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Welcome to The Hillsdale College K12 classical education podcast, bringing you insight into classical education and its unique emphasis on human virtue and moral character, responsible citizenship, content, rich curricula and teacher led classrooms. Now your host, Scott Bertram.

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We continue a series of episodes from presentations delivered at Hoagland center for Teacher Excellence Seminars. The Hoagland center for Teacher Excellence and Outreach of The Hillsdale College K12 education office offers educators the opportunity to deepen their content knowledge and refine their skills in the classroom. These one day conferences are hosted during the academic year in cities across the nation and feature presentations by Hillsdale College faculty, K12 office staff and leaders in the Hillsdale Network of member schools. There is no cost to attend and attendees may earn professional development credits. Currently, the Hoagland center is hosting a series exploring the art of teaching a variety of subjects. To learn more about upcoming events, Visit our website k12 hillsdale.edu.

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Good afternoon everyone. I'm glad to see so many people here and I just want to take a moment before I begin to speak on American Classical Education to recognize the staff and supporters of the Hillsdale college office of K12 education who put this on and made this Hoogland center event possible for all of us. I was asked to give a talk on why I lead an American Classical Academy, and I think it's fitting that I was asked to share these thoughts with you today during a conference on Western Civilization. In short, I got involved in this movement because I believe Western civilization is in danger and that schools have a significant role to play in stopping its decline. After making such a bold statement, I want to step back for a minute and clarify another position of mine. I believe that the American Experiment is the ultimate manifestation of the Western tradition and more specifically the great conversation in the world today. It took thousands of years to arrive at 1776 and the onset of a system of government which acknowledges, and I quote, that our Creator has endowed us with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Stop and consider that for just a moment. First we have to contemplate when the Western tradition began. If you date it back to ancient Greece, then it might have taken 90 human generations for the American experiment to emerge from the Western tradition. If you consider the fact that aspects of our culture are drawn from the Judeo Christian tradition, then we're talking about more like 140 human generations. And by the way, we're only 10 generations out from the American Revolution today. Hopefully that reinforces exactly how new the American experiment still is and how unique it is in the context of world history. Let's take a moment and acknowledge how fortunate we are to be living in 21st century America. The past few generations of Americans have lived through an era of unprecedented prosperity. We're reaping the benefits of thousands of years of intellectual and cultural development. Anyone who thinks we simply willed this golden age into existence over the past couple of generations should really be right here at this conference today learning exactly how wrong they are from the folks visiting us from Hillsdale, Michigan. The more concise reason why I lead an American Classical Academy is that I believe we are in the process of throwing it all away. To quote C.S. lewis from his 1943 work Abolition of Man, we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more drive or dynamism or self sacrifice or creativity. In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. 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. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful. You and I are living in a pivotal time in the history of our country and the world. Everyone wants the benefits offered to us through our Western heritage, but many have begun to discard the heritage itself. We need to actively prepare students to become the virtuous citizens we expect them to be. We are neglecting our civilization, and if we don't change course, then one day it may be gone. While this occurs all around us, there are leaders emerging in every corner of the United States. These individuals are determined to form future citizens who uphold the ideals of our country's founding and promote the continuation of our American experiment. They do this through a classical Great Books curriculum designed to engage students in the highest matters and the deepest questions of truth, justice, virtue, and beauty. These people are American classical educators. Rather than abandoning some of our most important institutions, which is both irresponsible and ineffective, these individuals are attempting to breathe new life into American public education. American classical education offers hope and a path forward. Families are desperately seeking this, and we have a moral obligation to provide a public education that emphasizes virtuous living, traditional learning, and civic responsibility. An American classical education includes both academic and moral components. We are concerned with what children know and also what sort of person they are going to become. This comes with a classical academic program centered within a curriculum scope and sequence designed by the Hillsdale college office of K12 education and we are very thankful for for their work on that. By the way, we teach phonics and grammar systematically, mathematics with a strong conceptual foundation, Spanish, Latin, art, music and physical education for all students, and a content rich sequence of history, science and literature every day beginning in kindergarten. The American civic heritage is represented as an undercurrent throughout our academic program, but it is explicitly present in history lessons. There is something profoundly optimistic to stand in a kindergarten classroom in an American public school and see them recite the preamble from memory. This is a well balanced liberal arts and sciences education in the tradition of the founders of our nation. However, the academic program is only the first half of our mission in full. Our mission is to train the minds and improve the hearts of students through a classical, content rich curriculum that emphasizes virtuous living, traditional learning and and civic responsibility. Improving the Hearts of Students the moral component of our mission is focused on improving individuals for the benefit of all. There's no sense in providing a student with knowledge and ignoring their humanity. At Idaho Nova's Classical Academy, we teach and reinforce six virtues every day. These are courageous courtesy, honesty, perseverance, self