Classical Education News & Articles | March 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.
Classical Education Is Booming, but What Is It Exactly ?
By Keri D. Ingraham | RealClearEducation
New classical schools have been launching at an average annual growth rate of nearly 5% over each of the past four academic years, according to a recently released report by Arcadia Education. However, the report recognizes the boom of K-12 classical education extends far beyond the launch of new schools. Existing schools have experienced a waitlist due to enrollment demand. Classical microschools are popping up nationwide. Online, hybrid, and homeschool learners are utilizing classical education more.
Market Analysis of U.S. Classical Education in Grades PK-12
By Arcadia Education | Arcadia Education
The purpose of this national market analysis is to answer that question by defining the U.S. classical education segment across pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade (PK-12) and examine major generators of continued growth through the foreseeable future.
When Classical Learning Meets Public Education, the Dialogue Isn't Always Socratic
by Vince Bielski | RealClearInvestigations
The future of the controversial classical education movement will be showcased later this month when Columbia University senior lecturer Roosevelt Montás is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at a national symposium hosted by Great Hearts, the biggest classical charter network.
Which Great Books Can Withstand This Canon Fire?
By Vince Bielski | RealClearInvestigations
While books like “Gender Queer” and “Flamer” are roiling public school districts, another heated debate is unfolding in the small niche of classical education – focusing on whether writers such as medieval French nun Héloïse d’Argenteuil and Ralph Ellison are worthy enough to belong in the Western canon.
Have the Liberal Arts Gone Conservative?
By Emma Green | The New Yorker
The first thing you notice when walking into the middle-school classrooms at Brilla, a charter-school network in the South Bronx, is the sense of calm.
American Public Education Is Beyond Crisis Mode
By Jack Trotter | Chronicles
More than half a century ago, philosopher and historian Ivan Illich famously warned against the growing bureaucratization of state-sponsored schools. Education, he wrote, “converts a good that people might autonomously cultivate into a scarce commodity accessible only through an institution.” What has since transpired, at least in American schools at every level, has more than vindicated that warning.
Leading Against the Grain
by Clifford Humphrey | American Reformer
Joe Rigney’s debut book with Canon Press, Leadership and Emotional Sabotage (2024, 108 pages), builds on concepts he has been developing for a while. Accordingly, for readers interested in his thoughts on empathy and courage—with a dash of Narnia for taste—this book will not disappoint. On the surface, it is yet another book about that nebulous and intriguing concept of leadership, intended for leaders of institutions, but as you delve into its pages, the book reveals itself as a timely work of moral philosophy, founded on Scripture, tailored to the hostile circumstances of the Negative World, applicable to anyone interested in living a morally serious life.
Is Classical Education Revitalizing Christian Culture?
by Stephen Turley | The Imaginative Conservative
The students of a classical education are part of nothing less than a civilizational renaissance, the revitalized intellectual tradition of a distinctive and vibrant Christian culture.
“Livelier Than You Are, Whoever You Are”
by Corbin K. Barthold | City Journal
The School of Resentment is ascendant, but ephemeral; the Western Canon may yet endure.
Affirming our Children to Death
By Mark Anthony Signorelli | The Classical Corner
One of the undeniable dynamics driving the recent growth in classical schools has been a rush of parents away from the failures of the larger school system. It is evident that many families are simply looking for a haven from the chaos and futility of their local schools. And why shouldn’t they?
Parents Must Wake Up to the Dangers of Screen Addiction
by Maggie Phillips | Word on Fire
Melanie Hempe is the founder of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based organization ScreenStrong, which is aimed at preventing and reversing screen addiction in children and young people. She is also the mother of sons. One son, Adam, her eldest, developed a video game addiction, which eventually became the impetus behind ScreenStrong, and the basis of a spiel she now gives at ScreenStrong events.
END THE PHONE-BASED CHILDHOOD NOW
by Jonathan Haidt | The Atlantic
The environment in which kids grow up today is hostile to human development.
The “no excuses” model is due for a renaissance
by Robert Pondisco | The Thomas G. Fordham Institute
In a dispatch over the weekend, the New York Times took note of the rise of “super strict schools in England,” marked by “strict routines and detentions,” silent corridors, and “zero-tolerance” policies for even minor student misbehavior. The focus of the piece is London’s legendary Michaela Community School, which has posted the highest rate of academic progress in the country. “Its approach is becoming increasingly popular,” notes Times reporter Emma Bubola, sounding vaguely surprised.
Teaching Beyond Ideology: How Voegelin and Strauss Can Save the American Classroom
by Lee Trepanier | UnHerd
Teaching college students today about the significance of the American principles of freedom, equality, and constitutionalism is an uphill battle against the rise of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) at the expense of the humanities and social sciences, the bureaucratization of the classroom with its plethora of non-pedagogical mandates, and — perhaps most difficult of all — the intellectual climate of woke ideology that pervades the classroom.
Keeping with the Classics
by Christina Grube | World
Florida lawmakers approve a certification for classical educators.
Tradwife Ideology Won’t Save You
by Lane Scott | The American Mind
But humility, courage, and loyalty might.
Shakespeare vs. the Transhumanists
by Andrew Klavan | City Journal
I find these days that even friends with no religion have begun to speak in religious terms. Recently, within a single week, I heard the word “demonic” used five times, four times by people who don’t believe in demons. Stranger still, and not long after, I found myself in two separate conversations in which the sort of men who would never speculate upon the coming of the “end of days” began, with some embarrassment, to do exactly that.
The Media is Waging War on My Charter School, Even Though It Helps Underserved Students Succeed
by Alexandria Spry | RealClearEducation
Despite their frequent expressions of support for diverse and economically underserved individuals, the actions of many in the media convey a completely different message.