Joy happened again this morning with this 6:30 a.m. email! This is from the mother of an aspiring young scholar. “Well, Eli has a new calling! Eli and I spoke out at the school board meeting last night in front of a room of at least 100. Eli was the star of the meeting, theContinue reading “Joy, Felicity, and Bliss to Perfected Happiness”
Author Archives: Dean Forman
Living a Life of Liberated Joy
I received a communication of joy today from a former John Adams Academy family that moved to another state a while ago. Hello Dean, Hope all is well. Congratulations on the expansion of EDH campus! Just wanted to stay in touch and let you know I am currently reading your book and pages 77, 78Continue reading “Living a Life of Liberated Joy”
Art and The Scholar
Guest post by Greg Blankenbehler Although it is widely misunderstood and seems mysterious and esoteric to many, doing the arts in school is not that different from how a good classical education looks in the other subject areas. There are grammar, logic, and rhetoric elements to its skills, just as there are in the developmentContinue reading “Art and The Scholar”
Point of View: A Teacher of the Arts Answers the Question “What is the Point?”
Guest post by Greg Blankenbehler After the moving premiere performance of his sublime oratorio Messiah it is said that a spectator came up to George Frederic Handel and congratulated him on providing “a wonderful new entertainment” for the English public. Maestro Handel soberly replied, “I should be sorry if I only entertained them. I wishContinue reading “Point of View: A Teacher of the Arts Answers the Question “What is the Point?””
Art Without Truth, Beauty and Goodness is Not Art at All
If technical skill cannot reliably assure a great artist, and we can’t just take people’s word that they are truly having great aesthetic experiences, how can we recognize if our scholars are making or experiencing great art, or at least progressing towards it?
Beauty and the Fine Arts
Beauty is one of the triune transcendentals that philosophers and moralists have observed and pondered for millennia: Truth, Beauty, Goodness – the pinnacle and pure essence of all the many different values we seek.
Beauty Armed With Virtue Bows the Soul
Where can we find beauty? Beauty is captured in the idea to restore what has been hollowed out, emptied by the ugliness that is also a part of this mortal experience. Beauty is also a marriage of the intellectual and moral virtue. Beauty fights off barbarism, and with so much conflict, crime and debauchery aroundContinue reading “Beauty Armed With Virtue Bows the Soul”
The Power to Make a Different Choice
Winter gave way to spring these last few weeks. Blooms, buds, and blossoms are everywhere. What is nature showing and telling you? Change is here! What will this new season offer you? What is or will be your new normal? We have a family couplet that goes like this. “If you always do what youContinue reading “The Power to Make a Different Choice”
A Twenty-First Century Renaissance
One day a little boy arrived at school, grabbed his crayons, and began thinking of all the things he could draw. The teacher asked him to pause and then said, “Today we will be drawing flowers.” Enthused, the boy thought of all the types of flowers there were. Just as he was about to beginContinue reading “A Twenty-First Century Renaissance”
Refuge, Remembrance, and Renewal
This past week has provided disturbing footage of refugees fleeing and defending their homes in Ukraine. At the same time that these images floated in the periphery, I happened to note that our three academies are now approaching 5,000 refugees on the waitlist to enroll– with a current population of 4,000 scholars already inhabiting theContinue reading “Refuge, Remembrance, and Renewal”