Clustered under this umbrella of your article, are the elements needed to change a nation. Thankyou kindly for assessing and presenting exactly what is needed to bring us out of the storm which assails our country today. Mayhap our journey in the rain be brief.
I learnt long ago that the purpose of an education was to give one the building blocks of reading, writing, arithmetic - and from there the ability to learn how to acquire knowledge on one’s own. Sounds like the classical education as propounded in this fascinating essay.Aun aprendo
My favourite quote on the value of the humanities is from E.F. Schumacher in Small is Beautiful. He was working with a slightly different definition of 'humanities' but the point is still relevant I think:
'What do I miss, as a human being, if I have never heard of the Second Law of Thermodynamics? The answer is: nothing. And what do I miss by not knowing Shakespeare? Unless I get my understanding from another source, I simply miss my life.'
This is so true. I have engineering degrees from MIT and Northwestern. (Never used; long story.) We scoffed at liberal arts majors. Ten years out of college I was reading some very erudite writers and realized there was a whole world I had missed, and set about learning about The Great Books, writers, ideas, history etc. And what I learned was Human Nature. Smart peoples' attempts at answering the great questions of life. Humility in being in the shadows of such people.
Making money was great, but this education enriched my life in other more important ways.
My son was born when I was 21. I was surprised at how the education system had changed even from when I was in school to when my son was. My art classes in a school of 100 graduates per year had more resources in the art room than my son's school, which had classes with 600 kids in them, and his high school was considered one of the best in the state. Art's just not valued the way they used to be. I don't blame teachers, no single teacher can fix it. Education reform needs to happen at a state and federal level (sorry, I realize not everyone is from America, this is a USA perspective).
I have long considered what passes for education to be just as you write - training for servitude. Indoctrination is also a main feature of what the government schools do by design now, we can't have any independent thinking going on in the servile class because that is too threatening to the established order. COVID may have been just the thing we all needed to shock us out of our complacency and compliance with the clearly horrible governing we are now subjected to. Trust in all "experts" has fallen to deservedly low levels. Homeschooling and deprogramming of the government school indoctrination is now needed if we are to be a free and human species.
As our history shows, a classical education is as likely to produce mass murderers as civilized folk. It is amoral, entirely lacking in real wisdom.
C.J. Caesar and his nephew were highly literate, cultured men who thought nothing of mass killing, looting, burning and robbing. Their acolytes in Britain's parliament, from Asquith to Boris Johnson, are no better. It's time to look for a new operating system. Ours is irretrievably broken.
The good news is that there exists a classical education that produces hundreds of millions civilized men, and Fernand Braudel has found it. "Imagine the impact on European civilization of a series of Imperial dynasties maintaining the self-same style and significance from Caesar Augustus until the First World War. Now imagine such a civilization existing on the other side of the planet unaware of Greek philosophy, the alphabet, Roman governance, Christianity, feudalism, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment or democracy, but with its own, unique cultural and institutional correlates that exceeded all of them in intellectual subtlety and material success".
Braudel's mythical country never resorted to the kind of barbarous behavior typified by of our classicists, because its operating system is based upon compassion, readily understandable by simple people and based upon observable reality, not Platonic ideals.
"Confucius' disciple asked him about the essence of good government and the Master replied, “The requisites of government are that there be a sufficiency of food, enough military equipment, and the confidence of the people in their ruler.”
The disciple asked: “If it were necessary to dispense with one of these, which of the three should be done without?” Confucius answered, “The military equipment.”
He asked again, “If it were necessary to dispense with one of the remaining two, which one should be foregone?”
“Part with the food. Death has always been the lot of men; but if the people have no faith in their rulers, then the state cannot exist.” Analects.
The state still exists, 2500 years after Master Kong uttered those words, and is thriving as never before..
Good counterpoint! I understand Hilary Clinton went to a “liberal college” and nowadays I just wonder what good “liberal education” is if it turns out graduates that are so parochial, even to the point of delighting in other people’s misfortune. That said, I do admire John Dewey’s “inquiry-based learning” philosophy. Clinton must have misunderstood Dewey or wasn’t taught about Dewey at all!
You are an excellent writer! Thank you for highlighting classical education so clearly. My children attend a classical Christian school in Atlanta -- and my son just took the CLT last week! I wish I had the education he is receiving (and I went to Princeton!). Modern education has failed us, indeed, and I'm resuming mine now. Your Substack is encouraging!
