Resources for Parents and Teachers

We have gathered some resources to help you learn more about both the theoretical and practical aspects of classical education.

Below, you will find links to many articles, free books online, and additional class offerings. We have also included some books you may wish to add to your home library. Most of the book links below are to our Amazon store, where you can order new or used versions of many of these. Ordering here will help to offset some of our operating costs – like this website.

A WORD TO THE NON-CLASSICALLY EDUCATED PARENT

(In other words, to almost all of us.)

Many of us, educated in these United States in last generation or two, agree completely with the precepts and methods of a classical education, but we feel intimidated because our own education was far from classical, and may even have been seriously deficient. How then can we hope to do provide this kind of an education for our own students?

We are here to tell you that there is hope. Many of us at Providence Prep, in varying degrees and ways, have sought to educate ourselves classically. Sometimes we have only been a small step ahead of our own children, but that is sufficient. We urge you to join us, and commence your own classical education at once! Not only will you grow in your own knowledge and understanding, but you will be modeling a lifelong pursuit of education for them—a rich legacy, indeed.

Toward that end, here are a few suggestions.

• Study the course material from Providence Prep with your own students. Work through the exercises, do the writing assignments, study Latin, read the books, and learn to diagram sentences along with your students. You will grow in your ability to mentor and guide your own students, as well as in sympathy for the challenges they encounter in their work.
• Consider teaching a course at Providence Prep. Every home educator knows that there is no better way to learn than to teach, and that the teacher always learns far more than the students.Remember that it is never too late to go back to school. As time and resources allow,  consider pursuing a classical language or subject area in a deeper way by taking an online course, or even a live class – we are blessed in this community to have superior classically oriented courses and professors available to us at Patrick Henry College.
• Join the Mother Culture Community at The Reading Mother. This is a group of moms from Providence Prep and other friends across the country who meet together regularly online to read and discuss some of the Great Books that we are currently studying at Providence Prep. Every so often, we read a “philosophy” of education type of book as well.

Most importantly, begin to read the great books of the Western canon. Simply read. Read for yourself, and read aloud to your children. Learn the historical context as well. Do not be afraid to read the great and enduring authors, fearing you will not understand. You will find that the more you read, the more you will understand. So get started! As C.S. Lewis said…

…the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire. 

This is just a nugget from one of Lewis’s most oft-quoted essays. We highly recommend that you read his entire Introduction to On the Incarnation  – it will inspire and encourage you!

RESOURCES

Principles of Classical Education

Practices of Classical Education

Curriculum for Classical Education