Hi, welcome to Lion and Ox!
I am Mark Langley, and this blog gives me one more opportunity to talk about my favorite subject – you guessed it – Liberal Education. This blog also provides an opportunity to talk about other things like boat building, brewing beer, Gregorian Chant, home renovation, auto repair, and many other things which, strange to say, all have a connection to liberal education.
Over the past twenty five years I have taught every subject in the High School curriculum including: Algebra I, II and III Geometry and Calculus, as well as Physics, Natural Science, Earth Science, Entomology, Astronomy, Ancient History, World History, Greek and Roman History, American History, Latin I, II, III, IV, V, and VI, Greek Alpha, Beta and Gamma, Religion and Theology, Creed, Sacraments, Commandments, Apologetics, Ethics, Writing and Rhetoric, English Literature and Shakespeare, Greek and Roman Literature, Intellectual History and Philosophy, Calligraphy and Music.
In 2003, with the help of a few friends, some pioneering families, and the grace of God, I founded a small school in Cleveland called The Lyceum; a school which embodies, as much as possible, the principles of a Catholic classical education. Currently I am helping a valorous and courageous group of Catholics found a brand new classical school in Colorado Springs.
Fortunate in my choice of a spouse, I currently live in Peyton, Colorado with my wife, Stephanie, and the five youngest of our twelve children.
Classical Catholic Education 
Hi Mr.Langley
It’s Isaac and I would like to receive the emails and blog notifications when they come out thank you.
Your student
Isaac
Hi Isaac, Great! Please feel free to type your email in the “Don’t miss a post…” spot in the right hand menu ! Glad to have you on board!
Mr Langley
I stumbled across this post Can I please get on your mailing list for future emails
Marsha
Hi, I’m sorry for using comment section as I didn’t fid other way to contact you.
In many posts you quote Robert Maynard Hutchins extensively. I also found many of his ideas good, but also found some critical studies from the Catholic point of view, like this one: The Philosophy of Education of Robert MaynardHutchins (not sure about his one as it is a paid article: THE APOSTASY OF ROBERT M. HUTCHINS).
Could you shed more light on this? Perhaps you could compare his views and methods with the ones of John Senior? It could be explored in a separate post.
Thank you!
Thanks for the suggestion Tomas. I read through a bit of the first link with great interest, Thanks for passing those along. I will see if I can develop something about this in some future post.
Mark
Hello Mark,
Just happened to find your blog while trying to maneuver my way through this iPhone. What a productive summer you’ve had!
Thanks Jean. I am thrilled that you stumbled across lionandox.com! I can’t wait for school to start- carpentry is harder than teaching 🙂
Dear Mr. Langley
I found lionandox.com and I thoroughly enjoyed your topic on the slavery of the mind and spirit. I wanted to tell you about this wonderful and inexpensive sailboat design I heard about from my cousin. It is called a Rowcruiser. It is longer than a Sunfish and supposedly more stable. It can hold up to three people and even has a sleeping berth albeit small. I have attached the link below and I hope you enjoy reading it.
Sincerely
Luke Joyce
https://angusrowboats.com/pages/rowcruiser
“Jim, Joe, John, Steve, Mike, Mark!” I just found your blog, Mark. I really enjoy it. I went to Kylemore Abbey with Annette, Jeanette and Barb. I’m likewise from a large family and Annette and I learned each others siblings off the top of our heads. Hence, I just recited the boys of your family. haha. God bless, and thanks for the blog.
Amy DeTar Ginski
Thanks Amy,
that is exactly what I used to do (and still do) although I would add in the name of my sisters as well. But after struggling to say the multi-syllabic names of my sisters, it always felt good to race thought the six mono syllabic names of the boys 🙂
Although the youngest and of the family and barely alert to my surroundings at the time of which you speak- I do recollect your family name vividly – and am guessing that our families were quite close at the time. I also remember the post cards from Kylemore Abbey that my sisters sent home. What an extraordinarily beautiful place!
I am a music ignoramus. I can’t read music at all. I have a poor head for music, BUT I have long thought that what you say is correct. Please provide a list of good church music. We need to know. PLEASE. I’v been teaching my few CCD students the Salve Ragina and the Tantam Ergo. Am I on the right track?
