{"id":2444678,"date":"2025-06-09T07:50:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T11:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/studying-the-greatest-speeches-in-history-can-change-you\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T07:55:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T11:55:50","slug":"studying-the-greatest-speeches-in-history-can-change-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/studying-the-greatest-speeches-in-history-can-change-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Studying The Greatest Speeches In History Can Change You"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fstudying-the-greatest-speeches-in-history-can-change-you%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2444678&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The author reflects on their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/matthew-perry-concerned-friends-creator-during-his-appearance-at-2021-reunion\/\" title=\"Matthew Perry expressed concern about the &#039;Friends&#039; creator during the 2021 reunion.\">decade-long journey<\/a> in homeschooling and their desire to reclaim and share the inspiring words spoken by American leaders throughout history. They express concern over the decline of American education, describing it as &#8220;corrupt&#8221; and a &#8220;failed institution,&#8221; largely due to a loss of meaningful language and understanding of timeless concepts. The author narrates their personal experiences teaching literature and philosophy to children, demonstrating that even young students can appreciate and engage with complex texts. <\/p>\n<p>Key strategies for fostering a love of learning and language are outlined, such as starting early with reading important works, creating vocabulary cards, practicing elocution, taking time to savor texts, and embracing leisurely approaches to educational activities.The ultimate goal is to instill a deep connection with language and promote a richer understanding of the world,drawing on the treasures found in classic literature and historical speeches.<\/p>\n<p>The piece culminates in a promotion of the author&#8217;s book, *Finding Our Words: Words That Made America*, which provides guidance on reading these influential texts with children and reclaims the lost value of great ideas and eloquence in education.The author encourages parents and educators to engage with profound works, aiming to inspire a new generation to appreciate the power of words.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>From the time I started my adventure in homeschooling over a decade ago, I have wanted&nbsp;to collect&nbsp;some of the most inspiring&nbsp;words spoken by American leaders since our founding &mdash; eloquent&nbsp;and soaring words, rooted in the wisdom of&nbsp;the ages.&nbsp;The desire emerged from reading those great words of American history aloud with my daughter, contrasting them with the words we heard daily all around us, and realizing that something priceless had been lost.<\/p>\n<p>American education, not long ago the envy of the world,&nbsp;has become a corrupt, bloated, and failed institution. This has&nbsp;been happening for over a century and there is no sign of&nbsp;recovery. The loss can be summed up in one sentence: We&nbsp;have lost our words. We no longer read the greatest spoken&nbsp;and written words of all time in the fields of history,&nbsp;literature, poetry, philosophy, and politics, and so we have&nbsp;lost the&nbsp;understanding of words&nbsp;that our ancestors lived by.&nbsp;More critically, however,&nbsp;we have lost&nbsp;what those words have represented.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So what can we do?&nbsp;I made the choice to homeschool, yet I felt less than&nbsp;qualified.&nbsp;I had been&nbsp;accepted&nbsp;into a master&rsquo;s degree program at Stanford, where I assumed&nbsp;that what I learned would better fit me to teach. But soon I learned what I ought to have seen earlier: one does not&nbsp;need a college degree to teach children.<\/p>\n<p>One day while I was at Stanford, my daughter&rsquo;s kung fu teacher asked if I would be willing to teach an academic class for&nbsp;his kung fu students. I happily agreed and called the class&nbsp;&ldquo;Language &amp; Leadership.&rdquo; Perhaps counterintuitively, I&nbsp;would simply read aloud with the children the books I was&nbsp;currently reading in my master&rsquo;s program: Plato&rsquo;s <em>Republic<\/em>,&nbsp;Virgil&rsquo;s <em>Aeneid<\/em>, the Old and New Testament, <em>The Analects&nbsp;of Confucius<\/em>, and others, and we would look up and&nbsp;memorize all the vocabulary words the children did not yet&nbsp;know. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The students did not need to understand the depths of those&nbsp;literary works, which challenge even mature readers. We&nbsp;simply started with the words. For the foundation of all&nbsp;learning, all communication, and all thought, is words.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The decision to take this path led to a few life-changing&nbsp;insights. One was that children &mdash; in this class, ages 5&ndash;16 &mdash; were&nbsp;able, if assisted, to read, to understand, and to&nbsp;love those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/martin-scorsese-hits-back-the-art-of-cinema-is-being-devalued\/\" title=\"Martin Scorsese Hits Back: The Art Of Cinema Is Being Devalued\">great works<\/a>. So were their parents, several of&nbsp;which started attending class with their children.