I forgot....

...to mention in my last post one other Christmas present I received this year, and I'm glad I did because it gives me the opportunity to direct you to The Teaching Company. My wife and I have been listening to and benefiting from Teaching Company courses since its inception. The idea its founder Tom Rollins had when he founded the company in 1990 was to find the best professors in the country on a variety of subjects and have them craft courses aimed at 'lifelong learners'. That describes me fairly well. Over the years I've listened to twenty-five or thirty of their courses and while I've had some minor quibbles with a few, for the most part I've been extremely pleased. There are dozens of good teachers but I'd like to point out two who are simply spectacular. The first is Thomas Childers, Professor of History from the University of Pennsylvania, who has created three courses at The Teaching Company, all of which I recommend. You can get details of the courses by clicking on them from the page I've linked to. History comes alive in the hands of Prof. Childers, who fashions each lecture as an unfolding drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat. His book, Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down over Germany in World War II is also wonderful - the man has a knack for telling a story.

The second Teaching Company professor I'd like to point out is Robert Greenberg. The Teaching Company used to dub its roster of professors "superstar teachers". If this is so, then Greenberg is their Babe Ruth. His courses on classical music are so lively and infectious, so entertaining, that you simply can't go wrong with any of the twenty-some courses he's crafted. The logical starting point, though, for anyone wanting to learn about classical music is his monumental How to Listen to and Understand Great Music. My wife and I listened to this course over a dozen years ago and it sparked my love for classical music. We'd listen to a lecture, both of us taking notes, rewinding here and there to make sure we understood a point. We'd then talk about the lecture, perhaps buy some of the music Greenberg used in his examples and listen to it, and then listen to the lecture all over again for reiteration purposes, to really nail down his points. To this day I get a thrill when I recognize a baroque-era ritornello form, or break down a classical-era symphony's first movement sonata into its exposition, development, and recapitulation sections. I've probably listened to about ten of his courses at this point and in each one Greenberg is funny and passionate and bursting with information. He's the very definition of a great teacher - the guy who sparks your enthusiasm and makes you want to learn more.

Anyhow, the Christmas present I forgot to tell you about was this course, The Great Debate: Advocates and Opponents of the American Constitution by Prof. Thomas L. Pangle of The University of Texas at Austin. I listened to the first lecture today and it was, as expected, excellent. The American founding is one of my favorite subjects so if this guy is any good, I'll enjoy the course immensely. I've also decided to drop what I'm currently reading and start one of the books I received for Christmas, Joseph Ellis' latest, American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic. Ellis' Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation is the finest book I've ever read on the American founding, and the other books of his I've read are excellent too so I expect this one to be a terrific read and a nice complement to my new Teaching Company course.