I'm reading "Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin" by Tracy Lee Simmons. It's about truly classical education -- that which is founded upon a study of Greek and Latin languages and of Greek and Roman history, art, literature, and thought. (Some also define "classical education" as study founded on the Great Books, most of which are translated into English from their original languages.)I'm researching schooling options for Sam and am very attracted to both types of "classical education," though rather daunted by the idea of teaching/learning Greek and Latin. I'm guessing we can't afford the tuition at the area's classical school, or at most area private Christian schools (four kids, one with special needs and one with medical needs are rather expensive to raise, let alone educate!). So we're seriously considering home-schooling as an option (though not for Elli at this time).
In reading this book, I've had to run to the dictionary about every other page. Just before lunch I ran into back-to-back words I've never encountered before -- which means I didn't get much help deciphering their meaning from the context.
The sentence occurred in this paragraph on page 20:
"Climbing Parnassus [an expression that has come to mean studying Greek and Latin languages] once helped to form the unformed mind. The arduous ascent fostered intellectual and aesthetic culture within those who had endured the strain. It helped to bring mental and even emotional order out of chaos. And a classical training still provides the surest footing for the educated mind and a high perch from which to view other periods and nations. The foundations of the modern world are viewed more competently from this height. Poetry, drama, democracy, idealism, scientific curiousity, and so much else furnishing our minds are better grasped, and better judged. We drift without classics, floating on our own deracinated, exiguous islands. And we become fodder for demagogues. We need not a revolution, but a restoration."The following are definitions from the American Heritage Dictionary:
de·rac·i·nate (də-rās'ə-nāt') tr.v. de·rac·i·nat·ed, de·rac·i·nat·ing, de·rac·i·nates
1. To pull out by the roots; uproot. 2. To displace from one's native or accustomed environment.
[From French déraciner, from Old French desraciner : des-, de- + racine, root (from Late Latin rādīcīna, from Latin rādīx, rādīc-; see wrād- in Indo-European roots).]
ex·ig·u·ous (ĭg-zĭg'yōō-əs, ĭk-sĭg'-) adj. Extremely scanty; meager.
[From Latin exiguus, from exigere, to measure out, demand; see exact.]
I love picturesque words like this.
