Category: Other Publications

Wander with Odysseus: The Odyssey as an Alternate Reality Game

What if instead of simply reading about Odysseus’s journey, you could experience it with him? John Fallon, an innovative middle school teacher, had the idea to craft an alternate reality game (ARG) to help build enthusiasm for classics like the Odyssey  in his seventh-grade class. Rather than merely reading about the adventures of Odysseus in […]

“Using Sophocles to Treat PTSD”

Prof. Esposito has written to us here at the Core blog to let us know about an extensive and interesting article from the most recent Harper’s Magazine, entitled “Using Sophocles to Treat PTSD”. He writes: I thought you might be interested in it especially since it’s about the performances of Sophocles’ Ajax, Philoctetes, and Women […]

A Little Platonic Advertising

Summer’s in full swing, and we’ve all settled into our lazy summer habits, which include the constant struggle trying to keep warm for those of us staying in Boston. For those of you missing the Core office, don’t worry, we miss all of you too. To keep your spirits up, we found this wonderful comedic […]

When Humanities and Natural Sciences Meet

It can be strange to think sometimes of the humanities and sciences meeting. A poetic stanza has very little to do with a mathematical equation one would think; not Edna St. Vincent Millay. In this poem, “Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare”, the Father of Geometry can see what poets, those so attuned to […]

The Downsides of Everyone Being a Critic

Not everyone is as lucky as those of us in Core. Very few can boast such an encompassing grasp of great works as we can; even less learn how to talk about these works, yet we, also, are able to hold a conversation with the best of them concerning Suicide, The Republic, any of the […]

Analysis paralysis and Children’s Literature

We’re sure, as a kid, you read Margaret Wise Brown’s adorable book Goodnight Moon. Doesn’t the above picture just take you back to when your parents would read to you every night before bed while you were tucked in cozy under the dinosaur or Superman or Disney princess or whatever (we don’t judge) sheets? Of […]

Political Vonnegut

Good morning, scholars! How’re you feeling? Has the second round of midterms got you down? Finals seeming close? Excited to go home for Thanksgiving? We are. You’re doing well? Haven’t given up yet we see. Good. Let’s talk about war. To be more specific, Kurt Vonnegut’s short yet humorous, in the sick way only Vonnegut […]

Publication Opportunities for Students

The Core is pleased to present students with a fantastic opportunity to publish their work: The Agora, an on-line publication of Lynchburg College, specializing in responses to the great books of the world, has become a national journal of undergraduate academic writing. The journal, like the ancient Athenian Agora, seeks to be a marketplace for important […]

Petrarch’s unkindness toward teachers

As spotted at Futility Closet, a letter from Petrarch to Zanobi da Strada, April 1, 1352: Let them teach who can do nothing better, whose qualities are laborious application, sluggishness of mind, muddiness of intellect, prosiness of imagination, chill of the blood, patience to bear the body’s labors, contempt of glory, avidity for petty gains, […]

Women and Reading

An excerpt from The New Yorker magazine on “The Woman Reader” by Belinda Jack. In the history of women, there is probably no matter, apart from contraception, more important than literacy. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, access to power required knowledge of the world. This could not be gained without reading and writing, […]