There is a book that I recommend to people that is written by two women who got the idea to update the lessons of ancient rhetoric and learning for a modern day college course. Its not like some books ruined by “modernizing”.
“Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students” by Sharon Crowley &Debra Hawhee… I’ve recommended it for homeschooling parents and have used in in privat seminars of my own…
Ooh … "How to Fix Education", this should be interesting! But I have to say that I ended up being slightly disappointed.
I took a look at the authors recommended by the CLT website and I'm sorry to say that, even after a public school education in the 60s during which I learned much about how mean and beastly boys and young men can be, I knew little about most of these writers. And I suspect that my children would be similarly disadvantaged even after one of the better Grammar School secondary educations, university degrees and Masters. So yes, I agree that our Education system needs fixing.
As you say, most modern schools don’t teach the seven liberal arts, "Insofar as education increasingly focuses only on what will get students jobs, it is essentially a servile arts education. It, by definition, trains pupils to be servī. It’s no wonder it seems that there’s a crisis in our culture."
But from what you write I sense that a 'liberal arts' education was, in Classical times, the province of the wealthy, those who were 'free born', those who were not born slaves. Surely this is one factor that needs to be taken into account for the problem?
We no longer live in a slave-based society where a few wealthy men can sit around pontificating about how best to run things while all the work is done by women and slaves do we?
We live in a society that teaches some people enough about grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric to use language and words to divide and deceive, to obfuscate and obstruct… but somewhere along the way morals and ethics have been dropped off the curriculum (if indeed they ever on it?). Many of our 'top people' in politics, business and the arts have all benefitted from a top education, Eton, Oxbridge etc, definitely more 'liberal arts' than most, but not seemingly for the benefit of all of us, more for them.
True… "All we need to do is pick up a book", but I still think that most of us would also benefit from some help with understanding where citizenship comes into it.
I would love to see this movement succeed in changing educational focus in schools in the UK too.
Seconded!
Clustered under this umbrella of your article, are the elements needed to change a nation. Thankyou kindly for assessing and presenting exactly what is needed to bring us out of the storm which assails our country today. Mayhap our journey in the rain be brief.
I learnt long ago that the purpose of an education was to give one the building blocks of reading, writing, arithmetic - and from there the ability to learn how to acquire knowledge on one’s own. Sounds like the classical education as propounded in this fascinating essay.Aun aprendo
I do accounting for fun. 🥲
Really appreciate your insight, thank you!
My favourite quote on the value of the humanities is from E.F. Schumacher in Small is Beautiful. He was working with a slightly different definition of 'humanities' but the point is still relevant I think:
'What do I miss, as a human being, if I have never heard of the Second Law of Thermodynamics? The answer is: nothing. And what do I miss by not knowing Shakespeare? Unless I get my understanding from another source, I simply miss my life.'
This is so true. I have engineering degrees from MIT and Northwestern. (Never used; long story.) We scoffed at liberal arts majors. Ten years out of college I was reading some very erudite writers and realized there was a whole world I had missed, and set about learning about The Great Books, writers, ideas, history etc. And what I learned was Human Nature. Smart peoples' attempts at answering the great questions of life. Humility in being in the shadows of such people.
Making money was great, but this education enriched my life in other more important ways.
My son was born when I was 21. I was surprised at how the education system had changed even from when I was in school to when my son was. My art classes in a school of 100 graduates per year had more resources in the art room than my son's school, which had classes with 600 kids in them, and his high school was considered one of the best in the state. Art's just not valued the way they used to be. I don't blame teachers, no single teacher can fix it. Education reform needs to happen at a state and federal level (sorry, I realize not everyone is from America, this is a USA perspective).
I have long considered what passes for education to be just as you write - training for servitude. Indoctrination is also a main feature of what the government schools do by design now, we can't have any independent thinking going on in the servile class because that is too threatening to the established order. COVID may have been just the thing we all needed to shock us out of our complacency and compliance with the clearly horrible governing we are now subjected to. Trust in all "experts" has fallen to deservedly low levels. Homeschooling and deprogramming of the government school indoctrination is now needed if we are to be a free and human species.
