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    Woe to Those Who Call Trash Treasure and Treasure Trash!

    by Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg

    Ah, to know the mind of Aristotle, the man whom Dante called “the teacher of those who know.”  How magnificent to commune with the intellect of Plato, of whom Alfred North Whitehead dared to say: “the European philosophical tradition consists…

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    All Happy Trails Lead West (II)

    by Michael Platt

     Presently we saw a curious thing: There were no clouds, the sun was going down in a limpid, gold-washed sky.  Just as the lower edge of the red disk rested on the high fields against the horizon, a great black…

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    What Should Children Read?

    by Russell Kirk

    In recommending books to be read by young people from the age of seven to the age of twelve, this critic’s problem is not paucity, but plenitude. For the number of good books for young people is large, and it…

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    The Arabian Nights

    by Giuseppe Butera

    “Be sure that you wake me an hour before the dawn, and speak to me in these words: ‘My sister, if you are not asleep, I beg you, before the sun rises, to tell me one of your charming stories.’…

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    All Happy Trails Lead West

    by Michael Platt

    A lot of good books have come out of the West.  They have been written by men and by women and may be read by girls and by boys.  It is no wonder that so many appear on John Senior’s…

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    What is Poetic Knowledge?

    by Kirk Kramer

    Editor’s note: Since so many people have responded favorably to the Civilized Reader column with requests for more information about John Senior and his educational vision, it seemed appropriate to republish this review of James Taylor’s Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery…

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    Shakespeare Good and Great

    by Michael Platt

    Well did John Senior advise parents and teachers to prepare today’s youngsters for great study, with experiences of the good, such as gardening, graceful dancing, and gazing at the stars dancing above, and also making sure to delight in a…

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    Will Rascals Defend Our Civilization… and What Books will they Read?

    by William Fahey

    He faces execution each day.  Seven days a week, his jury of peers votes unanimously for capital punishment.  The judge’s hand is typically stayed.  Mercy reigns because the accused shows signs of improvement.  Perhaps, this little boy will one day…

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    Household Stories of the Brothers Grimm

    by Mitchell Kalpakgian

    “It was the middle of winter, and the snow-flakes were falling like feathers from the sky, and a queen sat at her window working, and her embroidery-frame was of ebony. And as she worked, gazing at times out on the…

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    Utopia State University

    by Rev. C. J. McCloskey III

    An Education for Our Time Josiah Bunting III, Regnery, 1998, 246 pages.   After religion and the family, education ranks at the top of almost any society’s priorities. If any of these elements is not healthy, a society is in…

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    Graduation 2011

    by Rev. James V. Schall, S.J.

    Two years ago, I wrote a column for this site titled “Graduation 2009.” As I come to the end of this scholastic year, I would like to return to the same topic: What do college graduates learn before they graduate?…

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    Curing Socratophobia: On Teaching the Great Books

    by Thaddeus J. Kozinski

      Modern liberal Catholic colleges and universities have made a mockery of academic freedom, as the recent Marquette “controversy” reveals (see my analysis here and here). Unfortunately, in reaction to the modernism, relativism, careerism, atheism, skepticism, and political correctness of…

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    The Great Philosopher Who Became Catholic

    by Deal W. Hudson

    Eight years ago today, a famous American philosopher died who had lived as a Catholic the last year of his life. Not so long ago, his name — Mortimer J. Adler — was synonymous with the “great books” approach to…

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    A Good Book About Bad Books

    by Logan Gage

    If ever there were a book designed specifically for the enjoyment of InsideCatholic readers, surely it is Benjamin Wiker’s new 10 Books that Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others that Didn’t Help. Wiker should be renowned (if he is…

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