St. Augustine Teaches Us

What better way to study peer pressure than refer to St. Augustine's theft of pears in The Confessions. As a youth, Augustine was very swayed by a bad group of friends. They picked many pears off a farmer's tree (not to eat and not because they were hungry) for the sheer thrill of the theft. Then they fed them to the pigs! The farmer never found them out, and later in life Augustine is still remorseful that he wasn't able to apologize or make amends for this sin. Whenever I try to talk about peer pressure, my teens think I'm a little out of touch. I can see in their eyes that I am "old." So using an outside expert can be helpful. The beauty of parenting is repeating yourself over and over and watching for when it sinks in. Dorito is writing a paper about this incident today and expanding his own thoughts on peer pressure.

The other benefit is purely selfish--I love teaching from a classical curriculum in high school. It is very rewarding, like when Uncle Harold is sitting beside me at hockey games in St. Louis and asks what we are reading for junior year. Then he pipes up and offers his favorite translator of The Confessions and why Sr. Maria Boulding's interpretation of the Latin is so thoughtful.