go back

Students in Euclid have just finished Book IV of his monumental work The Elements. It really takes about three books of Euclid to initiate each student fully into the wonders of logical demonstration. They now realize what a proof is and that every successive proposition in The Elements is yet another stone in the great cathedral of knowledge that they are building within their own minds. Second semester Euclid students now understand how Millay could have said, "Euclid alone hath looked upon beauty bare". They understand why Einstein held out no hope for those who could not become excited about the study of Euclid when he allegedly said, "If Euclid fails to kindle your youthful enthusiasm, you were not born to be a scientific thinker."

Students in Latin I, II, III and IV are variously translating texts, from the delightful pages of Lingua Latina to the rather collegiate yet respectable Sententiae from Frederick M. Wheelock’s revered tome to, of course, that ancient masterpiece written by the man who some claim was the very "Father of the West" - Virgil - and his immortal work The Aeneid! This year Lyceum students in even greater numbers will be participating in the prestigious and worthwhile National Latin Exam in levels 1, 2 and 3.

All students continue their study of Greek from the marvelous introduction to Greek Athenaze. Though Greek meets only once a week, the rewards of sticking with the course can be seen especially with third year students who will soon be ready for some readings from The New Testament. This will indeed be a dream come true.

Each Friday, every student at The Lyceum recites a poem from memory in a class called the Rhetoric Practicum. The favorite choices are from the Sonnets of Shakespeare, but students also gravitate toward Hopkins, Tennyson, and Longfellow, Dickinson and Frost, Keats and Shelly, the Rossettis and the Brownings, while the gentlemen in 7th grade have taken a particular liking to Hillaire Belloc’s Bad Child’s Book of Beasts. What a gift it is to fill up the storehouse of memory with good things at such a young age!

Students of Rhetoric, in addition to their weekly recitations, have been working on telling a good story. This is a task that is harder than it seems. The 7th and 8th grade students must relate a good tale, in order from beginning to end, without skipping parts. They must be sure to describe vividly the setting, build suspense steadily, draw the audience into sympathy with the characters, and of course, end with a good resolution. They write a good deal, as always, but the exercise of telling a good story is invaluable in that it trains the mind to think in order, and express thoughts with lively words.

What better way to study history than to read the works of those historians known as the fathers of History itself! Classical History students have finished Herodotus’ Histories of the Persian Wars and some of Plutarch’s Lives. They are now well into Thucydides’ great work The Peloponnesian Wars.

American History students have read over forty documents from Mortimer Adler’s Annals of America. We don’t know of a better way of teaching American History and the ideas that make America great than to read the words of those who shaped the course of that history. Shouldn’t every American spend some time reading the actual words of Columbus, John Dickenson, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, Madison, Washington?

Following the advice of the late John Senior who famously said that before reading the Great Books of The Western World, students should first be thoroughly immersed in and acquainted with the '1,000 Good Books,' 7th and 8th grade students therefore participate in 'The Lyceum Good Books Program'. This year they have read Kipling's Just So Stories, The Jungle Books, Irving's Rip Van Winkle and of course A.A. Milne’s favorite, The Wind in The Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. One does not argue about The Wind in the Willows. We can’t help but cite Milne’s famous encomium about this remarkable work, noting that what he says about it might just as well be said about The Great Books as a whole. Milne cautions the reader:

"The young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and, if she does not like it, asks her to return his letters. The older man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. The book is a test of character. We can't criticize it, because it is criticizing us. But I must give you one word of warning. When you sit down to it, don't be so ridiculous as to suppose that you are sitting in judgment on my taste, or on the art of Kenneth Grahame. You are merely sitting in judgment on yourself. You may be worthy: I don't know, but it is you who are on trial."

Is the Lord’s Prayer a proper object of study for Theology students? St. Thomas Aquinas would certainly say so, and it is his commentary on the Pater Noster that Lyceum students have spent an entire semester discussing. Most recently they have been discussing the last petition "sed libera nos a malo" (but deliver us from evil). They have been exploring particularly the connection between each of the petitions in the Lord’s prayer with the Beatitudes and the Gifts of The Holy Spirit. The younger students have been reading the Old Testament, and having wandered about in the desert for a good part of the semester, are just about to enter the Promised Land.

In Biology, students have had the pleasure of reading William Harvey’s De Motu Cordis, his compelling first-hand account of his discovery of the circulation of the blood. Harvey embodies the scientist who, moved by wonder, enters the great conversation begun a thousand years before. He addresses the work of his predecessors, deferring to the discoveries of some and dismantling the theories of others with Euclidean reasoning on premises derived from years of careful observation and experimentation. Harvey demonstrates not only that his discovery is true, but how to discover and prove that a thing is true.

To read the entire Odyssey aloud with fellow admirers of that man "skilled in all ways of contending, master mariner and soldier" Odysseus, is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

Classical literature students, having also read Pindar’s Odes and Aeschylus’ Orestia, are now reading Hesiod’s Theogony. We feel truly blessed to have read these great works with the students!