The normal ways of teaching fiction are not working very well. In a nutshell, the typical approach to fiction places greater emphasis on historical, biographical, political, economic, and cultural context than on a piece of fiction as a work of art.
No wonder that the number of college students majoring in English is in significant decline. No wonder that high school students are reading less and less fiction. And no wonder that high school English instruction, scrambling to find a new form of relevance, is increasingly shifting away from its roots in the humanities and taking off in a utilitarian direction with an emphasis on reading workforce-related manuals and articles.
Pietas, c. 1593-1618, Dulwich Picture Gallery. Mixes religious and filial piety. Depicts a holy woman, modestly dressed, with a book of prayers, holding a flaming plinth, indicative of God’s gratuitous love; along with a stork, symbolic of filial piety for the Romans who believed the bird returned annually to the same nest and cared for its elderly parents.
The good Aeneas am I called, a name, While Fortune favoured, not unknown to fame. My household gods, companions of my woes, With pious care I rescued from our foes.
(Aeneid, Book I, 372)
Heroes, be they real or fictional, win our hearts and minds partly by what they accomplish against challenging odds but mostly for who they are as people. We admire their character and aspire, as best we can, to emulate their virtues: the courage of Achilles, the wisdom of Socrates, the compassion of St Francis of Assisi or the adventurous spirit of Luke Skywalker. Even contemporary Australia impresses upon us her own values: mateship, tolerance, authenticity and equality, and praises those who embody them. Yet, there is one virtue that distinguished few heroes of old and certainly, it must be said, modern society finds little interest in it. It is the forgotten virtue, piety.
Though human ingenuity is responsible for our greatest achievements, it also allows us to find uses in absolutely anything. As the world entertains itself in ever shallower ways, it grows increasingly disinterested in what it is becoming: incurious, unwilling to extend its hand, buried under its own self-promotion. This disinterest and detachment from self leads to a dangerous kind of abandon. Remaining conscious, each person today sees signs that speak of a gradual drainage of depth, which we in our habits have been responsible for. Even for those who wouldn’t consider themselves deep, this matters, for the depth that is simply there but never remarked upon still has the ability to make people more or less confident about living. If national particularities are on the way out and considered unworthy of preserving, let us agree and suggest depth as an alternative.
In Love What Lasts: How to Save Your Soul From Mediocrity, Joshua Gibbs successfully transplants his perceptive, witty, and soulful reflections into the wider realm of cultural observation beyond the familiar territory of his previous books based squarely in the world of classical education.
In the first of his lectures delivered in 1805-1806 on the History of Philosophy (Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie, not to be confused with his later lectures on the Philosophy of History), Hegel penetratingly remarked:
The name of Greece strikes home to the hearts of men of education… The Greeks have a starting-point in history as truly as they have arisen from out of themselves; this starting-point, comprehended in thought, is the oriental substantiality of the natural unity between the spiritual and the natural.
Take a virtual journey down under to learn more about what is happening with classical Christian education in Australia. Dr. Patrick Egan talks with Kon Bouzikos, president of Australian Classical Education Society. Gain insights into the seven schools spread across Australia and the efforts that go into keeping the movement well coordinated and resourced.
The Educational Renaissance Podcast is a production of Educational Renaissance where we promote a rebirth of ancient wisdom for the modern era. We seek to inspire educators by fusing the best of modern research with the insights of the great philosophers of education. Join us in the great conversation and share with a friend or colleague to keep the renaissance spreading.
Dr. Patrick Egan's new book, published by Educational Renaissance, entitled Training the Prophetic Voice. is available now through Amazon.
If the discourse within Australian education is to be believed, our classrooms have never been more inclusive, collaborative, interactive, empowering, and fun. At the same time Australian primary and secondary students have never been as disruptive, aggressive, disengaged, and miserable. In classroom behaviour Australian students ranked 33rd out of the 37 OECD nations, leading to calls for classroom behaviour to be explicitly taught as an academic subject alongside English, Math, and Science. Several longitudinal studies have also reported an increase in anti-social behaviour and violence committed by students against fellow students and staff. The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) comparing similar first-world nations has also shown that Australian students experience the second highest level of bullying, only ranking behind Latvia. Predictably this rise in misbehaviour has coincided with the increasing instability of student mental health and school refusal. Students are not the only ones dealing with violence, false rumours, and emotional abuse as this rampant misbehaviour has had a withering effect on the teaching profession. Over 70% of current Australian teachers are considering leaving the profession, 35% of new teachers leave within 5 years, and the fast-tracking of ill-prepared university students into classrooms is set to worsen this. Greater salaries may make a small difference to this shortage but consistently the calls from teachers have been for change to the culture. However, more than just a culture change, what is truly needed is a change to the entire philosophy of modern schools.
About the Author: Conor Ross is a Melbourne-based secondary school teacher. For parents and educators interested in learning more, feel free to look into the Australian Classical Education Society, Classical Conversations, Via Classica, and the CiRCE Institute.
St John's College Information Evening The Ramsay Centre is hosting an evening to find out more about St John’s with Associate Professor Andrew Poe. He will deliver a lecture on “Thinking and Unthinking Political Necessity: ADemocratic Reading of Book 2 of Plato’s Republic" and share his experience of the Great Books education he received at St John’s College. The talk will be followed by light refreshments and conversation.
