Author Archives: marklangley

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About marklangley

Most recently the founding Headmaster of Our Lady of Walsingham Academy in Colorado Springs (see www. OLWclassical.org), former headmaster and Academic Dean at The Lyceum (a school he founded in 2003, see theLyceum.org) Mark loves sacred music and Gregorian Chant and singing with his lovely wife, Stephanie, and their children.

Cave Dwellers

Posted on March 10, 2012 by marklangley

All of these people are cave dwellers. They live in the gloomy cave that Socrates describes in Book VII of The Republic (see http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html). They are all looking at the wall in front of them upon which there are shadows … Continue reading →

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More on Fashion

Posted on March 3, 2012 by marklangley
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Slavery to Fashion

Posted on March 3, 2012 by marklangley

I don’t have any strong objection to men dressing according to the fashions of the 12th or 13th century if they happen to live in the 12th or 13th century. I assume the gentleman in the picture thought that he … Continue reading →

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Why Study Latin?

Posted on February 25, 2012 by marklangley

This week marked the 50th anniversary of Pope Blessed John XXIII’s Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientiae DE LATINITATIS STUDIO PROVEHENDO – On the Promotion of the study of Latin- This document is absolutely wonderful. I love it! Pope John XXIII is … Continue reading →

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Slavery to Custom

Posted on February 19, 2012 by marklangley

Custom is a tyrant. I am well aware of the fact that this saying is not original to me. But the truth of it is becoming clearer and clearer to me with each passing year. Most of us are well … Continue reading →

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The Three Catharses

Posted on February 16, 2012 by marklangley

Our current endeavor is to discuss how it is that liberal education frees a person from slavery, and even more specifically how it frees a person from the slavery to passion. In chapter 6 of the Poetics, Aristotle gives us … Continue reading →

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Give me that man that is not passion’s slave…

Posted on February 5, 2012 by marklangley

“Give me that man  that is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him  In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee.” Thus Hamlet, speaking to Horatio (Act III Scene 2), extols the man who … Continue reading →

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Rarely divide into more than two or three!

Posted on February 3, 2012 by marklangley

Unless of course one is serving cake, the classically educated mind will rarely ever divide something into more than two or three. This rule of logic as strange to some ears as it may be is loaded with profound truth … Continue reading →

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A division of the four kinds of slavery from which Liberal education frees us.

Posted on February 2, 2012 by marklangley

I have already made the claim that a liberal education is an education that frees a person from something and it also frees a person for something. At present we are only speaking about what it frees a person from. … Continue reading →

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Modern education and Specialization…a digression

Posted on January 29, 2012 by marklangley

Among the chief marks by which the “modern school” distinguishes itself from the “classical school” is its adherence to the educational doctrine that proposes specialization as a virtue. The doctrine of “specialization” asserts that every student ought to become a … Continue reading →

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