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Dr. Chris Perrin - The Legacy and Modern Renewal of Classical Education — Transcript

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0:00[Applause]
0:06we are certainly thankful for the Lord's
0:08faithfulness and for the faithfulness of
0:10those that the Lord has placed uh in
0:13Providence to see it grow see it mature
0:16see it go from the early stages to what
0:18it is today so now I would like to
0:21introduce our keynote speaker Dr
0:24Christopher parin and Dr parin he is an
0:28author consultant and speaker who
0:30specializes in classical education and
0:32is committed to the National renewal of
0:34the liberal arts tradition he has
0:36published numerous articles and lectures
0:38that are widely used throughout the
0:39United States in the English-speaking
0:41world and he has a passion for classical
0:43education and he is a lover of goodness
0:45truth and Beauty wherever it is found
0:48and he will be speaking tonight on the
0:50Legacy and modern renewal of classical
0:53education so let us welcome Dr
0:58parin
1:06but is not
1:08Chase it's good to see you welcome thank
1:11you for being here and thanks to the
1:12staff how about a hand to the staff that
1:14served us so well here what a how
1:16welcome we
1:20felt
1:21uh lieutenant governor said he's had a
1:2314-hour day we're hoping that he'll make
1:25it through the next 20 minutes thank you
1:27for your service and thanks to the
1:29founder
1:31uh and thanks to all of you because all
1:32of you have a hand in this renewal of
1:35classical Christian education here at
1:37Providence classical Christian school
1:39it's a pleasure to bring you greetings
1:41not just from my hometown of Harrisburg
1:43Pennsylvania uh and the classical school
1:46that's there did someone clap when they
1:47heard the word Harrisburg that's unusual
1:50because it's a secret it's good secret
1:52beautiful place central Pennsylvania
1:54small Capital town thank you very much
1:58let's hear for Harrisburg all
2:01right and St
2:06Louis because I can bring you greetings
2:08from schools all over the country that
2:10are beginning to renew this which is our
2:14inheritance our tradition as Christians
2:16and people from Western culture
2:18generally there is a legacy that we need
2:21to remember there is a a tradition that
2:25we need to remember and and re-engage
2:28that is so lifegiving that is has
2:29reigned for about 2,000 years and is now
2:32being recovered again in the United
2:34States of America after a brief Hiatus
2:37of about 75 years when Progressive
2:40modern education began to usurp it
2:42starting in around 1900 and then
2:44succeeded pretty pretty thoroughly by
2:46about 1950 and then there's been a
2:48reaction and a movement back to what has
2:51happened before after endless cycles of
2:53innovation and experimentation that have
2:55failed decade after decade Americans
2:58started to ask the question what did we
3:00used to do who produced Thomas Jefferson
3:05who produced the likes of Martin Luther
3:09or Martin Luther King how were these men
3:12educated how could we go back to the the
3:16ways of training and educating people
3:18like
3:19that and we began to do some educational
3:22archaeology and have rediscovered
3:24something that is quite beautiful and
3:26astonishing and if you're like me as you
3:27begin to recover something that has
3:30existed for many centuries but somehow
3:32been hidden from you you experience a
3:34kind of delight and astonishment at
3:36first this is remarkable it's like
3:38discovering something you know valuable
3:39painting in your attic or something you
3:42know you pull off the back of the
3:43painting and it's a you know it's a copy
3:45of the Declaration of Independence or
3:47something what is this it's a lost
3:49letter of
3:51Cicero Something Beautiful discovered
3:53and you're astonished and delighted and
3:55then your second movement is to have a
3:58response of of resentment and regret why
4:02didn't somebody familiarize me with this
4:05earlier why am I learning this now in
4:07midli for
4:09example but there are hundreds of
4:11schools that have started across the
4:12country in the last 30 years probably
4:15300 classical Christian schools have
4:17started in the last 30 years now there's
4:20a movement of classical charter schools
4:21and there's at least 125 or 150
4:24classical charter schools that have
4:25started and more on the way and there
4:28are thousands and thousands of women
4:31homeschooling their kids classically at
4:34home how many of you have homeschooled
4:36your kids for a period of
4:38time right the educational renewal in
4:41this country is largely being led by
4:44American
4:46women they're the ones with the
4:49inspiration and who are putting their
4:51their shoulder to the plow and are doing
4:53the work of re-educating American
4:55children in great great numbers at home
