Update: This live course has concluded and is now available as a recorded course through our Unlimited Access Service. This is a great way to learn at your own pace when your schedule allows. To subscribe or learn more: Middle and High School Online ClassesLiterature: Chesterton; Man of Letters
(Click on title and then scroll down to register)
Class dates: Wednesdays, February 3 to March 17, 2010 (no class on Ash Wed., Feb. 17)
Total classes: 6
Starting time: 8:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time (7:00 PM Central)
Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes
Professor: Robert Gotcher, Ph.D.
Course Description: G.K. Chesterton, a convert to Christianity, then to Catholicism, is one of the most popular Christian writers of the Twentieth Century. He wrote theology, social commentary, literary criticism, fantasy fiction, poetry, and mysteries. He was a major influence on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. In this six-week course we will discuss in seminar style some of the major works of Chesterton taken from several genres, including, for instance, The Everlasting Man or Orthodoxy, the biography of St. Francis, a Fr. Brown mystery or two, Lepanto, and The Man Who Was Thursday. This course is appropriate for juniors and seniors in high school.
Week-by-week outline:
Class 1: Murder Mysteries; Fr. Brown, “The Blue Cross.”
Class 2: Narrative poetry; “Ballad of the White Horse.”
Class 3: Social commentary; The Outline of Sanity, select chapters.
Class 4: History/Biography/Hagiography; St. Francis of Assisi.
Class 5: Philosoophy and Theology; Orthodoxy, Chapter Six.
Class 6: Fiction; The Man Who Was Thursday.
Course materials: Dr. Gotcher will provide links to all of the needed reading free online. Or, you can borrow the books from the library.
Optional homework: Dr. Gotcher will provide weekly quizzes with answer keys for parents to grade.
High school credit: This course is worth 1/2 semester credit. For a full semester credit you can add Dr. Gotcher's course Tolkien and Fairy Stories.
Equipment requirements:
Because this is a discussion course, students are not only required to have high-speed internet but also a headset with microphone. If you do not own a headset, you can find them for a reasonable price locally or at Amazon.
Course access:
All Homeschool Connections courses are recorded and available to registered students for up to six months.
Course fee: This course is regularly $90 for the entire 6 weeks. Early registration discount: $15 off if registered by Dec. 31, 2009 ($75)
Professor's biography:
Dr. Robert F. Gotcher most recently served as Associate Professor of Systematic Studies at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. He and his wife, Kathy, are raising their seven children in Franklin, Wisconsin. Dr. Gotcher has been actively involved in the home schooling of his children, especially in the junior high and high school years. He has taught Latin, literature, physics, astronomy, and religion to homeschooled students. He has a special devotion to the classical trivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric, especially as they pertain to the written arts.
Dr. Gotcher graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1981 with a B.A. in the Program of Liberal Studies. He received his M.A. in Theology of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 1991 and his Ph.D. from Marquette University in 2002. In his adult life he has done everything from volunteering with the poor in Appalachia, to religious education and youth ministry, to desktop publishing and computer related responsibilities at a law firm. At the seminary he taught introduction to theology, the doctrine of God, one and three, theological anthropology (creation, sin, redemption, grace, four last things), life principles, and human sexuality and has given public presentations on Vatican II, the encyclicals of the pope, social justice, life issues, human sexuality and the theology of the body. His publications focus on family issues, lay spirituality and issues related to the Second Vatican Council. He is involved in the secular Franciscan order, home schooling, and pro-life activities in the Milwaukee area and nationally.
Dr. Gotcher blogs at Classic Catholic and Love2Learn
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3 comments:
Based on the book list, are there reading assignments and books to purchase?
Dr. Gotcher will provide links to the reading free online. If you'd like the actual book in your hand, they are all most likely found at your public library (if not on the shelf then via inner- or inter-library loan). Of course, the best case scenario is to have every G. K. Chesterton book line your home bookshelves! :-)
G.K.C. is a phenomenal writer. Sounds like you've got a winning program!
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