Mortimer Adler & the Context of an Educational Philosophy

By |2021-12-27T19:54:32-06:00November 28th, 2019|Categories: Books, Christine Norvell, Education, Liberal Arts, Mortimer Adler, Senior Contributors|

Robert Woods’ “Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education” embodies the life and educational philosophy of one education reformer. Though intended to be informative, most chapters are akin to an educator’s devotional, leaving the teacher inspired to be a more thoughtful and focused Christian tutor. Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education, by [...]

Humanities as a Way of Knowing

By |2018-07-24T20:51:48-05:00February 12th, 2018|Categories: Featured, Great Books, Humanities, Liberal Arts, Liberal Learning, Mortimer Adler, Timeless Essays|

The philosophical roots of the liberal arts can free students from a life of slavery spent spelunking in the cave of ignorance, trivialities, and the merely menial… Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Robert M. Woods as he examines the purpose and benefits of studying the humanities [...]

Mortimer Adler, a Socratic Gadfly

By |2020-06-26T15:53:32-05:00June 28th, 2015|Categories: Education, Liberal Learning, Mortimer Adler|Tags: |

What Mortimer Adler has to say in “Reforming Education” is worth listening to and reflecting on. He may at times seem like a humorless Puritan, but he is certainly preferable to the many clowns that have cluttered up the road to education in recent years. Reforming Education: The Schooling of a People and Their Education [...]

A Case for the Quaint: The Great Ideas Program

By |2019-01-24T11:59:48-06:00August 25th, 2013|Categories: Great Books, Liberal Learning, Mortimer Adler, Robert M. Woods|

Robert Hutchins Studying and leading conversations on the Great Books for more than twenty years still produces that sense of awe and wonder, especially when I discover a new tool to aide in the exploration of wisdom.  Unfortunately, this excitement is often curtailed when I engage many of those within the academy. Once, [...]

Why Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles Is a Great Book

By |2014-04-27T10:09:06-05:00February 3rd, 2013|Categories: Books, Great Books, Literature, Mortimer Adler, Ray Bradbury, Robert M. Woods|

On numerous occasions, Mortimer Adler wrote about the criteria that were used to determine which books of all the books written in the West would be placed within The Great Books of the Western World.  Contrary to confusion and many misstatements I've read over the years, Adler says it was essentially three criteria and they [...]

Why Mortimer Adler Would Have Been the Best Academic Dean Ever

By |2023-06-28T22:07:01-05:00April 11th, 2012|Categories: Liberal Learning, Mortimer Adler, Robert M. Woods|

In the university where Adler would be Dean, all courses would at some point and in some way have the Socratic method as a dominant part of instruction. There would be no textbooks. There are little to no written exams, there are only verbal exams. Imagine every class, every day as an oral exam. The [...]

The Invitation to the Great Conversation

By |2014-01-15T14:47:22-06:00March 2nd, 2012|Categories: Books, Great Books, Liberal Learning, Mortimer Adler, Robert M. Hutchins, Robert M. Woods|

If I think about it, I am saddened that I received the invitation later in life. I wish I had received and accepted the invitation in High School, or college, or certainly graduate school. It was not all my fault, I was not told about the invitation until about twelve years ago. Since that time, [...]

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