(Additional Review, in response to the one above)

"There are relatively few persons who can analyze as clearly and as lucidly the writings of Aristotle, Plato, and Aquinas as does this author. Like Taylor's educational philosophy, he seeks to move his readers' affections and will as well as their intellects, and he does this successfully." - Richard Harp, University of Nebraska

When discussing "poetic knowledge" (which is not the knowledge of poetry "but rather a poetic experience of reality"), we are entering into the realm of an intuitive, obscure and somewhat mysterious way of knowing reality that therefor does not lend itself to strict analytical dissection. Nevertheless, in Poetic Knowledge Taylor has managed "with pithy brevity...to provide a history of the treatment of poetic knowledge and to develop his own very persuasive account" – Ralph McInerny (U. of Notre Dame). He cannot reasonably be faulted for failing to make human emotions and intuitions as readily understandable as an isosceles triangle or an elementary rule of grammar - there is more to it than is "dreamt of in our philosophy."

Ironically, it is precisely that relentless demand of modern man (since Descartes) - that all be broken down into parts and pieces for study under a magnifying glass - that Taylor is warning against in his book. A flower loses its beauty when it is hacked into tiny pieces for too close observation; "whatever the sun is, it is not just a mass of burning gasses", though strict analysis might yield just that answer.

Indeed, in writing this book for a modern audience drunk on statistics and mathematical calculation, Taylor assumed the risk of betraying the very thing he was trying to save - the rest of man: his sense, his intuitions, his love of beauty, his integrity and very ability to love. Happily, like a good diagnostic physician,Taylor managed to poke and probe only deeply enough to give us the outlines, to reveal the essentials of the matter without killing the patient in the process.

Like a multi-faceted diamond, poetic knowledge may be viewed from different perspectives, with differing results. Thus it can be considered as both a "degree" of knowledge and as a "mode" of knowledge. As a "mode" of knowledge, poetic knowledge differs from "scientific knowledge" in that is it non-analytical, nor is it about the "outside" of things as observational science is. Rather, it is sensory-emotional, intuitive and deals with the goodness or "inside" of things. It begins with the immediate, direct apprehension of reality that inspires wonder and awe. As a degree of knowledge, it is less certain that mathematical knowledge, but more certain than a mere guess or coin-flip. In short, it is of one certain degree or order, and not of another. A mere review such as this cannot do justice to those distinctions, but that should suffice to account for the fact that Taylor may reasonably approach the matter from different angles without being guilty of the charge of causing needless confusion. No diamond-cutter would do less before striking the blow, and Taylor is writing about more than a mere diamond, he is writing about why women love the beauty and "poetic" meaning of diamond gifts and why men love certain women enough to buy them diamonds.

Taylor makes the point that we live in a world dominated by scientism, by mathematical formulae, which knows the price of all things and the worth of nothing.

He rightly traces this domination back to Descartes, who was a superb mathematician. But Descartes, in promoting his liberal arts of preference - the quadrivium, neglected the rest - the trivium. In stating the obvious - that our world is terribly imbalanced towards the empirical sciences and away from its heart and soul (which is closer to the subject of the trivium) Taylor does us no disservice, nor does he thereby libel the sciences. He is merely trying to restore the balance before science and math bereft of love and beauty calculate us into greater mechanistic slavery or thermonuclear oblivion. One who rights a tottering man ought not be accused of favoring the right over the left, or up over down. Indeed, for left or down to have any meaning, right and up must be preserved as well. Science and math have no future if man has no future. Taylor seeks to restore our future as men and women, not merely as "consumer units" or "human resources".

The Renaissance is a vague term, with a vague start. But out if it did indeed spring modern empirical science as a reaction against the domination of the early Renaissance by rhetorical teachers of the trivium such as Petrarch. Descartes, building on Galileo (1564-1642), and his mathematical arts of the quadrivium, were the ultimate victors in the Renaissance Battle of the Arts, which therefor did triumph - not in the early Renaissance - but in the period of the late Renaissance and Reformation when the trivium and poetic knowledge began to be neglected precisely because of the rise of the quadrivium at that time.

Just as in the late Renaissance, the Battle of the Arts rages and the mathematical sciences still hold the upper hand. They hardly need any more defenders. But like the teacher Keating in the movie Dead Poets Society, Taylor calls us to arms against the tyranny of modern science:

"This is battle...War! And the casualties could be your hearts and your souls...One reads poetry because he is a member of the human race and the human race is filled with passion! Medicine, law, banking - these are necessary to sustain life - but poetry, romance, love, beauty! These are what we stay alive for!"

Restore the balance and the war ends. Then science and faith can indeed be understood harmoniously, but they certainly are not so understood by those in the thrall of modern scientism. In Poetic Knowledge Taylor shows us the way to restore the balance - in the recovery of authentic classical education.

This is a fascinating (and very quick read) e-book that briefly outlines the stories of popes who resigned or were deposed (most of them in much more tumultuous circumstances than Pope Benedict XVI. It's a nice way to get a quick glimpse at how complex our church history is (which offers some great perspective for the struggles of our own days) as well as a nice overview of what the papacy means to us and where it comes from. Also included are a brief historical and biblical overview of the origins of the papacy and a lovely series of quotes from popes throughout the centuries on the concept of the papacy itself. Although it is clearly aimed at adults, my high schoolers and I enjoyed reading and discussing this together. (There are definitely some uncomfortable stories about the behaviors of bad popes in the past that you may not be comfortable getting into with younger children.)

This is an expensive, but in-depth conversational Spanish program that is very popular with homeschoolers. The text, test booklet and workbook come with nine audio tapes or CDs (depending on the option you choose when you purchase the program) and an optional CD ROM and audio CD set. These options should be looked at very carefully when ordering as the operators often don't know which set is which.

Several months ago we decided to invest in a Spanish program. The question was, which one? My children are quite young, but have been exposed to Spanish during our years in San Diego, from stories such as The Lady of Guadalupe and the Josefina Montoya books from the American Girls series, and the Catholic Parish in downtown Milwaukee which we attend most Sundays which has a vibrant Hispanic community. When my oldest daughter (at age 7 1/2) began showing an interest in learning Spanish, my husband and I thought it was important to take advantage of her interest now, especially since childhood is supposed to be an excellent time to introduce a foreign language.

First we looked at the The Learnables, which is another homeschool-friendly program, but which is completely book-bound: the book has only pictures and the audio portion is in Spanish only. It's a neat idea, but not what we were looking for.

We wanted something that could be listened to in the car (especially to and from daily Mass) or while the children were playing - even when they didn't have the book open.

We heard a little about the Power Glide program (mostly the Latin edition) from fellow homeschoolers and learned that although it covered enough material for a 2-year high school course, that it was enjoyable for young children as well. That was enough for us - we decided to try it.

I have to say that we're really, really happy with it. Although we've hardly cracked the books yet (that will come in time, I'm sure), we've listened to the CDs over and over and are beginning to pick up some of the language. The CDs are filled with classic folk tales and fairy tales in alternating Spanish and English, stories in English that contain some recognizable Spanish words (that can be understood from the context), short (and often funny) conversations in alternating languages and other creative way of introducing Spanish (including some exercises that are designed to be used with the book). Different voices provide a diversity of accents and dialects to broaden exposure to the language.

All the material is suitable for family listening and my own children enjoy the stories enough to request them over and over.

Although the price is rather high (around $150 for the CD set with the CD ROM), we felt that, as a reusable program for all of our children for all of their school years, it was a worthwhile investment.

The cardboard container that the CDs arrive in is rather inadequate - especially for care use. We picked up an inexpensive zip-up CD folder to protect the CDs.