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Whether the CLAA Self-Study Program Is the Right Solution for Learning How to Study Books Seriously?

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Help for those who can read books but lack a disciplined method of serious study You may be able to read books with ease and even enjoyment, yet still feel that your reading rarely produces lasting understanding. You finish chapters, underline passages, and recognize important ideas, but little remains with you afterward. You sense that you are reading, but not truly studying. This experience is common. Modern education trains students to consume text, extract information, and move on. Rarely are they taught how to read slowly, attentively, and methodically, or how to submit their reading to an ordered discipline aimed … Continue

Whether the CLAA Self-Study Program Is the Right Solution for Intellectual Immaturity Despite Professional Success

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Help for those who are professionally successful but feel intellectually underdeveloped You may have achieved professional success, built a career, and fulfilled many practical responsibilities, yet still feel intellectually immature. You function competently in your field, solve problems efficiently, and meet expectations, but sense that your understanding of deeper questions remains shallow or uncertain. This experience is not unusual. Professional success often depends on specialized skills, technical competence, and procedural knowledge. These are valuable, but they do not necessarily develop the intellect as a whole. Many modern educational and professional paths train people to perform tasks well without forming habits … Continue

Whether the CLAA Self-Study Program Is the Right Solution for Learning How to Think Rather Than Merely Collect Information”

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Help for those trained to collect information rather than to think You may feel that much of your education trained you to gather information, recall facts, and reproduce conclusions, but not to think clearly and independently. You learned how to locate answers, summarize arguments, and follow instructions, yet you were rarely taught how to reason from principles, evaluate claims, or judge truth for yourself. This experience is common. Modern education often emphasizes efficiency, coverage, and measurable outcomes. Students are rewarded for correct responses rather than sound reasoning. Over time, the habit of collecting information replaces the habit of thinking, and … Continue

Is CLAA an online program or homeschool program? How does it work?

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The Classical Liberal Arts Academy (CLAA) is both an online program AND a homeschool support system. It provides accredited online courses that homeschool families use to create a complete classical Catholic education at home. How CLAA Works CLAA operates as a self-paced online learning platform that supports homeschool families. When you enroll your daughter, you become the legal administrator of her homeschool while CLAA provides the curriculum, courses, and academic structure. Before you begin How the program works step-by-step What makes CLAA different from traditional online schools CLAA is not a virtual public school or online charter school. Instead, it … Continue

How to Pray the Holy Rosary according to the Method of St. Louis de Montfort

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Traditionally, the Rosary mysteries were prayed as Joyful on Monday and Thursday, Sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday, and Glorious on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday (varying by season), but with the 2002 addition of the Luminous Mysteries by Pope John Paul II, Thursday now features the Luminous in the modern schedule. Introduction I unite with all the saints in heaven, with all the just on earth, and with all the faithful here present. I unite with you, my Jesus, in order to praise your holy Mother worthily and to praise you in her and through her. I renounce all distractions which may arise … Continue

What Should Christians Be Doing?

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Good Works. The unfortunate result of the debate between Protestants and Catholics regarding the nature of good works is that Christian works have been compartmentalized and thus left mostly undone in our age. The daily work of Christians is reduced to mere faith – even if one accepts the Catholic doctrine of the merit of works, they are understood to be something done by clerics, or nuns, or extraordinary people like saints. But this was never the understanding of Christian works in history. Rather, Christians have always understood good works to be essential, central, and necessary to one’s lived experience … Continue

Writing Advice from C.S. Lewis

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The following points of advice were written by C.S. Lewis in 1959.  The comments on each point are mine. 1. Turn off the Radio. In 1959, the radio was considered a source of distracting noise by Lewis, and we can only imagine what he would think of the television, internet, social media and smartphones today. The point here is that to write well, we need to guard our minds from the distractions of the world’s noise and focus them on our goal.  This would extend to other noise as well.  We need silence. 2. Read all the good books you … Continue

Thinking of the Natural World without Atoms

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All of us have been raised in modern society, which is dominated by one particular school of thought.  We have been taught from our youth that the world is composed of invisible bodies, called “atoms”, which explain the behaviors of all natural objects we see, feel, tasks, hear and smell. This worldview is so pervasive that few, if any, can even think of an alternative. Yet, for most of world history, this worldview was never held by wise men. Let’s be clear:  The existence of atoms is not a scientific fact.  The existence of atoms is a theory used to … Continue