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Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words
The Rise of America’s ‘Alternative’ Classical Schools | Deacon Christopher Roberts
00:42:23
Why is the classical education movement gathering so much steam in America right now?
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Honestly, starting a school is probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It's also the best thing. Like, it's an incredible way of life. And I think it starts with some kind of inner conviction that somebody really ought to do something about the problems that we're seeing. And then you realize, heck, I'm somebody. I could do something. I would want to say that if we think about a classical account of what is a human being, if we look at the kind of thread and conversation that runs from Plato and Aristotle and through scripture to August, Augustine and Aquinas, the human heart is created and longs for truth, beauty and goodness, Right? We long and we ache for eternity. And as Augustine famously said, the human heart is restless until it rests in the O Lord. I want to say as a classical educator that we've got this inner drive for communion with God, the eternal, with each other, then to connect that to today. Right. America 2026. In the last few years, we have got a lot of restless, aching hearts in our culture.
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Well, hello, ladies and hello, gentlemen. Welcome to Victor Davis Hansen in His Own Words. As you know, without Victor Davis Hansen, our great friend is recovering from major surgery where we are talking on the 5th of February. And this particular episode, I believe, will be up on the 6th of February. And I have the great fortune to have with me today Deacon Chris Roberts, who is he's going to have to bear this burden. He is an expert. He will have to be an expert on classical education in America. And I do think our listeners and viewers, God bless you all, are very interested in this topic. Certainly Victor Davis Hansen, a man, a classic scholar, is interested in the classical education movement in America. So I'm going to give you a little bio of Deacon Roberts, and we're going to take a break and we're going to use our format, the Victor's Away format, Five questions. Some of them have multiple questions in them. But you're going to have to, I want to assure you, Deacon, by the end of this show, and it will end purgatory. May be, may be clear. So Deacon Roberts lives he lives in Chestnut Hill, that's in the Philadelphia region with his wife, Hannah, their four daughters. And he's the chairman of the board and the president of Martin Saints Classical High School. He's a permanent deacon at our Mother of Consolation Parish. He's a Catholic, Roman Catholic deacon. He's a convert who grew up in Baltimore. He's the author of several books. He's a graduate of Yale with his BA in religious Studies and environment Studies. You got a master's at Oxford and the University of London, and you have a further master's in theology from Philadelphia's St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. So that's a lot of education, as we might say in the Bronx. So anything else you want to add to your bio there before we get going, Deacon?
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No, thank you.
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All right, Well, I am so glad you're here so we can explore this really important issue. I don't think it's an issue, this phenomenon. So let's get to it right after these important messages.
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Since the founding of America 250 years ago, many things have changed, but some things never do. The commitment of husband and wife. The importance of passing along our values to our children. The faithfulness of God. Some wonder how we can ensure America will continue to thrive as long as we keep first things first. We've only just begun. America the Beautiful.
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We are back with Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Five questions. Strap yourself in, folks. Question number one. Deacon Roberts, let me put you in a position as a stand in for all classical education. And that's just what you wanted when you agreed to come on this podcast. Now, these schools, classical schools, they come in all shapes, all sizes, all denominations, some no denomination. But there is no question that as a thing, as a phenomenon, as a form of education that is an alternative to public and private education. And I'm going to segue here. Catholic schools are an alternative to public education, and classical Catholic schools are an alternative to Catholic schools. Even so, it's an alternative. But regardless, classical schools are burgeoning across the fruited plains and in our big cities and in our suburbs. So I'll ask you, not just yet. Eventually I'll ask you specifics about your school, Martin Saints Classical High School, and I'll ask you specifics later about its founding. But right now, I really would like to take this 30,000 foot look. Why, Deacon Chris Roberts, why is this classical education movement happening? And is the growth of this movement surprising to you?
