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“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it.”
We love this quote from The Sword in the Stone, and while we may not have had the extraordinary and magical education that the Wart had, we can nevertheless keep learning! Around here we often talk about instilling a passion for learning in our kids, and being lifelong learners. Whenever we come across a way to encourage this in ourselves or in our kids, we want to share ideas!
Diving into the rich history and literature with our children here at SLO Classical Academy is certainly one way to continue our own education as adults. If you’re hungry for more though, here’s another way to pursue learning:
The Great Courses offers video and audio courses on just about every subject, designed for lifelong learners – it’s like taking a college class, but without the homework, tests, or rigid schedule. You can download audio/video files or purchase discs, and then learn on your own TV, computer, tablet, or phone.
Visit their website and click on the red “special sale” tab at the top to see all the the Great Courses currently on sale. They change often, but for example right now you can find:
- Great Minds of the Medieval World
- Turning Points in Medieval HIstory
- The Great Tours: Experiencing Medieval Europe
- Late Middle Ages
UPDATE: The Great Courses are also available as audio downloads through Audible.com. If you have an Audible membership, most of these courses are only 1 credit, which is much less than even the sale prices on The Great Courses website! This is definitely a great deal – simply search audible.com for the course you are interested in.
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These are just a few of the selections offered at a discount right now, ones that happen to fall into our current year of the history cycle. But you can search for any topic of interest… there's so much to learn!
The Great Courses also offers free podcasts on a variety of topics, and has mobile apps – see the links at the bottom of their site.
Perhaps this isn’t for everyone, and we certainly understand that some of us are in a phase of life where we don’t have much extra time… not to worry! Just keep this in mind as a future option for further fueling your passion for lifelong learning.
How do you continue to enrich your own learning? Do you have any tips for other lifelong learners out there? Leave a comment.
SLO Classical Academy is not affiliated with the above mentioned website or business.
