In 2022, esteemed Psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, made the case that a particular change in the way social media worked made the past 10 years of American life uniquely stupid. Drawing from the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, Haidt accurately describes a nation that is suddenly disoriented and unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. And, despite all of our technological advancements, we are now a fractured country cut off from one another and from the past.
In his article, Haidt suggests three goals that must be achieved if democracy is to remain viable in a post-Babel era. He says,
We must harden democratic institutions so that they can withstand chronic anger and mistrust, reform social media so that it becomes less socially corrosive, and better prepare the next generation for democratic citizenship in this new age.
The third of his three essential goals is to better prepare the next generation for democratic citizenship in this new age of technology.
In my talks at the Consortium of Classical Educators this summer, I will be demonstrating why Classical Christian Education is, in fact, the best vehicle for preparing the next generation for democratic citizenship in this new age of technology. I will share why I believe it is capable of unstupiding us—and not only in our children’s, but in our own generation as well.
Nevertheless, however much I believe Classical Christian Education is the best vehicle for preparing the next generation for democratic citizenship, I will also be arguing that as a movement which is still relatively young in its modern renaissance, CCE is already veering from its highest calling by settling for what I believe is a deficient goal of mere civic education, no matter important Haidt has contended that this goal is.
Said another way, Classical Christian Educators cannot merely aim at the low bar of “better democratic citizenship;” we must aim at the high bar of incarnational humanism. To put the matter in terms of C. S. Lewis’s acclaimed work, Mere Christianity: “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”
I plan to expound further on this in some future posts, but if you are in NW Arkansas (June 1), New England (July 12-13), the West Coast (July 17), or the region of the Carolinas (Aug 2-3), I hope you’ll join us at one of our Consortium events and hear the talk for yourself.
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