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Okay, first. First, Jack, please allow me to just say thank you. Thank you for that introduction. Thank you for having me on this podcast. Thank you to Victor Davis Hanson for creating this podcast. And as he is a classical scholar himself, I hope whatever we do today is up to his standards. So just thank you and let's do this. So, okay, as a classical educator, I hope you will let me give a kind of classically inflected answer to your question. Why is this classical education movement gathering some steam? I would want to say that if we think about a classical account of what is a human being, if we look at the kind of thread and conversation that runs from Plato and Aristotle and through Scripture to Augustine and Aquinas, and, you know, is indeed, you know, the Catholic account of the human person today. The human heart is created and longs for truth, beauty and goodness, right? So we long and we ache for eternity. And as Augustine famously said, the human heart is restless until it rests in the O Lord. So I want to say, as a classical educator, that we've got this inner drive for communion with God, the eternal, with each other. And so then to connect that to today, right, America 2026, in the last few years, we have got a lot of restless, aching hearts in our culture, right? And, you know, we're all fallen. And that's part of the account of the human person that, you know, we get misdirected and people don't know what to do with their restlessness and their heartache, and we look for love in all the wrong places and faces. So we know that our culture is not what it ought to be. And then for whatever providential, gracious reason, sometimes you get a family or a group of families, some teachers and some students, people who want to get off the conveyor belt, people who are longing for something that's better, something people want to touch, something that is wholesome and beautiful and true in their child's education, in the way they organize their family life. People want to be more than cogs in the utilitarian machine. People worry about AI and they just want better for their kids. And so I think it's that kind of deep interior longing that ultimately leads people to explore classical education, people to do the hard work of starting these schools. Because there's, you know, what degree of awareness you get. A lot of parents who want for their kids a better education than they themselves had. And they're aware that there's this whole world of literature and philosophy and history and art and music and math, and they want math and science that are rooted in real wonder. And so they just have this awareness that there's this whole great centuries long conversation and they want to be apprentices to that. And so not everybody has that awareness. Not everybody has the gumption to step off the conveyor belt and go to these kind of schools that are alternatives to the alternative, but more and more do. So it's that combination of longing in the heart for what's eternal and dissatisfaction with what's happening now. And I think that that is some of the Necessary background for the movement. And I'll just end by just saying one last thing. It's not always easy. I don't want to misrepresent the strength of the movement. I'm not sure exactly how many high schools, how many secondary schools there are in Philadelphia, but you asked, is the growth of the movement surprising? And I'll just say of the hundred or so high schools in the Philadelphia area, there's only three of us that even purport to try to classically educate our students. I think our total combined enrollment, these three schools, is around 200 kids right now. We've got plans for growth, and we're at 200. That's up from roughly 0:10, 15 years ago. So it's a good thing the movement is real, but our plan for total global domination is still a little bit down the line.
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Yeah, yeah, you have gumption, but not that much gumption. All right, well, I'm going to ask you a second question, but I'm going to first read an ad. Okay. We pay our bills around here and Happy to do it, folks. If you've studied enough history, you start to see a pattern. Nations don't lose their way overnight. They drift through debt and division until one day you realize the foundations you thought were permanent were never permanent at all. And today, America is spending at levels of once reserved for wartime. We've normalized deficits that would have stunned earlier generations. And policymakers now debate whether the only path forward is more intervention, more printing, more distortion. But here's the historical truth. Every society that pushed its currency beyond discipline eventually paid a price. The wise never waited for collapse. They prepared for the correction. And that's why so many thoughtful Americans, especially those nearing retirement or in retirement, are reallocating part of their wealth. It is something that has outlasted every paper experiment in human history. We're talking about physical gold not as speculation, but as insulation. Our reputation matters here at Victor Davis Hanson, in his own words. And that's why we've partnered with Allegiance Gold, a company distinguished by integrity, reliability, and an A rating from the Better Business Bureau. For years, they've guided Americans through transparent education and longstanding relationships built on trust. And right now, they're extending a special liberty offer for our listeners to help you get started with real gold, whether your funds are in a retirement account or sitting in a bank. If you believe as we do that the best time to reinforce your position is before the storm becomes obvious, call 844-790-919, 18447. 909191 or visit protectwithviktor.com that's 844-790-91918, 447909191 or visit protectwithvictor.com History rewards those who take the long view. And we thank the very good people from Allegiance Gold for sponsoring Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Maybe some of that gold will find its way into the coffers of your school. Deacon Chris Roberts, very appreciative again that you're with us. Second question for the day is about your school. And again we're going to talk about the actual founding of the school later. Later, but about the school itself. Tell us about it. What is its education model? If you go to the school's website, you'll see that it's a Chesterton school. So what's a Chesterton school? And is there a mission that extends beyond the classroom traditions of ABCs and learning, French, Latin, et cetera? You know, is there a spiritual mission beyond the classroom? Is there a civic? Is there both? You know, what's that special extra?
