by Headmaster Matthew Barnett
What a blessing it has been to reenter St. Basil’s classroom! Coming back has been such a joy. It is wonderful to see the children happy and learning. The third year of St. Basil’s continues to be a blessing upon the children, family, and staff.
One of my favorite subjects, having majored in it, is history. This year the older students are journeying back to early America and watch as the 13 insignificant colonies, which begin as mere outposts in a sea of unexplored wilderness, develop and expand into a great world power.
Recently, we had a special event to help explain the European rush to discover the New World and to simply have fun with it. Being a board game fanatic, I really enjoy being able to use games to help bring the subject alive. So, last year, when we were studying medieval history, I created a game based on a period of strife in English history known as the War of the Roses. The students and I had a blast as different groups of students attempted to seize the throne for their respective “families.” This year I bought Age of Empires III — the board game. For one afternoon, the older students and I huddled around the game board as they colonized the New World. Colonization makes for hungry work, so in order to sustain our efforts we were treated to some of the New World bounty (albeit in modern form): coffee, sugar, popcorn, potato chips, and, in place of fish, Swedish fish.
Another neat component of our history program is a recently acquired program that teaches critical thinking in American history. Students learn to evaluate evidence and look at arguments to examine their validity; and then apply these skills to different contentious events in American history. This is one example of how ordinary subjects are improved within the classical model. Our modern middle school corresponds with the Logic stage in the classical model. Systematic instruction in logic and its application within various subjects should be a major component in middle schools here and across the country.
