Institute for Classical Education

Leadership

Leadership 2

Interview with Two Brothers with Robert and Frederick Turner

Influences of Artificial Intelligence upon Contemporary Rhetoric with Dr. George Khachatryan

Interview with Jean-Luc Murk on Covid

Integration—The Key to Teaching Science Classically with Mr. John Mays

Integration—The Key to Teaching Science Classically with Mr. John Mays 2

Fruitflies, Mutations, and Cancer Research with Dr. Stuart Newfeld

Earth Science as a Compelling Depiction of the Natural World with Dr. Steven Mittwede

Developing the Core Knowledge Science Sequence with Dr. Daniel Franck

Cosmos & Classical Education 2

From Insects to Muons Engaging the Sciences at Trinity School

From Virus to Pandemic to Containment with Dr. Jean-Luc Murk

Cosmos & Classical Education

Digital Simulations and Models in the Classroom

Demonstrating the Open Source Physics Collection with Dr. Todd Timberlake

Restoring Science to the Classical Liberal Arts Tradition with Dr. David Diener

Carnivores, Camera Traps, and Conservation the Past, Present, and Future of African Ecology

Beauty as Objective Reality--and its Moral Implications with Dr. Matthew Post

At Home in a Beautifully Ordered World Memoria Press Science in K-8

Science Education at Hillsdale Academy

Bioethics in the Formation of Scientific Thought with Dr. Benjamin Hurlbut

Balancing the Use of Great Works alongside Essential Scientific Content with Dr. Heather Ayala

Annie Dillard's Naturalistic Observations, with Applications to K-12 Classical Classrooms

Robinson Jeffers' Poetry as a Bridge between the Arts and the Sciences with Dr. David J. Rothman

Science Education Research and Reform at the College Level with Dr. Stephanie Chasteen

A Short History of Black Holes with Dr. Gavin Polhemus

Scientific Tools for Studying Social Problems Contributions to Human Flourishing with Dr. Angel Parham

The Importance and Efficacy of Great Works in Science Classrooms, using Samples from Galileo with Dr. Michael Ivins

The Nature of Science and the Character of Discovery Notes on a Scientist-Philosopher with Dr. Jon Fennell

Today we're reviewing the first of several video conversations that took place at the National Classical Education Symposium, this past March in Phoenix. This particular conversation was with Dr. Gregory McBrayer, who directs the core curriculum at Ashland University (OH). Greg outlines the essential characteristics of a liberal education: from perennial questions to great books, and always in the context of a student's genuine search for truth and goodness. In particular, Dr. McBrayer points to the benefits of studying his own specialty, Xenophon, whose history provides students a model of excellence. In short, McBrayer encourages teachers to “cultivate objects of admiration.” In the coming weeks, we will have more Symposium videos, both lectures and conversations, released on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, check back frequently--and post a comment on the blog (below) to let us know what you're thinking...

Mark Bauerlein earned his doctorate in English at UCLA in 1988. He has taught at Emory since 1989, with a two-and-a-half year break in 2003-05 to serve as the Director, Office of Research and Analysis, at the National Endowment for the Arts. Apart from his scholarly work, he publishes in popular periodicals such as The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, TLS, and Chronicle of Higher Education. His latest book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future; Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30 was published in May 2008. He recently co-edited a collection of essays entitled The State of the American Mind: 16 Leading Critics on the New Anti-Intellectualism, published in 2015. Selected Publications: Negrophobia: A Race Riot in Atlanta, 1906 (Encounter Books, 2001) Literary Criticism: An Autopsy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997) The Pragmatic Mind: Explorations in the Psychology of Belief (Duke University Press, 1997) Whitman and the American Idiom (Louisiana State University Press, 1991) Civil Rights Chronicle: The African American Struggle for Freedom, with Clayborne Carson, Myrtle Evers-Williams, Todd Steven Burroughs, Ella Forbes, and Jim Haskins (Publications International, Ltd., 2003) A Handbook of Literary Terms, with Dana Gioia and X. J. Kennedy (Longman, 2004)

Jon Balsbaugh has over twenty years experience as a high school and junior high teacher and currently serves as the president of Trinity Schools, Inc., a national network of classically oriented Christian schools dedicated to providing an education that awakens students to the reality of the human condition and the world in which they live. Before taking over as president, he served as the headmaster of Trinity School at River Ridge in Eagan, MN.

