Theory 2 Action Podcast
Theory 2 Action Podcast
MM#411--Reclaiming Wisdom: How the Revival of Classical Schools is Reshaping American Education
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The American education system is failing our children. With only 33% of fourth graders reading at proficiency—a statistic unchanged since 1992—and international rankings showing the US lagging in math, science, and problem-solving skills, parents are increasingly seeking alternatives. Enter the classical education revival: a powerful counter-revolution growing at 5% annually with projected enrollment reaching 1.4 million students by 2035.
Classical education isn't a new innovation but rather a return to what worked for 2,500 years. At its core lies a fundamental understanding of humans as "rational animals" requiring development in both intellectual and moral virtue. When you walk into a classical school, you won't see students glued to screens. Instead, you'll find children in uniforms engaged in genuine conversation, studying primary sources and great works of literature, guided by teachers deeply educated in their subjects. The curriculum builds systematically from kindergarten through high school, focusing on worthy, thought-provoking material rather than educational fads.
The results speak volumes. Hillsdale College's Barney Charter School Initiative has established 30 member schools across 17 states with remarkable outcomes: 99% graduation rates versus 86% nationally, 63% college placement versus 44%, and significantly higher standardized test scores. But the most profound difference lies in the emphasis on virtues rather than values. Where traditional schools promote subjective values without clear moral grounding, classical schools explicitly teach objective virtues like honesty, courage, responsibility, respect, and wisdom. They approach American history by having students read founding documents directly, acknowledging both the country's flaws and its progress toward fulfilling worthy ideals. This isn't about political indoctrination but about equipping students with the intellectual tools to think deeply and critically about what matters most in human life and society.
Key Points from the Episode:
• Classical education sector growing 5% annually with projected enrollment of 1.4 million students by 2035
• Only 33% of 4th graders read at proficient levels, virtually unchanged since 1992
• Hillsdale College leading the renaissance through their Barney Charter School Initiative with 30 member schools across 17 states
• Classical schools emphasize virtues over values, teaching objective standards rather than subjective preferences
• Key differences include limited technology, focused curriculum, primary source documents, and teaching both intellectual and moral virtues
• Better outcomes include 99% graduation rates and 63% college placement compared to national averages
• Classical education emphasizes virtues (honesty, courage, responsibility, respect, wisdom) rather than subjective values
• These schools teach American history through primary documents while acknowledging both accomplishments and failures
• Focus is on developing critical thinking by engaging with great works rather than indoctrination
Other resources:
Liberty #14--the 16,000 hour war part 1
Liberty #14--the 16,000 hour war part 2
American Classical Education video (worthy of your time)
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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser. Flourishing life Now, here's your host, david Kaiser.
Speaker 2:Hello, I am David, and welcome back to another Mojo Minute, as is our custom. Let's begin with the opening quote. Classical education is undergoing a renaissance. According to a recent analysis by Arcadia Education, the classical sector is growing by 5% annually, with a total projected enrollment of 1.4 million students by 2035. Whoa, that sounds like a revolution, or should I say a counter-revolution? That quote comes to us from the Thomas Fordham Institute. It's a white paper on a counter-revolution of thought in education and the education model, and that counter-revolution began in the 1990s with charter schools and is picking up steam and over the last several decades has only intensified. And now, even since COVID, it is picking up more steam, like a Mack truck going downhill.
Speaker 2:Now we know the stats. We hear them on the television, we read them in news articles about how bad our education system is. 2023 Gallup poll found that 36% of US parents expressed high confidence in their public schools, down from 58% in 1995. Down from 58% in 1995. Common concerns are outdated curricula, inadequate preparation for college or careers and declining academic performance. A 2022 survey by EdChoice showed 60% of parents worry about their child's academic progress, particularly post-pandemic learning loss. About 47% cited concerns over teacher quality and 35% noted issues like bullying or school safety. Now you might dismiss all this and say don't most parents worry overwhelmingly worry about their kids? These are just worrisome parents, because all parents are worrisome.
Speaker 2:Well, let's take a little bit deeper look. What are some of the other stats that jump out to us? Only 18% of African-American and 21% of Hispanic fourth graders were deemed proficient in reading on the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is the key indicator of future academic success. About this one approximately 50 to 70% of students in urban settings fail to graduate high school, contributing to a national dropout rate of about 30%. Doesn't sound good. How about chronic absenteeism? Missing more than 10% of school days that's how they define it Nearly doubled post-pandemic, with rates in some school districts like Oakland, california, rising from 17% pre-pandemic to an astonishing 43% in the 2021-2022 school year.
