forming souls

“Thus when we teach our youngest children by means of rhymes and songs, we do not so merely because rhymes and songs are effective mnemonic devices. We do so because we wish to form their souls by memory: we wish to bring them up as rememberers, as persons, born, as Caldecott points out, in certain localities, among certain people, who bear a certain history, and who claim our love and loyalty.” ~ Anthony Esolen, writing in the Forward to Beauty in the Word by Stratford Caldecott.

Cindy announced a book study through Beauty in the Word, starting last week and for once, thanks to Amazon Canada(amazon.ca), I could get the book at a great price and in time to participate. (And with thanks to my in-laws for birthday money they sent, I did not have to justify buying myself more books. They were basically a gift. Yep.)
Stratford Caldecott’s books have been on my wish list for a couple of years now, so this seemed like a great time to dig in, with Cindy at the helm.
I chose this quote from the Forward because as I read it last night, I was glad to hear someone else say what others around me are saying too. I want to our children to know their people’s history and culture and to know that they belong to a certain group of people. We are part of Western civilization and it has many aspects worth conserving and remembering.
Recently I watched Wesley Callihan give a tour of his personal library, shelf by shelf. (I posted a link to it on March 22 on my new Facebook page, more details down below.)
His library is organized chronologically from ancient/ classical up through the early church writers, through the Middle Ages and on into the Reformation and Modern era. They are books that tell the story of Western/Christian civilization. It is a past worth remembering.