What Good Is Education without the Classical Liberal Tradition?

By Marion Gabl

"Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote that every person is born an Aristotelian or a Platonist. Which are you?" This is what I asked my seventeen-year-old students during end-of-the-year oral exams. Many smiled and responded quickly; others seemed distressed at the prospect of having to choose a favorite. What a great question, I mused. These students, enrolled in a small Classical Christian school, are lucky to have the opportunity to seriously study philosophy. Thinking back to my own secondary school days, I doubt that I could have offered anything about Aristotle, except that a law professor quoted him in Legally Blonde. And Plato might as well have been colored clay for children. My memory, rather, recalls classes like "Career Preparation & Exploration," a course which consisted of monotoning responses to computer modules and an obscene amount of "group work." There's more than enough anecdotal material about bad schooling, and the American public is well aware that problems exist. Public leaders in education plead that we purge schools of bad teachers, scrape up.... (Read Full Article)