Speaker 2:How about the new prevalence of bullying? Over 20% of students in grades 6 through 12 reported being bullied in 2018, with many more cases unreported, impacting mental health and academic performance. Despite an 80% high school graduation rate, less than half of the graduates are adequately prepared for college or the workforce, per the US Department of Education, and we know, based on the actual employers that that is even a higher number that they're inadequately prepared. They're inadequately prepared. In the 2019-2020 school year, 77% of public schools reported at least one incident of crime, with 70% recording violent incidences, translating to 29 incidences per 1,000 students An astonishing number. 1,000 students an astonishing number. And then the US ranks 30th behind countries in high school math, with millennials tying the last, tying for last in math and problem-solving skills among the industrialized nations.
Speaker 2:This last one was the main reason that Trump is pushing the education back to the states, as is his purview as president of the United States. He'll have to get congressional authority, but he can certainly do a lot as president, but will that work? Certainly believe it's a good step, but I believe the model has to change. The most alarming stat is this the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 33% of 4th graders and 31% of 8th graders scored proficient or above in reading, largely unchanged since when 1992. For over the last 30 years, we have failed our kids Complete and utter failure. Total national stagnation. This is not a funding issue. This is not a political issue. This is not merely a cultural issue. This is a total failure of a civilization and of a country we are saying as a country that we cannot teach our young people to read the most basic, the most foundational building block of a person's life, to be able to read at proficiency.
Speaker 2:Now, way back in Liberty, minute 14, we talked about the 16,000 hour war. It's happening in our elementary schools, middle schools, high schools. We actually did a deep dive into the education or the miseducation, as we should call it now of our society. We did a two-part series. We'll put those links in the show notes. They are certainly worthy of your time if you haven't listened to them. But for today we want to talk about what is the classical school renaissance and in fact I just took my mom up to the wonderful Hillsdale College in southern Michigan where they are in fact leading the classical school renaissance. It's a wonderful trip. We have beautiful weather. Along the way I learned about how they are helping to build out the charter schools and how they are, for the most part, the tip of the spear in this renaissance and in this counter-revolution. Let me share some of the materials because I think they will provide you with some hope, because most people don't know about this.
Speaker 2:What's the Barney Charter School Initiative? How does it function and how many schools are there? The Barney this is Dr Kathleen O'Toole, who is the provost and president of the K-12 education platform at Hillsdale. This is an interview. The Barney School Initiative is a project of Hillsdale College that started back in 2010. We at the college provide free guidance and support to local groups of people who want to see an excellent classical school in their area. To date, we have helped dozens of charter schools get rolling and we now have 30 member schools across the country. Now we work very closely with these schools, but we don't own or operate them. They are locally operated, which we think is an important element, but they are faithful to the same mission that we are faithful to. So if I walk into one, what makes it different? Students in uniforms and Aristotle sitting on the shelf. Kathleen O'Toole says you would definitely see Aristotle, you would definitely see uniforms. You would not see a lot of technology.
Speaker 2:One way to talk about classical education is to talk about the core elements of it, the things you would observe first when you went into a school. That means children raising hands and having actual conversations with each other, rather than relying on technology to communicate or learn. That means teachers who are educated deeply in their subjects and who are really good at explaining what they know. The things that we study are also different. We're not innovating for the sake of innovation.
Speaker 2:There's only so much time that you have when a child is receiving his or her primary and secondary education, so you want to make sure that you're spending those formative years with the very best. Imagine that, years with the very best. Imagine that. To that end, you'll see that the study of the great books is a huge part of a K through 12. Classical education Amen. She goes on.
Speaker 2:We don't think that children are too little to study real things. If you give even a very young child access to something that is really worthy, really thought-provoking, really worth spending time on, that, the child will respond. Children know when they're being talked down to and they know when they're being given worthy things to do. The curriculum is full of worthy things, whether it's great novels or the real history lesson given to a very young child. And finally, each school has an orderly plan for education of its students and the plan is shared by all of the teachers, kindergarten through 12th grade. It's not up to the teacher to focus on what he or she is interested in that year. No, there's an entire course of study that is integrated and builds upon itself year after year after year. And then comes a wonderful question Is it this what happens in traditional public schools? And here's the answer. I think that in most cases, public schools are not cohesive. There's not a plan for the child's education from kindergarten through 12th grade. Instead, it falls to the individual teacher.
