Susan Wise Bauer
Susan Wise Bauer: A Leading Voice in Education and History
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Full Name and Common Aliases
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Susan Wise Bauer is a renowned American author, historian, and educator who has made significant contributions to the field of classical education.
Birth and Death Dates
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Born on June 16, 1959, Susan Wise Bauer's work continues to inspire new generations of learners.
Nationality and Profession(s)
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Bauer holds dual citizenship in the United States and Australia. As an author, historian, and educator, she has dedicated her life to making history and literature accessible to a broad audience.
Early Life and Background
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Susan Wise Bauer grew up in a family that valued education and literature. Her parents, Douglas and Barbara Wise, instilled in her a love for reading and learning from an early age. Bauer's educational background includes attending the University of Virginia, where she earned her Bachelor's degree in English.
Major Accomplishments
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Bauer's extensive work spans multiple fields, including education, history, and literature. Some of her notable achievements include:
Developing the Well-Educated Mind curriculum, a comprehensive approach to classical education.
Authoring numerous books on history, biography, and literary analysis, such as "The History of the World in 100 Objects" and "The Western Miracle".
Serving as the editor-in-chief of The Well-Trained Mind Press, which publishes educational resources and materials.Notable Works or Actions
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Some of Bauer's most notable works include:
The Well-Educated Mind: A comprehensive guide to classical education that has become a standard reference for educators worldwide.
The Story of the World series: A four-volume set of history textbooks that cover ancient civilizations, the Middle Ages, and modern times.
The History of the World in 100 Objects: A unique approach to world history through the lens of 100 objects from the British Museum.
Impact and Legacy
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Susan Wise Bauer's impact on education and literature is profound. Her work has influenced countless educators, parents, and students around the globe. By making complex subjects accessible and engaging, she has helped shape a new generation of learners.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
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Bauer's enduring popularity stems from her ability to break down complex historical and literary concepts into understandable narratives. Her commitment to classical education and her passion for sharing knowledge have made her a respected figure in the educational community.
Quotes by Susan Wise Bauer
Susan Wise Bauer's insights on:
Technology can do a great deal to make information gathering easier, but it can do little to simplify the gathering of wisdom.
The goal of classical self-education is this: not merely to “stuff” facts into your head, but to understand them. Incorporate them into your mental framework. Reflect on their meaning for the internal life.
In fact, far from being phonetic, hieroglyphs were designed to be indecipherable unless you possessed the key to their meaning. The Egyptian priests, who were guardians of this information, patrolled the borders of their knowledge in order to keep this tool in their own hands. Ever since, the mastery of writing and reading has been an act of power.
As you read, you should follow this three-part process: jot down specific phrases, sentences, and paragraphs as you come across them; when you’ve finished your reading, go back and write a brief summary about what you’ve learned; and then write your own reactions, questions, and thoughts.
When you read, you develop wisdom – or, in Mortimer Adler’s words, “become enlightened.” “To be informed,” Adler writes in How to Read a Book, “is to know simply that something is the case. To be enlightened is to know, in addition, what it is all about.
Civilization began in the Fertile Crescent, not because it was an Edenic place overflowing with natural resources, but because it was so hostile to settlement that a village of any size needed careful management to survive.
Part of the school dilemma results from an over-focus on testing results; home educators are free from that pressure, so you won’t have to decide between test prep and expository writing.
Underline in your books, jot notes in the margins, and turn the corners of your pages down. Public education is a beautiful dream, but public classrooms too often train students not to mark, write in, disfigure, or in any way make books permanently their own. You’re a grownup now, so buy your own books if you possibly can. In my opinion, a cheap paperback filled with your own notes is worth five times as much as a beautiful collector’s edition.
A debt-free bachelor’s degree is, as it turns out, priceless: As Jane Austen puts it, it sets you up forever. My friends were still paying off their school loans in their forties. I never had any school debt at all. Because I had no debt, I could choose my life, and choose my adventure.
Isaac Newton, John Locke, and many other men and women in England and Europe began to... believe that universal laws, discovered through observation, governed every part of human life. Today, we often talk about these ideas as "Western ideas." Sometimes, we talk about the years when these ideas became popular as the "Enlightenment.