Mysteries and Myths of Mathematics Satyan Devadoss
Mathematicians have done a good job of showcasing the usefulness of mathematics. Ironically, this very feature of math is its greatest weakness, for touting the usefulness of math destroys its innate wonder. Happily, we can unlock mathematical pleasures by seeking out the unexplored, the unknown, the undiscovered.
Learning from the “Talented Tenth”: Teaching Sensitive Racial Topics in History and Literature Tammy Morrow
As the name implies, the end of a liberal arts education is freedom. One who is liberally educated is freed from prejudice and a servile dependence upon a teacher. Such an education trains its students to become better citizens and better neighbors. For the American, training in the liberal arts necessarily engages the student in the Great Conversation of the West. This conversation by its nature is liberating to all who hear it. When Aristotle tells us that the pursuit of virtue and contemplation frees the soul for a truly human life, we do not question the freedom such a life affords. However, other voices in the Great Conversation seem vicious rather than virtuous, for they seem to reinforce the very prejudice from which a liberal education intends to free us. Yet I would argue that these apparently discordant voices are as essential to the liberating work of this education as any other.
In this workshop, we will explore why we should teach imaginative fiction like Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which is notorious for its offensive racial slurs and for its portrayal of dehumanizing language and behavior. How can such literature free our students, especially our African American students? As we consider race and our American story, we will explore the principles that govern the stories we should read in our literature courses and the stories we should tell in our history courses. We will take time to listen to the Talented Tenth and others who have joined the Great Conversation to teach us why reading these painful and violent stories in our nation’s history can help us all become more virtuous citizens and more loving neighbors.
Questions No One Asks Chris Swanson
When I studied physics in school, the theories and equations I was taught were always sure and confirmed. We were not invited to wonder. But right at the heart of those theories, there are deep questions that are never asked. Raising these questions engages the imagination and brings life to physics. It allows students to consider physics as a field which is open and interesting, not fixed and final.
Cultivating Wonder through Logic Gary Hartenburg
According to Socrates, wonder is the only starting point for the love of wisdom. Thankfully, there are many ways to call forth wonder, one of which is logic, a fact recognized in classical education by the central place given to the study of logic in the curriculum. But logic evokes wonder only if it is taught dialectically through discussion centered on the ancient practice of question and answer. Students who learn logic dialectically become full of wonder because they learn to recognize and work with valid deduction, a fundamental feature of the world inaccessible to our sense perception. It is preeminently in the study of logic, properly taught, that students exercise their rational capacity for wonder and begin to take their first steps into the life of the mind.
This presentation will explain why logic has been and should continue to be a central part of classical education, how it should be taught, and how the study of it can be integrated across a liberal arts curriculum. It will be of interest to teachers at every level and subject (though of primary interest to teachers of logic) as well as educators who are responsible for curriculum design. It will also include practical suggestions of how to teach logic and how all teachers can include dialectical education in their subjects.
The Wonder of Great Seminars Jeannette DeCelles-Zwerneman
“Everyone who enters our world of culture seeks for guidance. But the guidance is there in the culture itself. . . [T]he pupil must acquire, as soon as possible, the idea of a classic—a ‘touchstone,’ as Arnold called it—in other words, a work whose significance endures across generations and provides a point of comparison for other and lesser creations.” —Roger Scruton
Humane letters, the heart of our students’ cultural heritage, open up the world for young readers. Classic expository texts bring them face to face to wonder about what is mysterious and difficult to understand. Students are challenged to wonder why it is so hard for the young interlocutors in Plato’s Republic to see whether it is better to live justly or unjustly? What is it in the city in speech that frees them to see what they could not otherwise see? The great imaginative works turn our students’ attention to the many oscillations in the human heart. What motivates Dante early in the Inferno to eagerly ask of the souls their stories? What is it about his accrued experience that prepares him for the lower circles and motivates him to treat the souls he finds there with a firmer line of interrogation? These are the kinds of inquiries that the great texts afford our students.
Seminars are the perfect environment to wrestle with these weighty matters in search of adequate answers, driven by excellent questions. Questions are the foundational method for eliciting wonder. This workshop will introduce participants to the seminar. Then, we will try our hand at two examples of eliciting wonder concerning two different classic works: one expository, one imaginative (TBA). Each participant will receive a complimentary copy of Cana Academy’s guide, A Lively Kind of Learning: Mastering the Seminar Method.
Practical Ways to Employ Poetry More Often to Inspire Wonder in Scholars Alexandra Umlas
According to Robert Frost’s “The Figure a Poem Makes,” a poem offers “a momentary stay against confusion,” not because it tells us what to think but paradoxically because it does not. Poetry offers students multiple ways to wonder— but is poetry a small part of our classrooms, or is it a part of our daily instruction? This session gives educators practical ways to employ poetry more often to inspire wonder in scholars. We will use Frost’s ideas in “Education by Poetry” as a jumping-off point to explore how poetry allows students to explore and comprehend the magical nature of metaphor, helps to give them an appreciation of music, beauty, and ambiguity, and provides a vehicle for discussions of morality, community, and other important themes. We will look at how a poem can provide valuable lessons in close reading and how a poem can take us from delight to wisdom through wonder, questioning, and Socratic discussion. Resources will be available for all subjects, including science, art, languages, history, and math. We will delight in the idea that the process of reading poetry with wonder can be a powerful classroom tool and can help our scholars foster what Keats described as “Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”
Cultivating Wonder Through Observation in Science John Mays
The way to ruin science education is to act like we actually know what we are talking about. In fact, the mystery in nature far outdistances what we think we have figured out! When we anchor instruction in the places where mystery is found—the wonderful—we create an exciting environment that motivates learning and makes learning a joy. Observation has always been one of the major tools of scientists. Observation is also a place where teachers can tap into the wonders of the natural world. In this talk, we explore how observation can go beyond the mundane and tap into the wonderful.
Shakespeare: From Page to Stage Nick Hutchison
Transform your teaching of Shakespeare and your students’ investment in him! In this lively, interactive workshop acclaimed British director and educator Nick Hutchison (Shakespeare’s Globe, LAMDA, RADA) strips away 400 years of dusty scholarship to reveal why Shakespeare wrote the way he did and how that speaks to us in the 21st century. Examining (and demonstrating) the playing conditions of the 16/17th centuries he shows how the actors of the time worked in an completely (and excitingly) different way to modern theatre, and how we can glean the clues for performance in the text of the plays. Prepare to see Shakespeare in a totally different and more accessible light, bringing the excitement of the staged performance back to your classroom, and making the texts of centuries ago live again.
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Fostering Curiosity and Wonder Through Teacher Writing Eric Daniels
In this workshop, Dr. Eric Daniels will discuss the value of teacher writing in developing crucial traits of successful schools and intellectual cultures. Using the Lyceum Scholars program as a model, he will discuss how community discussion of the Great Books, the great ideas, and how we teach those books and ideas has helped lead a culture of engagement and intellectual growth. The session will focus especially on how the public-facing writing of Lyceum professors has helped develop their engagement with texts and created a platform for deeper engagement of the students that they teach. Daniels will bring some sample materials from the Lyceum program’s public writing for participants to discuss.