“The Greek word for an ancient concept, Paideia, has no exact English translation. It is essentially the part of upbringing and education that forms the soul of a human being — and it is key to the formation of a culture. At its core, paideia motivates our decisions and behavior, through our affections. Because it influences each person in a culture, paideia forms a culture. How do we think? How do we vote? Do we marry? Do we have large families? Small families? Do we do productive things? Start a revolution? A million actions lie on the surface. Layers of influence and supposition lie under each decision. Paideia lies at the deepest level. It is the blueprint of thought, affections, and narrative through which every one of us views everything. Because it is the building block of culture, it determines the future of a people.
Paideia is transferred through education, in a broad sense. Formal education plays a part, but so does our family life and the society around us. Paideia is hard to see because it’s so deeply set in us. It’s molded in childhood, and most malleable through college age. Paideia is hard to define because it, in many ways, defines who we are. This “bootstrapping” makes paideia difficult to fully appreciate. We live in a world shaped by paideia, and yet we take it for granted. In fact, most people have never heard the word. And yet this word was foundational to Greek thought, and was more commonly used in America up until the 1900s. The stakes are high. Paideia is the primary ingredient in forming culture and thus civilization. And we’ve recently seen what it looks like when civilization begins to break down.”
― Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS)
EPHESIANS 6:4
4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline [paideia] and instruction of the Lord.
[Editor’s emphasis]
A PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.
ART APPRECIATION
This painting is one of van Gogh’s paintings of the night sky and the effects of light at night. In this painting, we see a more realistic nighttime sky. We see a contrast between the two different types of light: starlight and light coming from the gas lamps, reflected on the river.1
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was born the son of a preacher in 1853 in Holland. He pursued a career in art for most of his life; he was never considered successful, though he worked tirelessly for days, sometimes without stopping to eat! Even though he painted over 800 works, only one painting sold during his lifetime. Van Gogh’s works are characterized by large, sweeping brush strokes using paints in a very thick amount. Sometimes he would store the paint on with a knife, almost like working with clay. Van Gogh also painted still lifes of fruits (lemons and pears) and of flowers (irises and sunflowers). Today, several of his paintings rank among the most expensive in the world! Other painters that lived during van Gogh’s lifetime were Jean-Francois millet, Paul Gaugin, Camille Pissarro, and Claude Monet. 2
MUSIC APPRECIATION
“Lullaby,” op. 49, No. 4 by Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms may have written the world’s most famous lullaby. Wiegenlied, Op. 49, No.4 was dedicated to Brahms’ former lover, Bertha Faber, after the birth of her son. The melody found its way into the first movement of Brahms’ Second Symphony in a slightly altered form.
3
Johannesburg Brahms (1833-1897) was one of the big “Three B’s” of the classical music world and is most widely known by modern audiences for his melodic lullaby, but his influence goes much further afield than simple children’s tunes.
The son of a lower middle class family, Brahms was born in Hamburg of the early 19th century; a scruffy port city filled with exotic traders and seedy traffickers alike. Although in an earlier era, it had been home to a number of fine musicians, it was, at the midpoint of the 19th century, a unseemly and unlikely a place for a future legend to arise as one might imagine. Although admittedly he was no child prodigy, he occasionally dislikened himself to the young Mozart, Brahms would tell listeners on later occasions that his father, a trained musician himself, often arranged Brahms’ early concerts in the public bars of the town. Bars of that place and era doubled as houses of ill-repute; it was an entirely shocking inverse portrait of Brahms’ life overlaid by evoking the measure of natural and wholesome adoration Wolfgang’s father’s evidenced for his child in securing him appointments to all the finest courts of Europe.4
- Lange, Krista, and Leigh Lowe. First Grade Enrichment: Classical Core Curriculum. Teacher Guide. Memoria Press, 2017. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Judd, Timothy. “Brahms’ Wiegenlied, Op. 49, No. 4.” Timothy Judd, Suzuki Violin Lessons, 7 Oct. 2015, timothyjuddviolin.com/tag/carnegie-hall/. ↩︎
- “Johannes Brahms: Kennedy Center.” The Kennedy Center, http://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/b/bo-bz/johannes-brahms/. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
Providence School of Tifton 