4:59and in our our schools of course the men
5:00are involved as well but thank you women
5:04for the sacrifices you are making to
5:06renew education and this culture
5:09hundreds of schools thousands and
5:11thousands of homeschooling moms many of
5:13these homeschooling families end up
5:14coming into the classical Christian
5:16Schools as their children get
5:17older there's are at least 41,000
5:20students being educated in those 250 or
5:23300 schools I mentioned and there are
5:25thousands more beginning to be educated
5:27across the country renewing an
5:30understanding of the classical liberal
5:31arts of say grammar logic and rhetoric
5:33which is the which is are the Arts in by
5:36which we Master the tongue where we
5:38learn how to speak we learn how to
5:40interpret clearly and speak clearly so
5:42that we can be understood and logic is a
5:44study of correct reasoning or argument
5:46so we can recognize a fallacy when it
5:49occurs and defend ourselves against the
5:50endless stream of propaganda that's
5:52coming at us from both sides of the
5:55aisle and learn to craft arguments that
5:57are cogent and compelling and clear and
6:01then the study of rhetoric is the study
6:02of persuasive speaking and writing so
6:05that we not only speak with correct
6:07argumentation but we can speak in ways
6:09that delight and please our hearers that
6:11we can speak with imagination and
6:13captivation that's rhetoric these three
6:15Arts of grammar and logic and rhetoric
6:17help you to master the tongue and when
6:20is that not relevant ladies and
6:22gentlemen when what job doesn't require
6:25that kind of training and
6:28expertise
6:30so we're recovering that and those those
6:32three Arts together are called the
6:33Trivium The three-fold Way of grammar
6:35logic and rhetoric and when students get
6:38this kind of training watch out you
6:41teach kids logic you teach them to
6:43recognize the logical fallacies it's
6:46like teaching a kid karate they're going
6:48to use it against
6:50you you're going to find yourself on
6:52your back and even grandpa is a target
6:55Grandpa that's a policy that's a false
6:57that's appeal to an illegitimate
6:58Authority that's post Hawk AO propter
7:01Hawk that's false cause
7:04grandma that's ad hominum
7:07abusive Mr
7:11Trump but we can pick on any on all
7:14sides right so here we have it these
7:18Arts are so practical but the classical
7:21tradition aimed higher than just
7:23practical
7:24utility right in fact in your mission
7:27statement what do you have is listed as
7:29some of the the goals wisdom equipping
7:33students for wisdom men and women we we
7:36can't even define wisdom today we don't
7:38even know what it is who wouldd like to
7:41come up and describe wisdom for
7:43us or
7:46virtue that's almost as hard to Define
7:48what is virtues what are the virtues we
7:50don't even know do you know what the
7:51classical virtues were well we don't
7:52know these we have these Echo just take
7:55the liberal arts some of you went to a
7:56liberal arts college but you can't name
7:58the liberal
8:00Arts what are they do they have names
8:04and even if you can name a few like
8:06grammar logic and
8:07rhetoric do you know why they're called
8:10liberal and do you know why they're
8:11called arts and not
8:14Sciences well not really I know
8:17professors at liberal arts colleges who
8:18can't do this and I was just like you I
8:21didn't know either for quite some time
8:22until began to do the educational study
8:24well what what is what are the liberal
8:26arts well we have an echo of an echo of
8:29an echo you know and we almost forgot
8:32this but there was some moment about 30
8:34years ago when we remembered that we had
8:38forgotten and we began to read again and
8:41study how those who came before us were
8:43prepared and you know we found out that
8:45there are ideas these these classical
8:47ideas the reason we call them classical
8:49is because they
8:53are of enduring Excellence I got it he's
8:58given me a sign saying 10 10 minutes
8:59remaining but he's continuing to hold
9:01the sign in front of me like did you see
9:03it did you see it 10 minutes it's very
9:06bold PR you want to show it to everybody
9:07Chris so they can they can tell that 10
9:10minutes
9:12remaining one flash see see in the Myers
9:15Brig I'm a p which means I don't track
9:17time apparently I need this kind of
9:20help but if I can keep you laughing
9:22can't I go longer huh how about it we
9:25all need to laugh so what are the
9:27liberal arts you know we we we we don't
9:29know what they are we're trying to
9:30recover them but they were called
9:32liberal because they set you free and
9:33kept you free they were the education
9:35for the free people not the slaves it
9:38was the education that enabled you to
9:40lead and serve do you know how many
9:41people fought in the Revolutionary War
