From the Director

The aftermath of our recent general election—with its massive spending on print, radio and television ads, with its stirring (and not-so stirring) campaign speeches and its news reporting that carefully presented itself as un-biased—is a good time to remind ourselves of the importance of the power of words.  Words still rule the world, and those who understand their power and control have great influence, as they have since the dawn of civilization.

An article I read just days ago makes this very point.  Author Liam Julian summarized a 1946 essay by George Orwell entitled “Politics and the English Language”: “bad writing leads to poor thinking leading to more bad writing and, eventually, begets a society that cannot distinguish meaningful words from empty ones.”  (“Entering Camelot”)

Appropriately, this month’s issue of “Beyond the Test” focuses on the Trivium, the pillar of classical education, which culminates in a mastery of beautiful and persuasive speech. Learning by heart begins the process.  Accuracy of thought—a most important benefit of language mastery—is described by Cardinal Newman in our second article; and our Resource Center article introduces the Institute for Excellence in Writing’s programs, which help teachers unfamiliar with the Trivium to implement it with their students.  Our Featured School, Cleveland’s Lyceum, is devoted to Socratic discussion, a way of educating that trains students to think critically about what they read and hear. 

In Christ,

Andrew Seeley, Ph.D.