Episode 4 - How to “Teach” Virtue

Lux et Veritas: A Light and Truth Podcast by the Classical School of Dallas

Katie Lockett and Colin McGee, Director of Upper School, take on an ancient question: what is virtue, and can it be taught? Colin traces the idea from Plato’s “virtue is knowledge” to Aristotle’s split between intellectual and moral virtue. He contrasts the classical movement’s two camps: one aiming at an elite class, the other aiming at piety and love of God and neighbor. They explore John Frame’s three lenses for judging right and wrong. Then they turn to how moral virtue actually forms, through modeling, habit and stories, and why only the Holy Spirit can finish the work.

In this episode

• Plato, Aristotle and Augustine on virtue
• Intellectual virtues versus moral virtues
• Excellence or piety: two visions for classical education
• John Frame’s normative, situational and existential lenses
• Stories and the moral imagination
• Grumbling, responsibility and the long road of sanctification
• Why virtue can’t be bottled and sold

Mentioned: Plato’s Meno, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, John Frame, Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard address, Junius Johnson

Episode 3 - Affections of a Classical Home Part 3: Loving What Lasts - Practicalities of Changing and Shaping Affections

Lux et Veritas: A Light and Truth Podcast by the Classical School of Dallas

Katie Lockett and Colin McGee, Director of Upper School, close the series with a practical look at forming children’s affections at home. Drawing on Joshua Gibbs’ Love What Lasts, Colin explains why some things are worth enjoying, some are worth striving to love, and some are best avoided. He also shows that affections can be trained in children and in their parents. They finish with concrete habits for the home, grounded in prayer and God’s grace.

In this episode

• Why “morally neutral” habits still shape what we love
• The common, the uncommon and the mediocre
• How to learn to love something, from coffee to The Odyssey
• Good books before great books, and starting younger than you think
• Scripture, screens, music, reading and the art on your walls
• How parents can grow alongside their kids

Mentioned: Augustine, Joshua Gibbs’ Love What Lasts, John Senior’s list of 1,000 Good Books, The Odyssey, A Tale of Two Cities, Dante