Delay & Re-posting, Product Prices, Trivium Pursuit Logo, This blog, Special Sales

DELAY & RE-POSTING

I am re-posting the (slightly updated) substance of this blog because the renovation of the website caused some problems with the blog so that the original posting did not appear on the website blog. The IT guys have assured me that those ‘bugs’ have been worked out. (We’ll see.) So the website is renovated and operational. Should you the reader discover any problems, please let me know.

PRODUCT PRICES

Regrettably, economic laws have moved us to make a small upward adjustment of our prices. However, we are having a “haven’t-raised-shipping-fees-yet” sale – which is not insignificant!

TRIVIUM PURSUIT LOGO

‘Trivium’ means where three roads meet. The term ‘trivium’ is used to refer to the first three of the seven liberal arts – the “classical humanist” list of the three fundamental roads of learning: grammar, logic (or dialectic), and rhetoric. We would bring the humanist paradigm under the clearer, brighter, wider-spectrum illumination of the Scriptural paradigm of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

The new logo shows the three roads – knowledge, understanding, and wisdom – converging on a three-way (trivium) roundabout. As we have explained in other places, these are not three distinct compartments, but are more like three levels or progressive stages of development. (1) Knowledge – from gathering information, facts, data – is introductory by its very nature. (2) Understanding – from observing the relations within the information, the connections, the coding – builds on knowledge; but understanding also drives one back for more knowledge. (3) Wisdom – from putting understanding to practical use, driving to a productive goal, producing valued output – builds on understanding, which is itself built on knowledge; but wisdom also drives one back for more knowledge and more understanding. So there is an accumulation of knowledge, a growth of understanding, and a development of wisdom – a trivium of the trivium. The three-way roundabout reflects these things.

Of course there is a larger vocabulary of learning in Scripture, and various figures of speech moderate the use of these expressions. Nevertheless, the frequent collation of these three terms (or their equivalents) displays for us a regular relationship between them. A few more obvious examples:

Exodus 31:3 “And I have filled him with {the} Spirit of God: with wisdom, and with understanding, and with knowledge and all {manner of}workmanship.” [Compare Exodus 35:31; 36:1]

Deuteronomy 1:13 “Choose for yourselves wise and understanding and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.”

Proverbs 2:6 For {the} LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth {come} knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 8:12 “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find out knowledge {and} discretion.”

Proverbs 24:3-4 Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; [4] and by knowledge {the} rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

Daniel 1:4 young men without blemish, but good-looking, and skillful in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and discerning understanding …[Compare Daniel 1:17; 5:11, 14]

Ephesians 1:17-18 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, might grant to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, [18] {once} the eyes of your heart [/understanding] have been enlightened …

Colossians 1:9 For this reason we {ourselves} also, since the day which we {first} learned {these things}, we have never ceased from praying on your behalf, and making request that you might be filled with the full knowledge of His will in every {aspect of} spiritual wisdom and {spiritual}understanding [/insight];

Colossians 2:2-3 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and {reaching} toward {attaining} every {kind of} riches {which comes} from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of the mystery of God – even {the} Father – and of Christ,[3] in Whom the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are all hidden.

THIS BLOG

I keep writing “we.” Laurie and I worked together as partners. She’s been called home ahead of me, so I’ve been left behind to finish our work. It is still OUR work.

In the division of labor, Laurie was in charge of the web presence, and she was also the head gardener. This last year, I had to do much of what the two of us had been doing, I had a lot to catch up on, and so I ended up letting a number of things slide. I’m beginning to catch up. I’ve been working on the website. I’m preparing to begin blogging. (And food prices make it necessary that I increase the gardening as well.)

Here are a couple of things I’m working on:

The Story of Laurie

Laurie and I were among the many early pioneers in modern day homeschooling – early 1980’s. We started traveling as a family in the late 1990’s. We traveled through all contiguous 48 states, giving seminars and visiting many homeschooling families. Others, so I heard, were calling us homeschool evangelists, and in a way that’s what we intended to be. During one fifteen-month period we traveled in 45 states – all in a rusty old Chevy van with no air conditioning. (Arizona in the summer!) There are a lot of stories there, including many remarkable Providences. I wish I had kept a journal. (Laurie was my journal, because she remembered everything.)

Seven Undeniable Truths of Homeschooling – Revised Edition

Back in the 1990’s, we helped put together a local homeschool convention. There was a fifteen minute gap in the main program, and I volunteered to fill it. Off the top of my head, I wrote down seven points on homeschooling, polished them up a bit, and filled the fifteen minutes. Next thing I knew, everybody was asking me for a copy. (Hat tip to Rush Limbaugh’s 39 Undeniable Truths of Life.)

That’s how Seven Undeniable Truths of Homeschooling began. It expanded it into a full seminar and eventually into a convention keynote address. It’s been many years since we traveled and spoke, but the seven truths have never changed – they’re undeniable. It’s time I brought the seminar up to date.

SPECIAL SALES – New, Used, Worn, or Damaged Materials

From time to time, at the end of a Trivium Pursuit blog entry, I will list special items on sale. As mentioned above, we haven’t raised shipping fees yet, which is not an insignificant savings.