A True Good Beautiful Life

This Week's Special Guest is . . .

Rose Tomassi

Rose Tomassi grew up in Portland, Oregon, lived and taught in New York City, and moved to Philadelphia in the summer of 2020 to teach at Martin Saints Classical High School, a Catholic school that is a member of the nationwide Chesterton Schools network.

Through her experience of a literature-filled childhood and later in the schools she attended, Rose began to see what these books and the authors who wrote them had to do with her own humanity as someone created by God with an infinite desire for beauty, truth, and goodness.

She has her BA in Literature from Ave Maria University, a MA in English from The Graduate Center, CUNY, is almost done with another MA here at Templeton Honors College in Classical Teaching, has worked as a teacher at City College of New York and New York City College of Technology, has taught courses in Philosophy, Writing, Religion, and Craftsmanship at St. Joseph High School, a small all-girls Catholic school in Brooklyn, NY, and has also led a weekly after school Cooking Club.

From a young age Rose also developed a love for craftsmanship, particularly everything related to fiber arts. An early field trip introduced her to the process of shearing, carding and spinning wool, and over the years she learned hand-sewing, knitting, crochet, and most recently weaving. As the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of seamstresses on her father’s side, she sees this interest as something that must run in the family.

Another family specialty is cooking; growing up with an Irish-German grandma who taught herself to make Italian food for her Italian-American husband, Rose was exposed from an early age to delicious food and the process of preparing it. Meanwhile, she started baking with her mom as a toddler, and fondly recalls it as the way she learned both fractions and the value (when necessary) of precision. She and her dad share a special knack for being able to identify complex flavor profiles, and they both enjoy coming up with creative meals using whatever they find in the fridge and pantry.

At Martin Saints, Rose currently teaches 9th and 10 grade History, 9th grade Philosophy, Cooking, and Sloyd, and coordinates Frassati Fridays.

A favorite quote:

“Man’s ability to see is in decline. Those who nowadays concern themselves with culture and education will experience this fact again and again. We do not mean here, of course, the physiological sensitivity of the human eye. We mean the spiritual capacity to perceive the visible reality as it truly is. To be sure, no human being has ever really seen everything that lies visibly in front of his eyes. The world, including its tangible side, is unfathomable. Who would ever have perfectly perceived the countless shapes and shades of just one wave swelling and ebbing in the ocean! And yet, there are degrees of perception. Going below a certain bottom line quite obviously will endanger the integrity of man as a spiritual being. It seems that nowadays we have arrived at this bottom line.” —Josef Pieper, “Learning How to See Again”, Only the Lover Sings pg. 31

In This Week's Episode

Show Notes

It's Fall! Time for a new season of the podcast and I have more fascinating people and ideas to share with you as the autumn leaves begin fall and as we get underway with school.

Have you ever heard of the Common Arts? Do you know what paper sloyd is? Well, if these words are new to you, or you want to know more about them, please stick around and listen to my inspiring conversation with Rose Tomassi of Martin Saints Classical High School in Oreland, Pennsylvania. She has a lot of experience incorporating these valuable arts in her school and classroom, as well as in her personal life.

Some of our Favorite Resources:

Common Arts Education by Christopher Hall
Paper Modeling by M. Swannell
Cardboard Modeling by William Heaton
A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew Crawford
Simply Charlotte Mason article on Paper Sloyd
Only The Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper
Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper

Commonplace Quotes

" . . . we fancy ourselves connected, we are in fact distanced and disjointed. We're connected to the internet, but not to the soul. We're connected to networks, but not to the hearth, the kitchen, the workshop, the woods. We spend time enjoying them, but at arm's length, rather than apprehending them in our heads, hearts, and hands. We are tourists now, rather than natives." - Christopher Hall, Common Arts Education, p. 19

"The common arts are the skills that provide for basic, embodied human needs through the creation of artifacts or the provision of services. . . . The common arts formed the baseline rhythms of home and hearth around the world for millennia." - Christopher Hall, Common Arts Education, p. 19

“Again we know that the human hand hand is a wonderful and exquisite instrument to be used in a hundred movements exacting delicacy, direction and force; every such movement is a cause of joy as it leads to the pleasure of execution and the triumph of success. We begin to understand this and make some efforts to train the young in the deft handling of tools and the practice of handicrafts. Some day perhaps, we shall see apprenticeship to trades revived and good and beautiful work enforced. In so far, we are laying ourselves out to secure that each shall "live his life"; and that, not at his neighbor's expense; because, so wonderful is the economy of the world that when a man really lives his life he benefits his neighbor as well as himself; we all thrive in the well being of each.” - Charlotte Mason, Volume 6: Philosophy of Education, p. 328

". . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . ." - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

Application

Pick something from your History or Literature class and have your class practice it -- such as baking cookies from the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book, taste-testing different flavors of Turkish Delight from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, learning how to weave while reading The Odyssey, grow seedlings by the window or under grow lights as you read The Secret Garden, practice illumination as you study Medieval History, put on a play as you read through Shakespeare, churn your own butter with a Mason jar as you study U. S. Colonial History.
At home, take a class or teach yourself how to knit or crochet. YouTube how to change a tire or replace the brakes on your bicycle. Start a Craft Circle with your homeschool group, church friends, or neighborhood and have everyone bring what they are working on or have someone teach you all something new. Try learning a new dinner recipe to try Saturday night.
Support a local artisan by asking about their work and purchasing their designs.