Kudos to you for your efforts. Your school sounds great. Wish we had one here in Fort Wayne. Greetings also to Amy, my classmate. Lora McClamrock, TAC, class of ’78
Dear Mr. Langley, why did you choose the name The Lion and The Ox for the name of your blog? Thank you.
Well, that’s a good question. So here are some of the reasons:
1) when the idea for the blog was hatched I thought to myself what shall I call it? I immediately thought of all of those famous old taverns in England that were named after two creatures like “fox and hounds” or “Horse and Groom” or other names like “Butchers Arms” or “George and Dragon”….this was the first inspiration- that is the name of the blog should have two creatures seperated by a conjunction. (I guess “Butchers Arms” is sort of exceptional in this regard) ….you know a blog is a bit like a pub insofar as people come there to relax for a brief time and talk ….sometimes about light hearted things and sometimes about things that might smack of profundity
Then I thought, it would be nice if the name also had – in addition to a nice ring some sort of significance….something to do with my subject and also had some personal relevance…… So of course my patron saint is St. Mark the Evangelist whose symbol is the Lion….
So thus – I had “Lion and ______” What should the other creature be? The Eagle after St John…..”Lion & Eagle”…..no…How about the Man after St Matthew….”… “Lion & Man” ….no…..
But then the thought struck me….How about the Ox for St Luke ? (At the time, I thought this would be a good idea because of two reasons……the first reason I need to remain silent about …..but the second reason is …..of course! The Prince of Theologians was derisively called “the dumb ox”….hence “Lion & Ox!” Perfect!
The final reason is that I really liked the logo of the Ox which you may see in the title bar
Could I ask if you use a “canned” curriculum? Our faltering parochial (K-8) school is looking into transitioning to classical ed., which I could not be more thrilled about. However, teachers and pastor are leery, partly because of the work involved. We are hoping there is a straightforward, Catholic/ Catholic-friendly curriculum option – at least for the switching over period.
We do use some canned curriculum. For example the Saxon Math series for pre Algebra-Algebra II. Additionally, we employ carefully chose textbooks for Biology. Chemistry and Physics as well as for our Latin and Greek program. I am more familiar with Middle school and highschool curricula than I am with K-6 curricula. But I do know there is a plethora of material to choose which should put your teachers and pastor at peace. I would call a number of primary classical schools that have been in operation for a while to see what they are using (e.g. https://saintaugustineacademy.com/)
I live in the south Euclid area and I love everything you school stands for. I would love to send my kids there when they are older but until they reach middle school age do you have a recommendation for a good conservative catholic elementary school? We are considering Corpus Christi but I would love to hear your input. Thanks!
Hello Mr Langley, I am a young Catholic father and I plan on moving to Britain soon. I haven’t been able to find a trace of Catholic Classical Education in the UK and I was hoping to enroll my children, when they are of age, in a proper Classical School. Do you have any knowledge of a good Catholic Classical School in the UK that I could contact or do you have any contacts that might better direct me to such an end?
I regret to say my knowledge of Catholic classical education in the UK is sorely lacking! You might contact the folks at “Chavagnes International College” which is an English school in France that is dedicated to Catholic classical edcuation. http://www.chavagnes.org/
I would think the headmaster there would be able to recommend something in the UK. Good luck!
Greetings, Mark:
Delighted to find and read some of the latest entries at this blogsite! With respect to your post “Why Has Education Collapsed?” I’m sending a link to an article “Descartes, Algebra, and Alienation” by Mark Shiffman from 2009 (https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2009/06/algebra/). You may know of it already, but I read it recently and was reminded of your arguments for Euclid.
Hope your Academy is flourishing with true learning!
Thanks Jim! I love that essay- appreciate you sending it on to me. He makes many points that i have been making recently to my Euclid students (e.g. it is extraordinary that one can now study the Pythagorean Theorem in algebra and never – or scarcely- realize that one is actually speaking about actual squares!). And of course his point about how Descartes has collapsed the distinction between multitude and magnitude is great.