Better Things: Articles from Memoria College

“The Middle Ages in One Hour”: Online Lecture on Medieval thought with Mark Spencer

Join us this Saturday, April 26, at noon (ET) for “The Middle Ages in One Hour: An Overview of Medieval Thinkers,” a free Memoria College Community Lecture with Dr. Mark Spencer. Dr. Spencer, Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, will give a fast-paced introduction to key medieval thinkers and their enduring […]

Great Books versus the Great Conversation

A Meditation upon the Meaning and Purpose of Education All civilized people have a great and healthy respect for the Great Books of civilization, those seminal tomes which have helped define who we are, why we are, and where we are. Our culture would be impoverished without them. Indeed, it would be rendered penurious in […]

To Do Justice, Worry Not

The Epicurean philosophy of Horace’s Odes has something vital to teach those today who are besieged by anxiety and stress. While Epicurean philosophy misses the mark concerning what justice, the good, and freedom are, there is an important kernel of truth that I believe is extremely important for us to consider.  Life in our modern […]

Math Wars II: The Rise of the Common Core (Part II) 

What is at stake with Common Core mathematics and why is it so potentially harmful if it is just a minimum standard? In Part I of this series, I addressed commonly held beliefs concerning math education prior to the “reforms” of the early twentieth century that led to the math wars. In this post, I […]

Math Wars II: The Rise of the Common Core (Part I)

“Math is math. I just don’t understand why my kid needs to know five different ways to solve a simple division problem!” Most parents attempting to help their children with math homework over the past decade have expressed this sentiment. In reply, education experts remind everyone that parents said something similar when “New Math” was […]

What Is It Like to Understand a Bat? 

In “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?”, Thomas Nagel argues that consciousness cannot be explained by contemporary physical science. The inner lives of bats must be so different from our own, not least in their reliance on echolocation over sight. Although scientific methods tell us a great deal about bats, the subjective, inner […]

A Discussion of Triumph of the Therapeutic, by Philip Rieff: A Dust Jacket Podcast

Martin Cothran and Dr. Dan Sheffler discuss Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud by Philip Rieff, a seminal work that examines the cultural shift in Western society from traditional moral and religious frameworks to a therapeutic ethos that prioritizes personal well-being, self-expression, and emotional health.  

H. G. Wells, G. K. Chesterton, and the Conversion of C. S. Lewis

by Joseph Pearce “The most vociferous and vituperative critic of The Outline of History was Hilaire Belloc, a Catholic historian, poet, and essayist. Belloc’s first attacks against Wells’ History were published in the London Mercury and the Dublin Review. Thereafter, he systematically dissected Wells’ book in a long series of articles in The Universe, accusing […]

Review of On Being Civilized, by Tracy Lee Simmons

From the Russell Kirk Center, Darrell Falconburg’s review of Memoria College Press’ On Being Human: A Few Lines Amid the Breakage, by Tracy Lee Simmons. “In our age of modern decadence, the idea of civilization and the possibility of transmitting it to the next generation has been on many minds. What, indeed, is this treasure […]

Are the Reading Wars Inevitable? How a Hundred-Year War Can End Today

The traditional approach to reading and spelling instruction began to change about 150 years ago during the Romantic era. Among other things, Romanticism emphasized imagination, creativity, and individuality. The “whole language” or “look-say” method of reading was advocated by Horace Mann, who wrote about phonics: “It is upon this emptiness, blankness, silence and death, that […]

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