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Classical education is growing by leaps and bounds — slowed only by the time it takes to start new schools, and the myths that hold on in some quarters about what “classical education” actually means.
So, I thought I would help dispel seven of these myths, and asked the Sheridan Center for Classical Studies at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, for help.
Myth One: Classical education is elitist. It’s only for the smart kids. And they neglect sports.
These are the arguments most often used against classical education, but they miss a key truth: The tried-and-true methods of classical education are often easier for students to grasp, by focusing on attention, memory, and the power of concentration.
“Brain research has been demonstrating the enormous validity of classical methods for authentic learning,” said Krystyn Schmerbeck, who forms classical education teachers and school leaders for the Sheridan Center at the college.
She cites Cherl Swope's book Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child about how Swope’s learning-disabled child benefited from classical education, restoring confidence and love of learning.
And as a chauffeur for two students who are competitive in soccer and basketball in the classical school league, I assure you, sports are not neglected.
Myth Two: Classical education doesn’t prepare students for the real world.
I hear this one a lot, which is unfortunate because it is my personal pet peeve. When someone says, “When will I ever need to know Homer or Dostoevsky in real life?” I always say, “When do you need to bench-press weights in the middle of a basketball game?”
Exercising your mind does for mental performance what exercising your muscles does for athletic performance: It increases your capacity to assimilate new information and learn new tasks. Your brain can do more at work if it did more at school.
A related myth is that classical education is anti-science, or anti-STEM. Not only do classical schools support the sciences, but students who have learned logic and reasoning often grasp the sciences better.
Myth Three: Classical education involves an amount of reading that is unmanageable.
Our own classical education co-op has taught me two hard facts:
- Students learn a lot more if you give them manageable reading amounts, and
- Classical teachers (such as myself) will assign too much if we don’t make a hard-and-fast rule to hold back.
As it turns out, classical schools do set rules. America’s most popular Catholic classical curriculum providers limit homework to five hours a week, and never exceeding an hour or an hour and a half a night. That’s good. They get it.
Myth Four: Classical education is about Greece and Rome; students never meet world cultures.
This is a good worry to have. There are serious consequences to giving students a limited view of the world that excludes whole cultures, hemispheres, or races. More than one culture shaped the world we face today — and classical education curriculums make it a point to introduce world cultures to students.
But it’s also true that “Knowledge of Western Civilization is fundamental for understanding our own origin, which equips us to better explore and understand other origins,” Schmerbeck said. “We need to know our own cultural heritage well in order to appreciate other cultures.” Howard University’s Anika Prather is a tireless advocate for classical education, pointing out how it enriches the Black community.
Myth Five: Classical education is all about learning Latin and Greek.
It will not take you long to discover that very few classical education students are Latin scholars. Classical curricula offer language options, especially Spanish.
But of course it is true that Latin (and some Greek) is still taught in classical education curricula — with good reason: These languages form the basis of Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and other languages, and give students a leg up on learning terms in science, medicine, technology, and law.
Myth Six: Classical education is mostly reactionary and motivated by conservative politics.
Actually, throughout my life, at the university level, the people I have known who were classically educated were mostly self-described liberals. The fact is, classical programs are designed not to teach people what to think about politics and other subjects, but how to think about them.
That kind of education is necessary for freedom. The more we read, the more we diversify our ideas, and the less likely we are to be taken advantage of. As John Adams put it, “If we suffer [students’] minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.” A more deeply educated populace is less likely to be fooled or to simply follow the mob mentality — and that’s a good thing.
Myth Seven: Classical education won’t get you into a good college.
This is simply untrue. The Association of Christian Classical Schools put together amazing statistics showing that classically educated students aren’t just competitive, but lead the pack in college-readiness measures — and that classical high-school grads have the elite-school acceptances to prove it.
In fact, colleges were the first to realize that these myths simply aren’t true.
College professors know what classical school grads are like: they are confident, curious students with the capacity for wonder.
But I’m biased. Research classical education and you will find why it is such a popular option.
