My wife recently bought my granddaughter a book full of short stories and poetry, and it got my utmost approval. I remembered when I was in elementary school, just about when my father moved his offices (Certina Watches) from Fifth Ave. to the Empire State Building. He had a business associate named Mr. Wieselberg, and that man, each year gave me a Christmas present of one or two classical books: Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Men of Iron, and the list goes on. I read them all, and it was a good basis for the boy who became an English teacher, or just for a boy who became a man.
Everybody loves a storyteller, and the best storyteller in my book is Jesus Christ, who not only told stories but gave us words to live by. I not only remember those stories, but regrettably I forget them, too. If they are words to live by, you have to recall them at opportune moments.
And so I hope my granddaughter gets words to live by. A classical education begins at home, and an education like that is in great demand these days.
Civilization 