government, and service. Although there are many other virtues worthy of cultivation, we believe that each of these six are necessary components of good citizenship and that ultimately that's what we want every student who walks through our doors to become a good citizen. Each day begins with story time or morning forum for our elementary students where school leaders read classic stories and teach these virtues. Those lessons continue throughout the day in every classroom, across all subject areas, and are taught both proactively and reactively as a defining characteristic of our school culture. We expect all of our employees to exemplify these virtues and wholeheartedly dedicate themselves to developing them in the next generation. Now that I've provided you with a rudimentary outline of what an American classical education is, I'm going to share our biggest secret with you. The goal of an American classical education is to prepare and graduate students who are capable of a genuine pursuit of happiness. I should note that we have a classical view of what that means, rather than being drawn from the plethora of 20th century educational theorists you'd come across in most Education 101 classes or textbooks. Our philosophy of education is informed by many of the very Western thinkers that we teach about in our upper school. One such philosopher is Aristotle, who associated happiness with flourishing. He thought that pursuing virtue and living well were the defining purposes of a human life. This is a direct contrast to contemporary views of happiness, which are closely tied to the pursuit of pleasure. We should establish that amusement is not a fundamentally bad thing. It has its value. But 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. 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. It's something that will never completely overcome, which means that preparation for it must begin when a child is very young. At Idaho Novus Classical Academy, we pursue a true partnership with families to provide exactly this sort of education. And there's some of them in the room right now, actually. It's demanding, fraught with difficulty, and extremely countercultural, but it works, and our students are already reaping the benefits. Many parents are inspired by our mission and dedicated to ensuring their children receive this sort of education. Even though this was our very first year open, we're a K through 6 school right now. We'll continue to grow each year. We achieved a 96% parent satisfaction rating on our annual parent survey, and 97% of families indicated that their students will return next year. While our partnership demands a lot from them, as any true partnership does, an American classical education is exactly right what they were looking for. I recently remarked in a letter to our community that I'm honored to know the parents of Idaho nova's Classical Academy and witness the investment they are making in their children, knowing full well that they are also investing in the future of Western civilization. And I want to emphasize one more point. This is a cultural mission. We aren't trying to create something new. We're trying to restore what once was. We have no other choice but to act in defense of American public education. Failure to do so at this moment in our history will have civilizational consequences. I want to share that whether you are a public, public charter or private school educator, or someone working in an entirely different industry with a passion for this mission, you can take responsibility for your American inheritance and get involved. If you can't open an American Classical Academy because I know some of you are already committed to other ventures, you can learn more about what we are and adopt some of our practices. Before closing, I want to speak with you for a few minutes about Thomas Paine. That name is going to be familiar to many of you. He was a revolutionary whose writings inspired the morale of patriots who fought the American Revolution. He wrote a series of essays titled the American Crisis, which is perhaps a little too fitting of a title for the present moment and the challenges facing young people specifically today. In the first essay, he opened with the following words, and these are going to sound familiar. These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of their country. But he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. Yet we have this consolation with us that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods, and it would be strange indeed if so celestial. An article as Freedom should not be highly rated. Thomas Paine was writing in response to a political and military crisis. In some ways I think those sorts of crises are more manageable than the type I'm talking about here. Today, as educators, we are dealing with an educational and cultural crisis which is best understood as a threat to the minds and hearts of the next generation. This is not a partisan argument and frankly, has nothing to do with partisan politics at all. A friend of mine often says, 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. If we don't deliberately prepare the next generation for the responsibilities of good citizenship, we will all pay a heavy price. This isn't about who they vote for or where they go to church. It's about whether they possess the capacity to to be a good friend, a decent neighbor, a reliable spouse, an effective parent, and whether they will take responsibility for their impact on others and their community. It is about whether they will possess the knowledge and disposition to be helpful in any of these capacities, make their way in the world, pursue happiness, and safeguard the American experiment so that subsequent generations have the same opportunities that they did. This is about preparing students for the internal battle every human being faces as they grapple with and try to overcome the most unfortunate aspects of their nature. Later in his essay, Thomas Paine wrote this quote, I call not upon a few, but upon all. Not on this state or that state, but on every state. Up and help us. Lay your shoulders to the wheel. Better have too much force than too little. When so great an object is at stake, let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and repel it. I'm going to encourage each of you to heed this 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. If you are already actively defending the American experiment, it's time to redouble your efforts. 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. I won't leave parents searching in vain for a school like ours to partner with. I won't settle for good enough when the standard should be excellence, and I won't humor anyone who believes that abandoning our institutions is a reasonable option. If you feel the same way, consider joining us in the restoration of American public education.