What Is A Classical Education? And Why Does It Need Defending?

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In this episode, Tracy Lee Simmons, classical scholar, author of Climbing Parnassus , and friend of Memoria Press, joins us to present "A Call for Restoration"-his argument for and introduction to Sir Richard Winn Livingstone's book, A Defence of Classical Education.
Defending the study of Latin & Greek, Logic, and the Great Books has never been more important. Livingstone's book offers a look back to a time in history when the study of ancient languages and classical studies was paramount in the classroom, but is losing ground in the cultural mindset. We live in the consequence of that time and Livingstone's arguments for the restoration of classical education have never been more relevant.
Join us as Tracy Lee revisits the historical context of classical learning in Livingstone's time, as he highlights its ever-diminishing cultural value in the face of modern educational priorities, and discusses how we, adults and children alike, must advocate for and defend a curriculum that upholds Truth, Goodness, and Beauty that have gone missing in our cultural landscape.
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Get Livingstone's book from Memoria College Press today! www.memoriapress.com/curricul...
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Curious about what a classical Christian education might do for your school or homeschool students? Find out today! www.memoriapress.com/?...
#classicaleducation #memoriapress #memoriacollege

[@chrislambert9435]

My Son aged 13 years is in The "Norwich School" but He's now off to Eton College. Thankyou for your presentation

[@josephadkins549]

Perfect! I was employed in our local public school system for a total of 3 months. Within the first week I knew I needed to keep my kids away from the environment. With a first grader who loves to learn and a toddler on their way I found classical education prudent.

[@emilymiller1792]

Please work to improve your local public school, for the sake of the betterment of the whole community. As citizens in a constitutional republic, we have a responsibility to make sure public education is excellent, too.

[@josephadkins549]

I agree. However I have a responsibility to my family.

[@emilymiller1792]

@@josephadkins549 I homeschooled, as well. Please consider attending school board meetings, looking through the public school curricula, and advocating for improvements. Lots of kids do not have parents who know the benefits of a classical education or are even paying attention. Your voice is invaluable for saving public education and, in many ways, the future of our republic.

[@The_Cause]

First of all, the quality of this video is amazing. The message is fantastic as well. Presented in a clear and engaging way. I have been searching for a book like this after reading Milton’s “Tractate on Education.” Thanks so much for sharing and looking forward to reading it. Please keep up the amazing work!

[@kevinjones2145]

I am 63. I am working through volume 1 of ATHENAZE and hope to begin vol 2 in 2025. I can currently read parts of the Gospels. I hope in years to come to be able to read Epictetus and other philosophers. I have proven to myself that learning languages is mostly about consistent effort over an extended period of time. Thank you for this great video. (I don't know if I will live long enough to make it to Latin. )

[@oneminutereads7103]

Sir, your language does justice to the subject matter. Loved it.

[@alexanderbarron8574]

I'm an African American. I love this idea, especially Classic Education Lite mixed with a global review of literature. I feel both attached to the Greeks and Romans as well as Confucius, Buddha, and the proverbs of West African priest.

[@joesouthborn2960]

Dear Alexander... do you mind me asking about how to find the works of West African priest? Thank you!

[@user-io9ln1or7c]

Thank You Sir for reveal me the bok and the writer. Thank you again.🎉

[@dawnworley7369]

Absolutely outstanding!

[@BreezeTalk]

I absolutely adore his use of a little legal speech; really the whole presentation is brilliant.

[@SirGandalfTheWise]

Thank you for this video! It inspires me to start learning Latin and Greek. I hope to persevere even with a busy schedule. Keep up the excellent content! 👏

[@Ashgutierr]

This is so exciting! Climbing Parnassus was my favorite read of 2023.

[@maricaywillis5137]

This is absolutely beautiful. Well done, Memoria Press! ❤

[@RodMartinJr]

There is *_another kind of education_* not mentioned here. It is a touch of the classical and the practical, mixed with the entertaining and illustrative, along with the self-critical and imaginative. 😎♥✝🇺🇸💯 Infinity Dynamics Foundation and University

[@orlandosalazar9295]

Thanks for this video. I will read this Book Professor.

[@memoriapress]

Wonderful!

