Classical Lutheran Education Journal a Journal of the Consortium for Classical and Lutheran Education Vol

CLASSICAL LUTHERAN EDUCATION JOURNAL A JOURNAL OF THE CONSORTIUM FOR CLASSICAL AND LUTHERAN EDUCATION VOL. V 2011

The CLASSICAL LUTHERAN EDUCATION JOURNAL is TABLE OF CONTENTS dedicated to providing a variety of helpful resources for Lutheran educators and parents who A Politically Incorrect Review of are laboring in the noble enterprise of nurturing American Progressive Education: and educating God's children. What was it intended to be and do? by the Rev. Dr. Steven A. Hein p. 1 In this volume, we begin with Dr. Steven A. Hein's compelling explanation of the origins and dangers How Classical Christian Education of progressive education, as presented in two-part Created the Modern World sessions at CCLE XI in Sheridan, Wyoming. by Dr. E. Christian Kopff p.12 Next, Dr. E. Christian Kopff, CCLE XI's brilliant plenary speaker, summarizes his sessions on A Research Study: Effects of classical Christian education's effects on the Classical Education on Achievement modern world, specifically with respect to the in Lutheran Schools Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the by Anthony B. Splittgerber p. 17 American Revolution. We also debut here the preliminary research of A Review of Thomas Korcok's Mr. Anthony Splittgerber, as he seeks to compare Lutheran Education: From and contrast academic achievement between Wittenberg to the Future students in classical Lutheran schools and non- by Dr. Gene Edward Veith p. 20 classical Lutheran schools. Dr. Gene Edward Veith, in his article entitled, "The Book Classical Lutheran Educators Have Been The Lutheran Homeschool Waiting For," offers us a rich and insightful discussion on the recently-released work by Dr. What has Imagination to do with Thomas Korcok, Lutheran Education: From Classical Education? Wittenberg to the Future. by Kathrine Bischof p. 24 And for the Lutheran Homeschool, Kathrine Bischof presents a thought-provoking review of Anthony Esolen's book, Ten Ways to A Politically Incorrect Review of in her Destroy the Imagination of Your Child American Progressive Education: article, "What Has Imagination To Do with What was it intended to be and do? Classical Education?"

Kathrine Bischof, M.A. by Dr. Steven A. Hein Cheryl Swope, M. Ed. Co-editors It was largely utopian visions and the belief in a progressive social democracy that molded a new vision of the good life in early 20th century America. Progressively throughout the century, personal material wealth and

consumption were marketed and bought

1 as the epitome of the good life. A well methods, and results, especially during socially-engineered, but poorly educated the 20th century. Our CCLE conference adult labor force was more conducive to this year had as its theme the these utopian ends - both as efficient exploration of this most basic question: workers and optimum consumers - than Why educate? What are the goals and thinking, well-educated men and women objectives that education is directed to who prized liberty as their ultimate social accomplish with our children? Only condition. Hence an alliance among when we understand our educational major industrialists, government goals and objectives are we in a position officials, and educators led to the to evaluate any given approach. It is replacement of what we call classical concerning this basic question that the education with modern progressive roots of progressive education in our schooling. The rise of compulsory country, and indeed throughout the government-sponsored, progressive Western world, made a radical change schooling and its dumbing-down of during the middle of the 18th century education in America were conceived beginning in Prussia. When the and advanced on the highest levels of Prussian army went into a flawlessly central planning to sustain and further executed battle engagement, after days these utopian ends. of forced march to save Wellington from Very few of us today are aware of certain defeat by Napoleon at the battle the history of education in America. It is of Waterloo, a surprised western world commonly thought that whatever WRRNQRWH3UXVVLD¶VXQGHUVWDQGLQJRI innovations have come over the how to train, manage, and execute a centuries and decades, they have been large military contingency to achieve a conceived and implemented with the singular objective with coordinated goal of improving pedagogy to enable precision, as set forth by field the learner to learn more and to learn commanders, was quickly understood more efficiently. Regardless of how the as to its applications of employing a track record at any particular place or grand labor force to push the industrial time is perceived, it is generally thought revolution into a new age of mass that the experts who have formulated production. innovations in the curriculum and methodology have done so with the goal of improving education for all our The greater population of the children ± that is, making them better country would have to be educated. Unfortunately this is not, and has never been, the case with socialized and schooled to compulsory, government-administered progressive American education whose become an efficient, effective beginnings can be traced to the middle 1800s in Boston, New York, and mass labor force to produce the Philadelphia. The following overview goods and then consume them in has been gleaned largely from the well- documented treatment by educator John pursuit of a better life of material Gatto in The Underground History of American Education. living. Our objective is to explore the factors that gave rise to progressive First in Prussia, then in England education in this country and to and the United States, industrialization understand and appreciate its goals, produced an enormous upheaval in

