About Me
Welcome to our little Athenaeum Amidst the Reeds! My name is Angela and I married a handsome Mr. Reed almost 20 years ago. We have five little Reeds—four sons (14, 12, 10, and 6) and a daughter (8)—and, though still weathering the wildness of the preschool years, we are making portage upon the vast sea of education.
Before I found myself “amidst the Reeds,” I was a Latin teacher in a rural high school in north central Florida. Among those sweet country kids, I delighted in sharing the cultural heritage of the ancient Western world: tales from Greek and Roman mythology, legends of heroes and battles, foreign customs, religious traditions, fierce political contests, monumental architecture, sculpture, art, and athletics (the Greeks exercised naked?!? Gymnasium means “naked place”?!? Oh, the hilarity that ensued from such revelations!). All of these humanities were a rich and engaging complement to my academic focus, instructing and guiding my students in learning the Latin language.
I kept this Latin torch burning until a few years ago, when it became time to focus on the formal education of our children. Leaving the traditional classroom was (and continues to be) a bittersweet change for me, as I truly love what a study of Latin and the liberal arts can offer to young minds searching for truth and understanding in a world given over to chaos. I cherished being a teacher of adolescents, but now I am learning the ways of teaching little hearts–a tremendous task, for which I need strength and wisdom that surpasses my own. So I seek guidance from the Great Originator of all that is Good, from the beautiful testimonies of Him that exist in the natural world, and from the grand ideas that men (and women) have contemplated along the common journey that is life.
Along this path, I met a lovely, wise, and magnanimous woman named Charlotte Mason. She is teaching me how to mother my children and educate them as persons worthy of respect and needful of grace. It is a tremendous undertaking that inspires and humbles me at the same time.
Thus, my purpose for this blog: championing Classics & implementing Charlotte Mason’s educational ideals. This Athenaeum Amidst the Reeds is the place where my passion for Latin and classical ideas combine with my pursuit of a Charlotte Mason education for my children…a journal of our quest to discover and explore the grand store of ideas (the “Athenaeum”) from a place of humility (“Amidst the Reeds”).
I am honored to share this journey with you, and I welcome you to our humble feast.
