History — Grade 9:The 10th grade list looks good, too. The 9th grade list is focused on the classical world (Golding is a strange bird to fold in there, since his work is clearly Freudian; it's not at all certain to me that he belongs, but otherwise the list is great). The 10th grade list focuses on the European heritage. Eleventh grade literature is wasted on American authors, only two of whom are truly great -- I mean of course Twain and Melville, and they intend to read only Twain -- and while there are a few other American books worth reading (To Kill A Mockingbird, say), the truth is that we don't merit a whole year. They could easily have extended the British literature segment to a year and a half.
Aristotle, Politics.
Herodotus, Histories.
The Holy Bible, American Standard Version
Livy, Stories of Rome.
Plato, The Republic, et al.
Tacitus, Annals.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian Wars.
English — Grade 9:
Cicero, Selected Works.
The Holy Bible, American Standard Version.
Homer, The Iliad.
Homer, The Odyssey.
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar.
Sophocles, Three Theban Plays.
Golding, Lord of the Flies.
I like reading Shakespeare's Julius Caesar about the same time as Livy and Tacitus. Lots of cross-pollination to be had there.
What is this, home schooling?
ReplyDeleteDamn. I could have done with that reading list. Or better yet, my youngest son.
ReplyDeleteValerie
I just happen to gave a newly minted ninth grader. I think that I will supplement his education. Thanks for the list. I would recommend either the New American Standard or the New Living Bible for modern language.
ReplyDeleteGave = have
ReplyDeleteGrim- I see that's a Hillsdale College prepared curriculum. Excellent. It turns out you're much closer to a school like that than am I- They've opened a charter in Atlanta with this curriculum.
ReplyDeleteThere is a list of schools using this curriculum here.
I see there's one in Vegas and I guess two in Colorado. Maybe it's time I start thinking about moving East a little.
Douglas, you're welcome in Texas, too. And maybe Leander's proximity to Austin will let you feel at home, still surrounded by Liberals.
ReplyDeleteEric Hines
Wow, there's one in Savannah, too. I wouldn't want to live in Atlanta, but Savannah...
ReplyDeleteMy wife just yelled at me that there's one in Lewisville, too. That's a short step from the Metroplex, and the Liberals are more...dilute.
ReplyDeleteIf these pan out, I know where we're going to encourage our daughter to send our grandkids....
Eric Hines
Walter Russell Mead re-runs a classic column of his every year at about this time:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/09/07/back-to-school-4/
Really good advice about how to use the college years.
Funny thing is, Mead is 1 or 2 time Hussein supporter. Of the O type.
ReplyDeleteThen again his Jacksonian article was sympathetic to Democrat land owners and slave masters in the South, even though that demographic split off and started voting Reagan and Sarah Palin *shudders*. Such a fearsome turn of the tide, like SUnni Arabs going to become American allies. Who would have thought of that.
"Douglas, you're welcome in Texas, too. And maybe Leander's proximity to Austin will let you feel at home, still surrounded by Liberals."
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the hospitality, but good God- I'm trying to get away from most of them! I'd be more likely to try the Metroplex I think (knowing nothing of either really), as we had a friend who, following her husbands work, moved there for a couple years, then came back. She loved it. It may be silly, but I have a tough time thinking of giving up the mountains (which I love) for the humidity (which I abhor- I'm a desert rat by birth!).
Best find one of those places in deep West Texas, then, that are about to boom from fracking. Can't do much about the mountains, but at least it's desert out there. The eastern half of Texas is unbelievably humid just about all year round.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia is stunningly beautiful from one end to the other. Shame it's so crazy.
Well, I was just trying to ease your transition....
ReplyDeleteHaving moved to the Metroplex from New Mexico, I agree, the humidity was stifling. But having grown up in in the Midwest, and spent USAF time in FLA, we're actually quite dry. It's an easy adaption.
Relative humidity is a relative thing.
T99 is right, though, about parts of Texas: you don't want to go near the Gulf Coast.
Eric Hines
West Texas has potential. At least there are parts within 400 miles of real mountains (NM or CO). Easy day's drive. Right now though, it really would take a school like this to make a move happen- just fleeing the political devastation here in CA isn't quite enough yet. Yet.
ReplyDelete