9:44apparently it was about 3% it only takes
9:47a small minority of population to renew
9:51something to begin to lead
9:52culture if we could graduate a 100,000
9:56students a year who had been educated
9:58this way they they would be become the
9:59Salt and Light of this culture they
10:01would begin in the decades to come to
10:02lead this culture we don't need a lot we
10:05just need a few who are well trained and
10:08ready to serve filled with the virtues
10:10which we can't Define either what are
10:12the
10:14virtues this classical language that we
10:16have an echo of but the virtues comes
10:19comes with the Latin word ver which
10:20means a man and to have virtue was to
10:23have
10:25virtuosity
10:27virility to have strength strength
10:30strength to do what to to actually
10:33fulfill Your Capacity as a human being
10:35to serve well so the virtues were love
10:38humility courage Temperance constancy
10:42and diligence these were the virtues
10:45proper to being a student and a student
10:48the word student comes from the Latin
10:49word studium which means to be Ze
10:51zealous or eager for something if a
10:54student isn't in love with something and
10:56eager to study and know something true
10:59good and beautiful he's not a student
11:00you
11:02see you will study what you love and so
11:05the virtues were designed to cultivate
11:07in students a love of something true
11:09good and beautiful such that they would
11:11have that thing such that they had a
11:13vision for it that they became their own
11:15teachers they were studying even when
11:17the teacher was not around that's when
11:20you have a student and you might study
11:22the batting averages of the players on
11:24the St Louis Cardinals if you love the
11:26Cardinals right or you'll study American
11:28history history if you love American
11:30history or you'll study Aristotle if you
11:32love correct reasoning right you will
11:34study what you love and teachers help
11:37students to love what they love that's a
11:39part of the Legacy and it's not just the
11:40Trivium but it's the quad rivium of the
11:43mathematical Arts as well geometry
11:45arithmetic astronomy and music I wish I
11:48had time to talk about those but I don't
11:51but they cultivate a human being to be
11:53the fullest version of himself or
11:55herself and so you say we want to
11:58cultivate students to be filled with
12:00wisdom and virtue and
12:04eloquence what is eloquence it's the
12:06good man or woman speaking
12:10well to speak well in the classical
12:12tradition meant that you had to actually
12:15be a good person if you're not a good
12:17person you can't be a good
12:19speaker and you have to have studied the
12:21things that are true good and beautiful
12:22to have a a treasury within your own
12:25heart and soul that you could share with
12:26others and the speaker was someone who
12:28served
12:29and rhetoric is a study of loving your
12:32listeners it's an act of love to study
12:34rhetoric to please the people who hear
12:37you to please the people who write you
12:39to to as cisero would say to Delight to
12:42instruct and to
12:45move that's the study of rhetoric but
12:48the classical tradition the legacy of it
12:50was also to study the best that has been
12:52thought and said to study the greatest
12:54books that's the Legacy and it needs to
12:57be renewed to today our culture
13:00desperately needs people who have
13:02contemplated the best that's been
13:04thought and said who have read the great
13:05books who have done slow learning over
13:07time and who have acquired these virtues
13:10and when this starts to happen and when
13:12this is recovered even in small degrees
13:15marvelous things begin to happen
13:17students begin to change transformation
13:19begins to occur in in families in the
13:22little schools in the communities in the
13:25churches things begin to happen it's you
13:28know kind of like teaching kid karate
13:30teaching him a language he goes out and
13:33starts to do stuff and you can't control
13:35it starts to happen so I want to share
13:39with you just a few slides by to to let
13:42you know what's happening with the
13:43renewal so I'm going to speed through a
13:45few
13:53things as I
13:57said probably pressing the wrong
14:05button I simply said I had to uh turn it
14:11on so we need to think of reformation
14:14and reference to
14:16form what is the form that we're seeking
14:18it's not this kind of form form meant
14:21something beautiful what is it that we
14:23want our students to conform to well we
14:26have to have an idea of form before we
14:28can reform we talk about reform without
14:31a clear idea of what the form is we
14:34speak of progress without knowing where
14:35we're really headed we can't clarify the
14:38destination and a tradition is simply
14:40something that's been handed down to us
14:41it comes from Trot tradere the legacy is