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Okay, great. Thank you, Jack. So a Chesterton school. So we are a member of this thing, the Chesterton Schools Network. And we are a network of maybe 70 or so like minded Catholic classical 9 through 12 high schools sprinkled around the country. I say around the country cause There are about 70 in the country. But there's also, I think there's one in England, one in Italy, one actually in Sierra Leone and another in Kurdistan. I could tell you about that. That's a digression. But the point is we're all under the kind of spirituality and patronage of G.K. chesterton, an English journalist, essayist, man of letters and a deeply orthodox Catholic. He wrote a book called Orthodoxy. And Chesterton has a couple things going for him. First, a real gift for making the Western tradition alive and accessible. You know, wrote this amazing, very accessible biography of Thomas Aquinas, also Francis of Assisi. But Chesterton, you know, he's writing in kind of early 20th century England and you know, some of the challenges to Catholicism and Christianity emerging from 19th century thought. He just eviscerates and satirizes modern nonsense with great wit and flair. So Chesterton is a kind of patron for those of us who want to be orthodox and faithful in modern circumstances in the face of modern challenges. And we want to do it with wit, flair and without fear because, you know, we're confident the truth is never afraid. So anyway, so the Chesterton spirituality that branch of Catholicism is important. And the actual Chesterton network, the practicalities of it. I think we were like the eighth school 10 years ago, and on a road trip out to Minneapolis, we met the great Chesterton scholar, Dale Alquist, who runs this Chesterton society and kind of presides over the school's network and he introduces us. And what we do as a network of schools, we all share a kind of common great books curriculum, which I'll talk about in a second. And we share each other, we support each other with the back end administration, and we mentor each other in the heavy lifting of starting a new school. But the curriculum is the thing that's the real glue that binds us all together. And the curriculum that we all kind of. There's minor local variations, but the gist of it is you start in ninth grade with the ancient world, reading Homer, Virgil, Plato, Aristotle, and you work your way chronologically through the western tradition. So 10th grade you're into the medieval times, you're starting with Augustine, getting into chaucer and Shakespeare. 11th grade is Dante and Aquinas, and by the 12th grade you're into modern thought and you're reading Dostoevsky and Mary Shelley and Flannery o'.
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Connor.
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But in other words, a Chesterton curriculum makes our students apprentices to this great Western conversation, which is going to take a lifetime to master. But you get mentored into this conversation across centuries and all along the way, by the way, I should mention the kids, they have to get to a certain proficiency in Latin, then they can opt into Spanish if they want to also. But you're taking math and science too. Math and science taught classically is going to be heavy on wonder. We start with astronomy, looking at direct observations of the skies, learning the scientific method through, you know, studying a lot of the history of science, making connections between science and other areas of thought. In fact, one of the things that galvanized me to get into this school was wanting to educate, do a better job in Catholic education, explaining links between biology and theology. Also, every kid studies the fine arts, every kid gets experience in acting, singing, painting. So it's a really well rounded, cohesive, integrated curriculum, all of it with kind of theology, the queen of the sciences, this confidence that the truth is out there, that there's many approaches to a common, integrated truth. I want to add two more things, if you don't mind. I want to say that all Chesterton schools are deeply, deeply Catholic. Every teacher is on mission, every school. We all meet daily for an act of worship. That's typically Daily Mass for many of the schools here at Martin Saints, for various practical reasons, we have Mass twice a week, but on the other days we're doing scripture study, rosary, liturgy of the hours, Eucharistic adoration, benediction. Faith is really the heart of the school. I'd say that we read the great books because they honor our intellectual dignity, they honor the intellectual dignity of the kids, and they put the kids in the zone to have conversations about things that matter. And so that's just very compatible and simpatico with a Catholic approach to culture and life. Last thing I want to throw in there about the curriculum, which is in some ways unique to our school, is that it's not just books. Every Friday there are craftsmanship classes, woodworking, metalworking, fiber arts, cooking. There's also a regular rhythm of field trips, we call them for Saudi Friday. We start the whole school year with the whole school goes camping. You unplug, you get in nature, you start talking about creation and what that means and that kind of surrounding the kids with culture, with outdoor adventure, corporal works of mercy service. It's hugely important to creating an atmosphere that is beyond the books. You know, you're trying to create fully alive human beings.