<\/p>\n<p>Another&nbsp;insight was that I knew far, far less in general than I once&nbsp;thought I knew&nbsp;of the world of books, learning, and pedagogy.&nbsp;I recognized that my own education had been mediocre.&nbsp;So I determined to give my child the best education&nbsp;possible. It was a long study, which involved taking&nbsp;up books I had never heard of till then. I began&nbsp;to read backwards in time. By now I have spent over a decade&nbsp;reading books from the 19th century, then the 18th, the&nbsp;17th, and so on, and I have only begun to claim a finer&nbsp;education, and my child, at the age of 14, is already&nbsp;further down the road than I. But that was the goal all&nbsp;along.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Eventually I began to see&nbsp;that I was not alone. Word had gotten out about the state of&nbsp;education. When people had often approached&nbsp;me over the years, asking nothing about my homeschooling beyond how I &ldquo;socialize&rdquo; my child, they were&nbsp;now stopping me in aisles at the grocery store and all but&nbsp;climbing into my cart, grabbing my shoulders, and begging,&nbsp;&ldquo;How can I do it?&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For several years I had been contemplating this&nbsp;question: If I had the chance to help others reclaim the&nbsp;education that was rightly theirs &mdash; to answer those who&nbsp;inquired, to put just one book into the hands of children,&nbsp;parents, teachers, the young and the old, and of anyone who&nbsp;sees the problems, wants to fix them, but does not know&nbsp;the first step to take, what would I suggest?&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/a.co\/d\/3PlV8Tv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Finding Our Words: Words That Made America<\/em><\/a>  is my answer. In my book I offer ideas for reading the speeches and other great works, and specifically for reading them with children of all ages. Some of them are:<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Start Early&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>My first suggestion to parents, whether homeschooling or supplementing outside school, is to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hhs-secy-defends-joe-bidens-door-to-door-vaccine-push\/\" title=\"HHS Secy. defends Joe Biden\u2019s door-to-door vaccine push\">start early<\/a>. Very early. I first read George Washington&rsquo;s 1789&nbsp;Inaugural Address to my daughter when she was five years&nbsp;old. We would read only one or two paragraphs per sitting. That was enough. I would&nbsp;paraphrase every one or two sentences, and we would&nbsp;discuss them until I knew she had a general understanding.&nbsp;I used&nbsp;to be amazed when meeting older toddlers who could speak&nbsp;two or three languages, which was not uncommon in places&nbsp;where I have lived. But no longer. I have seen it enough&nbsp;to know that if parents are talking frequently or all day to&nbsp;their children, those children are learning.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, start late &mdash; for parents, that is. For many of us who attended school after the&nbsp;1940s, our education was sadly lacking. But we do not need to return to college. We simply need to think&nbsp;and contemplate &mdash; and be deliberate and diligent with our reading. Choose books wisely, as they become traveling companions.&nbsp;Get started here with the speeches in <em>Finding Our Words.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Make Vocabulary Cards and Use a Dictionary &nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Third, when we read extraordinary works, we&nbsp;encounter words&nbsp;which we might be able to understand in context but not&nbsp;define.&nbsp;To build our vocabulary, we need not to&nbsp;dread the &ldquo;hard&rdquo;&nbsp;words but look forward with hope to acquainting ourselves with&nbsp;them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For this subject, the English word &ldquo;vocabulary&rdquo; is lackluster.&nbsp;I prefer the German word for vocabulary: <em>Wortschatz<\/em>. <em>Wort<\/em>&nbsp;means &ldquo;word&rdquo; and <em>Schatz<\/em> means &ldquo;treasure&rdquo;&hellip; word-treasure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The pen is mightier than the sword, and words are a greater&nbsp;treasure than diamonds and pearls. Do not leave your&nbsp;treasure scattered among the pages. Gather your words as&nbsp;you go and store them in your treasure chest.<\/p>\n<p>I have kept <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >vocabulary index card rings built<\/a> from our&nbsp;readings from the time my child began to read, and for each&nbsp;word we looked up, we made a new card. We would write&nbsp;the word (using phonetic symbols to help with pronunciation), the part of speech, the definition, and the sentence&nbsp;in which we found it. Including the entire sentence has&nbsp;done more than just help us to remember the word; it has&nbsp;shown the word at the pinnacle of its career. It is exasperating and essentially a waste of time to use pre-made&nbsp;vocabulary card sets that usually cast strong and noble&nbsp;vocabulary words into the dungeon of absurd, illogical,&nbsp;and demeaning sentences. Adorn your own word-treasure&nbsp;cards with sentences from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/three-big-ways-amazons-rings-of-power-butchers-tolkiens-lore\/\" title=\"Three Big Ways Amazon\u2019s \u2018Rings of Power\u2019 Butchers Tolkien\u2019s Lore\">greatest works<\/a> of all time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Begin to Practice Elocution &nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Fourth, elocution was once a&nbsp;standard part of school curricula. It has not been so for the last hundred years or more, and we hear the results all&nbsp;around us. <em>Finding Our Words<\/em>&nbsp;is not an elocution course, but a few&nbsp;tips can get us started. When having children read aloud, encourage them to incorporate a manner of expression&nbsp;appropriate to the text. Encourage them to project their&nbsp;voices. A favorite word we have used in reading the speeches&nbsp;in this book is &ldquo;stentorian.