CiRCE Institute Podcast Network

In this week's edition of Quiddity, the CiRCE podcast, we offer this 2013 conference talk from  Dr. Christopher Perrin, the director of the Alcuin Fellowship, the co-chair of the Society for Classical Learning, and the publisher of Classical Academic Press. 

We are familiar with some traditional Latin commendations like cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude.  We are also very familiar with the grades with which we were branded (A, B, C, D and F) and the composite GPA which has also defined our humanity.  What most of us don’t know is how any of these designations emerged and to what purpose.  In this seminar, we will trace the origins and evolution of “grades” (from the middle ages to the present) and contrast modern assessment to traditional methods that were not so data-driven, nor well-acquainted with multiple-choice exams.   We will conclude with a discussion of mentorship in contrast to metrics and consider who some secular modern writers who are decrying the prevailing curriculum of “test-prep.”  We will also discuss how more traditional methods of assessment can be implemented within a system of education that demands numerically-based grades.


In this edition of Quiddity, The CiRCE Podcast, we chat with Alissa Wilkinson, chief film critic at Christianity Today and professor at The King's College in New York City. Alissa shares some thoughts on helping students solve writer's block, how to cultivate good readers, and how homeschooling helped improved her writing. An prolific writer, who has an MFA from Seattle Pacific University and has worked on Wall Street in information technology, Alissa offers a unique and experienced perspective on the many challenges that accompany both writing and teaching writing. 

Direct download: AlissaWilkinsonPodcast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:37pm EDT

In this edition of Quiddity, the CiRCE Podcast and the audio companion to this website, Debbie Harris describes what it's like teaching classically in an inner city school, how to cultivate a love of beauty in students who rarely see anything beautiful, and why good classroom management and school culture is driven by relationship. 

Debbie Harris, a longtime speaker at our conference, graduated from Azusa Pacific University with a Bachelors Degree in Liberal Studies (with a California K-8 certification) and has spent twelve-plus years as a classroom educator, primarily in the elementary grades. She has taught at Foundations Academy in Boise, Idaho and Hope Academy, an inner city classical school, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She lives in Oakdale, Minnesota with her husband and two sons. Debbie has focused on mentoring teachers in classroom management strategies and classical techniques since 2002. Beginning in 2006, she has served as the Dean of Teaching Staff and Curriculum at Hope Academy. She works for the CiRCE Institute as a consultant in classroom management.

Click here to learn more about Hope Academy. 

Direct download: Debbie_Harris_on_Teaching_Classically_in_the_Inner_School.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:09pm EDT

In this week's edition of Quiddity, the CiRCE podcast, CiRCE President Andrew Kern joins Brian Phillips and David Kern to explain his claim that, in our age, we have more than three times the necessary time to teach the seven Liberal Arts to our students. The conversation touches on the power and role of metaphor in teaching, why imitation is so important, and what an education that focuses on these Liberal Arts looks like, even in the youngest of students. 

Direct download: On_Metaphor_Imitation_and_the_Liberal_Arts.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:57pm EDT

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