A giveaway of The Way of Beauty with your {bits & pieces}!

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A giveaway of The Way of Beauty with your {bits & pieces}!

The regular “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

I have one million things to tell you and share with you! Links galore — and a giveaway!

Real quick — I will be in Houston tomorrow at Our Lady of Walsingham (also next week) and at Prince of Peace on Wednesday evening. All the info is on the speaking page. Please come and say hi! I can sign your book if you like!

At last I am getting around to offering this marvelous book to you as a giveaway!

The Way of Beauty by David Clayton

My bad for not doing it sooner.

You know how I’m always telling you to read read read about education? Well, this is one of the books you should read, right up there with John Senior, John Taylor Gatto, Charlotte Mason, and all those other ones that make your mind explode with that wonderful “aha!” feeling that you finally get it, that you’re getting somewhere and not just blinding buying curriculum.

As you may or may not know, David Clayton is my co-author for The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home. Our primary focus there was living the faith in the home, but you got little hints of his thesis for this book, didn’t you?

The Way of Beauty: Liturgy, Education, and Inspiration for Family, School, and College is the fruit of David’s contemplation of beauty and how to inspire its pursuit in the educational setting. If you visit Thomas More College, you will encounter his inspiration in action there. It’s a tiny place where great books are studied and lived, thanks to David’s vision.

A book like this is pure gold, because here you receive the principles you need to make good choices. Just as we try to do here on the blog, David isn’t so much providing you with a laundry list of a curriculum — it’s that elusive overarching framework that we’re always searching for that he helps us with.

Above all, he gives us objective criteria for beauty; this is huge, because without that we are always floundering around, trying to make cultural headway by preference alone.

David practically and concisely renders very heady philosophical ideas about beauty and its objectivity into understandable prose, making it possible for the family and anyone involved in building an educational institution to know how to go about applying them.

These days, with so many homeschoolers starting co-ops and homeschool-support programs, it’s vital to have good solid principles to build on. This book gives you just what you need.

Worth the price of the book: David’s recounting of his Oxford days and what characteristics made his time there, ultimately, amount to a real education, even thought he wasn’t (by his own account) a greatly motivated student. You will be consoled if you happen to know anyone who meets that description, ahem. David explains that more depends on the culture of a community than on any one particular thing that’s done there (outside of worship).

After the links, I’ll give you the info for entering this giveaway! Don’t miss it!

This week’s links:

Auntie Leila is as pro-fresh air as the next auntie, and show me a child and I’ll tell you to put that child outside. But these window cages for babies — just, no.

If you like words, any words, you’ll like this post. It might help with all the reading from the early part of the 20th century that we’re always recommending around here!

This report on the Danish word and idea of hygge captures the imagination as we head into winter!

We need the example of others when it comes to making difficult decisions — life or death ones. All too often, medical professionals will not help us to do what is right. This lovely essay shows how to go against the advice of your doctor: Why we let our baby’s death come naturally. If someone talked you or someone you know into doing the wrong thing, there’s hope: Project Rachel.

By the way, Kelly Mantoan over at This Ain’t the Lyceum has some great giveaways for October’s Seven Quick Takes link-up — including The Little Oratory! Do check it all out.

As fall gets up a full head of steam, I’m encouraging you to start or revive or continue your St. Greg’s Pocket. Be bold! It’s more than a discussion group, more than socializing, even more than sharing your faith: It’s building a real community.

Here are two readings that would be perfect to read and discuss if you are so minded:

Stella Morabito wrote a five-piece series to encourage the traditional woman not to be bullied into silence about things that matter. I highly recommend everything she writes. What we do here at Like Mother, Like Daughter is precisely what she calls for in these short essays. It’s strong stuff. I think we need to hear it. A lot depends on us. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5.

Here’s a taste:

“You have far more power than you realise. It’s no secret that the family has always been in the crosshairs of die-hard Marxists. Familial bonding, and maternal bonding in particular, gets in the way of re-making the human mind in the Marxist image. We nurture the development of unique and free personalities. This gets in the way of collectivising society to produce a mass mind in a state of mass conformity obedient to the mass State.”

Bishop Olmstead has written a fantastic call to men: Into the breach! Just what we needed — encouragement for the battle! The St. Greg’s Pocket men could not do better than to get together over some beers and hash this one out.

It’s all very simple. Like I said, bold friendship. You don’t need money, much organization other than inviting people (invite anyone friendly you meet, but also — the Facebook pages are all set up — check out your area! If you don’t see one, start one!), any kind of dues or oaths — you just need to get together in real life with like-minded people!

And don’t forget to send us a picture!

As Stella Morabito says,

The human mind processes what is real, what is true, and what is beauty – or what is not real, true, or beautiful – primarily through its interactions with other human minds. This interaction happens more often today through digital media. And, of course we need to engage on social media. But at the same time, let’s remember that what people crave most is one-on-one connection.

That’s what the St. Gregory Pockets are all about. Just building the community, one friend at a time. When you have five other families, you will see. Things will be transformed all around you.

From the archives:

This post has the links to the books I recommend for foundational reading in education. I’d add David’s book to the list!

And now for the giveaway:

Please just leave a comment! The giveaway closes on Wednesday night.