&rdquo; In the days before microphones&nbsp;and speakers, a stentorian voice was required if one wished&nbsp;to be heard.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Take Your Time &nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Fifth, with the one exception of the Gettysburg&nbsp;Address, I myself never read any of these speeches in&nbsp;school, but I have now been reading these and other speeches&nbsp;for well over a decade, and every time my child and I read&nbsp;one of them again, we find something new to appreciate. We have&nbsp;not rushed through them collectively or individually. For&nbsp;most of us, these speeches are too rich to consume in large&nbsp;portions. Enjoy the amount that is satisfying in one sitting,&nbsp;and come back for more later, and from now on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Struggle &nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Sixth point to consider: If you take your time and read in small doses, any struggle with fine words will never be a burden. It will be what author Tracy Lee&nbsp;Simmons describes as&nbsp;&ldquo;an entr&eacute;e to greatness&hellip; through a daily struggle with&nbsp;clear and constant examples of superior perception&nbsp;and utterance.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Practice Leisure &nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Finally, our last point. Less than a century ago, and stretching&nbsp;back to antiquity, &ldquo;leisure&rdquo; summoned scenes other than&nbsp;those one might imagine today: strolls through a forest,&nbsp;riding through the countryside on horseback; or time at&nbsp;home with family or a gathering of friends, playing musical&nbsp;instruments and singing, or reading aloud from great&nbsp;works by fireside or in the garden.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the leisurely&nbsp;pursuit, the purpose was to restore, invigorate, and enrich&nbsp;one&rsquo;s life. The mood created by reading great works aloud&nbsp;shifts us away from &ldquo;doing homework&rdquo; and into a reward&nbsp;that is anticipated with joy. For instance, I have created&nbsp;a ritual around reading aloud by doing so outside when&nbsp;possible and serving rose tea. Create your own rituals.&nbsp;Small touches added to a routine can transform the scene&nbsp;from one of drudgery to the highlight of one&rsquo;s day, to a&nbsp;beloved tradition, and to the making of multigenerational&nbsp;memories.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is exhilarating to realize how much one can learn,&nbsp;how much can quietly change within one&rsquo;s self and within&nbsp;one&rsquo;s family, simply by reading these words, slowly, and&nbsp;making them one&rsquo;s own.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Allison Ellis is the editor of Finding Our Words: Words That Made America, a collection of some of the most inspiring words spoken by American leaders since our founding, with every speech launched with a prefacing essay by Tracy Lee Simmons, acclaimed journalist and author of Climbing Parnassus. She is also the founder of Mount Titano Media (MTM), which publishes single works and collections of the greatest words ever spoken or written in the fields of history, literature, poetry, philosophy, and politics for the benefit of homeschoolers, schools, colleges, universities, and independent lovers of learning and culture.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My homeschooling journey began over a decade ago, inspiring me to gather the most impactful words from American leaders, rich in timeless wisdom. This desire grew as I read these historical words aloud with my daughter, noticing a stark contrast with everyday language<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3870,"featured_media":2444679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-08-at-1.49.50-PM-1024x622.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[5152,4919,25824,38675,53865],"class_list":["post-2444678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-education","tag-history","tag-motivation","tag-personal-growth","tag-speeches-2"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screen-Shot-2025-06-08-at-1.49.50-PM-1024x622.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3870"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2444678"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2444682,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444678\/revisions\/2444682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2444679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2444678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2444678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2444678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}