Great article! I've been thinking about these issues and questions too. When you say "If the classical life is actually beautiful, actually true, actually good, then students who have tasted it should want more of it. The fact that so many don’t is the clearest sign that formation — not content — is what’s missing," I wonder if society's influence on people has made us so sick such that even when we are shown the truly good, true, and beautiful we see it as less attractive than what the world offers (at least more often than not and especially the younger gen that has grown up on the screen). I think the current is so strong from society that we are existentially sick and the classical formation that is happening is outweighed by the earthly formation. Granted, a little faith is enough, and arguably a little formation too, but it still may explain the large swaths of uninterested students.
They're a disenchanted because they've been sold a lie. The kids aren't allowed to connect on their own. In a typical classical school they're still forced to regurgitate whatever the teavher wants them to respond with rather than explain what they heard the book say and what the book meant to them. The step of narration is the key issue. You're not respecting a child's ability to learn. You're disrespecting them.
I know you don't feel that way, and I know that sounds harsh. You're not doing it out of malice just ignorance. But the proof is in front of you.
It's like putting someone in sports their whole life and saying that doing so makes one an athlete. It gives one the form, sure. It provides experience, yes. But the child hasn't developed their ability to choose, connect, or play of their own accord. Narration achieves that. I'm not saying let the kids choose all their own books or just willynilly chat about their feelings either. Structured, diligent narration takes hard work. Read some Karen Glass.
The ACCS has 3,750 registered kids. But like you mentioned (without being blunt) there is a level of hypocrisy among those families that rusts the whole system from the inside out. How many adults have changed and participated in Homer? How many even grasp what intellectual participation even means? How many adults are proving to their children that they love this way of life?
AmblesideOnline (literary tradition with an entirely different main emphasis on real history rather than Greek) has 40,000 active families at last count and probably triple that who aren't registered on the forum or Facebook. Families. You only register one person but gain access for your entire family.,
If you add in CMEC and the other smaller groups propagating a Charlotte Mason education you will EASILY find a hundred thousand homeschoolers who are joyfully living out this way of life. They are exponentially multiplying. A wave of genuine love for education is happening right under the classical academic's nose but he won't see it!?
And their graduates are already stirring. Here on Substack those graduates are writing and learning and LOVING Hebrew, Greek, philosophy, Shakespeare, and more.
The classical model is where the problem lies. It strips children of their chests and their personal responsibility then despairs when it produces hollow men.
The points about home and church are spot on and were a big part of my information night and family orientations at the co-op (Cornerstone Classical Collaborative). One of our mottos is formation > information and we will be working to enforce that in this year’s launch in our one-room schoolhouse model. Even the upper years look nothing like traditional high school … cohorts around age ranges rather than exact years and yearly themes of ‘Wonder’ asking Who Am I becoming and ‘Order’ asking What community do I belong guide the reading lists rather than the other way around. An intentional vocational project that weaves through all four years so that when they choose college or something else they know exactly what for.
Clark & Jain discuss that if we’ve done the job right in the home and church and school then the learning never stops, right? It’s impossible to get it all in high school and it’s impossible to get it in all in college. So then what is the classical college for is the same question on formation… what are those 3,750 students experiencing that they didn’t in the four years prior in their home, church, and school and what happens after?
The more classical academia gets out from behind their desks and into the depths of the community, they will see the formative stirring that’s been brewing in the habits of the home - it’s often those families who aren’t outsourcing it that are doing the real work.
Great article! I've been thinking about these issues and questions too. When you say "If the classical life is actually beautiful, actually true, actually good, then students who have tasted it should want more of it. The fact that so many don’t is the clearest sign that formation — not content — is what’s missing," I wonder if society's influence on people has made us so sick such that even when we are shown the truly good, true, and beautiful we see it as less attractive than what the world offers (at least more often than not and especially the younger gen that has grown up on the screen). I think the current is so strong from society that we are existentially sick and the classical formation that is happening is outweighed by the earthly formation. Granted, a little faith is enough, and arguably a little formation too, but it still may explain the large swaths of uninterested students.
They're a disenchanted because they've been sold a lie. The kids aren't allowed to connect on their own. In a typical classical school they're still forced to regurgitate whatever the teavher wants them to respond with rather than explain what they heard the book say and what the book meant to them. The step of narration is the key issue. You're not respecting a child's ability to learn. You're disrespecting them.
I know you don't feel that way, and I know that sounds harsh. You're not doing it out of malice just ignorance. But the proof is in front of you.
It's like putting someone in sports their whole life and saying that doing so makes one an athlete. It gives one the form, sure. It provides experience, yes. But the child hasn't developed their ability to choose, connect, or play of their own accord. Narration achieves that. I'm not saying let the kids choose all their own books or just willynilly chat about their feelings either. Structured, diligent narration takes hard work. Read some Karen Glass.
The ACCS has 3,750 registered kids. But like you mentioned (without being blunt) there is a level of hypocrisy among those families that rusts the whole system from the inside out. How many adults have changed and participated in Homer? How many even grasp what intellectual participation even means? How many adults are proving to their children that they love this way of life?
AmblesideOnline (literary tradition with an entirely different main emphasis on real history rather than Greek) has 40,000 active families at last count and probably triple that who aren't registered on the forum or Facebook. Families. You only register one person but gain access for your entire family.,
If you add in CMEC and the other smaller groups propagating a Charlotte Mason education you will EASILY find a hundred thousand homeschoolers who are joyfully living out this way of life. They are exponentially multiplying. A wave of genuine love for education is happening right under the classical academic's nose but he won't see it!?
And their graduates are already stirring. Here on Substack those graduates are writing and learning and LOVING Hebrew, Greek, philosophy, Shakespeare, and more.
The classical model is where the problem lies. It strips children of their chests and their personal responsibility then despairs when it produces hollow men.
Thanks for the perspective, Tyler!
The points about home and church are spot on and were a big part of my information night and family orientations at the co-op (Cornerstone Classical Collaborative). One of our mottos is formation > information and we will be working to enforce that in this year’s launch in our one-room schoolhouse model. Even the upper years look nothing like traditional high school … cohorts around age ranges rather than exact years and yearly themes of ‘Wonder’ asking Who Am I becoming and ‘Order’ asking What community do I belong guide the reading lists rather than the other way around. An intentional vocational project that weaves through all four years so that when they choose college or something else they know exactly what for.
Clark & Jain discuss that if we’ve done the job right in the home and church and school then the learning never stops, right? It’s impossible to get it all in high school and it’s impossible to get it in all in college. So then what is the classical college for is the same question on formation… what are those 3,750 students experiencing that they didn’t in the four years prior in their home, church, and school and what happens after?
The more classical academia gets out from behind their desks and into the depths of the community, they will see the formative stirring that’s been brewing in the habits of the home - it’s often those families who aren’t outsourcing it that are doing the real work.