Classical Education News & Articles | June 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 Soulless University
By Jessica Hooten Wilson | The Scandal of Reading
Choosing market over human beings
Instead Of Donating To Your Woke Alma Mater, Support Classical K-12 Schools
By John Dill | The Federalist
For those who wish to further mankind’s happiness, there is an outstanding alternative to writing a check to rotted institutions of allegedly higher learning. The charter school movement represents the American desire for improvement at its finest.
Is Classical Education Research-Based?
By Daniel Buck | Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Classical education has surged in popularity, with 264 new schools cropping up since 2019, a host of think pieces analyzing its growth, and state-level policy shifts that bolster its expansion. I found myself a proponent of classical education via a roundabout path, backing my way into it after following the research on effective instruction.
Interview: Joshua Kinlaw on the Classics and Classical Education
By Nadya Williams | Current
Classical Education has been growing by leaps and bounds at the secondary level and in graduate programs that are training teachers. By contrast, traditional Classics departments at many universities have been one of the casualties of the great humanities cuts of the past decade. I am grateful to Joshua Kinlaw, Affiliate Assistant Professor of Classical Education at the Graduate School at the University of Dallas for taking the time to answer some questions about the Classics and Classical Education.
Is Public Education Actually Public? And How Important Is It for Democracy?
By Chad Aldeman | The 74
Not really, and the link is tenuous at best. Evidence suggests the best path forward is to simply support good schools, regardless of sector.
How Public Schools Became Ideological Boot Camps
By Robert Pondiscio | The Free Press
In nearly every public school in the country, children are given curriculum materials that have no official oversight or approval.
Homeschooled Kids Are Alright
By Scott Yenor | American Reformer
Data Reveals that Homeschool Students are Succeeding After Finishing School
The War for Western Civilization
By Aaron Alexander Zubia | Chronicles
Christian humanism is the beating heart of Western civilization. Conservative politics is impossible without it.
The Schools Where the Western Canon Is King
By Kiera Butler | Mother Jones
Classical schools are spreading fast. But what are they teaching?
The Benefits of a Classical Education?
By E.J. Hutchinson | The Imaginative Conservative
Some familiarity with the ancient world really does enliven one’s appreciation of the arts and literature of the European tradition and its geographical and cultural penumbra. I was reminded of this recently in an apparently trivial—but, for all that, rather delightful—way.
Making Men in the Blue Ridge Mountains
By Jay Thomas | First Things
The gravel road wound through a valley, surrounded on all sides by mountain ridges covered in verdant leaves and fragrant redbuds. Spring had arrived in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and so had we. Cresting a hill, we reached our destination: a lot and a small wood building—the future campus of St. Dunstan’s Academy, an all-boys Anglican boarding school for grades 9–12. If all goes as planned, it will officially open next year.
As the Schools Go, So Goes the Nation
by Pavlos Papadopoulos | Thomas D. Klingenstein
Pavlos Papadopoulos looks to John Adams and the early history of our republic for a comprehensive, alternative vision that will educate citizens prepared to defend and sustain the American regime.
Don’t Major in English: And Other Bad Advice from the World
by Jessica Hooten Wilson | Public Discourse
Education should rehumanize us. In higher education, with the guidance of professors and mentors and elders, we should move through Homer, Newton, Wordsworth, Du Bois, O’Connor, and be transformed by our love for the good, true, and beautiful, into the person we are meant to be.
Bible-Infused Curriculum Sparks Texas-Sized Controversy Over Christianity in the Classroom
by Linda Jacobson | The 74
Responding to concerns about religious bias, state education officials say they will add material on the First Amendment.
Michigan Classical School Won’t Play Identity Politics
by Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer | National Catholic Register
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, will hear oral argument on June 11 in the case of Sacred Heart Academy in Grand Rapids, which was rejuvenated by Father Robert Sirico.
Why North Carolina Needs Classical Education
By Winston Brady | The Carolina Journal
As educators, we want to help our faculty, students, and parents understand the goals of classical education and how these goals influence kindergarten through 12th-grade classrooms. That way, parents, teachers, and, above all, students see their purpose in light of the kind of education we call classical.
If Grade We Must
by Jon Balsbaugh | Veritas Journal
Eight Tips for Creating a Less Grade-Conscious Culture.
How Schools Can Help End The Phone-Based Childhood
by Caroline Bryk | After Babel
Five lessons for secular schools, from our experience in Jewish Day Schools.
A New Way to Hire Great Faculty
by Jacob Howland | The James G. Martin Center
The University of Austin means to revitalize liberal education.
Don’t Stop Reading to Your Kids
by Frederick Hess | Education Next
Even when they’re avidly reading on their own