2 national identity and purpose. Visionary Granted, the work would be largely industrialists, government officials, and strenuous, repetitive, and mindlessly educators began to understand the boring ± but it would promise job tremendous possibilities for mass security, nice wages, and a chance to production fueled by coal and later advance into a higher material standard petroleum. Industrialization brought with of living. To provide for such a mass it dreams of a utopian existence of labor resource, an alliance between endless material advances in the large corporate industrialists and standard of American living. Coal and Government would be necessary to petroleum could fuel the production and raise up a compulsory schooling operation of machines, factories, and system. Designed to overturn the assembly lines that could - with a rightly traditional task of educating our young trained, efficient, mass labor force - for liberty and freedom, in order to crank out an endless array of enable them to make for themselves a inexpensively produced goods and life and career of their own choosing, gadgets that would eradicate poverty this system would train students for and disease, and that would also social integration into a mass workforce produce such a standard of living for all for coordinated labor as prescribed, unheard of in the history of the world. It supervised, and evaluated by the is important to understand the production goals of higher management. advantages envisioned and achieved for The old enterprise of educating for a mass society by the successful critical and creative thought, problem schooling and social adaption of a mass solving, and communication would be labor force during the hundred years retained partially, but not for the from 1880s through the 1970s. In short, masses. Such education would become it was the physical comfort for all ± an elitist enterprise for only the brightest food, shelter, cars, and TVs ± with and best-connected children, a small relative personal security, a predictable minority who could take their places in world with great freedom from anxieties government, the professions, and upper of the unknowns in life. corporate management. For the masses, education for free thinking was seen as a clear threat and liability to

For the masses, education realizing the collective utopian visions for free thinking was seen as a for reasons that we will make evident. If the Christian vision is a life clear threat and liability to realizing lived under the grace of the Savior Jesus Christ, a life of being a good the collective utopian visions for steward, and a life serving Christ in the needs of one's neighbors, then the reasons that we will make evident. utopian vision responsible for compulsory government education conceptualized salvation as economic In order for such a vision to be justice for the collective material realized, a trade off would be needed. betterment of mankind. No greater The greater population of the country condition for man could be conceived. would have to be socialized and The good life was understood as a life of schooled to become an efficient, production and consumption, with an effective mass labor force to produce increasing array of material goods (add the goods and then consume them in entertainment during the second half of pursuit of a better life of material living. the 20th century) to unprecedented

3 standards of worldly living. The visions students with serious literature, that brought us compulsory progressive philosophy, and theology would education were often fueled with a need radical dilution in order to religion-like zeal; but both the zeal and dampen any interest in vision were decidedly rationalistic, shaped by Social Darwinism, Unitarian economics, politics, or religion or atheist presuppositions, and (esp. historic Christianity). thoroughly this-worldly. To accomplish the vision, the mental diet of Children 5. Replacement of phonics with would have to undergo a radical whole language sight-word change, and uniform compulsory reading would be needed to government schooling could best remove the code-cracking drills accomplish this. The following elements that would otherwise allow self- would have to be neutralized or mastery of reading skills for removed from the nurture of children. anyone. Note these carefully: 1. Facility in the language skills that 6. Willing and unwilling students enable critical thinking and would need to be schooled and speaking with others for leveled off together, stratified by persuasive interaction must be age. eliminated in all but the most gifted children who would need 7. Enlargement of the school day, these skills for upper days of the week, months of the management, the professions, year, and years in life spent in and state governance. school would be necessary to retard the labor force, neutralize 2. The traditional narrative of the drive and competitive spirit of American history, that which young teen-aged children, and connects the founding fathers reduce the out-of-school and documents to the significant influences on child formation in HYHQWVRIRXUQDWLRQ¶VKLVWRU\VR order to reduce useful knowledge as to distinguish what it means to for independent livelihoods. be American, would have to be deconstructed. 8. Oversight from parents, church, community leaders, and students 3. The traditional historical narrative themselves would need to shift to would have to be substituted with bureaucratic school officials D³VRFLDOVWXGLHV´UHJLPHQRI progressively more remote from simple uninterpreted facts, the student's local world. together with contemporary social values based on the 9. Progressive hostility would need materialist/consumption vision of to be expressed toward WKH³JRRGOLIH´ interpretative meanings shaped by religion. 4. Academic content of a formal curriculum which familiarized

