Welcome to Our Great Books with Dr. Hake (Part Two) Homeschool Language Arts Course

More About Our Great Books with Dr. Hake (Part Two) Homeschool Language Arts Course

This is the second of two Great Books with Dr. Hake homeschool language arts courses that provide a thorough introduction to some of The Great Books of the Western World (a fifty four volume set published by Britannica). During these semesters, homeschool high school students do not read every word of every volume of these books, but teens do read many different authors in enough depth and breadth to be thoroughly acquainted with their unique contribution to the great conversation that is western culture. Dr. Hake’s goal is to launch students into a lifetime reading project that takes them through the entire set, and through special favorites several times.

The homeschool language arts lessons include discussion questions in the form of weekly written assignments for the student to complete, along with one-page journal entries, two short papers, and, at the conclusion of the course, a longer paper (ten to twelve pages).

It is important for high school students to remember that they are studying to the glory of God and not primarily for academic credit or even to fulfill homeschool course requirements mandated by the state in which they live. Even if teens are studying out of obedience to their parents, Dr. Hake is confident that parents would join him in this hope, that a teen’s desire to love God with their mind and learn for Him will grow stronger and stronger until it is deeply internal and clearly their own. The one desire is to be the absolute best that each student can be for Christ by His grace, to fully use the gifts He has given, and to fulfill the ministry He has in mind for each person.

Course Outline for Our Great Books with Dr. Hake (Part Two) Homeschool Language Arts Course

Eighteen in-depth Great Books with Dr. Hake homeschool language arts lessons are designed for junior or senior homeschool students.

• Week 1: Homer—The Iliad
• Week 2: Aeschylus—Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides; Choose Syntopicon Idea
• Week 3: Sophocles—Oedipus the King; Antigone
• Week 4: Herodotus—The History (Books I-II)
• Week 5: Plato—Meno
• Week 6: Aristotle—Poetics; Syntopicon Progress Report
• Week 7: Aristotle—Ethics (Book II; Book III. Ch. 5-12; Book IV, Ch. 8-13)
• Week 8: Nicomachus—Introduction to Arithmetic
• Week 9: Lucretius—On the Nature of Things (Books I-IV); First Short Paper
• Week 10: Marcus Aurelius—Meditations
• Week 11: Hobbes—Leviathan (Part I)
• Week 12: Milton—Areopagitica; Syntopicon Progress Report
• Week 13: Pascal—Pensees
• Week 14: Pascal—Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle
• Week 15: Swift—Gulliver’s Travels
• Week 16: Rousseau—A Discourse on the Origen of Inequality
• Week 17: Kant—Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
• Week 18: Mill—On Liberty; Second Short Paper; Syntopicon Paper

Please Note: This curriculum may include literature by classic authors who are not necessarily Christian, but the lessons seek to evaluate the works from a Christian worldview.