Classic education

[MagistrateChris]

I think that, in higher education, there are two tracks available to students. One is more of a vocational tack, where one can study and learn the skills necessary for a career, be it engineering, medicine, etc. The other option is an education, where one can study a subject taht simply promotes thinking and learning. Classics, English Lit., Philosophy, etc.

The first teaches skills that will serve you well in a career, ut does not leave the student "educated" in the classic sense. On the other hand, the student who seeks an "education" in the classic sense, but has no marketable skills.

So, do what I did. Get a degree in classics (English Lit in my case), serve in the military, then go to law school. True, I have no marketable skills, but that doesn't stop me from earning a living, using latin in teh workplace, and being able to quote classic literature at parties to impress people.

 

[Mid-fogey]

Magistrate...

...I thought you went to "High School on the Hudson."

Classical education means different things to different people, so I'm not sure that when we discuss it that we're really talking about the same thing.

There did though, used to be a notion that there was a common cannon of what an "educated" person should know. My general complaint about modern higher education is that students as "customers" get to decide what they should and shouldn't study.

It's human nature to like what we're good at and avoid what we're bad at. Letting students design their own curriculum allows them to avoid remedying their weak spots, and they leave college not ever dealing with them.

The net effect of this situation is to make college courses a popularity contest with a race to the bottom, with a lack of difficulty making courses popular. This circumstance doesn't help either the student or society.

The real customers for higher education are parents and tax payers-- who by tuition, taxes, appropriations, tax breaks, real property tax exemptions, subsidized student loan rates, etc are really paying for the vast majority of the costs of higher eduction. But the needs and wishes of these two groups are not significantly considered.

 

[Classics]

There are 18 volumes total. I just pulled a couple out of the bookcase and found that I had mis-remembered. They are actually 3/4 vellum bound with a very nice marbled paper for the front and back covers. (I confused them with a 3-volume Teubner Seneca Opera set.) They are really in quite amazing condition for being nearly two centuries old. The gold-stamped leather inset spine label is slightly chipped on a couple of volumes. There is a little bit of minor rubbing on the cover paper of a few of them. Other than that, they are nearly pristine. All bindings are tight and all covers are entirely intact. They were published by T. Davison, London. As for authors:

Caesar (of course)
Plautus (3 volumes)
Claudianus
Florus & Paterculus
Pliny (Younger)
Quintilian (2 volumes)
Suetonius
Silius Italicus
Lucretius
Martial
Nepos
Tacitus (3 volumes)
Terence

I try to keep my eyes open for good deals and I just got lucky with these. I have found a few of the individual volumes in my set for sale in the $160-$240 range so I don't feel at all bad about paying $200 for the set (plus shipping from the UK).

You got a great deal on that. I don't even have all of those guys in my personal library (though I skew Greek)- Florus and Paterculus are particularly rarely read nowadays. I'm envious.

 

[Harp]

The intensive study of grammar (in the Classics) and critical thought and formal logic (in philosophy) teaches, well, critical thought. Translation exercises and Latin and Greek prose comp. classes teach style and grace in writing; additionally, the student will probably pick up a decent ear for poetry and a flair for jubilant phasing.


Plus, it doesn't get much better than Homer.

The Homeric aphorism, "Aphrodite robs the wits of the wise so'er prudent" sums the heart.

 

[ChiTownScion]

When it came to translating high school Latin (let alone Greek: that was reserved for the smart kids), I confess that my own adolescent efforts were pretty mediocre- although I do remember snickering and having fun with some selections from Catullus and Juvenal. Trying to teach drunken college classmates several verses of Gaudeamus Igitur as we walked the quad at 1 AM was about as practical as any application of those skills got.

In retrospect, I can now see that there was much enrichment to gleaned from those classes. I could have worked a lot harder and gotten a lot more out of it. Youth is wasted on the young, as it is said.