4 (adapted from J. Gatto, Underground committed and equipped to History of American Education, pp. 169- implement the progressive program. 70) The NEA's 1918 Report, Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education, decreed that specified behaviors, The goal was not to raise up health, and vocational training were educated citizens with the central goals of education, not mental development, not character, intelligent, critical interaction not godliness. (Gatto, p. 108) The strategy of gradualism with their lives and world, but effectively transformed American education into a monolithic rather to build a mass industrial compulsory, government- administered school system. The labor force schooled for movement began in the east, conformed efficiency. especially in the cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, in the Is this not simply educational th middle decades of the 19 Century, reform intended to do things better? traveled to the states in New The new compulsory progressive England, moved to large cities like education became a wholesale Chicago in the Midwest and to other repudiation of the goals and means larger urban centers, and finally to of traditional education, in an the rural states and regions of the exchange for a scientifically th country by the first half of the 20 designed mass schooling program. century. Gradualism also The goal was not to raise up progressively changed compulsory educated citizens with intelligent, education laws. Dean of Education critical interaction with their lives and at Stanford, Elwood Cubberley, world, but rather to build a mass explained the strategy of gradualism industrial labor force schooled for in Public Education in the United conformed efficiency. In the States (1934): envisioned labor force, a traditionally At first the laws are optional . . . educated person posed a threat to later the law was made state- labor management and to cost- wide, but the compulsory period effective production. Inculcating was short (ten to twelve weeks) knowledge teaches workers to be and the age limits low, not to able to perceive and calculate their twelve years. After this, struggle grievances; thus, they become came to extend the time often formidable foes in labor issues. little by little . . . to extend the age Moreover, The Report of the Senate limits downward to eight and Committee on Education in 1888 seven and upwards to fourteen, reported the following conclusion: fifteen, or sixteen; to make the We believe that education is one of law apply to children attending the principle causes of discontent of private and parochial schools, late years manifesting itself among and to require cooperation from the laboring classes . . . . (Gatto, p. such schools for the proper 153) The NEA came into existence handling of cases; to institute to organize and shape the means state supervision of local and goals of molding and enforcement; to connect school maintaining a teacher resource attendance enforcement with the

5 child-labor legislation of the State 100-150 years ago.) Prior to coal-fired through a system of working mass production, the notion of using permits. (Gatto, p. 101) RQH¶VHGXFDWLRQWRHQWHURQH¶VRZQ The goals of progressive business enterprise was seen as the education, the institution and expansion most positive exercise of freedom and of compulsory schooling, and restrictive liberty for American youth. During child labor laws were all designed to colonial days in America, if a young man achieve the same result ± to had not established a successful intellectually dumb down, yet produce business as an entrepreneurial an efficient mass labor force, all while tradesman by the ages of 13 or 14, he guarding against the greatest threat the was considered a failure and would utopian industrialists feared: probably have to become what was overproduction, or what is more considered the most derogatory work commonly called, competition. Shaped classification at the time ± a common by a cartel of rich, visionary industrialists laborer. such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew The connection was both simple Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, and Henry and inescapable$GDP6PLWK¶V Ford, the utopian program was fueled by understanding of a market run by self- those who feared risking the great regulating competition would be the capital of their enterprises' harnessing of death of the planned managed coal, petroleum, and steel to a economy. The presence of population of young educated and independently minded, well-educated idealistic entrepreneurs. Imbued and Americans had to be curtailed. equipped with a good education, Excessive overproduction of brains was entrepreneurs would be willing and able understood as the root cause of the to build better and cheaper mousetraps overproduction of virtually anything and or Model T horseless carriages that did everything. When some raised doubts not need a new model each year. If in the middle of the 20th century, James supplies increased, prices would drop, Bryant Conan (President of Harvard, and capital could not be protected. 1935-53) wrote a defense of the new In the older, largely agrarian program in The American High School economy, parents toughened the minds Today. For Conan, progressive of their own children through education education was a triumph of in serious literature, writing, debate, and Anglo/Germanic pragmatism as it competence in managing numbers. brilliantly curtailed the American Education began in this manner in entrepreneurial spirit for perfectly young childhood to foster the early justifiable reasons. If capital investments desire and appreciation of were vulnerable to millions of young, independence and creativity. But such self-reliant, educated, and resourceful an educated young person was just entrepreneurs, no one would risk the what was feared. The new utopian huge amounts of capital necessary to vision included curtailing the labor of create or sustain the new young people, keeping them in schools commercial/industrial/financial machine for longer days -- and longer years of of mass production. The whole their development ± as this would enterprise would have never begun, or deprive them of an educated, creative would have soon collapsed. (Gatto, p. mind and the means to apply it in the &RQVLGHU-RKQ'5RFNHIHOOHU¶V market place during their most energetic 1906 General Education Board and idealistic years. (Remember the document, Occasional Letter Number shorter life expectancy for Americans One:

