 5th century (contemporary of Augustine) in Carthage (near Augustine). His book is no doubt influenced by the same culture of education in which Augustine was trained, and which the latter advanced in a Christianized form in his famous treatise, On Christian Doctrine.

Cassiodorus Senator, Institutiones, or Institutes of Divine and Human Readings. The preferred edition is titled An Introduction to Divine and Human Readings, translated by Leslie Webber (New York: Octagon Books, 1966). Cassiodorus flourished in the mid 500's, and was secretary to Ostrogothic King Theodoric. He founded a monastery, and his educational program, which he outlines in this work, would become the pattern for studious pursuits in monasteries throughout Christendom. It was his influence that turned monasteries into centers of learning. He pioneered the idea of the "Scriptorium," and monks thereafter devoted themselves to copying and preserving texts and libraries. To this we owe much of the classical heritage that we continue to enjoy today (including the text of the Bible), because medieval scribes copied and preserved the ancient manuscripts. To fulfill a learned monk's calling as a scribe or as a commentator on Scripture or the Church Fathers, Cassiodorus believed that a certain program of education was prerequisite. This program was what we know as the Seven Liberal Arts.

Quintilian wrote in the first century A.D. He epitomizes Roman education, and his pedagogical ideas were generally followed in the Middle Ages. Available in the Loeb Classics series (published by Harvard University Press). Written in the late first century A.D., this large work was a primary text for the education of orators throughout the Roman Emperial period and again in the Renaissance. Quintilian describes his philosophy of educational goals, methods, and matter from the earliest years of a child's life to the retirement years of the professional orator. The book is valuable not only for the precepts of rhetoric so well laid out, but for his discussion of teaching, books, students, psychology of children, proper use of time, and a host of other issues involved in education all through life.

Augustine, a Christian through and through, argues that there is much value in the excellent liberal education that dominated the pagan Roman world (e.g. Logic, Rhetoric). However, he takes great pains to preserve the antithesis between belief and unbelief, and so he urges his vision for a classical education that is distinctly Christian.

Wisdom and Eloquence is an indispensable contribution to the literature of classical Christian education.- -E. Christian Kopff Associate Director, Honors Program; Director, Center for Western Civilization -Evans and Littlejohn have written a remarkable treatise on education-a readable, practical, and encouraging discourse that demystifies and clarifies the purpose of a liberal education.- -D. Bruce Lockerbie Chairman, Paideia, Inc., Stony Brook, New York; Author, A Christian Paideia: The Habitual Vision of Greatness -The authors explore not just the methods but the content of a good Christian education. The book is full of great ideas, but it is also practical, drawing from the authors- years of experience as classical teachers and administrators.- -Gene Edward Veith, Jr. Director of the Cranach Institute; Author, Classical Education -For followers of Christ, a true education is always concerned with who we are, even more than what we know. Littlejohn and Evans help today-s Christians-especially parents-to understand the essence of true education. Wisdom and Eloquence is a book for our times, our churches, and our children. Read, learn, and be inspired.- -R. Albert Mohler, Jr. President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky.

As part of their education in the trivium (the liberal arts of logic, grammar, and rhetoric), grammar school students in Shakespeare's time were taught to recognize the two hundred figures of speech that Renaissance scholars had derived from Latin and Greek sources. Sister Miriam Joseph views this theory of composition as integral to Shakespeare's mastery of language. In her classic 1947 book, she lays out these figures of speech in simple, understandable patterns and explains each one with examples from Shakespeare. Her analysis of his plays and poems illustrates that the Bard knew more about rhetoric than perhaps anyone else.

About 1570. Ascham, educated at, and fellow of, St. John's College, Cambridge, was a tutor of Queen Elizabeth in the mid sixteenth century and an important writer of English Renaissance educational theory. Part of the second generation of great English Renaissance men of letters, he rejected the decadent humanism of Italy for the Christian humanism of England. His book is practical advice and hard-headed theory, a work designed to produce, through sound classical and Christian education, men sound in mind, religion, body, and citizenship in a young, powerful country.

Even though this book is not about education, Ryken does a masterful job of summarizing the Classical Christian education of the Puritans. Chapter 9 alone is worth the price of the book.

Subtitled ³Greek and Roman Influences on Western Literature,² this book is another outstanding Highet contribution to the study of the classical world and the value of that study in education. The important parts of the book for the purposes of this bibliography are those sections, particularly pages 490-500 (sub-headed ³education²) in chapter 21 (²A Century of Scholarship²) and all of chapter 24 (²Conclusion²) which deal particularly with the declne of the importance of knowledge of the classical world, languages, and literature in modern education and the consequences of that decline on education. Throughout the book, however, there are discussions of education at various times in history which are revealing and germane to the issue of education now. Extremely perceptive and thought-provoking; again, though Highet is a humanistic classicist, he has borrowed heavily from the Protestant Western heritage of thought and is more worthwhile to read than many Christian authors who are not such good scholars or teachers.

Late sixteenth century. Sidney's essay is a classic of literary criticism and a defense of the value of imaginative literature in general (what he calls ³poesy² or poetry), and is also extremely valuable for his philosophy of virtue and what studies promote it. It has clear implications for education.

Late 1st century, early 2nd century A.D. While considered spurious now (not written by Plutarch), it was widely influential in the Middle Ages and thus is important for the light it sheds on medieval attitudes toward educational philosophy and methodology.

1531. Both Elyot and Ascham are concerned with the development of both body and mind toward moral ends, toward the making of a gentleman, within the framework of a classical discipline. Elyot was educated at home, worked in law, diplomacy for the King, and wrote fairly extensively.

From his essays. Late sixteenth century. A fascinating essay on Montaigne's own education and the principles he has drawn from his own education and his observations of that of others, and his consequent recommendations on education for those with the desire and freedom to education their children for aristocratic, political life.

Similar to The Teaching of Classics, but the value here is in the discussion of the nature and importance of classical languages and literatures in secondary schools at the point (the turn of the century) when the decline is beginning to set in and the value of those disciplines is coming under attack, and also in the predictions made which we know have come true. It is also immensely valuable for the light shed on the differences between turn-of-the-century and late-twentieth-century expectations and requirements for school children and assumptions about their capacities.

Subtitled: Greek and Roman Influences on Western Literature, this book is another outstanding Highet contribution to the study of the classical world and the value of that study in education. The important parts of the book for the purposes of this bibliography are those sections, particularly pages 490-500 (sub-headed: education) in chapter 21 (A Century of Scholarship) and all of chapter 24 (Conclusion) which deal particularly with the decline of the importance of knowledge of the classical world, languages, and literature in modern education and the consequences of that decline on education. Throughout the book, however, there are discussions of education at various times in history which are revealing and germane to the issue of education now. Extremely perceptive and thought-provoking; again, though Highet is a humanistic classicist, he has borrowed heavily from the Protestant Western heritage of thought and is more worthwhile to read than many Christian authors who are not such good scholars or teachers.