Magatte Wade is passionate about creating jobs and prosperity in Africa through entrepreneurship and economic freedom. She was born in Senegal, educated in France, and launched her entrepreneurial career in San Francisco. She is fluent in and conducts business in Wolof, French and English. Magatte's current product line, manufactured in Senegal, is skin is skin, a lip balm dedicated to reducing racial discrimination. Her previous companies, Tiossan and Adina, brought Senegalese recipes and ingredients to U.S. markets in skin care and beverages. Based on her experiences creating consumer brands and building agricultural and manufacturing capacity in Senegal, Magatte has spoken at dozens of universities including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, MIT, etc., as well as at global conferences on innovation and economic development in France, England, Dubai, Guatemala, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Gabon, Senegal and more. She writes for the Huffington Post, Barron's, and the U.K. Guardian. She is a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum at Davos and has appeared on the cover of Forbes Afrique. She was also named one of the “Twenty Young Power Women of Africa” by Forbes U.S. Magatte's work was recently profiled in a FEE documentary, "Made in Meckhe" and TED recently released her talk "Why it's too hard to start a business in Africa – and how to change it".

John Briggs (B.A. Harvard; Ph.D. University of Chicago) is the author of Francis Bacon and the Rhetoric of Nature (winner of the Thomas J. Wilson Award from Harvard University Press, 1988) and Lincoln's Speeches Reconsidered (Johns Hopkins, 2005). In addition to courses in Renaissance literature, Shakespeare, and C. S. Lewis, he teaches the history and theory of rhetoric and composition, as well as a course on Lincoln's speeches. He has published articles and book chapters on Shakespearean catharsis; the political underplot of Timon of Athens; defective scientific forms of proof in Othello; Bacon, science, and religion; Lincoln and Shakespeare; Frederick Douglass and Macbeth, the neglected role of literature in the teaching of composition; Peter Elbow and the pedagogical paradox; and the idea of magic in the rhetorical theory and practice of Elbow and Kenneth Burke. An essay on ideas as phenomena in the work of Bacon and E. O. Wilson has appeared in Francis Bacon and the Refiguring of Modern Thought (Ashgate, 2005). Recent projects include a study of catharsis and poetic justice in Romeo and Juliet and Lincoln's reading of tyranny in Macbeth. Briggs is currently serving as the Director of the University Writing Program. He was the winner of the 1995-96 Faculty Teaching Award. He has been chair of the CHASS Executive Committee and a consultant to the College Board. Currently, he is on the editorial board of Literary Imagination.

David J. Rothman is the newly appointed President and CEO of Jackson Hole Center for the Arts. A prolific author, he also co-founded the Crested Butte Music Festival, was the founding Publisher and Editor of Conundrum Press (now an imprint of Bower House Books of Denver), served as the third head of Crested Butte Academy, and currently serves as Resident Poet with Colorado Public Radio and as Poet Laureate of Colorado's Western Slope (2017-'19). Most recently he served as the Director of the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University, where he also directed the conference Writing the Rockies and edited the literary journal THINK. He has run a wide range of nonprofit arts and educational institutions and organizations and has served on many governing boards. His next book, forthcoming in early 2019, is a long poem, My Brother's Keeper, from Lithic Press.

