William C. Michael

What are the modern K-12 requirements? In modern schools, the following subjects are considered to be “required” for a modern high school diploma, and for consideration for college admission: 4 years of English Language Arts 4 years of Mathematics 4 years of Foreign Language 4 years of Natural Sciences 4 years of Social Studies By “year” is meant 120 hours of teacher-guided activity time, which breaks down to 40 minutes per day for 180 days of the year. Why are these requirements not appropriate for homeschool students? The public school is intended to provide a basic education to students and … Continue

It is unfortunate that no English culture has developed in the Roman Catholic Church. This has led to a false dilemma, about which Catholics fight–one side contenting themselves with nothing and the other ridiculously arguing that the Church should re-install Latin language and culture. Thankfully, the Church has approved of the use of the Anglican Book of Prayer and King James Bible through Pope Benedict’s creation of the Anglican Ordinariate, and beautiful English culture has been made available to Catholics. In these posts, I plan to introduce families to a tradition I have always enjoyed, that of Anglican Chant. Psalm … Continue

As I always teach in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, Catholic parenting and homeschooling is work that exceeds human strength. Grace is not transmitted like genetics from parent to child and parents have to patiently endure many trials, in love. One popular devotion Catholics can make use of is the “Novena for Impossible for Requests“. This is no easy devotion, but is one worth pursuing for those who feel that their needs are extraordinary, if not impossible. This devotion is to be offered daily for nine months. Watch Online How to Pray the Novena Novena for Impossible Requests – First … Continue

This talk was transcribed digitally and will be edited in the future. Today is Wednesday, July 7. And I’d like to talk about a topic that I believe is the key that really unlocks philosophical learning. A topic that I would say is the difference between all common people and a wise man. The topic I could say, this is the most important lesson in all of philosophical study, most important lesson in all philosophical education, and is really the, the gateway into the world of true Aristotelian or scholastic philosophy. You won’t hear many people talk about this, because … Continue

This talk was transcribed digitally and will be edited shortly. Today I’d like to talk about a topic that I think will be interesting to many students, maybe some adults. Because in modern circles, schools like to talk a lot about writing. And people go to college even major in English. And yet we never find any great writers being produced people can publish their own novels or whatever. But we don’t see any real, great works of poetry, or writing. And we should wonder why. If we go back, especially to Victorian England, we’ll find that many people wrote … Continue

This talk was digitally transcribed and will be edited as soon as possible. Today is Monday, July 5, and I was having a chat with a friend this morning. friend who sends me links to videos or resources that he thinks I’d be interested in. And often they are very interesting, but one was a link to a message from father Baron another was a link to a quote from Gk Chesterton. And I wrote back. And my response led to a little bit of discussion back and forth, and it raised an issue that I think, requires some treatment … Continue

Note:  This talk has been transcribed digitally and will be edited over time. Today is Sunday, July 4. And while I’m out for walks on Sundays, I like to try and use the time for meditations that I’d consider more spiritual than those that I normally engage in. Normally, I may talk about political questions or topics in education, but on Sundays, I like to devote my mind to more spiritual questions and topics and try to make good use of the Lord’s day as a day of rest from temporal concerns and temporal work, and treat it as what … Continue