The Role of Memory Through Commonplace Notebooking with Dr. John Ahern from The Wilberforce School

The Role of Memory Through Commonplace Notebooking with Dr. John Ahern from The Wilberforce School

From Classical Education by Beautiful Teaching, LLC

August 15, 2025 · 42 min · Season 5 · Episode 11

About this episode

Dr. John Ahern discusses the importance of commonplace notebooking in education and shares practical tips for implementation.

About the Guest Dr. John Ahern holds a PhD from Princeton University in historical musicology. He currently teaches at The Wilberforce School as an Upper School Humanities and Latin instructor. He is also faculty at the Theopolis Institute and directs their Te Deum Fellows Program in Liturgical Music. His writings on a variety of topics have appeared in First Things , Ad Fontes , The Lamp , Mere Orthodoxy, Eidolon , the Theopolis Institute blog, and the CiRCE Institute blog. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and four children. Show Notes John Ahern has successfully implemented the practice of keeping a commonplace book with his students. In this episode he explains why it is an important practice, how to create time to do it, and how to establish best practices in a school setting. If you have wondered how to succeed at keeping a commonplace book, this episode is incredibly practical and will help you confidently get started in this beautiful practice. Resources Mentioned Link to the Circe Institute article: https://circeinstitute.org/blog/how-to-make-a-commonplace-book/ Notebooks the school uses: https://www.leuchtturm1917.us/classic-notebooks-1.html Also…

People in this episode

Guest: Dr. John Ahern

Topics covered

  • memory
  • commonplace notebooking
  • education
  • teaching practices
  • humanities
  • Latin

Keywords

  • commonplace book
  • memory
  • education
  • teaching
  • humanities
  • Latin
  • Dr. John Ahern

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Wilberforce School, Theopolis Institute, CiRCE Institute

Books & works: The Book of Memory, Leisure the Basis of Culture, Bleak House, To Kill a Mockingbird, Isaac Newton's Common Place Notebook, 19C Common Place Notebooks

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