Dr. David Diener began his formal post-secondary education at Wheaton College where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in Philosophy and Ancient Languages. After putting his philosophical training to work by building custom cabinets and doing high-end finish carpentry for an Amish company, he moved with his wife to Bogotá, Colombia, where they served as missionaries for three years at a Christian international school. He then attended graduate school at Indiana University where he earned an M.A. in Philosophy, an M.S. in History and Philosophy of Education, and a dual Ph.D. in Philosophy and Philosophy of Education. He has taught at The Stony Brook School and Taylor University and has served as Head of Upper Schools at Covenant Classical School in Fort Worth, TX, and Head of School at Grace Academy in Georgetown, TX. He currently works at Hillsdale College where he is the Headmaster of Hillsdale Academy and a Lecturing Professor of Education. He also is an Alcuin Fellow, serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Classical Learning and the Board of Academic Advisors for the Classical Learning Test, and offers consulting services through Classical Academic Press. He is the author of Plato: The Great Philosopher-Educator and serves as the series editor for Classical Academic Press' series Giants in the History of Education. The Dieners have four wonderful children and are passionate about classical education and the impact it can have on the church, our society, and the world.

Professor Carol Reynolds is a uniquely talented and much sought-after public speaker for arts venues and general audiences. She combines her insights on music history, arts, and culture with her passion for arts education to create programs and curricula, inspire concert audiences, and lead arts tours. Never dull or superficial, Carol brings to her audiences a unique mix of humor, substance, and skilled piano performance to make the arts more accessible and meaningful to all. Carol has led arts tours to Russia, Poland, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, San Francisco, and Broadway on behalf of several arts organizations and has recently teamed with Smithsonian Journeys for cruises to the Holy Land, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Baltic Sea, Indian Ocean, and across the Atlantic. Her enthusiasm and boundless energy give tour participants an unforgettable experience. For more than 20 years, Carol was Associate Professor of Music History at the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She now makes her home in North Carolina and maintains a second residence in Weimar, Germany — the home of Goethe, Schiller, Bach, and Liszt, and the focal point of much of Europe's artistic heritage.

Dr. Brian A. Williams is Dean of the Templeton Honors College and Assistant Professor of Ethics & Liberal Studies. Before coming to Eastern, he was Lecturer in Theology and Christian Ethics at the University of Oxford and Director of “Oxford Conversations,” a collection of curated video interviews with leading Christian academics and scholars at Oxford. He holds an M.Phil. and D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from the University of Oxford (UK), where he was a Clarendon Scholar; an M.A. and Th.M. in Systematic and Historical Theology from Regent College (Vancouver, Canada); and a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Ozark Christian College (Joplin, MO). His current research examines the tradition of Didascalic Christian Humanism, focusing on the works of Hugh of St. Victor, Philip Melanchthon, and John Henry Newman. Dr. Williams' broader academic interests include virtue ethics; Christian and Muslim political thought; Karl Barth's theology and politics; political forgiveness; Dante Alighieri's Commedia; and the intersection of Moral Theology and Social Anthropology. His first book, The Potter's Rib, explores the theology and practice of pastoral formation through mentoring in the history of the church. Dr. Williams has also taught Theology, Philosophy, and Literature at Cair Paravel Latin School (Topeka, KS); was Theologian-in-Residence at First Presbyterian Church PCUSA (Topeka, KS); led Quo Vadis Travel Seminars to destinations throughout Europe and the United States; was the Distance Education Instructor in Theology for Regent College (Vancouver); and has experience in several fields of business. He is married to Kim Williams and has three children: Ilia, Brecon, and Maeve.

Bernhardt L. Trout is the Raymond F. Baddour, ScD, (1949) Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the Novartis-MIT Center for Continuous Manufacturing. He received his S.B. and S.M. degrees from MIT and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, he performed post-doctoral research at the Max-Planck Institute. Trout's research focuses on molecular engineering, specifically the development and application of both computational and experimental molecular-based methods to engineering pharmaceutical formulations and processes with unprecedented specificity. Since 1999, he has focused on molecular engineering for biopharmaceutical formulation, primarily liquid formulation, but also lyophilized formulation. A major aspect of his research focuses on developing both microscopic and macroscopic models to design stable formulations efficiently. In 2007, with several colleagues from MIT, he set up the Novartis-MIT Center for Continuous Manufacturing, a $85 million partnership with the objective of transforming pharmaceutical manufacturing. In addition to Novartis, he has worked with many other pharmaceutical companies in research or consulting. He has published over 190 papers and has 22 patents issued or pending.

