The Culture War: Classical Education's Double-edged Sword

A recent book review in the New York Times calls attention to the dire state of civics instruction in America’s schools. Summarizing the findings of James Traub’s “The Cradle of Citizenship,” the reviewer Mark Lilla writes, “The real crisis of civics education, Traub discovered, is not that students are learning about 1619 rather than 1776, or the reverse. It is that so many are learning nothing at all.”

Putting aside the obvious inclination of a Times’ author to downplay the progressive distortion of our public schools, there is something to this claim. The noisy contention in recent years over the malign effects of centering our children’s education on notions of “identity” has distracted the public from the much more fundamental ways in which our schools have failed to educate young people properly. The dereliction in areas of basic literacy and arithmetic, the inability to transmit even the traces of an acquaintance with our history or cultural traditions, are failings every bit as appalling as the push for “anti-racist” lesson plans, though they seldom receive the public backlash that they should.

Lilla notes that Traub visited several classical schools, and came away impressed with their emphasis on “a solid foundation of linguistic skills, historical knowledge and habits of reflection.” Importantly, these schools distinguished themselves not by the partisan bent of their curricula, but by their commitment to laying the foundations of intelligent thought and speech within their students. Both the author and his reviewer clearly (and rightly) regarded this commitment as the sole hope of reviving true civic-mindedness among the public.

It is a valuable reminder to classical educators themselves that our mission encompasses much more than a remedy for the progressive spoliation of the humanities - though it does it encompass that. The temptation to lose sight of that mission is considerable. One of the driving forces in the growth of classical education has undoubtedly been the large numbers of families seeking haven from the insane ideological excesses all too common in the public schools. I am sure I am not alone in having had dozens of conversations with parents eager to remove their children from atmospheres where those excesses prevail. They are right to see us as a real alternative, of course, as I cannot imagine a single classical educator having anything to do with the progressive adulterations of culture and history.

But I am always at pains in such conversations to describe what else is involved in our course of study besides an absence of woke nonsense. This is in part to prepare families and students for the unusual rigor of our approach, which oftentimes comes as a shock to those transferring in from other learning environments. But much more so, it is about acquainting them with the magnitude of our ambitions for their children. Certainly, we do not want our graduates to be the kind of young person who mindlessly spouts the political bromides they most recently encountered on “Insta.” But that is a bottom-line expectation. What we really aspire for them to be is men and women of all seasons – prudent, thoughtful, articulate members of the community, fully competent to occupy the stations to which life calls them.

We stand to lose sight of these grand ambitions if we allow ourselves to be cast into the role of foil to the modern public school. The progressive vision of education is so narrow that even its contrast remains narrow. Our vision is far broader, our battle far more compendious. We are fortunate that the culture war has driven so many families to our doors, but we must recognize this as an opportunity to acquaint them with a far more meaningful learning experience than mere disgust for the progressive school can aspire to.