Homeschooling: America’s Future

By Carrie Stoelting and Stacie Stoelting

The “unsinkable” Titanic represented the finest that modern man could accomplish. People relished in Titanic’s luxury and hailed her as the unsinkable carrier of free society. Yet it only took an iceberg to sink her.

Indeed, it only takes a leak to sink a ship. Right now, our freedoms are slowly drowning. Government is creeping into our private lives more and more and stripping away our personal freedoms.

Consider the court case involving the Romeike family, Common Core, and UNCRPD as only the tip of the iceberg for our beloved country. Yes, persecution against Christians and homeschoolers is truly on the rise in the U.S. Only with Christ-centered families can we stay afloat.    (more…)

Paul Revere’s Ride in Context

By Adam Andrews

 

When our kids were little, Missy and I used to read them Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem about Paul Revere. It’s a great poem—a classic by any definition. We particularly like how the poem’s imagery takes us back in time, and we imagine ourselves in the Boston hinterland on the 18th of April, 1775, as Paul Revere rides out to warn his countrymen of the British threat. Even the rhythm of the piece recalls a galloping horse:

LISTen my CHILDren and YOU shall HEAR
Of the MIDnight RIDE of PAUL reVERE.

In all the years that I read it to my children, I had never thought to ask them what Longfellow’s poem was about. It went without saying, I suppose. It’s about the American Revolution, of course. It’s about the famed Minutemen of Massachusetts and their heroic battle with the British at Old North Bridge in Concord.

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year . . .
In the books you have read
How the British regulars fired and fled
How the farmers gave them ball for ball
From behind each fence and farmyard wall . . .

But in larger sense, the poem is also about the American spirit. It’s about how Americans won’t stand for slavery and how they fight against any and all threats to their liberties. Longfellow urges his readers to adopt the Minutemen’s attitude toward oppression and tyranny:      (more…)

How an Ancient Italian Volcano Changed America

By Amy Barr

 

Several years ago my husband and I visited all the usual places while giving our children a tour of Washington, D.C. We trekked miles to see the major memorials. As we walked, we chatted about American history, political thought, Classical ideals, art, and architecture. While waiting to see The National Archives, an impromptu group of listeners formed as we explained the neoclassical images adorning the building. One eavesdropper remarked, “I didn’t know this art had to do with Greece and Rome!”

Thomas Jefferson was more than architect of our Declaration of Independence; he also was fascinated by real architecture as he imagined the construction of our new nation.1 He gave considerable thought to crafting buildings to last for generations. Jefferson could have recommended the flowery architecture of European cathedrals or the onion-bulb towers of Russia or even the down-to-earth Colonial style. Instead, he dreamed up enough columns and capitals to make Cicero himself feel at home.

Our nation’s Founding Fathers drew inspiration from the Classical world, but what brought Roman ideals to the fore in the late 1700s? Two factors came into play. First was Jefferson’s brilliant Classical education. Second, I suggest, was the unearthing of thousands of mysterious things in northern Italy that had remained hidden since the tragic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The discovery of these objects came to light during our nation’s most formative years.       (more…)