National Symposium for Classical Education, the 2025 Livestreams
Gratitude and the Modern Condition with Matthew B. Crawford
February 19, 2025 @ 6:00PM
The technological attitude is one that seeks to subject everything to rational control. This makes it difficult to experience gratitude, which is a posture toward the world in which one receives what is given, rather than trying to remake the world according to the will. Such reception is often accompanied by wonder, the theme of our conference. I will parse this tension between gratitude and technology as it manifests in various areas of culture, and consider its significance for the challenge of living fully.
Shakespeare and the Classics with Sir Jonathan Bate
February 20, 2025 @ 8:30AM
Shakespeare is at the centre of the classical tradition. So what made him a classic? This lecture will argue that the answer is to be found in his own classical education. His grammar school education in the Latin language, in rhetoric and the reading of the great texts of classical antiquity shaped his imagination and enabled him to become a great writer and dramatist himself. No fewer than thirteen of his forty works are set in the world of classical antiquity – and all his works rely on techniques he first learned in the grammar school that gave him a classical education. His friend and rival Ben Jonson was quite wrong to say that Shakespeare had “small Latin” – without Latin, there would have been no Shakespeare, and without Shakespeare we would not have a thriving classical education revival today.
The Enterprise of Learning as Wonder toward Wisdom with David Diener
February 20, 2025 @ 10:30AM
Throughout the liberal arts tradition, two definitional characteristics attributed to philosophy are that it begins with wonder and has wisdom as its goal. When philosophy is understood in the expansive way that it has been treated throughout the tradition, this journey from wonder to wisdom becomes a frame for understanding the enterprise of learning writ large. In this seminar we will examine what it means to have a sense of wonder and how we can cultivate such wonder in our students. We also will consider what it means to aim all learning toward the development of wisdom and how we can foster a love of wisdom in our students. Understanding the enterprise of learning as wonder toward wisdom provides helpful insights for classical educators as we work to holistically cultivate our students such that they flourish as human beings and live wise and virtuous lives.
Ballet, the Soul, and Society with Lincoln Jones and Hannah Barr
February 20, 2025 @ 11:45AM
The capacity of the body to teach the soul is not something we consider often in our society, but we can feel differently instantly by smiling, or by standing up straight. In fact, part of ballet’s origin was the intent to create physical nobility, and in the 15th century, when it was being developed, the body was considered a reflection of the soul.
Dance itself is an essential part of human experience, providing more than just physical fitness or catharsis, although it is rated as one of the most effective mood elevators. Dance provides the individual in society the rare opportunity to engage in genuine, spontaneous, and unedited response to something they enjoy (music), and to do so publicly while connecting with others. It is an activity that both exercises and reinforces the best in humanity, and builds openness and trust.
Ballet, a kind of science of dance, prepares the body to be an instrument of the soul, and helps teach the soul nobility through physical practice. For the young, it also teaches positive, confident relationships and sophisticated interaction with the opposite sex in a structured environment. It is the most sophisticated physical education available.
Our society suffers from a lack of structured, refined social dancing, both for what it can provide in enjoyment, and for social and communal relations. By making it a standard part of education, we will be improving both the individual lives of our children, and our society.
Feasting in the Land of Faërie: The Role of Enchantment in Education with Junius Johnson
February 20, 2025 @ 12:45PM
Humans are dreamers by nature, and, alone among all of nature’s creatures, we are driven to try to realize what we dream. But where do dreams come from, and how do we keep the pathways to and from that place well-trodden, that we may be a people of dreams? They come from the heart, and they are especially prodigious in young hearts whose shores are regularly washed in the surf of wonder. The task of being human thus includes cultivating and guarding hearts full of wonder, which is a fountain of youth for the heart. And so the task of educating must be above all concerned with wonder: displaying it, responding to it, admiring it, protecting it. Together we will explore the dynamics of wonder and imagination both in the development of culture and in the formation of the soul.
Teaching the Tradition: The Perils and Opportunities of a Looser Canon with Jessica Hooten Wilson, Heidi White, Mark Bauerlein, and Anika Prather
February 20, 2025 @ 2:00PM
Classical education is predicated on the notion of a “canon” of great books, foundational texts, and ideas, but how does the canon evolve? How should Classical schools think about “the tradition” when making curricular decisions about which books to include in the curriculum? Should the canon be closely guarded? Should it be expansive? Join us for a conversation about how we should decide which books are great and should be included in the canon?
The True, the Good, and the Musical: Integrating Music into Classical Studies with Junius Johnson
February 20, 2025 @ 3:15PM
The transcendental properties of being (true, good, and beautiful) are frequent topics of conversation in classical circles: they are properties that attach to every being by virtue of having being. Likewise, we are accustomed to approach classical education with a couple of transcendental properties: it is education in the virtues, and so concerned about the Good; it is mimetic, and therefore concerned with questions of correspondence (True). And…what comes next? I would argue that it aims at harmony in the soul, which is its connection to the Beautiful. In this session, I propose to take the notion of harmony seriously and argue that music is able to do the work of promoting that harmony by a kind of sympathetic action; not just or even primarily in the music classroom, but in every subject. Part demonstration and part lecture, we will explore how, with no more musical qualifications than a patient and attentive ear, it is possible to use music to bring cohesion and compellingness to any humanities classroom.
Witness and Wonder with Jessica Hooten Wilson
February 21, 2025 @ 8:30AM
In Socrates’s pursuit of justice, he wonders over how to educate the next generation to be those who love what is beautiful. As educators we must witness to something higher than ourselves. We must become like the survivors at the conclusion of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 who embody the witness of the great tradition. “Witness begets witness,” writes Carolyn Forche. If we want our students to become those whose lives testify to something beyond their own pleasures; if we hope they are going to become the people who, in the words of Montaigne, know how to die well; we must know how to witness to them what is worth loving that they may become witnesses of the same.
Forever Young: Jane Austen at 250 with Colleen Sheehan, Sir Jonathan Bate, and Inger S.B. Brodey
February 21, 2025 @ 10:30AM
Why are we so in love with Jane Austen? Why have her novels stood the test of time and why are they are beloved around the world? What about the current generation, so edgy and jaded: they cannot possibly look to Austen for entertainment, let alone guidance or wisdom, can they? And yet, they sure do. There is a whole industry of Austenalia on Tik Tok, actually.
This year as we mark Austen’s 250th birthday, we celebrate the brilliance and timelessness of Jane Austen’s work. The words on her pages are strung together like a ribbon of pearls: elegant, rich, beautifully and expertly woven. Her art is as insightful and charming as the century it was written for. It is no exaggeration to say that Jane Austen is situated at or very near the absolute apex of literary genius. She occupies a place in one of those inner circles of Heaven, where only the most extraordinary and special of Godesses reside.
This panel discussion will explore what accounts for the evergreen fascination with the novels of Jane Austen, her insight into human virtue and vice, her narrative genius, and the enduring wisdom of her expansive capacity for social observation.
Freedom to Wonder with Anika Prather
February 21, 2025 @ 11:45AM
Based on DuBois’ essay on Galileo, this talk is about how Classical Education gives EVERY child the freedom to WONDER and like Galileo the freedom to wonder can inspire every student, no matter their backgrounds to make amazing discoveries.