Gregory Roper from the University of Dallas sits down with Rob Jackson to discuss Geoffrey Chaucer, author of "A Knight's Tale" and "The Canterbury Tales." Greg Roper, Ph.D. has interests in Middle English literature, rhetoric and composition, literary theory, and pedagogy. He has published essays on Medieval penitential manuals and their influence on late Medieval literature, on the Canterbury Tales, and on teaching survey courses and literary theory. He has recently published a book using ancient and medieval notions of imitation to help students write better, entitled The Writer's Workshop. Academic Articles “From Nothing to Being: Medieval Lyric and Poetic Form as Entelechy.” The Prospect of Lyric. Ed. Bainard Cowan. Dallas, Texas: The Dallas Institute Publications, 2012. “Brighten the Corner Where You Are: How I Found A Way to Marry Teaching and Research and Just Maybe Be Happy.” Studies In Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 11 (Fall 2003). (Special issue on tensions between teaching and research edited by Edward Risden.) “Confessional Rhetoric in Chaucer's Last Tales: Fulfillment and Transformation,” 13th Biennial Congress of the New Chaucer Society, Boulder, Colorado, July 19, 2002. “The Problems With the Postmodern Performance of Penance.” 40th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May, 2000. “Dropping the Personae and Reforming the Self: The Parson's Tale and the End of The Canterbury Tales.” Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of the Parson's Tale. Ed. David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000. “The Middle English Lyric ‘I', Penitential Poetics, and Medieval Selfhood.” Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic-Literary Studies, 42 (1994): 71-103. “Pearl, Penitence, and the Recovery of the Self.” Chaucer Review 28 (1993): 164-186.

David Bobb from the Bill of Rights Institute sits down with Rob Jackson to discuss the classical education K-12 movement.

Lecture by Dr. Michael Poliakoff, American Council of Trustees and Alumni

Exploring the great epics of all time, Dr. Turner shows us what is truly human in our storytelling.

Andrew J. Zwerneman is the founding president of Cana Academy. He earned a B.A. in history and an M.A. in Government and International Relations from the University of Notre Dame and an M.A. in Catholic Doctrine from the Pontifical Institute at St. John's University in New York City. In the early 1980's Andrew worked as the New York correspondent for the National Catholic Register. In 1986 Greenlawn Press published his book In Bloody Terms: the Betrayal of the Church in Marxist Grenada. For thirty-four years Andrew has taught or consulted in classical schools. Most of his career he taught with the national group of Trinity Schools. For nineteen years he served as a headmaster, two for the public charter school, Tempe Preparatory Academy in Tempe, Arizona, and seventeen for the independent school Trinity School at Meadow View in Falls Church, Virginia. During those seventeen years Andrew was on the management team for Trinity Schools, Inc. Through his consulting firm, The Academy Project LLC, he and his team developed the curricula and trained the faculties of Thomas MacLaren School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Trinity Academy in Portland, Oregon. He has coached headmasters with the Great Hearts Academies and lectured for principals studying in the M.Ed. program for Administration and Supervision at Marymount University. Andrew and his wife Jeannette have been married for thirty-one years. During that time they have devoted themselves to helping others to learn, mainly in schools but in continuing education efforts outside of school environments as well. They continue this lifelong commitment with the establishment of Cana Academy.

A panel discussion and lecture with Matt Post, Brian Williams, Adam Seagrave, and Dan Coupland

Dr. Mark Bauerlein recounts his days in the college literature classroom, where students wanted, most of all, a compelling and coherent story.

Dr. Josh Kinlaw explores the thought of ancient philosophers

Part 2 of the lecture, "History of Happiness", with Dr. Jenna Storey.

Dr. Benjamin Storey of Furman University outlines "The History of Happiness" from the perspective of three great French thinkers: Michel de Montaigne, Blaise Pascal, and Alexis de Tocqueville.

Lecture by Mary Hirschfeld (Villanova U.)