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Developing Classical Thinkers is a classical podcast for classical thinkers, created and supported by the teachers at Thales Academy, a classical school in Raleigh, North Carolina. A Thales Press podcast.
The Austrians on Inflation, Price Controls, and Tariffs | Brian Balfour | Fall Classical Summit 2024
14 NOV. 2024 · In this session, Brian Balfour will look at issues making headlines in the news such as inflation, price controls, and tariffs. He will explain how and why inflation sets in, why price controls create shortages of vital goods and services, and why tariffs help create cartels and higher prices passed onto consumers. Lastly, Mr. Balfour will present why free markets offer a better alternative as prescribed by the Austrian School of Economics.
Brian Balfour is Senior Vice President of Research for the John Locke Foundation, where he oversees the organization’s research and analysis on a variety of issues. He previously worked for the Civitas Institute for 13 years, and has a master’s degree in economics from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. He specializes in fiscal policy issues and is also the author of the book “Economics in Action,” which teaches the free-market principles of the ‘Austrian School’ of economics.
This lecture was delivered live at the Fall Classical Summit, a regional classical conference held at Thales Academy Rolesville Junior High-High School on October 4, 2024. Want to read more of Brian Balfour's work? Interested in economics taught from this perspective? Need a textbook that helps students see the vital principles and intuition behind economic concepts?
Check out Brian Balfour's "Economics in Action," a high school economics textbook based on the principles of the Austrian School of Economics, available here: https://amzn.to/3W4cmZs
12 NOV. 2024 · For American writers, there is something of a quest in American literature to write the great American novel. Such a work would typify the American experience in the same way Homer's epics or Virgil's "Aeneid" did for ancient Greece and Rome, respectively. And while there are many great American novels, there is not one unquestioned work that earns this distinguished honor.
Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and more have written works commonly lauded as the "great American novel," but have they gotten there? Is the issue settled? What is the great American novel?
For English teachers, we have the same quest to, at least, identify such a work. In this episode of DCT, Winston Brady speaks with literature teachers Ali Graziosi, Christina Salinas, and Chelsea Wagenaar, and head of classical education Matt Ogle. Each participant makes a pitch for the book they think is the "Great American novel" and why, along with the criteria as to why they picked that work and not others.
What do you think of our criteria? Or of our picks? Did we leave any works out? Be sure to let us in the comments section on your favorite podcasting platform.
7 NOV. 2024 · The keynote address from the Fall Classical Summit, 2024. In this talk, Dr. Ryan Olson examines the value of classical education and the role the study of great books and great ideas contributes to the formation of great character. to resist the sweep of impoverished influences by nurturing your personal and professional soul in the moral sources of the rich Classical tradition we have inherited.
Dr. Ryan Olson is the Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. A classicist, Olson’s scholarship has focused on the literary, historical, religious, and cultural context of the Levant from the Roman era through Late Antiquity.
This lecture was delivered live at the Fall Classical Summit, a regional classical conference held at Thales Academy Rolesville Junior High-High School on October 4, 2024. Interested in teaching at Thales Academy?
Please check out our website if you are interested in pursuing a career at Thales Academy and learning about needs across our network. Find out more at https://www.thalesacademy.org/contact/careers.
4 NOV. 2024 · In 1845, Congress passed a law designating the first Tuesday in November as election day. Henceforth, the nation would vote every four years for a Presidential candidate, members of the House of Representatives, and, depending on the year, a suite of Senate candidates, with elections for other offices occurring in by-years depending on the state and the locality.
The act of voting each year is often seen as the bare minimum of a citizen’s political participation. Voting is indeed an important, sacred trust that American citizens from age 18 upwards should not take for granted, for the vast majority of people across the world do not get a say in their “elected" officials or the policies that their leaders carry out.
Voting is neither the floor nor the ceiling of our political participation. Indeed, it is just one more thing we do to “keep” our republic, to quote an oft-told story from Benjamin Franklin at the close of the Constitutional Convention.
At the end of the convention, a local Philadelphia resident asked Benjamin Franklin: “Well Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy? She asked.
At this, Franklin quipped, “A republic!...If you can keep it!”
Franklin’s reply is a reminder: a republican government (like that of the United States) needs its citizens to have virtue, those “habits of moral excellence” if we are to keep our republic--and virtue lies at the heart of classical education and of our responsibility as citizens in the greatest country in the world. Let us not take this responsibility lightly but do our duty to keep the freedoms we have been entrusted with.
30 OCT. 2024 · Why do we dedicate one night of the year to wearing costumes and asking for candy? How did such an odd holiday become an established part of the American calendar? Should students at a classical school be celebrating such a holiday? Is Halloween classical?
In this episode, Winston Brady and Josh Herring talk through the ways Halloween may or may not be classical. Halloween largely derives from the Catholic feast day of All Saints’ Day and All Hallow’s Eve, celebrated on a day that the ancient, pagan Irish used to celebrate a holiday called Samhain (pronounced, saa-wn).
In one sense, perhaps, Halloween is classical. Herein, we have a pagan holiday absorbed by a Christian feast day so that the occasion for gathering together and celebrating still remains–even if its dark undertones are obscured. Much of what we call classical education focuses on the relationship between Jerusalem and Athens (and Rome, for that matter). Think of the city of Rome, full of obelisks taken from pagan Egypt which the Catholic Church crowned with Christian crosses, symbolizing the Christian world’s triumph over the forces of paganism.
But of course today, those Christian overtones are largely missing from Halloween. Now, the night is a chance to escape one’s identity, eat gobs of candy, and perhaps engage in mischief–elements that are most likely, not classical, in the sense of classical education’s emphasis on virtue. Good character is what you do when no one is looking over your shoulder, a voluntary act of the will to pursue what is good, true, and beautiful.
