Weekly Resource - Old Western Culture

A few months ago when I heard Andrew Kern speak he mentioned Wes Callihan.  He was surprised that not many of us knew him well.  I think that is about to change.  He has put together an in depth study of The Greeks, The Romans, Christendom and Early Moderns called Old Western Culture meant to take a high school student through each of these eras as they read original texts.  The Greeks is the only year currently available as a full set of DVDs, workbook and texts.  They have formatted many older texts into kindle editions to make it easier for students discussing the course.  Each year is further broken into four sections (the first is The Epics) and the website clearly indicates which texts are studied in each section.

Honestly, I plan to use this for self study.  I think my dreams about covering the Great Books series that I bought might be a little too difficult (plus I misplaced book one).  Callihan also points out a huge gap in the Great Books series and that's a gap that needs to be filled for me.  The website is packed with information. You must go to the resource page for each of the sections and check out the guide to the art and other resources there.  It truly is an amazing body of work.

I hope to find a way to use some of the ideas discussed in Jenny Rallens look at studying literature in my own approach to going through this series.  Her discussion of the type of "worksheets" or questions discussed in class was telling.  I want to move more towards helping myself and my children find the themes that are common across authors and discuss how different people, eras and philosophies address these issues. Obviously, we aren't there yet, but maybe if I start for myself it will help shape me so that I am more prepared when we get there.

I highly recommend taking some time to look over this site even if your kids are no where near high school.  It will help you learn a little bit more and maybe provide you with some direction.  I would love someone to compare it to the King's Meadow Study Center curricula.