Articles by author: Ruth Holleran

Encouraging the Writing of More Poetry

by Ruth
Wednesday, 19 October, 2016
categories: Big Ideas: Truth, Beauty, Goodness and more!, Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)
Wednesday, 19 October, 2016
categories: Big Ideas: Truth, Beauty, Goodness and more!, Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)
As a Challenge III tutor, I have the pleasure of studying poetry with my students. Every week I read aloud a poem connected to their U. S. History reading assignment. As we study Cicero's speeches in second semester Latin, we encounter many rhetorical devices there...

The Practical Education: A Response to “Don’t Stay in School”

by Ruth
Monday, 04 January, 2016
categories: Articles, Big Ideas: Truth, Beauty, Goodness and more!, Classical Christian Education, College and Post Graduation, Dialectic Stage (ages 12 to 14), Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)
Monday, 04 January, 2016
categories: Articles, Big Ideas: Truth, Beauty, Goodness and more!, Classical Christian Education, College and Post Graduation, Dialectic Stage (ages 12 to 14), Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)
I admit that the first time I watched the video “Don’t Stay in School,” I felt incredibly irritated. In an edgy rap, David Brown recites facts and skills he was required to learn in school instead of useful information he thought would have more effectively prepared...

Lessons from the Road

by Ruth
Monday, 06 July, 2015
categories: Articles, Big Ideas: Truth, Beauty, Goodness and more!, Classical Christian Education, Dialectic Stage (ages 12 to 14), Grammar Stage (ages 4 to 11), Homeschooling Life, Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)
Monday, 06 July, 2015
categories: Articles, Big Ideas: Truth, Beauty, Goodness and more!, Classical Christian Education, Dialectic Stage (ages 12 to 14), Grammar Stage (ages 4 to 11), Homeschooling Life, Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)
This morning I thought of young Classical Conversations families while on an endurance bike ride. As I mulled over what I would write this month, I was struck by some interesting similarities between this long distance ride and my twenty-one years of homeschooling....

Devices of Style - Part III: Tropes

by Ruth
Wednesday, 25 March, 2015
categories: Articles, Classical Christian Education, Dialectic Stage (ages 12 to 14), Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)
Wednesday, 25 March, 2015
categories: Articles, Classical Christian Education, Dialectic Stage (ages 12 to 14), Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)
“Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.”
—Francis Bacon
Devices of style make our writing come alive! Figures of speech, also called devices of style, are “a form of...

Devices of Style - Part II: Schemes, a Closer Look

by Ruth
Wednesday, 25 February, 2015
categories: Articles, Classical Christian Education, Dialectic Stage (ages 12 to 14), Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)
Wednesday, 25 February, 2015
categories: Articles, Classical Christian Education, Dialectic Stage (ages 12 to 14), Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)
“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.”
-- Louis Nizer1
As much fun as some of us have with the Greek words for these...