Course Introduction: Introduction to Classical Education
Dr. Perrin introduces this course, which he has designed to provide parents and educators with a clear vision for classical education.
Recommended Reading
- The Lost Tools of Learning, an essay by Dorothy Sayers (available in essay form here and as an audio recording here)
- Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver
- Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
- Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper
- When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer, a poem by Walt Whitman
- Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, a painting by Caspar David Friedrich
- The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills our Children Need–and What We Can Do about It by Tony Wagner
- Manalive by G.K. Chesterton
- “On Reading Old Books,” an essay by C.S. Lewis
- The Case for Christianity by C S. Lewis
Recommended ClassicalU Courses:
- The Liberal Arts Tradition with Ravi Jain and Kevin Clark
- Plato: The Great Philosopher-Educator with David Diener
Outline of Session
Discussion Questions
- In your country and culture, what would you say are the ideals are that the nation seeks, as revealed in the educational system (curriculum, setting, etc.)?
- How would you answer the following questions, which Dr. Perrin references as questions every educational approach must ask:
- Who is the student? (Implicitly, what is a human being, and what is the human being for?)
- What curriculum do we teach?
- In what setting do we teach?
- To what ends or purposes do we teach?
Introduction to Classical Education (PDF)
What is Classical Christian Education? (PDF)
Assignments and Action Steps
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For years, I have struggled to put an emotional I carry with me into words…a solemn check that keeps me humbled when I approach something ancient or beautiful. The poem referenced here helped me to identify it: not just one word, but an idea…that facts apart from truth and beauty hold no meaning. We can learn algorithms and regurgitate numbers, but if we don’t find beauty in what we are being taught, it will not stay. Thank you for this introduction. The next time I find myself struck by this idea, I’ll be able to explain it.
Agreed, and I would further that statement by saying if we don’t know ‘why’ it is beautiful, good, and true then it will not stay. I love how this course explains that everything we learn is from those that have gone before us. An accumulation of all their experiences and sacrifices are what we use to find the truth instead of created “facts” substituted for truths. We are already seeing those chaoses happen within our states by the tearing down of history which is a tearing down of our connections to the past from which we learn from to not repeat or to reform, revive, re-approbate, to resuscitate. We all want to progress but we should not progress just for the sake of progress.
I feel like I have awakened from a deep sleep! My public education has robbed me of this rich and satisfying truth, wisdom and beauty. Our minds were given nothing to feast upon! I have always wondered why our Founding Fathers were more educated. What happened to us? Besides my anger at the weak and empty progressive education I have received, let me say how thankful I am to all you for creating this. The joy and pleasure and hope is all so refreshing. I will not let my children only know the shadows on the wall and think that is all there is.
I have to say I am daunted. Over the past 10 years, well, Trace Adkins said it best, “I’ve gotten dull as old barbed wire from living.” Mt. Rainier is a hunk of rock with ice on it. Flowers are pretty, but they are just another flower in the long line of flowers I have seen. Dr. Perrin, you speak of wonder as being foundational. I have lost it. Can I pursue this course without it? If not, how do I recover it and then proceed? I caught a glimpse of it when I attended the Repairing the Ruins conference in Atlanta. Now that I am home, I have been trying to find some way to plug in to classical education, to no avail. I’m in the middle of changing careers. This course is my starting place, I suppose.
Thank you Dr. Perrin for this introduction, if I trace back your Dictionary styled definition of Classical Education that says” it is rooted in Western Civilisation and culture”, how can Africans truly benefit from it or contextualise it to our own cultural setting?
If we consider classical education as the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, beauty and goodness by means of the seven liberal arts in order that we might know God and make him known, then that most certainly applies to all cultures. The heart of classical education is to become more fully Human and so classical education is for all humans. The wisdom of the ancient writers can apply across all cultures but the seven liberal arts can be applied to African history, fables, songs, etc. I would encourage you to listen to “Ask Andrew” on the Circe Center podcast if you can as he has several episodes answering this question specifically.
As many others have said elsewhere: if only I could go back and start my education again, this time with CCE! I cannot, but I hope to hand this on to my children and others…