- Rebecca Futo Kennedy has an open letter to the Society for Classical Studies, which helped me think about “classics programs that prepares students for graduate work & academia” as opposed to “classics programs that feed an interest in the ancient world, the Great Books, and the liberal arts more generally.” (The latter, of course, is what I’m doing with my own project.)
- Opinion piece on the Classics from The Eagle, American University’s undergrad student paper. Per my earlier post, I’m starting to get suspicious of people who talk about “cancelling” Classics, since I think it limits legitimate discussion of how best to teach the subject. As usual, reasonable people can disagree!
- And just to complete the Classics-watch, Calvin University is cutting their classical studies major and minor (among others).
- Interesting bit on reading The Chronicles of Narnia as an adult. If memory serves, I only read the first two (Magician’s Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). I should probably include the series in the Great Books Project.
- A rundown of the words Chaucer introduced to the English language.
- Alex Tabarrok, quoting Voltaire, on how focussing on business smoothed over the rougher edges of religious difference in the London Stock Exchange: “Here Jew, Mohammedan and Christian deal with each other as though they were all of the same faith, and only apply the word infidel to people who go bankrupt.”
Ed. Note: Now that summer’s truly begun, it’s only a few weeks ’til the Fall semester at St. John’s begins!