As our history shows, a classical education is as likely to produce mass murderers as civilized folk. It is amoral, entirely lacking in real wisdom.
C.J. Caesar and his nephew were highly literate, cultured men who thought nothing of mass killing, looting, burning and robbing. Their acolytes in Britain's parliament, from Asquith to Boris Johnson, are no better. It's time to look for a new operating system. Ours is irretrievably broken.
The good news is that there exists a classical education that produces hundreds of millions civilized men, and Fernand Braudel has found it. "Imagine the impact on European civilization of a series of Imperial dynasties maintaining the self-same style and significance from Caesar Augustus until the First World War. Now imagine such a civilization existing on the other side of the planet unaware of Greek philosophy, the alphabet, Roman governance, Christianity, feudalism, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment or democracy, but with its own, unique cultural and institutional correlates that exceeded all of them in intellectual subtlety and material success".
Braudel's mythical country never resorted to the kind of barbarous behavior typified by of our classicists, because its operating system is based upon compassion, readily understandable by simple people and based upon observable reality, not Platonic ideals.
"Confucius' disciple asked him about the essence of good government and the Master replied, “The requisites of government are that there be a sufficiency of food, enough military equipment, and the confidence of the people in their ruler.”
The disciple asked: “If it were necessary to dispense with one of these, which of the three should be done without?” Confucius answered, “The military equipment.”
He asked again, “If it were necessary to dispense with one of the remaining two, which one should be foregone?”
“Part with the food. Death has always been the lot of men; but if the people have no faith in their rulers, then the state cannot exist.” Analects.
The state still exists, 2500 years after Master Kong uttered those words, and is thriving as never before..
Good counterpoint! I understand Hilary Clinton went to a “liberal college” and nowadays I just wonder what good “liberal education” is if it turns out graduates that are so parochial, even to the point of delighting in other people’s misfortune. That said, I do admire John Dewey’s “inquiry-based learning” philosophy. Clinton must have misunderstood Dewey or wasn’t taught about Dewey at all!
A nice way to wrap up a promo post for CLT 🤨
What would one recommend / resources for younger elementary learners? Any guidance or classical testing sites?
You are an excellent writer! Thank you for highlighting classical education so clearly. My children attend a classical Christian school in Atlanta -- and my son just took the CLT last week! I wish I had the education he is receiving (and I went to Princeton!). Modern education has failed us, indeed, and I'm resuming mine now. Your Substack is encouraging!
There is a book that I recommend to people that is written by two women who got the idea to update the lessons of ancient rhetoric and learning for a modern day college course. Its not like some books ruined by “modernizing”.
“Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students” by Sharon Crowley &Debra Hawhee… I’ve recommended it for homeschooling parents and have used in in privat seminars of my own…
Excellent article!
Ooh … "How to Fix Education", this should be interesting! But I have to say that I ended up being slightly disappointed.
I took a look at the authors recommended by the CLT website and I'm sorry to say that, even after a public school education in the 60s during which I learned much about how mean and beastly boys and young men can be, I knew little about most of these writers. And I suspect that my children would be similarly disadvantaged even after one of the better Grammar School secondary educations, university degrees and Masters. So yes, I agree that our Education system needs fixing.
As you say, most modern schools don’t teach the seven liberal arts, "Insofar as education increasingly focuses only on what will get students jobs, it is essentially a servile arts education. It, by definition, trains pupils to be servī. It’s no wonder it seems that there’s a crisis in our culture."
But from what you write I sense that a 'liberal arts' education was, in Classical times, the province of the wealthy, those who were 'free born', those who were not born slaves. Surely this is one factor that needs to be taken into account for the problem?
We no longer live in a slave-based society where a few wealthy men can sit around pontificating about how best to run things while all the work is done by women and slaves do we?
We live in a society that teaches some people enough about grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric to use language and words to divide and deceive, to obfuscate and obstruct… but somewhere along the way morals and ethics have been dropped off the curriculum (if indeed they ever on it?). Many of our 'top people' in politics, business and the arts have all benefitted from a top education, Eton, Oxbridge etc, definitely more 'liberal arts' than most, but not seemingly for the benefit of all of us, more for them.
True… "All we need to do is pick up a book", but I still think that most of us would also benefit from some help with understanding where citizenship comes into it.
Truth, goodness and beauty should be our mantra in this world of disappearing humanity.