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So I have to admit to our many listeners of many faiths, we're being very papist here. But you be tolerant, all because, you know, this association of Christian classical schools that I know are growing at a significant rate. I think 150 or 250 new schools every year. So this is from what, Deacon Roberts, what you just explain in a very Catholic sense. I'm sure if we had, and I hope someday too, have a representative from some of the Protestant schools can say not the same thing, they're not praying the rosary, but similar things about how faith imbued classical, successful classical education can be, because you are not nominally Catholic, you are authentically Catholic. I think many people who send their children to Catholic schools, I'll assume the same folks who send their kids to some Protestant private schools, will find they are in name only, nominally, but not truly authentic. And that's at a high school, elementary school level, high school level, and certainly at a college level. There are a lot of Catholic colleges that are. It's a stretch to call them that. Well, anyway, enough of my babbling on that. We're going to take a very short break and then we're going to come back with two more questions about Martin Saints Classical High School. How did this thing come to be? We'll do that right after these important messages. We are Back with Deacon Chris Roberts here today. We're talking on Thursday, February 5th. This episode of Victor Davis Hansen in his own words will be up on Friday the 6th. The Deacon Here we go, question number three. And I'm going to start it off with an obvious statement. This school did not exist at one point in time. And here's another obvious statement Now, St. Martin's Classical. I said St. Martin. Now, Martin Saints Classical High School does indeed exist. So at some point in between, for some reason or other, someone had an ingenious idea, let's create this particular kind of school. What was the genesis of Martin Saints? And I'm also, I'm told a little something by somebody I know and somebody, you know, that there was a, I think an, I don't know if it's an upstream or downstream reason in part of the motivating factors that may had to have do with people realizing of young Catholics and by young, I mean post college, that, wow, they're coming for training for, you know, maybe getting married, maybe pre Cana and realizing that even after all these years of, you know, these kids have been in Catholic school since kindergarten through college and they were ignorant of the faith. That may or may not have been a factor. But actually, though, tell us the story how, okay, what made this thing come to be?
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I know the story you're alluding to and I'll tell it. First, I'll just clarify the name of the school because you made a, a common slip of the tongue. People want to call us St. Martin's School, but it's not. It's Martin's Saints Classical High School. And the reason for that is this. Therese of Lisieux. Saint Therese of Lisieux, also known as the Little Flower, is a very popular 19th century French saint, one of the most popular saints in Catholicism today. But her birth name, her family name was Martin. About 10, 15 years ago, her parents, Louis and Zellie were also canonized. So they are a whole family of saints. Mom, dad, one of the kids, their last name's Martin. It's the Martin family of saints. And there's a whole spirituality there of like, you know, they were an ordinary middle class family. 19th century France, lots of cultural churn and change and threats to the faith. And there again, like they're being faithful in the midst of all that. So we are called the Martin Saints for the name for that whole family of saints, you know. So we're trying to make a statement there about partnering with families, partnering with parents, raising up children. So anyways, that's the name of the school. Now, about the stories that you're alluding to about how we kind of got inspired to start this. So my family originally moved to Philadelphia a little over 20 years ago so I could take a job teaching at Villanova. And I was at Villanova for several happy years. And, you know, there's. There's some really good people in different pockets at Villanova, people I admire an awful lot. And I had great students, smart, bright kids with good hearts. Like, you basically have to close Villanova when the Special Olympics happen, because everybody wants to volunteer for the Special Olympics. Good hearts. However, these kids who were the graduates, the cream of the crop of, like, Catholic high schools from all over the Atlantic, they didn't know their faith, right? They really didn't. They knew the Catholic punchlines. They knew the church would be against X, Y or Z. But you can't live a Catholic life if all you have are the thou shalt nots, right? You have to know the reasons, the rationale, the beauty behind the teachings. And in particular, I taught a class that was so much fun to teach. It was a great class on the theology of marriage, human sexuality, courtship. And, you know, we're studying Augustine, John Paul ii, Humanae Vitae. We're studying all these great texts in the history of Catholic thought on these topics. And the kids are like, why has no one ever told us this before?
