The Core: Bow Hunting Skills
To function independently as an adult we all need a certain set of core skills. Like bow hunting skills. {ahem}
In fact, we even need a certain set of skills to say, snag a date, as demonstrated below. {smile}
Napoleon Dynamite: Well, nobody’s going to go out with me!
Pedro: Have you asked anybody yet?
Napoleon Dynamite: No, but who would? I don’t even have any good skills.
Pedro: What do you mean?
Napoleon Dynamite: You know, like nun chuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills… Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.
Pedro: Aren’t you pretty good at drawing, like animals and warriors and stuff?
Napoleon Dynamite: Yes… probably the best that I know of.
Pedro: Just draw a picture of the girl you want to take out… and give it to her for like a gift or something.
Napoleon Dynamite: That’s a pretty good idea.
Even Pedro, from the movie Napoleon Dynamite, values fine art, a subject in which the grammar is taught throughout a classical education.
It has the ability to woo a future wife. Why, I remember a certain dashing young man delight his date with a stroll through not one but two art museums.
The beauty of a classical education is that by creating a vast core knowledge within each student, we are preparing them to learn A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G.
Yes, we will one day launch our walking legacies and send them off to grand places where they will then begin to focus on one subject, be it a teacher, engineer, lawyer, doctor, construction work, plumber, etc.
BUT because of how they have been brought up, they are not limited to their college degree for life.
Life long and life changing decisions won’t be based upon ever-changing current thought or Google.
Rather than abandoning us to the moment, the classical model immerses us in the great classical conversations of mankind so that we can hear the voice of experience, discuss our present options within our community, and make choices with confidence that we really have done our best. The classical tools allow us to include classical content in our decisions. (Bortins 215)
Our children will be natural life long learners. It is ingrained in them.
For other Classical Education thoughts and previous chapter discussion from The Core, by Leigh Bortins, please visit my Classical Education page.
