Recently, I was interviewed by Andrew Kern (a friend and founder of the Circe Institute for a revision of his book on Classical Christian Education. I wanted to share my answers to some of the questions with you. I will share them one or two at a time:
- 1. What do you see ahead for classical education?
I am not as sure about this. The way that our culture does education is changing. In many ways this change must come and I see it as a positive development. People are beginning to be forced to think through the economics of the government run systems and the insanity of bureaucracy of this system. What will come of this? I do not know. Changes like vouchers and defunding of public schools could radically change the environment. Economic difficulties for families could make a classical Christian education (at a school) harder to afford.
All of these concerns, however, are secondary. The underlying question that we will learn the answer to is this: do we have communities (churches and families) that will support classical education. If we have this, then we will see schools (in a myriad of forms stretching from homeschooling to fairly regular looking schools) grow and thrive. If love has grown cold (my greatest fear) or if our love is too narrow (which is just coldness to all outside of a narrow family or church), then we will turn in on ourselves. The best families will do homeschooling well. Others will be left to do the best that they can or will end up finding some other (non-classical option). We need to love one another enough to continue to reach out to others and to make sure that more and more have the opportunity to have this kind of education.