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Right?
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I never knew that's what the Church taught, and that's why. So they didn't know their faith. And, okay, so I'm having this growing internal conviction that I want to work with students at a younger age. You know, get in there, okay? Meanwhile, the co founder of the school, my friend partner in crime, Adam Dickerson, he was a canon lawyer at the Archdiocesan Marriage Tribunal downtown. Those are the people that you go see when you are, you know, needing a marriage annulment or in some kind of entangled family situation. And Adam is working with couples, often in their 30s, young couples, and they've been Catholic, educated pre K to ba and they're in these really tragic family situations. And Adam's thinking, how come their Catholic education, their Catholic formation, didn't prepare them better for life? You know, why are they in these situations? So, you know, Philadelphia. So, I mean, so Adam also has this converging sense that I had of wanting to work with kids when they're younger, wanting to work, you know, get in there before they're on these tragic trajectories. So Philadelphia, we've got this rich and wonderful Legacy of inherited historic Catholic schools. But you'd have to be a stone not to notice that business as usual is not bearing fruit. And that, you know, we are hemorrhaging young people. And so, you know, Adam and I, we're also both fathers, and, you know, we've got our own children who are at the time approaching high school age. And we just. For all these converging reasons, we wanted to do something to try and raise the game of Catholic secondary education. You know, create a better kind of high school option than we felt was out there. Not to throw stones at the other schools. There's some heroic people doing work in the Catholic system, But I'm just saying that as a whole, you know, we're hemorrhaging young people, so, you know, you gotta try something different. And I don't think that our model is right for every single kid. But I know that in a diocese as large as Philadelphia, a school like this should be on the menu.
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Well, question four. I was gonna get a little more broad sense of creating a school. Whether or not you're Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Muslim, secular, and you're looking to create a classical school from scratch. I have to assume this is an extremely heavy lift that transcend sectarianism. I think it might even be a heavy lift even if you had some sugar daddy or sugar mama, right? You know, seven figure check. It's still quite a task. What is it like to found a school, a classical school, to get approval for the school, to build the school, to market the school, and then kind of related questions. Deacon, what are the greatest challenges one is likely to face in creating a classical school? For all I know, might be. It might be zoning regulations. And what is it that's required from others, whether they're parents, students, or the community, to see that a classical school not only launches, but that it achieves orbit.
