William C. Michael

I. Tests for Catholic Study Programs Test 1.  Does your study program have historical proof of success? Some schools and study programs try to sell their services by boasting of accreditations, college admissions and standardized test scores.  You should know that every public school can claim the same successes.  These are no test for a Christian education. Some schools stick pictures of Greeks and Romans on their books and call themselves “classical” schools.  However, no one in history would have any idea what these programs were doing, for there is nothing truly classical about them at all.  It’s a marketing sham. … Continue

Colleges rarely pay much attention to the “homeschool diploma” because no one knows what it represents. For most families, it’s simply an attempt at a modern high school diploma. But what is this high school diploma, and what does it signify? Children today spend 13 years working for a high school diploma.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s a public school diploma, private school diploma or home school diploma, the end result of these 13 years of schooling, for almost all students in America, is a high school diploma.  When we factor in the average cost per student in a modern … Continue

This article was originally published in 2009.  -WM When we hear programs and schools outside of the CLAA using the phrase “classical education”, they usually mean that they’re implementing ideas found in Dorothy Sayers’ essay “The Lost Tools of Learning”.  The ideas of Sayers have nothing to do with classical education as a careful reading of her essay proves.  Dorothy Sayers may have some ideas that differ from modern schools, but they differ as much from classical ideas.  Call it what you wish, Dorothy Sayers is not an advocate of classical education. Rather than take the lazy route and merely pull quotes … Continue