This is the next installment of My Top Fifty Books For Families And Teachers New To Classical Christian Education. In this post, I’ll share 10 works that will expand, as well as deepen, your educational philosophy.
Idea of a University by Cardinal John Henry Newman. This work is actually a collection of two books, primarily derived from lectures given by Newman on various occasions during the 1850s. This work is important as a comprehensive apology for liberal education at a time when the universities began replacing liberal arts education with vocational training. It was the beginning of what we see today as the status quo in the modern universities—degree programs geared toward job markets. Newman focuses on three primary themes: 1) the
nature of knowledge; 2) the role of religious belief in higher education; and 3) a defense of liberal education for university students. While Newman did not believe the university was meant for theological training, he believed theology could not be separated from other disciplines without damaging the truth of that subject. This is because all disciplines are part of one truth; thus “uni” in university means one. He writes, “to withdraw Theology from the public schools is to impair the completeness and to invalidate the trustworthiness of all that is actually taught in them.”
Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education by David V. Hicks is a challenging but essential text on Classical Education. With Chapters like “Virtue is the Fruit of Learning,” “The Tyrannizing Image,” and “Ennobling the Masses,” one is quickly dismissed of the notion that classical education “is elitist and irrelevant.” Hicks makes a convincing argument that “the classical tradition can meet the needs of our increasingly technological society as well as serve as a feasible model for mass education.”
Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education by James S. Taylor is as counter-modernity as educational philosophy can get. Taylor argues for the other ways of knowing which are often dismissed by academia and the scientific community who adhere strictly to knowing only by reason and empirical evidence, namely, per modum scientificum solum. Poetic Knowledge is that “intuitive, obscure, mysterious way of knowing reality, not always able to account for itself, but absolutely essential if one is ever to advance properly to the higher degrees of certainty.” It is that knowledge Malcolm Gladwell points to in his book, “Blink.” (Look! A bonus book.)
Climbing Parnassus by Tracy Lee Simmons is another apology for classical education, particularly for the return of Greek and Latin language learning to the classroom of America’s schools. In brief, Simmons makes the case that the classical languages were the bedrock for humane learning and the benefits to learning those languages are, by far, more than mere critical thinking skills. It takes a proper classical education to cultivate citizens who are actually worthy of their freedom.
Aristotle: Education for Virtue and Leisure by Gary Hartenburg is introduction to one of the classical giants of educational philosophy. John Lukacs notably said that “the history of a thing is the thing itself.” To know education, one must understand the history of education. Said another way, to develop one’s own educational philosophy, one must understand the foundation and the telos of education; to understand both of these, one must be familiar with the thinkers, like Aristotle, whose ideas gave shape to the history Western education.
The Age of Martha: A Call to Contemplative Learning in a Frenzied Culture by Devin O’Donnell is as timely as it is a breath of fresh air. In this book, O’Donnell reminds parents and teachers that students need to rest as much as they run. Our culture is frenzied (from frenetic, meaning “inflammation of the brain,” metaphorically it means mentally unhealthy). Modern education is a reflection of frenzied modern life instead of a panacea for it. Classical education embraces Scholé (root for our word, school), leisure to study the things most worthwhile, and prompts us to recover the philosophical ought of education (i.e., what we ought to do) instead of defaulting to the philosophical is (i.e., what we tend to do by default).
Beauty for Truth’s Sake and Beauty in the Word, both by the late Catholic theologian and educator, Stratford Caldecott, show us how education is basically the apprehension and appreciation of that which is beautiful, the meaningful inner order of the cosmos and all of its constituent parts. Caldecott provides parents and educators with a fresh perspective rooted in classical Christian tradition: all of our subjects are integrated and worthy of our investigation and inquiry as a way of apprehending and appreciating the beauty of God’s goodness.
Festive School by Father Nathan Carr reminds us that school should be rooted in Christian joy. Christian joy is obviously the opposite of the drudgery school can be for many students. But joy is not rooted in the pop culture’s idea of novel entertainment and fleeting fun; it’s rooted in the beautiful festivities of Christianity: rituals, liturgy, prayer, worship, love, relationships, and celebrations, etc.
I couldn’t decide between three books for my number ten on this list. I guess I’ll have to cheat and just make this list a baker’s dozen (including the bonus Gladwell book) and call it good. A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille, Early Christianity and Greek Paideia by Werner Jaeger and Education for Freedom by Robert M. Hutchins all focus on some aspect of the civic benefits of classical education—mostly the right understanding and proper use of freedom. In my opinion, there is a danger to thinking of CCE as being a purely civic education because all education is rooted in worldview and all laws are the legislation and enforcement of moral values rooted that worldview for the body politic. Nevertheless, understanding the role of CCE in politics, leadership, and freedom is essential for any parent or educators and these three aptly tackle the questions about civic education.
[…] The previous posts in this series can be read here: first, second, third, fourth, and fifth. […]