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So the good news is that there really are, at this stage in the game, there are organizations out there that can mentor you. Like, if you've got a critical mass of families and you want to start a classical school, there are organizations in the Catholic world. There's, of course, the Chesterton Network. You know, that it really. That's what it's doing, is mentoring people who start schools. There's something called the icle, the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. Again, going to one of those conferences, meeting people who had already started schools, having coffee with them. You don't have to invent the wheel. And there are analogs on the Protestant side, too. And you want those mentors because honestly, starting a school is probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It's also the best thing. It's an incredible way of life. And I think it starts with some kind of inner conviction that somebody really ought to do something about the problems that we're seeing. And then you realize, heck, I'm somebody. I could do something. And I just would encourage anybody on the fence to go to one of these conferences of one of these organizations, start meeting people. People want to help. Our world is hurting so much, and how to fix the church, how to repair our country. It's all above my pay grade, but I pinch myself every day that I get to build a classical school, because I know it's part of the solution. Praise God, I get to do this. So I don't know how much detail you want me to go into. You can push me, but I'll say two things about money. I'll say one thing about money and one thing about the kind of students you want to get. First of all, money. You do need to start building up donors. You do need to start just getting out there telling your story, meeting people in the community who want a school like this to take root. They say Jeff Bezos took a decade right before Amazon was profitable. And there are going to be startup costs. You know, for example, I think a mature, sustainable, fully enrolled private school is typically 75 to 80% tuition driven. You're not going to be anywhere close to that. In the early years, you know, Martin Saenz has had five graduating classes. We've been in business one way or another for 10 years. And, you know, we have, we're maybe 50% covered by tuition. So the work, like, you know, Jack, one of the things that I know you do, you know, off camera, you work in American philanthropic amfil. You know, you work with nonprofits, ministries, people in civil society, to help them learn how to approach donors. And I think one of the best things that Martin Saenz did early in its history was to invest in a relationship with Amphil, with Austin Detwiler in particular. And really, there are ways of meeting people, ways of building relationships, ways of marketing, emailing, writing letters, connecting with your mission with people who want to participate in that mission. And you got to prioritize that. That's part of the work. Secondly, about students, Adam, my co founder and I, we both happen to have daughters in this year's senior class, Mary Grace Dickerson and my daughter Ruth Roberts. And these two girls have over the, you know, the last five Six, seven years, they have rolled up their sleeves, they have set up for events, they've stayed late to help clean up for event. And not just because they're our daughters, but because you do need some students who get the mission and who want to grow something like this. Right. Like, there are a lot of parents out there that are very intimidated about alternative education. Right. You know, we all have this kind of typical American adolescent experience. We all want Friday Night Lights and, you know, high school culture and, you know, you know, parents have that in mind for their kids. And I want to say to families, actually getting your students, your young people involved in building a school like this, building an institution that talks about truth, beauty and goodness in a world gone mad, getting your kids involved in building that is part of the experience, right? You want them to be involved in creating a hospitable cultural oasis. You know, one other kid, and it's. And it's important. It's not just kids who happen to be children of the founders. I'll mention one other guy in our senior class. His name is Joel Caselli. Now, when Joel first came to us as a middle school student, when he was, you know, he came in for ninth grade, he was like, one of the best middle school quarterbacks in the area, right? Any. Any high school would have been glad to have this kid, but he was mission driven. His family was mission driven. They wanted to, you know, a proper classical education. And so, you know, he could have gone and played football, but he came here and he was a big fish in a small pond. And he started our basketball program. Right? And so now, four years later, you see the fruit, you know, you know, we've got a basketball program because someone wanted to invest in it and start it. And, you know, he had help, he had friends. I gotta give a shout out to Danny Illingworth, but, you know, and other. And Owen Dernlund and Owen Wadd, all the guys on the basketball team. But this class of boys, yeah, they built something. And so you need kids with gumption and courage who can do things.
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Yeah, this is. I know I don't want to use the word family, but there is clearly some sense of that from what you've just said. People are belonging, by the way. That is the success. You talked a little bit about fundraising, but you do have a quest for belonging, and that is the essence of success anywhere. Raising money or having a school that grows and thrives. So, Deacon Chris Roberts, we got one last question for you. And it's been relatively painless so far. And I hope it remains that way. I'll ask you that relative. Yeah, I'll ask you that last question when we come back from these final important messages. And we are back with Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Pinch hitting for Victor is Deacon Chris Roberts. I forgot to. I'm glad you mentioned that you taught at Villanova. Didn't somebody graduate from Villanova?
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You didn't teach him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Before my time.
