A thought...

I was just thinking about the following quote...

~Happiness is like perfume...you can't give it away without getting a little on youself~

Now, this calls for class participation...in the comments you leave, answer this question... Do you think this is true? I think the secret to answering this question is found by the way you define happiness... Just something to think about...

Oh, one more thing...what about this acronym...

Busy... B.eing U.nder S.atan's Y.oke Lemme know your thoughts.

~Curran

Happy Birthday, Jonny!

It's Jonny's birthday today, so you'd all better wish him a happy one.

-Bryn

Teachers...

We have some wonderful teachers in our Gileskirk class. Even though Dr. Grant's lectures (which we watch on dvd--recorded) are excellent, the way our teachers take his material and use it for us is amazing! Reading through books, Latin class, and all the fun extra activities like watching movies and having tea (from the study of Pride and Prejudice) further our learning much more than just by reading a textbook.
The way they bring in snacks and treats for us also adds anticipation and excitement! They are so awesome! We love them all (and I'm sure all my classmates can agree). Thank very much Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Emery, and Mrs. Robbins!

~Curran

A Quote to Ponder

I shall post something to please you, Caleb, but I shall not use my own inadequate words this evening. These words are from the great Clive Staples Lewis...

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."
-C.S. Lewis

~Bryn

Transformers?

You very likely are wondering why the name 'Transformers' for a class blog. Why not the school's name? Well two reasons: 1. To have the school's name would be boring. 2. We in the Gileskirk program are really...in training, and we are training to be Social, Cultural, and World Transformers. We are being taught, instructed the truth about the world, and how to stop the crazy mayhem that has come about. What has come about? I will tell you later. For now I am just giving a reason for a strange name.

I would like to say that (even though I...uh hum...I almost fall asleep at times) that this class is the best class I have ever been in. Not only are the teachers the greatest, caring teachers were are, but also the classmates have been awesome. We hardily knew each other at all the first day (or at least most of us didn't know at least four of the other eight students) and yet I remember that we talked together like friends, and the interaction was fun and jovial. I can assure everyone that not one (unless it is me, I hope it isn't) of us are supercilious or acrimonial. Nor are we querulous or affectatious. (I just used four of our vocab words off of the top of my head. Mrs. Carter can congratulate me later.) It is fun to step into class, except on Wednesdays...you have a dreadful feeling on Wednesdays. That day is opportunity day.

~CalebB

Just Begining

Hello all, my name is Caleb Brandt and I am part of a homeschooling group called Gileskirk. My life is pretty much boring: I get up at five-thirty or six AM and start on school. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I leave the house by eight to get to Spirit of Joy Church by eight fifteen. (I am usually late...but as I am not the one driving, yet, it can hardily be my fault.) Well, today, a beautiful October day, at a crowded table (one more person and it would be way to tight a fit) Mrs. Emery, my Humanities teacher, said that one of us should start a class blog. Well, no one said anything and; especially with all the work we do already, no one was volunteering. So Mrs. Emery made the deal sweeter: every year there is a last project which is called the 'Forty-hour Project'. Mrs. Emery said that she would let this blog be a forty-hour project; and so I immediately jumped on it, for I had no idea what I was going to do and this sounded fun as long as it wasn't extra curricular. So here it is, the first post of the Gileskirk blog. The name was kinda a spontaneous idea, so if you are reading this, and happen to be one of my classmates, and you don't like it (you must meet those three requirements), then let me know and I will change it.

~CalebB

About Us

Gileskirk is a Christian homeschooling group. The main course is determined by the era in history it will cover: whether it is Creation, , Antiquity, Christendom, or Modernity. I am in Modernity this year, which covers from the 1600’s until now. We are learning what the world has brought itself too since it’s spiral down ever since Modernity started. We also learn what could fix this, and the difference just one person can make. We learn the thoughts of the great thinkers of Modernity: from Sir Walter Scott to Descartes. From Chalmers to Maximillien Robespierre. We learn both sides of the equation, and quotes from people on both sides. We get to choose for ourselves whether we perfer ‘ Honest answers for Honest Questions’ ‘The Gospel is True and capable of changing you and all the world.’ (Chalmers) or ‘I laugh for the sake of those who die. Blood is what sets us free. We will slaughter in a reign of blood and terror until only one man stands: and that man shall be me.’ (Maximillien Robespierre).

The knowing of every great person in the years from 1600 to 2007 and what their lives were (or are) like will enable us to better help our nation, in either changing it, pushing it towards Reformation, or helping it fall into it’s own darkness of Revolution. We are all Christians. We stand up for the believes of Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, Chalmers, and Blasé Pascal, so that we can teach others to turn from the ideas of Descartes, Voltaire, Maximillien, Diderot, Hobbes, Spinoza, or Hume.

I will add to this more and more. This is just the beginning of me telling everyone exactly what we are learning.

~CalebB