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As a teacher, I love that classical education attends to the why of education. While questions of methods, delivery, assessment, or any number of practical concerns are, of course, essential and significant, these details can easily overwhelm teachers so that they forget the foundation of our task.
Why require our students to wrestle with difficult subjects and texts? Why pour time and energy into lesson plans? Why labour at giving helpful and accurate feedback? The answer that usually comes to my mind is part of the answer to the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism “to glorify God.” This is what I tell my children when the whining sets in over their own schoolwork, when they drag their feet and give less than a full effort. All things, I say, we must do all things to God’s glory. And God is not glorified by complaining and laziness.
An integral part of my teaching practise has always consisted of the Greek conception of education which is encapsulated in the term paideia, the ideal model in education according to the ancient Greeks. This timeless and universal ideal of paideia embodied in each student, is the cornerstone of the revival of Classical education.
