Podcast Summary

Podcast: Hillsdale College K-12 Classical Education Podcast
Episode: Leading Idaho Novus Classical Academy
Host: Scott Bertram
Date: October 16, 2025
Featured Speaker: Head of Idaho Novus Classical Academy (Speaker A)

Overview

This episode features a passionate address delivered by the leader of Idaho Novus Classical Academy at a Hoagland Center for Teacher Excellence Seminar. The speaker shares why they chose to lead an American Classical Academy, emphasizing the urgent need to preserve Western Civilization through education. The talk explores the distinctive mission, curriculum, and virtues at the heart of American classical education, and concludes with a stirring call to action for educators and citizens alike.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Importance of Western Civilization and the "American Experiment"

• The speaker frames the "American Experiment" as the culmination of thousands of years of Western tradition (01:14).
• Highlights how America’s founding principles are directly rooted in a long intellectual and cultural heritage, dating back up to 140 generations if including Judeo-Christian roots.
• Warns that while society enjoys the benefits of this heritage, it is paradoxically being discarded by many today.

"It took thousands of years to arrive at 1776 and the onset of a system of government which acknowledges... our Creator has endowed us with certain unalienable rights..." (01:41)

2. The Threat to Western Civilization

• Asserts that Western civilization is in danger and that schools play a vital role in its defense.
• Quotes C.S. Lewis on the societal tendency to desire virtue without cultivating the necessary foundations:

"We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst." – C.S. Lewis, Abolition of Man (03:50)

3. Purpose and Character of American Classical Education

• Describes American Classical Education as offering hope and a path forward through academic rigor and an explicit focus on virtue and citizenship (05:40).

• Emphasizes both academic content and the cultivation of character, with curricula designed by Hillsdale College’s K-12 office.

• Core curricular elements include:

  • Systematic phonics and grammar
  • Mathematics with conceptual foundations
  • Spanish and Latin
  • Art, music, physical education
  • Content-rich history, science, and literature, starting in kindergarten (07:15)

• The American civic heritage, while explicit in history, is an undercurrent throughout the entire program.

4. Heart and Virtue: The Moral Component

• The mission is to “train the minds and improve the hearts of students.”
• Six daily virtues: courage, courtesy, honesty, perseverance, self-government, and service (09:00).
• Virtues are integrated in all aspects of school life, modeled by staff, and taught both proactively and reactively.

"Although there are many other virtues worthy of cultivation, we believe that each of these six are necessary components of good citizenship..." (09:23)

• Daily routines: Story time or morning forum emphasizes the living tradition of virtue.

5. The Goal: Happiness as Flourishing

• The ultimate aim of education is defined as preparing students for the “genuine pursuit of happiness,” grounded in the classical tradition rather than modern pleasure-seeking.
• Draws on Aristotle’s conception of happiness as flourishing, requiring virtue and self-mastery (12:31).

"To flourish, a human being must learn to govern their passions and separate what they want to do from what they ought to do. This is a lifelong human struggle." (13:20)

6. Partnership with Families and School Success

• Points to strong community involvement and parent partnership as essential.
• Reports a 96% parent satisfaction rate and 97% family retention after the first year (15:00).
• Sees this as evidence of an appetite for traditional, virtue-centered education.

7. A Cultural Mission, Not a Political One

• Insists the mission is restorative, not revolutionary; it is about preserving, not inventing.
• Education is framed as a defense of civilization itself and not reducible to partisan politics (16:18).

"This is a cultural mission. We aren't trying to create something new. We're trying to restore what once was." (16:35)

8. Call to Action: Upholding the American Experiment

• Cites Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis for inspiration, urging all listeners to act in defense of the next generation’s minds and hearts (17:10).
• Challenges listeners not to be “summer soldiers” or “sunshine patriots,” but to actively take up the task of educational and civic renewal.

“These are the times that try men's souls... Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. Yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” — Thomas Paine (17:28)

• Concludes with a personal affirmation:

"I lead an American Classical Academy because I cannot fathom sacrificing a way of life that took thousands of years to develop, or what sort of world our descendants would live in without it." (19:10)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the urgency of the mission:
  "We need to actively prepare students to become the virtuous citizens we expect them to be... if we don't change course, then one day it may be gone." (04:20)
• On partnership with families:
  "While our partnership demands a lot from them, as any true partnership does, an American classical education is exactly what they were looking for." (15:14)
• On the meaning of true happiness:
  "Aristotle himself observed, and I quote, 'happiness therefore does not lie in amusement. It would indeed be strange if the end were amusement and one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one's life in order to amuse oneself.'" (12:55)
• On the broader mission:
  "If you want to know what our country will be like in 20 to 30 years, all you have to do is look inside a classroom. If that thought doesn't leave you feeling concerned, it should." (17:48)
• Final call:
  “Don’t be what Thomas Paine called a summer soldier or a sunshine patriot. Determine how you can play a role in sustaining and revitalizing Western civilization and get to work.” (18:55)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction to Western Tradition & the American Experiment – 01:14–04:00
• The Peril of Declining Civilization & C.S. Lewis Quotation – 04:00–05:10
• Purpose of American Classical Education & Curriculum Overview – 05:40–08:00
• Virtues and Moral Formation – 09:00–10:45
• Aristotle, Happiness, and Flourishing – 12:31–14:00
• Family Partnerships & Community Results – 15:00–16:10
• Restorative Mission & Nonpartisan Appeal – 16:18–17:10
• Thomas Paine & the Call to Action – 17:10–19:00
• Personal Commitment & Final Words – 19:00–19:38

Conclusion

This episode offers a compelling portrait of American classical education as a bulwark for Western civilization. The speaker’s heartfelt defense of virtue-centered, content-rich schooling, and their unapologetic call for civic renewal, is a rallying cry to educators and citizens who care about the future of America and its heritage. The talk passionately affirms that the cultivation of both minds and hearts is essential for nurturing true happiness, responsible citizenship, and the survival of the nation’s ideals.