Speaker 2:The things you learn in the education that you receive in a Hillsdale affiliated school are much richer than what you might receive elsewhere. Okay, I remember when my first school started back in 2014, and the parents told me about the differences they saw. They said within about four to five weeks, the conversations they were having with their children in the car on the way home were completely different. Their children weren't burnt out anymore, they weren't bored, they had enough time to run around during the day. The things that they had been learning were truly thought-provoking and truly interesting to the children, and so they were energized by it, even though it was the end of a long school day and they had so much more to say to their parents. And over time, they became a lot more articulate at saying those things. So how would you define a classical education, then I know every person you ask might give a different answer to that question, but I'm curious as to yours.
Speaker 2:Kathleen O'Toole says classical education is a cohesive course of study that's built upon a true understanding of the human being. We are rational animals, so when we talk about our full development, happiness or flourishing, we have to talk about both the intellectual and moral virtue. Let's stop there real quick. Did you catch that? Here's the whole building block of the Mojo Academy. We are rational animals, so when we talk about our full development, our happiness or flourishing, we have to talk about both intellectual and moral virtue. Kathleen goes on Intellect intellectual virtue is the development of our mind and our habits of thinking. In the classical education we develop those habits of thinking by focusing on two core areas of human knowledge knowledge of human things and knowledge of the natural world, from which you get the humanities and the sciences. But this is so crucial right here. This is our nugget of wisdom. But human beings are not merely intellectual creatures. We are moral creatures too. So an education can't merely be an education in intellectual virtue. It has to develop the kinds of character that will make us be able to choose well and to think well about our dealings with other human beings, and so it's an education in both the moral and intellectual virtue for the sake of becoming happy Right on, right on, hubba hubba Good stuff right there.
Speaker 2:So you might say, well, what is or what are some statistics for these Hillsdale member schools? Well, here's one 99% of Hillsdale member schools graduate their folks, versus the four-year graduation rate of 86%. Hillsdale member schools versus the national average on four-year college placement is 63% versus 44%. Hillsdale member schools versus the national average of SAT scores is 100 or 1,138 versus 1,060. And you might say, well, how many total schools are there? 79 schools in 28 States, 30 member schools in 17 states which receive year-round support and training opportunities from Hillsdale. They are also licensed to use the Hillsdale K-12 classical education Total enrollment of over some 30,000 students.
Speaker 2:Actually, was checking, since I'm in Ohio, who are some Ohio-based classical schools, and they even have one in my town here in Columbus, columbus Classical Shout out to you guys. Uh, that is a Hillsdale curriculum. Uh, academy Rema academy in Marion Ohio. Northeast classical in Akron, ohio. Just some of the ones that I'm reviewing here also have have Cincinnati Classical, Southeast Ohio Classical and Logan Ohio. So very good stuff. We have schools all around the country, and this is how you begin to change a culture, especially through education.
Speaker 2:Now there's one other thing I wanted to touch on, because this makes all the difference of a classical education versus a public school education and I went to public schools, graduated from a public school. Here's the difference Traditional public schools have expectations for student behavior and they try to foster values such as community and caring. Values are soft things. I value family more. You value work more. Who's to say which of us made a wiser choice? There are subjective preferences. The primary value upheld in public schools might not be to offend, in contrast. This is coming from a National Review article in 2024 titled the Virtues of Classical Schools, written by Daniel Buck. He went to a classical school. In contrast, the LCAA this is a Hillsdale member school has a virtue code.
Speaker 2:We've talked about virtues versus values on this podcast. Listen to this. Occa has a virtue code. In between images of works of art by Leonardo and Michelangelo, the walls of every classroom bear the words honesty, courage, responsibility, respect, wisdom. Virtues are hard things. Amen, yes, they are. That's why we strive for a virtue-driven life and preach about it all the time at the Mojo Academy. Going back to the article, virtues are hard things. Fail a test of courage or act unwisely, and virtue will demand justice or forgiveness. Values are subjective, virtues objective. The former is a preference, the latter a firm statement of right and wrong, true and false, good and evil.
Speaker 2:Some of our most heated debates in education are really over this hidden curriculum, and none are more contentious than how we frame American history exactly. Media alarms notwithstanding, no one denies in practice that students ought to learn about slavery, jim Crow, redlining and other American sins. The real disagreement centers on the fundamental view of America. Is our country hopeless, built on corrupted ideals, or a good country growing closer to its ideals? Amen, that is exactly right. It goes on. The seventh grade history teacher. This seventh grade history teacher at this Hillsdale member school made her view clear. She has a large portrait of George Washington hanging above her whiteboard with framed text of our founding documents outside in the hallway. Oh, that just warms my heart.
