Dear Reader,
This month’s Arts of Liberty Bulletin focuses on the study of grammar, one of the traditional liberal arts that has been neglected and rejected in the recent past. I give my reasons for thinking traditional grammar study performs a crucial role in training the mind and forming the soul. I also am happy to share a delightful essay on the beauty of diagramming sentences by Jared Dyzbinski, which he wrote for my summer Trivium course.
President Jeff Lehman and I had a busy summer, including a week in Rome laying the groundwork for what we hope will be future programs. The highlight was an architectural tour of San Clemente, which is built over earlier churches and structures going back to the time of Nero’s fire.
I was pleasantly surprised to be named the winner of the Circe Institute’s Paideia Prize honoring those who have contributed significantly to the revival of liberal arts education. Past winners include Eva Brann, Wendell Berry, Laura and Mark Berquist, and David Hicks.
Last month, Dr. Lehman and Fellow Erik Ellis presented their plans for an anthology of foundational texts on the quadrivium at a gathering of leaders in classical education at the Davenant House in South Carolina. We look forward to announcing more quadrivium initiatives in the coming months. Later this month, I will be in San Diego to lead an academic retreat on Christopher Dawson’s Crisis of Western Education for the Valor Institute.
Let us continue to labor to form ourselves in the Arts of Liberty, and extend the blessings of liberty to the next generation.