# Brent Odell > Christian, Husband, Father of 7, Classical Christian Educator, Homesteader. Formerly a Software Engineer at TaxJar & Stripe. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages - [About](https://brentodell.com/about-2.md) - Hello there! I’m Brent and I wear many hats. Most importantly, I’m husband to Rebekah and father of our 5 daughters & 2 sons. I was a Software Engineer from 2014-2024. After graduating with a B.S. in Computer Science, I spent over 4 years at Igniter Media building an online marketplace for videos a… - [About this site](https://brentodell.com/about.md) - Brent Odell is an independent publication launched in May 2026 by Brent Odell. If you subscribe today, you'll get full access to the website as well as email newsletters about new content when it's available. Your subscription makes this site possible, and allows Brent Odell to continue to exist. T… - [Bookshelf](https://brentodell.com/bookshelf.md) - Below is my reading list. Eventually I'll include links to notes that I've taken. Currently Reading * You Are What You Love by James K. A. Smith (Buy) * Haunted Cosmos by Brian Sauvé & Ben Garrett (Buy) * Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy (Buy) Backlog * The Common Rule by Justin Whitmel Earley (Buy) *… - [Contact](https://brentodell.com/contact.md) ## Posts - [Extended Scripture Memory Plan Generator](https://brentodell.com/extended-scripture-memory-generator.md) - Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. —Colossians 3:16 This tool generates a plan to help you memorize whole chapters, or entire books of the Bible. It is… - [A Job Application](https://brentodell.com/a-job-application.md) - I started a post nearly a year ago called "My Philosophy of Education." That post is still unpublished. It turns out that articulating something as big as a philosophy of education is really hard to do. And it's dynamic. As I learn, and grow, it grows with me. Recently however, I was forced to arti… - [The Power of Story](https://brentodell.com/the-power-of-story.md) - In Classical Christian Education, we believe in the power of story to form a person. We're all living in a story. We have the Biblical story, which is the ultimate story; the story of the cosmos, which God is still authoring (from a human perspective). That story starts in a garden and ends in a ga… - [Classical Christian Education Lingo Lexicon](https://brentodell.com/classical-christian-education-lingo-lexicon.md) - This will be a post that I update periodically as I come across new terms, or people that others might like to know about. Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS) The Association of Classical Christian Schools was the first and is the largest member organization for classical Christian sc… - [An Invitation to the Pain of Learning](https://brentodell.com/an-invitation-to-the-pain-of-learning.md) - Last week I came across this article from 1941 by Mortimer Adler (the editor of the Great Books of the Western World series, as well as at least one book that's discussed in classical circles: The Paideia Proposal). I came across it while looking for the source of something I read about a student b… - [The Lost Art of Conflict](https://brentodell.com/the-lost-art-of-conflict.md) - In C.S. Lewis’ On Reading Old Books we read: Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. A… - [My Journey to Christian Classical Education](https://brentodell.com/my-journey-to-christian-classical-education.md) - Christian classical education (CCE). Telos. Paideia. I cannot remember where I first heard each of these terms, but over the past five to seven years they have become a defining part of my life. My earliest experience with formal education was in a private Christian school, which I attended from ki… - [The nature of cheating, and what to do about it](https://brentodell.com/the-nature-of-cheating-and-what-to-do-about-it.md) - Recently, I've been wrestling with what to do with cheating in my classroom. Do I name it and address it as such, or use other means to direct students toward what is right? Growing up in public school, my initial impulse is to call it out, and discipline for it...you've cheated, therefore you get… - [Allow me to wax poetic over waxing poetic](https://brentodell.com/allow-me-to-wax-poetic-over-waxing-poetic.md) - On the Power of Words Language. What is it? Webster's Dictionary from 1828 gives a long list of definitions. The first beginning with: Human speech; the expression of ideas by words or significant articulate sounds, for the communication of thoughts. So language is made up of ideas expressed throug… - [The Meaning of Education](https://brentodell.com/the-meaning-of-education.md) - Yesterday, one of my students asked me why I reach for a dictionary (specifically, Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, from 1828) every time one of them asks the meaning of a word, instead of using Google. My response was that while technology can be useful, we should also c… - [The Meaning and Purpose of Fellowship](https://brentodell.com/the-meaning-and-purpose-of-fellowship.md) - Fellowship. I grew up in the Bible Belt where that word gets used a lot. It can be used as a noun: "Come to the Ladies Fellowship!", "After our quarterly business meeting, we'll have a finger food fellowship." (in Baptist churches, "Thou shalt always alliterate" might as well be the 11th commandmen… - [Why do we study Greek Mythology in Classical Christian Education? After all, weren't they pagans?](https://brentodell.com/why-do-we-study-greek-mythology-in-classical-christian-education-after-all-werent-they-pagans.md) - One of my fellow teachers who is new to classical Christian education asked this ⬆️ great question a day or two ago. She also asked why we study Latin. If we studied the Greek language, at least the kids could read the New Testament, right? I've heard similar questions before, and realized that I d… - [Beginning My First Year as a Teacher](https://brentodell.com/beginning-my-first-year-as-a-teacher.md) - My wife and I have been on the journey of recovering Classical Christian Education since around 2019. During that time, we have homeschooled and been a part of a Classical Conversations community. Rebekah has primarily focused on the day-to-day teaching, while I have been focused on researching cur… - [A Gentle Critique of Classical Conversations](https://brentodell.com/a-gentle-critique-of-classical-conversations.md) - I did not start out to write a critique of Classical Conversations. Our family has been a part of it for 5 years, and at present, we plan to continue to be (with supplementation). My initial goal was to write about the history of classical Christian education (CCE) and my growing understanding of i… - [Considering the moral implications of self-checkout](https://brentodell.com/considering-the-moral-implications-of-self-checkout.md) - I recently went to check out in a big-box home improvement store, only to find that every cash register had been replaced by self-checkout. While self-checkout is nothing new, and I've used it fairly regularly, I sometimes have a bit of hesitation and a thought crosses my mind: "What is self checko… - [On Shaping Loves](https://brentodell.com/on-shaping-loves.md) - I've got a friend who will often ask questions that force me to sit down, organize my thoughts, and put a response in writing. This first resulted in me writing out a list of my favorite Family Discipleship Resources. His latest question has led to this post. His family started giving up electronic… - [Family Discipleship Resources](https://brentodell.com/family-discipleship-resources.md) - My wife recently had a conversation with a friend, about how we don’t send our kids to “Children’s Church.” This is a new practice for us, only within the past year or two. After the conversation, he reached out and asked for any resources I had on the subject. Little did he know that this question… ## Optional - [RSS Feed](https://brentodell.com/rss/) - [Sitemap](https://brentodell.com/sitemap.xml) - [Full content of pages and posts](https://brentodell.com/llms-full.txt)