Speaker 2:The textbook proceeds through writings of and about most historical figures, ranging from Bartholomew de Lacassus writing in the early 16th century, of Columbus's discovery of the New World, to Frederick Douglass to Malcolm X's descent, from Martin Luther King Jr's nonviolence to Peggy Noonan on Ronald Reagan. The readings cover the moral failings throughout American history, but they frame our country nonetheless as a moral project, a force for good, an evolving realization of worthy ideals. Amen, amen, amen. And they did not specify it in the actual article, but I'm going to guess that they were reading from the history book Land of Hope, because we have covered that book here as the antithesis against Howard Zinn's people's history of the American, the American people, which is a horrific history book.
Speaker 2:Well, let's go back to this uh, fordham Institute um article for just one last Q and a, because I think this is super important. So the question is that sounds wonderful to me personally, but I know many critics of classical education argue that it's just political conservatism or a Trojan horse for Christianity. Are they right? Kathleen O'Toole gives a wonderful answer. Many of the schools affiliated with Hillsdale College are public charters, which means that they do not provide religious instruction. Matters of faith are left to the family and church. Question of whether they're political schools, I will say that's very important that these schools are non-partisan. For the same reason that they are not forcing students toward a particular set of religious beliefs, they're also not guiding their students towards a particular set of beliefs.
Speaker 2:The purpose listen, the purpose of a classical education is much deeper and much broader than that. In the upper school curriculum, children have the opportunity to read great works that are great because they teach us to ask the most important questions, not because they put us in touch with a specific doctrine. They are not doctrinaire places. They are certainly not political partisan places. Study of America is an important part of these schools. In history, government and literature, the course of study emphasizes that teachers and the students focus especially on primary source documents.
Speaker 2:Amen, how many kids go through K, through 12 and never read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution? Never read it. They might read the first paragraph but they never unpack it Back to the article. If we're going to try to understand what America is, we should read the evidence first and ask questions. Of the evidence, questions are central to classical education. Kathleen goes on. We're constantly saying to teachers to improve your questioning, and that's just antithetical to this idea that they are doctrinaire places that have specific things that they need the students to believe. Amen, amen, indeed.
Speaker 2:So today's Mojo Minute, our country's education system is woefully failing our young people. The only way I see out of this predicament is a return to the classical model of education. That is what has worked for over 2,500 years. We know it certainly worked in teaching kids at the most basic level to read, to write and know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Is that too much to ask of an education system? I think not. Oh, and one more thing Is it too much to ask that we actually study the primary documents of our country's founding, of its history, and not be subjected to the radical writings that make our young people hate the very country they're living in, especially when it's not close to the truth? Is that not too much to ask? How do we know? Because even our greatest American heroes have told us this and they've lived through some of the hardest times. You know I'm thinking of people that not many of us get a chance to study.
Speaker 2:Charles Carroll he was a Catholic outsider. He signed the Declaration, the only signer of the Declaration of Independence. Correction, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. Not many people know about him. He embodied the fight for religious and political freedom while grappling with the moral contradiction of slavery. How about a slave himself? Frederick Douglass? Not too many people study him. That's a shame. He pushed our 16th president, abraham Lincoln, and the nation towards emancipation, ensuring the Civil War became a fight for freedom. How about James Longstreet? Not too many people study him outside the Civil War. He was a Confederate general, yes, but he transformed from a defender of the slave-holding South to an advocate for reconstruction and racial inclusion, unheard of for his time and day.
Speaker 2:King, he wove all these threads together, invoking the Declaration and Lincoln's legacy to demand that America fulfill its promise for equality of all. Each man in his time confronted the tension between America's ideals and its realities Carroll for his advocacy on religious liberty. Carroll for his advocacy on religious liberty. Douglas, his insistence on abolition. Longstreet and his embrace of a reunited nation. King for his dream of a racial brotherhood.
Speaker 2:That all reflect a shared belief in the potential of America in evolving toward justice. Even as they navigated the contradictions in their own areas, all these together paint a national tapestry that illustrates that we are an ongoing work in our country. Our country is constantly evolving as a nation, with its founding principles, and always working to align those principles to our ideals, and that task remains relevant today. Should we know what those principles are? Shouldn't we study the people that have led this fight down through the centuries, and shouldn't we be able to at least teach our kids to read, to write, to add, subtract, multiply and divide? That's not too much to ask, and in fact that's what our kids are demanding of us. And it's time the adults step up. As always, let's keep fighting the good fight.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on, thank you.