William C. MichaelWilliam C. Michael

Mr. William C. Michael, O.P., is the founder and headmaster of the Classical Liberal Arts Academy and a Lay Dominican in the Catholic Church. Mr. Michael received an honors degree in Classics and Ancient History from Rutgers University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He led the CLAA to accreditation with Cognia in 2024. He has been studying and teaching the classical liberal arts for over 30 years.

Gospel of St. John 1:31-35 (Greek)

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The lesson below belongs to the Classical Liberal Arts Academy’s Greek Reading I course. In this course, we study the Gospel of St. John in the New Testament. Students wishing to master the lesson below are to complete translation exercises daily from Greek into English and English into Greek, until every Greek word and its English meaning are memorized. Text 31 κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν αὐτόν, ἀλλ’ ἵνα φανερωθῇ τῷ Ἰσραὴλ, διὰ τοῦτο ἦλθον ἐγὼ ἐν ὕδατι βαπτίζων. 32 καὶ ἐμαρτύρησεν Ἰωάννης λέγων ὅτι τεθέαμαι τὸ πνεῦμα καταβαῖνον ὡς περιστερὰν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐπ’ αὐτόν. 33 κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν αὐτόν, … Continue

How to Restore Catholic Education

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Text below was automatically transcribed and has not yet been edited. -WCM Today is Good Friday 2023. And this is William Michael of the classical liberal arts academy. One glaring red flag in modern society is a lack of religious vocations. I talk about this quite a bit, because no matter what anyone says, no matter how its explained away, it’s this giant flashing red light that tells us that something’s wrong. Something is wrong. Because the highest and best calling in the human life is simply not being chosen by men and women. It’s really that simple. And what … Continue

The Seven Liberal Arts

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The seven liberal arts are the traditional disciplines by which the human intellect is formed in the knowledge of truth. They are called liberal because they are proper to a free man—that is, one who lives according to reason and seeks understanding for its own sake, rather than for utility or gain. These arts are not modern academic subjects, nor are they collections of skills or methods. Each is a defined intellectual discipline, distinguished by its proper object and method, and each holds a necessary place within an ordered whole. Their division is not arbitrary, but follows the order of … Continue

Greek Transliteration

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In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, we use the following symbols to make Greek teaching and study convenient. These marks require no special characters and can be easily typed on any device and in plain text files. Greek characters may be used when writing by hand, but it is not recommended when typing.  A little effort to learn the symbols below can greatly improve Greek studies and discussion. This transliteration also helps students to recognize English words derived from Greek. For the Greek ἀρχῇ another transliteration method in use would give a)rxh=|, whereas ours gives arche-^(i), which looks much closer … Continue

Harvard’s Loeb Classical Library

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If you are going to get serious with life-long classical studies, you will need convenient access to Greek and Latin texts for study and reference. You can find PDF copies of books online, and you can use a website like Tufts University’s Perseus library, but you’ll quickly find these to be limited in usefulness. The best resource for life-long classical studies, for those who have actually learned the classical languages, is Harvard’s Loeb Classical Library. Printed books from this series can be purchased, but they are $20-30 each, which would mean a significant library would be very expensive–and of limited … Continue

“The Secret Power of Homeschoolers”

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A report by Vice News recently looked into the influence of homeschooling in American society and I’d like to share this video not as an endorsement of anything in the video, but to promote reflection and discussion on the issues raised. Feel free to comment below. God bless,Mr. William C. MichaelClassical Liberal Arts Academy

Parents are Shepherds, Not Engineers

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In my talks on parenting, I have explained that modern Catholic parents are influenced by modern non-Catholic ideas about children and that this is a cause of all kinds of problems in parenting, which really make life miserable for everyone. I’ve even gone through the Catechism’s teaching “On the 27 Duties of Parents” to show that what modern Catholic parents think and say about parenting and education is not Catholic.

In the video below, a psychologist makes the same argument based on his knowledge of scientific research. I cannot accept his arguments because he provides no actual evidence, and I certainly do not believe in evolution, but that is irrelevant. However, his conclusions, I believe are true and he articulates them in a helpful way.

William C. Michael

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Plato, Alcibiades I

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A Dialogue Concerning the Nature of Man Translated by Thomas TaylorEdited by William C. Michael© Classical Liberal Arts Academy, 2023 Socrates Son of Clinias! You wonder, I suppose, that I, who was the earliest of your admirers, now, when all the rest have forsaken you, am the only one who still retains unalterably the same sentiments; and yet, that for so many years I have never spoken so much as a word to you, whilst the others were pressing through crowds of people to converse with you. This reserve and distance in my behavior have been owing to no human … Continue