Classical Education News & Articles | February 2024
In addition to reviewing books, ClassicalEd Review provides our readers with a monthly compendium of recent articles and news stories related to classical education and the liberal arts.
The Return of Western Civ
By John Fonte | The American Mind
For people concerned that the nation’s universities have become ideological training grounds for revolutionary shock troops and laboratories of social justice experimentation, the news from Utah is salutary.
Western Civilization Lives
By Austin Ruse | Crisis
We are the inheritors of the most profound culture the world has ever known, and not even the modern barbarians can destroy it.
How Civics Can Remedy Higher Education’s Decline
by Paul O. Carrese | National Review
Successful experiments in civic education at public universities point the way forward for beleaguered institutions such as those in the Ivy League.
In the Bible, Lincoln Found the Antidote to Slavery, Despair, and Death
By Paul Krause | The Federalist
Remember Lincoln for his courage and his political perseverance in saving the Union, but also remember the source of his courage.
The Odyssey of Classical Education
By Robert C. Thornett | Quillette
Classical education instills precisely the skills and habits most sorely needed in society today.
Resist the Machine Apocalypse
By Iain McGilchrist | First Things
No two ways about it: We are making ourselves wretched. We are more affluent than ever, but riches—and power, the only point in having riches—do not make people happy. Ask a psychiatrist.
Growth Mindset for Classical Education: Be Docile, Be Great
by Andrew Zwerneman | Cana Academy
There are too many good arguments in its favor to not be convinced of the need for a growth mindset. At the same time, that language might not feel quite right within the context of a classical academy devoted to teaching the liberal disciplines. Is there perhaps a more suitable way of talking about the same ideas?
We Should Have Listened to Irving Babbitt
by Allen Mendenhall | Law & Liberty
Babbitt's Democracy and Leadership reflects a kind of humanism that may seem alien to our time, but remains vitally relevant.
A Leftism of Illusion
by Patrick Garry | Public Discourse
The stronger the truth the Left seeks to counteract, and the more irrational the fantasy it promotes, the larger and stronger the government it requires. Whether it will achieve its ends remains to be seen.
Much not Many: The Pedagogical Principle of Going Deep
By Christopher Perrin | Renewing Classical Education
Why too much teaching spoils teaching.
Return to Beauty: A New Renaissance in Catholic Art
by Lori Hadacek Chaplin | Good Catholic
Beautiful art causes us to marvel; it makes us hope for more and aspire to become better people. Beauty points to the divine—all the more reason why sacred art’s purpose is to stir the soul.
J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the Cosmic Music of the Beginnings
by Robert Lazu Kmita | The European Conservative
The Inklings expressed interest in ancient mythologies that described the creation of the world through music.
The Classical Brand
by Mark Anthony Signorelli | The Classical Corner
A little more than half way through Plato’s Republic, Socrates says something that’s bold, honest, and dispiriting enough to send even the heartiest of high school teachers on a two-day bender: “Compulsory intellectual work never remains in the mind.”
We are All Prisoners in Plato’s Cave
by Jacob Howland | UnHerd
Some meditations on the human condition blaze with truth even after millennia. And perhaps none more so than Plato’s Cave.
Belmont Abbey creates ‘classical and liberal arts education’ master’s degree
by Elaine Gunthorpe | The College Fix
‘We’ve witnessed a surge not just in K-12 students and families embracing classical education but also a rise in educators dedicated to imparting the values and wisdom inherent in classical education’