Welcome to our CAVES!
Step into our Caves! Explore the Educators Cave (a unique spot for every kind of educator) and the Ancient Authors Cave (where our ancient authors play the leading role). Let's walk through the entryway together . . .
The Caves
We are in the process of producing and adding materials and resources to our Caves. Check back for more in the months to come. Return for the full opening sometime in the fall of 2023.
The Educators Cave
The Educators Cave is the spot for educators to come for helpful materials related to the classics. Inside the Educators Cave, teachers, professors, home school parents, and other instructors will find detailed plans and fully articulated activities and evaluations that are ready to use.
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Each plan and activity is designed with two goals in mind:
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Education and formation: we hope to benefit each student in terms of learning and practice, that is, gathering knowledge and wisdom and applying it to their own lives (in specific ways tailored to each individual student) toward the end of excellence or virtue.
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Facilitation: we hope to make it easier for educators to teach and form their students.
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Most plans include material related to significant skills and habits each student should practice:
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Analytical skills: reading; annotation; character, topic, theme, and significant ideas identification and analysis; general analysis and synthesis of ideas; the conversion of information and knowledge into a coherent system and wisdom; research and discovery.
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Writing skills: written communication; various forms of written communication; short, medium, and long responses or essays; various kinds of essays—including DBQs; genre writing—poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, etc.
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Speaking skills: oral communication; group discussion and dialogue; public speaking; debates and mock situations; presentations.
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Project and group skills: working with others while practicing the first three skills (analytical, writing, speaking); leadership and teamwork; cooperation.
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Application skills: unlike most educational methods and practices, the Cave emphasizes application or practice skills, where students take what they have learned—the knowledge and wisdom—and ask themselves, in cooperation with one another and the educator, how it can be applied to their own lives for the better. The goal is to practice what is learned (not merely to gather information)—to practice literature and so on.
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The Educators Cave includes (among other items): lesson plans, discussion questions, essay prompts, group projects, quizzes and exams, ways to practice (workbook exercises, journal prompts, etc.), topical and thematic expositions, notes, literature summaries, maps, charts, glossaries, images for coloring, and more!
The Ancient Authors Cave
The Ancient Authors Cave is the spot to come for information and activities related to ancient Greek (and Roman*) authors.
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Years ago, Homer, Sophocles, Plato, and a handful of other representative ancient authors (representing the Ancient Authors Association), came knocking on the doors of The Classics Cave. After we invited them in and offered them coffee (something they hadn't had) and a seat, we asked how we could help them. Their simple request was for representation in the modern world—help in getting people (students, individuals, groups) to read, reflect on, and practice their works. The Classics Cave (and more specifically the Ancient Authors Cave) is the result.
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So enter the Ancient Authors Cave where you will encounter the whole cast of ancient Greek (and Roman*) authors, including poets (such as Homer and Hesiod), playwrights (like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides), historians (featuring Herodotus, Thucydides, and others), and philosophers and their schools (Plato and his Academy, Aristotle and the Lyceum, Epicurus and his Garden, and Zeno of Citium and the Porch).
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You'll find author interviews; introductions (to author works); basic author facts; the big themes and ideas of their works; literature or work summaries and notes; schools of philosophy; plans of life; key points of wisdom; ways to practice; glossaries of Greek terms and English equivalents; suggestions for further reading; and more!
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*The initial focus is on the ancient Greeks. That said, some ancient Romans, such as Cicero and Seneca, will also appear.