Classical education can never be something confined to the classroom. A teacher can instruct in the Good and the Beautiful. But even in a traditional school setting, she is only able to directly do so for 20% of a child's time. In a setting like Christiana's, this is scaled back dramatically leaving parents the obligation to train their children to love Good and Beautiful things. This is a giant task and, often, a battle. There is no shortage of avenues for the popular and the banal to infect our homes and our children's hearts (ours too!). Of course, screens in their ever-growing number of iterations are regular culprits. As one writer recently stated, "Screens have to be managed like the infectious disease that they are." Of course, this means active regulation of both time and content.
Time spent on various forms of media will be addressed in another post, but I would like to encourage you to spend time watching classic movies with your children. While there may be shows and movies directed toward children that don't make you want to gouge out your eyes after fifteen minutes, most parents have felt the pain of drivel. And, if like me at all, wondered when bedtime is coming so I can watch something more age-appropriate. That doesn't have to mean immoral, but we all know movies generally directed toward adults, are much freer with profane language, sexual inuendo, and gratuitous nudity/violence. These are things we certainly don't want our children to hear and see and in any number of cases, should probably make us second guess what we as parents consume. Classic movies bridge the gap of child-friendly content and gripping plot and dialogue for parents. They can be perfect family viewing.
Is this a blanket endorsement of all old movies? Of course not. Nor is it a condemnation of all modern movies and TV shows. Instead, it is a recognition that movies which rely far less on pyrotechnics, CGI, and gratuitous appeals to the lowest parts of who we are, are much better suited to showing the power of language and dialogue, true romance, and the full range of human emotion.
The Christmas season, where we have more time on our hands as classwork fades for a few weeks, happens to be a central theme for some great classic films. "It's a Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34th Street", "A Christmas Carol" and many others. One step my family is attempting toward classical living in the home is taking an activity we already do (watching movies) and making an effort to watch ones which take the art of language, the subtlety of a head turn, as well as a moral code seriously. In short, movies from Hollywood's Golden Age, self-censored for decency, and in many instances truly artistic achievements, are well-worth our time if we will give it.
And no, Diehard is not a Christmas film....
Time spent on various forms of media will be addressed in another post, but I would like to encourage you to spend time watching classic movies with your children. While there may be shows and movies directed toward children that don't make you want to gouge out your eyes after fifteen minutes, most parents have felt the pain of drivel. And, if like me at all, wondered when bedtime is coming so I can watch something more age-appropriate. That doesn't have to mean immoral, but we all know movies generally directed toward adults, are much freer with profane language, sexual inuendo, and gratuitous nudity/violence. These are things we certainly don't want our children to hear and see and in any number of cases, should probably make us second guess what we as parents consume. Classic movies bridge the gap of child-friendly content and gripping plot and dialogue for parents. They can be perfect family viewing.
Is this a blanket endorsement of all old movies? Of course not. Nor is it a condemnation of all modern movies and TV shows. Instead, it is a recognition that movies which rely far less on pyrotechnics, CGI, and gratuitous appeals to the lowest parts of who we are, are much better suited to showing the power of language and dialogue, true romance, and the full range of human emotion.
The Christmas season, where we have more time on our hands as classwork fades for a few weeks, happens to be a central theme for some great classic films. "It's a Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34th Street", "A Christmas Carol" and many others. One step my family is attempting toward classical living in the home is taking an activity we already do (watching movies) and making an effort to watch ones which take the art of language, the subtlety of a head turn, as well as a moral code seriously. In short, movies from Hollywood's Golden Age, self-censored for decency, and in many instances truly artistic achievements, are well-worth our time if we will give it.
And no, Diehard is not a Christmas film....
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