14:44a tradition that we receive as a gift
14:47that our predecessors have built for us
14:49like a beautiful cathedral that we get
14:51to
14:52enjoy that's a tradition Chesterton says
14:55that democracy is the tradition of the
14:58Dead or excuse me tradition is the
15:00Democracy of the Dead in which even
15:02those who've gone before us get a
15:07vote tradition means giving votes to the
15:09most obscure of all classes our ancestor
15:11it's the Democracy of the Dead tradition
15:14refuses to submit to the small and
15:15arrogant oligarchy of those who merely
15:17happen to be walking about in the
15:19Democracy of the Dead all men at last
15:21are equal there is neither rank nor
15:23station nor prerogative in the Republic
15:25of the Grave do you pay attention to
15:27those who have gone before you
15:30is CS Lewis at your table is Augustine
15:33who else is with
15:35you there this is just going to annoy
15:37you terribly I'm just I planned it this
15:39way this is the Battle of the last 100
15:42years these are the people who advocated
15:45a different form of education and won
15:48the day until we have Progressive modern
15:51education reigning in our country it
15:54didn't go so well there were some who
15:56fought
15:57back here they
15:59are jacqu bar Gilbert
16:02hayatt John dwey was not one who fought
16:05back but who extended Progressive
16:07education as did William
16:08Kilpatrick Diane ravage says the hoax is
16:11the belief of the purpose that the
16:12purpose of schools is to rank and rate
16:14every child by their scores and
16:15standardized test we are attempting to
16:17standardize children the current Rage of
16:20standardized assessments is understood
16:23as a legitimate response to very poor
16:25teaching in our schools but it's turning
16:27our teachers into educa technicians with
16:29clipboards looking at micro assessments
16:32heads down rather than heads up looking
16:34at their students the teacher is no
16:35longer a master of her art she's an
16:37agent of the state she's an agent of
16:39some curriculum company and she will
16:42have to prepare students for a
16:43computerized standardized test that
16:46makes the teachers who start wanting to
16:47educate only lasting about five years
16:50before they leave the profession because
16:51they're not
16:55[Applause]
16:57teaching
16:59here's what the standards look
17:01like there are hundreds of them in every
17:05grade and chesteron says this when a
17:08society begins to get weak it when it
17:11gets to you know when when somebody
17:12starts to get frail and sick that's when
17:14they start talking about health right
17:17but when you're healthy what you talk
17:19about is journeying to the center of the
17:20earth when you're healthy you talk about
17:23your aims not your
17:26processes we have lost health and so all
17:29we can do is talk about my aches and
17:30pains because I don't got to get help me
17:32to but when you're are healthy you want
17:34to conquer the world our country is
17:37lacking health and when you lack Health
17:39you begin to focus on
17:42efficiency the classical tradition bucks
17:45against that and aims at Higher Goals
17:48like wisdom virtue and
17:52eloquence the cultivated Soul nourished
17:54on Truth goodness and Beauty by means of
17:56the liberal arts and the greatest books
17:58looks now to end here's some of the good
18:02stuff this isn't
18:05it China by the way is renewing
18:07classical education why we're going back
18:09to job training China is going to
18:11Liberal Arts the liberal arts because
18:13they realize it makes for Better
18:15Business Leaders and military leaders
18:17just kind of an interesting
18:19irony the renewal fastest way forward
18:22when you're lost is sometimes to go
18:23backwards did you know that that's what
18:25lwis said chesteron said that every
18:27Revolution every every restoration is a
18:29revolution we go
18:38back there we
18:41go I wanted to show you a few statistics
18:43to
18:46culminate 250 schools another 150
18:49charter schools at least 300 schools
18:52already existing that were classical
18:55homeschooling some of you are concerned
18:57about some of this some of the some of
18:58the
18:59standardized ways that we might assess
19:01our students will my child get into a
19:03good college how will he do on the SAT
19:05test I'll just show you because the
19:07answer it's laughable don't worry about
19:09that stuff these kids do remarkably well
19:13um here's a looking at 250 uh classical
19:16Christian Schools here's the average in
19:18terms of SAT scores compared to the N
19:20the national average you can see this at
19:22accs edu.org uh by types of class
19:29total
19:31enrollment sat performance relative to
19:34College and Career Readiness Ben
19:36benchmarks when our first graduating
19:38class was at covenant was was about
19:40ready to graduate everybody's wondering