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Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I hope so. So. All right, well, my final question, and it's a bit of a mouthful, but you just suffer through it. Cause we all know, everybody knows their own family, their own kids, their nieces, nephews, neighbors. This kid just graduated, took him six years. He's got debt, it's a mortgage, and he doesn't have a job. Right. We hear this constantly. So there's a lot of pressure now for the end result of K through 16 education to be about employment and about career. Given that so many college graduates have no career and huge debt and frankly, they've been poorly educated, this strong pushback to that reality, I think it's called for in some degree. Now, you recently wrote, I've read one of the annual reports. We do not want to become like Charles Darwin, machines for grinding facts, our souls starved, confused and morally feeble. At Martin Saints. Now I'm speaking now you're providing a counter to this, I think you are, to this new demand for practicality, for a return on investment, that ROI on education. That has to mean a good job. But I want to know, do you find that the type of education that you are offering at the high school and that's being offered by other classical schools is actually an antidote for this concern that you are creating well educated students who are in an excellent position to, when they become adults, thrive not only as workers and employees, but as good people and good citizens.
- [36:18]
A
Okay. All right. Thank you for that. Let me start with that Darwin quote. That Darwin quote. We don't wanna. He was writing in his autobiography towards the end of his life, and he was confessing that while his mind was still sharp in one respect. Right. The part you read, I think, well, he had called his own mind a machine for grinding facts. He wrote that in his specialization, other parts of his mind had atrophied. And he's writing and confessing that he can no longer really listen to music or follow Shakespeare and poetry. So this is a self diagnosis from Darwin that part of him had died on the inside. And so the first reason that classical education exists is to do better Than that to create fully alive human beings, right? To fight that kind of dead eyed, brain dead syndrome in our own day, to fight that kind of couch potato, iPhone, zombification, we want bright eyes and full hearts. And so if you get a kid who has the bright eyes and who is alive on the inside, whose mind has been chiseled by Dante and Shakespeare, who's learned to write without AI I haven't even talked about how our schools are deliberately low tech and who has, you know, through four years of classical pedagogy, which is heavy on conversation and seminar discussion. So you've got a kid whose mind and heart is shaped like this. My goodness. That young man or woman is set up to lead, right? So no apologies for that young man or woman's postgraduate employment prospects. You do get kids who go into the trades. And that's awesome because I want a stonemason or carpenter or a plumber who reads play. D'oh. That is cool. And if you want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a computer programmer or whatever, you know, there are technical skills that you can pick up later. But that heart, that's open, eyes that are bright, mind, that is chiseled, tongue, that is articulate, that's what you want. That's a fully alive human being. And that student is going to be able to learn anything and learn adapt any skill you know as scripture, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. There it is. Aim for a fully alive human being. The technical skills can come. CS Lewis has a variation. He says, aim at heaven and you'll get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you'll get neither, right? All those people who were panicked and learning to code a few years ago and I don't know now AI is going to take it over. Look, I really cannot emphasize enough that if you seek to educate your children to be a real, fully alive human being, you will get the earthly skills thrown in. That's what I believe.
- [39:16]
B
Wow. I'm so glad this is recorded for posterity because that was really important, what you just said. Very, very inspiring, Deacon Roberts. You know, I wish I had six or seven questions I could get even more inspired, but this is.
- [39:34]
A
Thank you, Jack.
- [39:34]
B
Thanks for letting me. Well, it was more than a moat, so thanks kindly. Deacon. Chris Roberts. What's the website? If anyone wants to visit, there's two.
- [39:46]
A
Websites that go to the same place. Www.martinsaintsclassical.org or simply ymsc.org w h ymsc.org, ymsc.org thank you, Jack.
- [40:00]
B
Well, I want to thank Deacon Chris Roberts for being here to give us a taste and a flavor of what why there is classical education in America, why it's growing, what its intention is, what its consequences are. And I think Victor, I know Victor will watch this, and I'm confident he will be very appreciative that you took this on to, as I said earlier, educate us. Thank you, Deacon Chris Roberts, for joining us today. Thank you folks who are watching, who are listening, and we will be back soon with another episode of Victor Davis Hansen in His Own Words. Bye bye. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website@victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features. In addition.