Rome, Florence, Paris and London…have you considered that travel should be a significant part of your child’s classical christian education? In fact, many schools send their seniors to Europe as the capstone of their secondary education. Some schools travel to Washington, DC or other historical sites in the U.S. According to Bill Miller and Tom Velasco, Instructors of Humanities at the Ambrose School, traveling outside of your hometown complements what happens in the classroom. So what’s the return of investment of these trips? Is it worth the added expense and time? What about safety? Listen in to find out how your family or school can – and should -raise well-traveled children!
From southern Oregon, Mr. Tom Velasco received his B.A. in History and Philosophy and a minor in Latin at Boise State University. He has been teaching at The Ambrose School since 2000, including a five-year hiatus as associate pastor of a local church. He has taught Humanities, Latin, Greek, Logic, Rhetoric, Pre-Algebra, History, and writing. Dorothy Sayers’ essay, “The Lost Tools of Learning,” sparked his interest in classical Christian education, and as a philosophy major, he values the Socratic model of instruction for the importance of thinking analytically and critically over the mere imbibing of information. He enjoys movies, backpacking in the Sawtooths, and playing football.
Raised in central Arizona, Bill Miller received an engineering degree from Brown University. He served as a campus minister with CRU for seven years at the University of Arizona, Stanford University, and Osh State (Kyrgyzstan). He completed a M.A. in Politics and Ph.D. at the University of Dallas’ Great Books program. After grad school, his family lived in the Czech Republic for 8 years where he was a lecturer at two different universities. Returning to the US, he taught at a Christian Great Books’ program in Minneapolis. Until he joined Ambrose in 2019, he worked with several start-up companies managing educational content development projects. He and his wife, Lisa, have been married 25 years and have two sons: Caleb (22) and Joshua (19). He enjoys watching and discussing movies, traveling, hiking, working out, and watching football (NFL and EPL). Lesser loves include cooking and sharing good food and drink with others, including coffee and ice cream.