After all, classical education emphasizes human dignity and gratitude for the way that God created you. Classical education emphasizes self-control and personal responsibility, so one should never eat too much candy in one sitting, regardless of the day.
Also, classical education emphasizes traditional morality and love of neighbor, so we would never encourage, tolerate, or promote the toilet papering of trees or the smashing of pumpkins. The mischievous elements of Halloween are in that way, uniquely unclassical.
So, this Halloween, if you go out and get candy, be safe. If you wear a costume, put some thought into it so that it’s clever and whole, both ingenious and ingenuous at the same time–not merely a costume you bought online. Be safe, and resist the temptation to engage in those Halloween pranks that do nothing to cultivate what is good, true, and beautiful.
And be aware of the background of some of the elements of Halloween–the spooky, ghostly elements–that might make for an interesting discussion with friends. Indeed, they may be the best argument for staying inside on Halloween and just reading a good ghost story.
We can acknowledge some reasonable, healthy religious impulses in existing pagan traditions and in the way described in the episode, “baptize” them. All the while though, we should, of course, recognize the ghastly, unnatural, and evil impulses and reject those elements of the holiday. A classical education should equip us to choose what is good and persuade others to choose what is good, too–and such things aren’t thrown out just because it’s Halloween.
22 OCT. 2024 · In this webinar, Winston Brady, Kellie Scripter, Chris Scripter, and Matt Ogle conducted a model seminar for teachers over the opening chapters of Quintilian's "On the Education of an Orator." They presented and modeled best practices for seminar teaching and the kinds of habits, disposition, and overall love of learning teachers need to encourage in their students. That way, students and teachers can get the most out of reading these significant texts.
Quintilian lived from 35 to 100 AD and wrote an influential treatise on education, the aptly-titled "On the Education of an Orator." The work is one of a precious few on education and teaching from the ancient world and covers a wide variety of topics to equip a Roman boy to become an orator, a student "not (merely) blameless in morals only" but also equipped with "every excellence of mind."
The work is subsequently ideal for classical educators to read to remind ourselves of the goals of classical education and how we can bring out the very best in our students.
15 OCT. 2024 · History, as the name implies, is a story, and history, at its best, is the most engaging and exhilarating story. As a story told about the past, the study of history contains meaningful insights about the present; insights that, if properly presented, should inspire students to make better choices in the future.
Thus, the study of history holds a particularly important role in classical education, for history class offers the very best examples of human achievement for students to study and to help form their character for the better. Classical education takes students through the great books, so those great students can take on the whole world. We designed The Thales Canon with this goal in mind for Junior High and High School students.
In this episode, Keller Moore talks to Winston Brady about this new history series and examines some strategies for teaching middle school history.
10 OCT. 2024 · Today's episode is from a short training video produced by Thales Press for classical educators.
Classical educators use conversation in the classroom as a teaching method. By asking questions, we can determine if a student is off task and not listening, and we can help students understand a difficult concept.
And thoughtful, meaningful engagement in a good discussion is one of the simplest ways to measure a students' depth of understanding and attentiveness.
Matt Ogle is the Head of Classical Education at Thales Academy. He has taught both the humanities and the sciences and has served in a variety of leadership roles over his long career in education.
Interested in teaching at Thales Academy? Please check out our website if you are interested in pursuing a career at Thales Academy and learning about needs across our network. Find out more at https://www.thalesacademy.org/contact.
8 OCT. 2024 · Today's episode is from a short training video produced by Thales Press for classical educators.
In this recording, Winston Brady covers three helpful, simple rules (although they are more like “hypothetical scenarios") gleaned from years he taught middle school. Classroom management for classical educators requires a unique mix of leadership principles.
Teachers should be patient and kind; they should model the same love of learning they hope to see in their students; and they should have high expectations for student behavior that teachers positively reinforce each day. In general, the best practice is to have relatively few rules–maybe 3 to 6–so they are easier for the teacher to enforce fairly, and for students to know what are the appropriate consequences if they break said rule.
Winston Brady is the Director of Curriculum & Thales Press, an in-house publishing firm that produces textbooks, readings, and videos for Thales Academy and like-minded classical schools. He lives in Wake Forest with his wife and children.
Interested in teaching at Thales Academy? Please check out our website if you are interested in pursuing a career at Thales Academy and learning about needs across our network. Find out more at https://www.thalesacademy.org/contact.
11 SEP. 2024 · In a sense, grades shouldn't matter. Learning should be a joyful activity undertaken for its own sake. Grading and assessing can do much to stifle a student's appreciation, curiosity, and wonder. Yet, at the same time, a contemporary school with large classes has few other means to encourage students to do the work and provide feedback on their behavior. After all, grades communicate valuable feedback as far as student effort and achievement. So how can we make grades really work for the student and teacher and help keep the classroom moving in a positive direction?
In this episode, Winston Brady and Matt Ogle discuss grades and a teacher's grade book. Among the topics they cover are the number of grades, the value of completion grades, the superiority of accuracy grades, and the benefits of keeping a well-managed grade book that accurately reflects what was covered in class and how it was assessed.
Note: Please excuse the sound quality, given that Matt and Winston recorded en route to visiting a Thales campus.
Interested in teaching at Thales Academy? Be sure to check us out at www.thalesacademy.org.
Developing Classical Thinkers is a classical podcast for classical thinkers, created and supported by the teachers at Thales Academy, a classical school in Raleigh, North Carolina. A Thales Press podcast.
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