by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Jun 7, 2011 | Interviews & Podcasts, Videos
Discipline at a school will pretty much tell the school’s tale. Put another way, show me the discipline approach at school and I will show you the soul of the school. The way administrators and teachers seek to create and maintain student behavior, attitude and culture will reveal the overarching purpose or end the school seeks. It will also reveal much about the disposition and “soul” of the school leadership. The soul of the leaders will inevitably be passed down to become the soul of their students…which is why the classical tradition has always held forth the nurture and shaping of a human soul as one of the highest aims of education. Yes, we teach. But as we teach, we impart. Hallway conversations, lunch, recess, singing, athletic activities and how we respond to student struggles, failure and misbehavior–all combine to create a school culture that more powerfully shapes students than academic instruction. If this is true, perhaps we should spend as much time focusing on creating an invigorating school culture as curriculum development.
The video clip below features four heads of school talking about school discipline and culture. I think you will find their thoughts insightful, challenging and provocative. Each of these men has been leading a classical school for several years and their accumulated wisdom is apparent. From left to right on your screen they are: David Goodwin (Ambrose Academy); Keith Nix (Veritas Classical Christian School); Bob Ingram (Geneva School of Orlando); Rod Gilbert (Regents School of Austin).
This video is an early-release video produced by the Institute for Classical Schools. Many videos like this will be featured on the forthcoming ICS website called the Classical School Round Table, which should launch this July. The video is just under 30 minutes long, but you can skip around and view excerpts if you like.
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | May 9, 2011 | Videos
As I talk and consult with classical schools and teachers, I am frequently asked what makes for great Socratic teaching. Good Socratic teaching is an art that is hard to define and takes time to master. Every Socratic class is a kind of performance or drama, and no class (even with the same students) will be the same. I hope to take some time on this blog to define and explore great Socratic teaching, because without it no one will build a truly excellent upper school. I would like to start, however, by showing and example of excellent Socratic teaching. The featured teacher is Grant Horner who is dean of the rhetoric school at the Trinity Classical Academy in Santa Clarita, CA. Grant is a master teacher (in my opinion) and also a professor at the Master’s College where he teaches literature and philosophy. Grant is also a Fellow with the Alcuin Fellowship (which is part of the Institute for Classical Schools). In my view, this video is worth showing to new upper school teachers for analysis and inspiration. His topic is culture and film.
One final note of thanks: This video was made in November, 2010 in a sophomore class at the Regent’s School of Austin. Grant was a guest teacher in the class. Thanks to the Regent’s School for permission to tape this class and to Dr. Rosenberg and his 10th grade class for hosting Grant.
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | May 9, 2011 | Interviews & Podcasts, Videos
I thought many of you would enjoy this brief clip of Latin, physics and math teacher, Bill Carey. Bill taught Latin, physics and calculus to students at Ad Fontes Academy in Virginia for five years. He participated in last summer’s Lyceum on Math and Science (sponsored by the Institute for Classical Schools) and has thought deeply about how math should be taught in classical Christian schools (or anywhere really). He is not a fan of “cookbook” math, as this brief clip will show. If you enjoy this, let me know and I will post additional video of Bill on this topic.
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Mar 15, 2011 | Audio, Book Reviews, Interviews & Podcasts
Many readers of this blog may recall my review of the book Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview and Cultural Formation by James K. A. Smith who is also an associate professor of philosophy at Calvin College. I like the book immensely, and think that Smith has articulated better than anyone else in modern times how humans are shaped and–if you will–what humans are for. According to Smith, humans beings cannot help imagining an ideal of human flourishing and in fact, imagining ideals is a large part of what it means to be human. Smith contends that we are all seeking some version of the good life, we all desire a kingdom. What is more, we are all being shaped and formed in various ways to love and desire one sort of kingdom or another.
Now all this has profound implication for education, for whatever else education is, it is a sustained attempt to shape and form a human being. Even when educators have no idea what ideal or form they hold forth–they are shaping and forming nonetheless, for education occurs directly and indirectly, for better or for worse.
