Tea at Trianon: The Reluctant Student: Cultivating Fortitude and the Love of Learning

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, July 25, 2025

The Reluctant Student: Cultivating Fortitude and the Love of Learning

From Mater et Magistra:

Aside from learning, behavioral, and cognitive difficulties which must be worked out through patience, love, and appropriate therapies, there are times that the average child resists learning. Why do some students resist learning?
Fear of failure – They assume they aren’t “good” at certain subjects.
Disconnection – They don’t see how learning applies to their real lives.
Lack of wonder – They haven’t been given the space to be curious.
Proverbs 1:7 – “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” We must cultivate a love for learning as a means of knowing God’s creation. Education must engage both reason (intellectual development) and faith (spiritual purpose). When students see the purpose behind learning, they are more motivated. (Read more.)