Why Study the Great Books

 At a Classical school, the student actively engages with the ideas of the past and present — not just reading about them, but evaluating them, tracing their development, and comparing them to other philosophies and opinions. There’s a very practical way to engage in this conversation of ideas: Read, talk about, and write about the Great Books.
The study of Great Books allows the past to speak for itself, combining history, creative writing, philosophy, politics, and ethics into a seamless whole. This Classical goal is a greater understanding of our own civilization, country, and place in time, stemming from an understanding of what has come before us. The student who has read Aristotle and Plato on human freedom, Thomas Jefferson on liberty, Frederick Douglass on slavery, and Martin Luther King on civil rights will read Toni Morrison’s Beloved with an understanding denied to the student who comes to the book without any knowledge of its roots.
People who question or even scorn the study of the past and its works usually assume that the past is entirely different from the present, and that hence we can learn nothing worthwhile from the past. But the poets bear witness that ancient man, too, saw the sun rise and set, was possessed by love and desire, experienced ecstasy and elation as well as frustration and disillusion, and knew good and evil. The ancient writers speak across the centuries to us, in many instances more directly and vividly than our contemporary writers, and they still have some thing to say to us.
We must seek what is most worthy in the works of both the past and the present. When we do that, we find that ancient poets, prophets, and philosophers are as much our contemporaries in the world of the mind as the most discerning of present-day writers. In fact, many of the ancient writings speak more directly to our experience and condition than the latest best sellers. I think Henry David Thoreau might have said it best, when he remarked, “Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”
So what are your children reading?
For more information about Classical education and The Great Books for your child, contact Trinity Classical Academy (now enrolling grades TK-12 for the 2015-62 school year) at 661-296-2601 or visit www.TrinityClassicalAcademy.com.