Several leaders in the renewal of classical Christian education noted this book when it was published in 2009, and immediately saw its relevance to the renewal. Among those leaders was Bob Ingram, headmaster at the Geneva School of Orlando. After reading the book on a plane flight, Ingram decided he had to have Smith come visit his school and address his faculty. When I heard that Smith was coming to Geneva, my colleagues and I at Classical Academic Press offered to fly down to Orlando and record Smith. We did that in October (2010) and can now post the results of that fruitful interview here on this blog. While we recorded him on video and audio, the audio clips are listed below–we will release the video clips later this spring. Many thanks to Bob Ingram of the Geneva School and to Geneva educators Ravi Jain, Kevin Clark and Grant Brodrecht who with Bob conducted the interview with Jamie Smith.
The entire 45 minute interview can be heard by clicking on the link entitled “Jamie Smith Interview on Classical Education.” Alternatively, you can listen to any individual segment from the interview by clicking on the other links listed below. These individual clips average about 5 minutes in length. Enjoy.
James KA Smith Interview on Classical Education (entire interview-45 min)
James KA Smith Pedagogy Assumes an Anthropology
James KA Smith How Humans are Shaped
James KA Smith The Problem with Worldview Education
James KA Smith Secular Liturgies
James KA Smith Countering Secular Liturgies
James KA Smith How Christian Schools Are Secular
James KA Smith The Church and Christian Education
James KA Smith Pastors and Classical Christian Education
James KA Smith What Secular Education Lacks
James KA Smith Humans as Thinkers Believers and Lovers
James KA Smith Postmodernism and Classical Christian Ed
James KA Smith Neuroscience and Character Formation
James KA Smith Education, Culture and The Arts
James KA Smith Advice for School Administrators
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Feb 4, 2011 | Articles, Schools & Other Organizations
My hat is off to my colleague and friend Bob Ingram, headmaster at the Geneva School of Orlando. He writes the lead article in the recent issue of Geneva’s monthly newsletter, The Courier, and addresses that irritating question of how to define classical Christian education in a sentence or two. He puts it this way:
For eighteen years the board, administration, and faculty have sought to compress the totality of a 2500 year-old educational system into one or two sentences. It is nearly impossible to achieve this goal, but on the other hand it is hard to ignore the persistent and ever-present question, “In a nutshell, what is Christian classical education?”
As you might guess, the Geneva leadership actually did put Christian classical education into a nutshell, which they can now hand out to the entire school community. Were they successful at cramming something so big into something so small? Bob relates in his article that the leadership tried to avoid two dangers in crafting a definition of CCE—the danger of reducing CCE to “one or two partially correct insights that cannot do justice to the rich heritage we preserve,” and the danger of expanding CCE to complex treatment that would exhaust the common man’s patience and interest. The Geneva leadership did work hard to create a two sentence definition of itself, coming up with this brief statement:
The Geneva School is: A Christian preparatory school that integrates the classical arts and sciences to transform students into life-long scholars. Geneva is recognized nationally for its unique strength in faculty and leadership, and locally for its commitment to academics and biblical truths.
This is a pretty good nut. It certainly makes me want more, but that is by design. As I wrote in my blog What is Classical Education? Part I, we need condensed and expanded definitions of CCE, for different needs, times and people. Classical schools do need a first-level, two-sentence description of their school and the classical approach to education.
It is important to note that a nut will never satisfy one’s appetite—so the nut is never enough to serve someone new to CCE. It is very wise, however, to start with a nut as a kind of appetizer that leads naturally to additional meatier offerings. Does your school offer an appetizing description of CCE that avoids sentimental references to “excellent academics” and a “warm environment”? These clichés have no bite or substance. The Geneva statement gives me something to chew on: “classical arts and sciences,” (sure I want to know more, but I suspect there is more), “transform students into life-long scholars,” (I can picture that much better than a “warm environment”) “recognized nationally for its unique strength in faculty and leadership,” (that is substantial unless they are lying—and they’re not) “commitment to academics,” (this is the only cliché in the definition, but is balanced by the earlier reference to classical arts and sciences) “commitment to biblical truths” (this signals to me that the school is no ordinary vanilla “Christian” school—and whets my appetite to know more).
Of course Geneva does not stop with this nut, but it does start with it. It gives the community a baseline or a frame within which to paint the whole picture. Or should I say it leads naturally to the rest of the menu and a superb meal that is waiting.