19:42how they're going to do on the SATs we
19:44had six students we were hoping it would
19:48work these six students had an average
19:50SAT score of about 1400 that was before
19:53the writing test six of them were
19:55National three of them were National
19:56Merit finals we got to say that half of
19:58our graduating seniors are National
20:00marit Finals now we've never had that
20:02average again all right but in this
20:04small school in Harrisburg Pennsylvania
20:06I'm going to take just two more minutes
20:08the small school in Harrisburg
20:10Pennsylvania the smallest High School in
20:12the whole metropolitan area of about
20:13500,000 students the highest SAT scores
20:16in the entire area right that's not
20:19unusual adon's Academy small school of
20:2155 high school students in
20:24Virginia they've won the State mock
20:26trial Championship three years in a row
20:29in in Idaho for the last 12 years in a
20:32row the State mock trial champion of the
20:35entire state has been the logos School
20:37in M Moscow Idaho except for one year
20:39when they were beat by another classical
20:41school the Ambrose school from Boise
20:43Idaho these small schools do remarkable
20:46things this is the way we educated
20:48before before we went to school col
20:51consolidation we would educate in our
20:53neighborhoods we would educate in small
20:55schools where the students were known
20:58and where they were apprenticed and
21:00discipled and
21:01mentored and we even graded with words
21:04more than we graded with
21:06numbers the the great people of the past
21:09you mention a name like Abraham Lincoln
21:11how were these men educated in small
21:14schools how many Road Scholars were
21:16educated on the Prairie in one room
21:18School houses in this country and
21:20throughout history we see small schools
21:23in communities doing the best job of
21:26Education we think that big is better
21:29but when you go to a restaurant you
21:31don't want to go to a restaurant that's
21:32this big right you like small cozy
21:36intimate you want to be known a lot of
21:38things come better when they're done
21:40small good night if you get into Oxford
21:42University you'll be tutored in groups
21:44of two by one Professor the highest form
21:46of education is a tutorial it's widely
21:50recognized if you could be tutored
21:53wouldn't you choose that if you could
21:55afford it the smallness creat creates
21:58the quality so I want to stop with this
22:01comment there is a renewal going on in
22:03this country it's growing it's happening
22:07here in St Louis I want to close with a
22:09story of a school in Virginia named
22:11Veritas School en Richmond not like you
22:14about 5 years ago they had a school
22:16about your size and a rented facility
22:18today they are in a campus with about a
22:21100,000 square ft they were able to
22:23purchase a former Baptist Seminary
22:26across the street from Union Seminary
22:28michan Virginia uh three-story Colonial
22:31Brick building that had been renovated 5
22:33years ago some donors came along and
22:36believed in what what Veritas was doing
22:38saw the quality of the students saw the
22:40track record saw The Talented team saw
22:43the faculty saw what was happening
22:45around the nation and they said we want
22:48that to happen in Richmond and they gave
22:49$7 million to the school to buy this
22:52campus and now Richmond is becoming a
22:54Leadership School this this school is
22:56becoming a Leadership School in the
22:57nation
22:58because the owner of Sweet Frogs the
23:00owner of some other companies said we
23:02want to support this school and bring it
23:05to the next level of regional influence
23:08because classical Christian education is
23:10needed all over this country and we want
23:12to expand it and extend it now we all
23:15have to give according to our
23:17means but to be a benefactor simply
23:19means to do good in Latin what good
23:22thing might God call you to do you give
23:26according to your needs some of you are
23:27giving by working under Market ra wages
23:30at the school you could make more
23:32elsewhere you know that some of you are
23:34giving by the amount of time you give
23:37parents are giving a lot of volunteer
23:38time how many volunteer hours went into
23:41this event for this to occur but some of
23:43you can give money to the school because
23:45God's blessed you with business
23:47expertise what would God have you to do
23:50that would do good for this school I
23:53believe you can be the next Veritas
23:56school you can have the same kind of
23:59impact and Ministry that that school is
24:01having if you'll come together and say
24:04let's do the good thing God bless you in
24:07your work it's so good to be with you
24:09and have a great
24:13[Applause]
24:22evening thank you so much that was
24:24wonderfully put

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