[@jennablue87]

Beautiful

[@jenniferflower9265]

I’d love to become a classical education teacher. I a bit hesitant to go sign up for my local community college to get started do to not knowing if it’s even the training I’d want. I’m 45 starting this. I did do some classical education with my children through elementary school and a bit of middle school. Do you have any suggestions on where I could start?

[@ddchomeschool]

Your discussion of certain chapters posing difficulty to modern readers calls to mind a chapter from The Closing of The American Mind entitled “From Socrates' Apology to Heidegger's Rektoratsrede.” That one was ROUGH! 😂

[@SWKS_AG05]

Bravo 😊

[@TheGringoSalado]

Wonderful ❤

[@TheMitzyBitzy]

Yes!

[@CafePressi]

We have the cheap way out , the instant answer devoid of the fundamentals of meaning.

[@siyabongampongwana990]

Where would you recommend we start learning?

[@hephaestusfortarier249]

Start reading the classics, and Hillsdale college has free online lectures that are the same quality/style of this video. Would recommend starting there. There are several lists which have the classics, one set is Mortimer Alders Great Books of the western world, you can also look at curriculum for classical schools such as St. John’s college.

[@emilymiller1792]

Susan Wise Bauer has some good guides, as does Charlotte Mason. I concur with Mortimer Adler. E.D. Hirsch and Neil Postman, too. Read broadly. Read the Great Works. Read history.

[@Nick-zb4yg]

@@hephaestusfortarier249 Homeric Greek by Clyde Pharr.

[@deankling3654]

Hoc amo.

[@shinypeter7]

Two words. Stoic and Trivium.

[@meenki347]

Trigger warning: I'm an advanced Postmodernist. I love Classical Greek and Roman Literature. And I think it should be an option for first graders along with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. When Deconstructed, Aristotle's Rhetoric is The Bobby Fisher Teaches Chess of persuasive conversations, pick up and sales. However, what Modernists both infantile postmodernists and conservatives share but are unaware of, is that forcing people to read or learn a certain curriculum can only bring it's equal and opposite reaction. Don't worry, thousands of Latin, etc. readers worldwide are connecting on the internet and Latin is stronger than ever. There was also an insane pronoun culture war in early 19th Century Germany. The King of Prussia wanted a united German Church. But the Calvinists and Lutherans fought over; "God Bless Thee" or "God Bless Thou". It became quite heated as it was a common every encounter phrase at the time. By the way, In the Autobiography of Malcolm X he said that he read Herodotus. So, I picked it up and loved it. Every Ancient book after that was so good. It was like science fiction, a whole new genre opened to my eyes. I did it totally by myself in high school. I've read the works of European Philosophy, Literature and Black Literature. Indian and Chinese. I lived in the UK and France dans la légion étrangère françaiser. Relax Ecclesiastes 1:9

[@pangaeuspress]

This seems to miss the whole point of a truly classic education. That's grounded in the Trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, the user's manual of the human mind, that teaches students how to think efficiently, quickly, and rightly. And in the Quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, which teaches students how to apply those skills of thinking to understand, control, and improve the reality around us. The classic literature touted here is necessary, of course, but without an elementary education in those Seven Liberal Arts they are incomprehensible, even if one has been hammered into learning Greek and Latin.

[@schoe5388]

Painless effective education probably does not exist. But people insist on these for one hundred years and blamed teachers. Now we see the results these days where the universities and politics are taken over by ideology and pure nonsenses. The societies consider college education irrelevant. Political discourses are just ways to get more funding for interest groups. Politicians are just political technicians or PR people.

[@KingoftheJuice18]

Despite the classical virtue of making true, objective judgments, short shrift was given here to the many and varied reasons that admiration of Greece and Rome waned in the West. All changes from pre-modern culture are suggested to be something low, cheap, and vaguely communist. The limitations and weaknesses of traditional societies, their significant prejudices and injustices toward women, slaves, non-whites, non-Christians, and others did not break the serene surface of the presentation. The potential defects of democracy are alluded to, but not a gesture is made to the problems of aristocracy, of unmerited elitist exclusion. Amazingly, it's as if things were just ever so lovely throughout the whole of the classical and post-classical West until Lenin and company came along. Who could have possibly complained about anything except those "sleepy" yet "howling" souls unwilling to accept their assigned place in the natural or God-given order-and to learn Greek and Latin? Of course we have much to learn from the classics and their languages, but despising the new because it is new, or change because it is change, is no more valid than despising the old because it is old. Conservative politics should not be confused with respect for the classics. I believe Plato would be the first to say that his Socrates-executing society was not better than ours. And there was no "classical education" among οἱ πολλοί in ancient Greece; widespread, public education for rich and poor, male and female alike is a quite modern invention.

