Virtue and the Classical Education Renaissance
Despite fears about the decline of the liberal arts in the West, the educational renaissance sweeping America should inspire great hope. At a number of flagship public universities, for example, the traditional liberal arts are being revitalized through newly established schools of civic thought, such as the Hamilton School at the University of Florida or the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Civic Leadership. And at the K-12 level, bolstered by sound school choice policies, classical education is flourishing. The Deweyite method of mass-produced education and the progressive ideology of twentieth century, both explicitly opposed to the moral, spiritual components of liberal education, are fading away as parents, students, and educators rediscover something better in the liberal arts tradition.
All the same, this educational renaissance’s march through the institutions is not on totally uncontested. The recent tragic deconstruction of the University of Tulsa’s Honors College is but one example of how progressive liberalism and vulgar material self-interest combine to undo the emergent movement advocating more classical education. Unless its proponents rally around a shared vision for genuine reform, the tragedy at Tulsa will certainly be repeated. Educational renewal must offer something more than a mere counter-ideology or repetitive slogans to have a lasting effect on the Republic.
David Hein’s new book Teaching the Virtues does not aim at articulating such an all-encompassing vision of the future of education – but it nonetheless offers serious wisdom to those fighting for the classical education renaissance. In his introduction, Hein humbly announces that his intention is merely to provide a “primer” for how teachers might use the framework of the Western ethical tradition to help students become their best selves. This may seem a somewhat limited objective, but to truly spark a renaissance in American education the principle of human excellence Hein argues for must take center-stage.
Hein’s approach to education is animated by Russell Kirk’s humane conservatism. In The Conservative Mind, Kirk wrote that “Men cannot improve a society by setting fire to it: they must seek out its old virtues, and bring them back into the light.” The educational ideology of the twentieth century took exactly the opposite path – as Woodrow Wilson put it, the progressive establishment believed that “the use of a university is to make young gentlemen as unlike their fathers as possible.” Conservatism is necessary in education to undo this baleful trend and remind us all what is worth preserving about our civilization.
Read more in Providence.
