Episodes

  • Episode 11 Rhetoric Part II - Expression and Reception of Ideas

    Episode 11 Rhetoric Part II - Expression and Reception of Ideas
    Mar 6 2025
    Consider this: The central importance to expressing and receiving ideas well is based on the quality of a person's rhetorical skill. How you speak affects how others perceive you, and how you perceive yourself.

    Have you thought about language in such a way? Have you examined your speech patterns and diction and how it shades how we are perceived not only as Christians but as fully formed humans?

    Think back to moments when you were mesmerized by the movements and words of a great orator, or even an actor, were you not transported and transfixed upon every syllable? Did you not comprehend more fully the substance of his/her talk? The hearing of great oration is pleasing and desirable, and will make us want to engage and hear more great oration! This exercise will begin to affect our speech patterns and elocution, and rewire your linguistic thought patterns as well. Language is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Remember Gen. 1:3, “Then God said let there be light…”, it was from language that illumination/revelation was brought forth into the world.

    In the modern day, I feel we may attribute persuasive speech with marketing and schemes, but this is not how the ancients saw it or valued it. It was a virtue to be able to express oneself to “say that they mean and mean what they say.” It is a skill set that even if we initially dismiss it, we are drawn back to and continue to come back to it. For example, a speaker like Jordan Peterson, who gives incredibly complex and elevated talks, is able to hold the attention of his audiences to where they are on the edge of their seats for hours. And they are not diverted by ennui or lack of attention spans. It may be that the best remedy for attention deficiency in the world is more skilled speakers, and more skilled listeners.

    This is our academic aim at VCA, to help our students become great orators who can speak truth and express complex ideas so well that they can assist others in forgoing unnecessary suffering or unwitting ignorance. So, that they may be an asset to themselves, their families, and any one they may meet.
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    38 mins
  • Episode 10 Rhetoric Part I - Introductions and Foundations

    Episode 10 Rhetoric Part I - Introductions and Foundations
    Feb 15 2025
    We have arrived at last to the Final Stage of a student's education, The Rhetoric Stage. This will be the culmination of the other two stages put into practice and made excellent. If we go back to our house analogy, it is the beautifying process of the materials and structures. By using the right words, in the right moment, for the right reason will better allow one to convey an idea or thought more correctly. And more precise language with well-reasoned arguments should create environments of flourishing instead of misunderstanding and suffering. This is, or should be, the common aim of all societies.

    Rhetoric is considered both an art and a discipline have its educational roots a bit further back than the Medieval period; it goes all the way back into the 4th-5th Century BC!! So, not only will your child receive Grammar and Logical training that is tried and true from the Medievalist, but Rhetorical training that stems before Christ. And if we look at those great orators before Christ there are names like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, etc.

    In this episode, Mr. Bianchet and Mr. Mullins delve into the introduction, foundation, and philosophy of Rhetoric. Enjoy!
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    36 mins
  • Episode 9 Logic Part II - How We Teach Logic (Special Guest - Mr. Tomlinson

    Episode 9 Logic Part II - How We Teach Logic (Special Guest - Mr. Tomlinson
    Jan 29 2025
    Mr. Bianchet and Mr. Mullins deviate from Educational Philosophy for a moment and discuss Logic as a discipline with a special guest....Mr. JR Tomlinson! Mr. Tomlinson is a first-year teacher at Veritas that has graciously taken on the Logic program in the 7th and 8th grades (among other classes.) The three of them breakdown how logic is taught and viewed at Veritas. 

    Mr. Mullins plugs his Apologetic Primer book, Unabashedly Resolute: The Chasm (available on Amazon) that is taught at the Upper School, in both the Logic School and Rhetoric School. It is a book that is a guide for anyone to begin to learn the processes and language necessary for proper thinking.

    The proper thinking that is being taught and forged in our students is so important for their formation as a student, Christian, and human. Here at Veritas, we take Logic very seriously and have seen such good fruit over the last two years from the students engaging in this arduous process and mental crucible. Students who have a foundation in Logic are going to be prepared for and will flourish in the Rhetoric stage. Classical education is one that builds specifically on the last stage wherein the result is not necessarily a student prepared for college or a specific job, but prepared to be a fully formed human who can flourish in any aspect of adulthood.

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    35 mins
  • Episode 8 Logic Part I: Introduction into Foundations and Aims of Logic School

    Episode 8 Logic Part I: Introduction into Foundations and Aims of Logic School
    Jan 16 2025
    Following the house analogy that Mr. Bianchet and Mr. Mullins presented for the Grammar School, in being the collection of material, the Logic School is focused on equipping the skills to plan and frame the rough construction. It is learning to assemble the bones and undergirding of what will become a beautiful dwelling place. If you've ever seen a house being built, they pour the foundation and then build what seems to be a stick house that has the shape and essence of a house but lacks the finished look. This is the same process required to build something linguistically. The construction workers must know how to create solid foundations, connect joints, secure headers, properly place load bearing walls, etc. to make sure that the house does not wind up a pile of busted lumber. We want to ensure that our students do not create ideas and thoughts that are so easily crushed by the heavy weight of critique and reality. Make no doubt, these proper construction techniques can only be acquired in the crucible of repetition and discipline; they must be forged not intuited.