[@martincothran]

Thank you for this. You have exemplified here one of the great virtues of Western civilization: Its willingness to criticize itself. You even cite Plato, who, of course, was a great exemplar of this cultural trait. Not only that, but you have cited those human rights concerns that were articulated by Western thinkers, based on Western thought, which were appealed to again and again by the great leaders of social reform East and West, thinkers like Frederick Douglas, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, etc., who all based their criticisms of injustice on the writings of Western thinkers. I agree with everything you say here.

[@KingoftheJuice18]

@@martincothran Thanks for your reply. Yes, the video did not portray that virtue, in my view. But I'm curious about one aspect of your reply: Are you counting the Bible and other religious texts of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam as part of what you are calling Western thought or civilization? Many social reformers were especially inspired by Israelite Scripture, yet the video doesn't mentioned the need to learn Hebrew.

[@user-cs9is7mh7q]

The more relevant New Testament is in Greek.

[@KingoftheJuice18]

@@user-cs9is7mh7q Did you mean that the more relevant reason to learn Greek is to read the NT?

[@user-cs9is7mh7q]

@@KingoftheJuice18 The original claim concerned the added benefit of reading foundational texts of Western Civilization in the original languages, hence prioritizing Latin and Greek. The counterclaim questioned why Hebrew was not included. My response was meant to show, as a priority, why Greek would rank higher: you not only get the great literature of Homer and the playwrights, and the philosophy, but also the New Testament, which is, I would argue, more relevant to Western development than "Israelite Scripture," at least marginally, and in terms of what could be gained from an original language study. So the utility of Greek is much higher than Hebrew in that regard. Islam is not Western. My personal view, however, is that reading in translation is good enough, with the right translation, and the study of comparative translations is a vast and fascinating pursuit.

[@cbeaudry4646]

I like the Classical Education thing Except I think it focuses too little on Christianity

[@PG22_Hello]

A strong point.

[@rtsesmelis]

Ha, ha, Christianism, as most religions, tends to aim for orthodoxy, mostly by making stuff up. The Classical writers, for all their shortcomings, sincerely tried to get to the truth and would engage in free debate. That's why they always will remain superior. Sorry! The Classics will always be read. One day, Christanism will be nothing but a footnote.

[@meofamily4]

I'd be willing to listen to a defense of classical education, but -- after listening for a third of this -- the speaker just repeats that it's good, without feeling the need to support the claim. The movement toward democracy has made it no longer possible to sustain a society in which one percent of the population received an education. What about the Chinese? They seem to be impressive contributors to civilization, not excluding the many benefits immigrants from China have brought to the United States. Not a Latin or Greek scholar among them. Should we contemplate requiring Eight-Legged Essays on the Confucian Classics? -- they certainly were 'hard'. Just as we cannot continue to make do with an elite class of One-Percent, so we cannot continue to restrict "culture" to Western Europe. Western Europe gave us Auschwitz, and the atomic bomb dropped on two non-military targets. Genghis Khan, no slouch at conducting massacres, nonetheless listened to the value of not killing productive citizens. Neither Hitler nor Stalin did. Genghis did not have the benefit of classical education, while both Hitler and Stalin did. The latter even went to a seminary. So no, let us broaden our horizons about what is worthwhile in humane letters; let us study the history of the world, rather than that of a long-deceased belligerent empire.

[@seannolan9754]

"The Romans leave a desert and call it peace." Tacitus. This video is selective memory and arrogant snobbery at its worst. The Good-Old-Days trope is the contrast of the best of yesterday with the worst of today and then conjuring astonishment that the former wins such a comparison.