A Cave of Candles Book

This was another book that took me some time to read. Norms and Nobility is a 157 page book that costs $47. The price tag on such a small book will scare people off from reading it. However, I must commend it to anyone who can get their hands on it. Norms and Nobility is filled with wisdom and depth, there is no superfluity in the book, you will get every penny of your $47 out of this book.

The first two-thirds of the book is about the ideas behind classical education. The second one-third is a practical discussion of the implementation of classical education.

Author David Hicks hits on every point you could possibly think of in regards to classical education. He will challenge how you think of education; he will question your modern suppositions.

One of the main ways in which this book has challenged me is to change the way I approach teaching. My modern suppositions make me want to lecture my students, this comes naturally to me because it is the way I was taught. However, it is actually a quite unnatural way to teach and to learn. Hicks argues that we need to make myths of the truths we are learning. That to present data (or norms, more importantly) as a list of dos and don'ts is to teach unnaturally. Better, we create myths of the norms (as Homer did with heroism in The Iliad) or as God has done with the norms of the Bible (think of adultery being best taught through the story of David and Bathsheba). The real challenge is to learn to do that with those subjects that aren't naturally myths, the maths and sciences. Literature and history are naturally in myth form, making it easier to teach them that way. But the maths and sciences will take effort. This is our challenge.

A second way Hicks has challenged my thinking is to reconsider the democratic way in which classical education can be implemented. Many have argued that classical education is for the elite, that it isn't for everyone. But Hicks convincingly argues this is untrue. To Hicks, it is modern education that creates elites, although in many cases the elites have been redefined.

Finally, his practical implementation for classical education is well thought out and usable. He lists books that are to be examples of the types of books to use, not the exact books that would necessarily have to be used. This gives homes and schools the freedom to modify for their individual needs and tastes.

One striking note from the concluding section of the book, "Only the careless and unskilled teacher answers questions before they are asked. The teacher's chief task is to provoke the question, not to answer it; to cultivate in his students an active curiosity, not to inundate them in factual information."

If this quotation doesn't resonate with or make sense to you, I challenge you to read this book--it will.

This is a book that will require reading and re-reading. You will get your money's worth from this book.