    The Logic School is grades 6th through 8th, and it is where our students begin to hone English grammar skills, essay writing skills, and formal/informal logic skills. These are the proper tools required to make one a great orator who can both write and speak well. It is an extremely important part of the classical education because it is here that the student begins to be intentional about what they are doing and why.
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    31 mins
  • Episode 7 Grammar Part II - Continuing Grammar School Foundations and Aims

    Episode 7 Grammar Part II - Continuing Grammar School Foundations and Aims
    Dec 31 2024
    We continue our journey today into Grammar School foundations and aims. Mr. Bianchet and Mr. Mullins begin by discussing pre-rational/ pre-classical stages of learning. This is achieved through exposure to classical literature (fables, fairy tales, and mythologies) and music. It allows students to be primed to recognize and accept Reason when it arrives in Logic School. It also, cultivates the desire for beauty and longing later in the student's life. This is especially helpful in the Rhetoric stage where the beautification and effectiveness of language are both taught and honed. This stage is much more difficult if the Grammar and Logic stages are lacking, both for the instructors and students.

    Our hosts then bring insight that may often be overlooked when one is gathering resources in a Grammar or Primary school; one must make sure the resources are of the best quality. Only quality resources will allow the students to build quality structures (intellectual frameworks) that can withstand the rigors and demands of life, academic or otherwise. Mr. Bianchet and Mr. Mullins weave a web of interconnectedness from the Three Little Pigs to Plato to Sherlock Holmes to Narnia to The Metalogicon by John of Salisbury, synthesizing the disciplines of Philosophy, Theology, and Literature to further prove their position.

    It cannot be overstated that the Grammar Stage of Education may well be the most important, yet most neglected in the formation of fully formed humans, Christians, and citizens.

    You will not want to miss this episode!



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    34 mins
  • Episode 6 Grammar Part I - Understanding Grammar School Foundations and Aims

    Episode 6 Grammar Part I - Understanding Grammar School Foundations and Aims
    Dec 16 2024
    Welcome back for this two-part series on Grammar. In Part I, Mr. Wes Mullins and Mr. Ryan Bianchet continue developing their argument for what is Classical education and exposit how one achieves the primary aim of Classical education--becoming a great orator.

    The first step in the process is the mastery of Grammar education, so the hosts begin by defining Grammar and elucidating its role within the broader Classical framework. Mr. Bianchet uses the metaphor of one gathering building supplies for a house as that for the grammar aspect of our classical pedagogy. This requires repetition, memorization, and exposure to imaginative literature like fables and fairy tales; they must become familiar with the basics of both thinking and communicating. Far from being a lesser school in the Trivium, the Grammar School may be the most important of the three. We find it is extremely important to prime the students minds correctly so they can later master language and thought.

    We hope you enjoy this two-part series, and please consider rating this podcast and subscribing so that you do not miss any episodes.
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    32 mins
  • Episode 5 Why Be An Orator_ Part II

    Episode 5 Why Be An Orator_ Part II
    Nov 13 2024
    Mr. Bianchet and Mr. Mullins continue explaining the "why" of becoming an orator, and what are the many benefits. One can see very quickly that the benefit cost ratio of time spent learning to think and speak far out weigh other educational approaches that are solely focused on specified knowledge or future employment. This is why, here at Veritas, we are training the students to be "thinkers and communicators," not merely social participators. There is no one area of life wherein these oratory skills are not the best outcome of education. Even in the arena of self, both in understanding and personal dialogue, just knowing how to formulate ideas and construct them into viable and comprehendible thoughts will be a boon to our own self-talk. It will allow us to create and sustain optimal personal aims and defensible worldviews leading us into intellectual, spiritual, and physical harvest or flourishing.
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    47 mins
  • Episode 4 - Why Be An Orator? Part I

    Episode 4 - Why Be An Orator? Part I
    Oct 29 2024
    In this episode of The Lost Tools, Mr. Wes Mullins and Mr. Ryan Bianchet explore the practical benefits of pursuing oratorical training for your child. 'Why would I want my child to be an orator? Will this help them get into college? Will this assist them with finding a meaningful career? Will my child miss out on necessary academic training if they are trained as an orator?' We will address these questions and many more on this fourth episode of our "What is Classical Education?" series.

    Please let us know if you are enjoying the podcast by reaching out to the school, and feel free to suggest ideas for future episodes that you would like to hear discussed. Blessings to you!
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    33 mins