6 In our dreams . . . people intellectually its future mass labor force yield themselves with perfect would be to restrict its ability to read. docility to our molding hands. The This would be accomplished by present educational conventions changing how reading would be taught, [intelligent and character and also by changing what would be education] fade from our minds, read. and unhampered by tradition we work our own good will upon a Learning how to read and argue grateful and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people form the foundation of a solid or any of their children into philosophers, or men of learning education for a learned and or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them literate citizenry. authors, educators, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, The ancient Greeks made the musicians, nor lawyers, doctors, astounding discovery centuries before preachers, politicians, statesmen, that had advanced the ability to read of whom we have ample supply. and master language. They created The task we set before ourselves letters to represent language sounds. is simple . . . we will organize Learning sight-sound correspondences children . . . and teach them to do is easy. The naming of sounds rather in a perfect way the things their than things was an incredible fathers and mothers are doing in breakthrough. Communicating an imperfect way . . . . (Gatto, 45) abstractions in picture language requires, for most people, much more A Closer Look at the Impact of time and training. The Greeks created Progressive Education on Reading words with combinations of sounds, and There has been a consensus they understood that proper syntactical down through the centuries ± writing would lead to construction of unchallenged by progressive schooling phrases and sentences capable of proponents ± that attentive reading of conveying even the most complex tough-minded writing that wrestles with abstract ideas. central challenges of human existence The Romans made it even easier is the best, fastest, and cheapest way by naming the letters closely with the known for learning to think analytically sound of the letters. Christian and independently. Serious reading with missionaries adapted the Roman rigorous discussion of content requires alphabet to English (not very easily) in th the development of critical thinking, the 7 century, and the rest, as they articulate speaking, and the mastery of say, is history. For a long time there was human language. Learning how to read not much to read in English, as Latin and argue form the foundation of a solid was the academic language of learning education for a learned and literate and academics. The King James citizenry. Nowhere was progressive Version of the Bible became the schooling more devastating than in the universal textbook in early American area of reading. In 1812, prior to education. Learning the alphabet and progressive education, barely four in a its phonetic sounds, and then decoding thousand Americans could not read words in the Bible, became the most proficiently. The key to retarding popular way that children among all

7 social classes ± rich and poor ± quickly psychologist, James McKeen Cattell. learned to read. As children learned to Cattell conducted an experiment with a read and master the most complex contraption called a tachistoscope that sentences and vocabulary at the earliest allegedly proved we read whole words of ages, they were constantly rewarded and not letters. It was not until 1965 that and motivated to learn more as they anyone bothered to check his became more enlightened about the experiment and discovered that he was fundamental questions of human dead wrong. People read letters, not existence everyone is interested in: words. Indeed, reports Gatto, there were What is life? What is death? And, how 124 legitimate studies performed from the future can be secured by a loving 1911 to 1981 attempting to prove Cattell and merciful Creator and Redeemer? and other whole-word advocates right. Not surprisingly, it was a German None of the studies confirmed whole disciple of Rousseau who published the word reading as effective. (Gatto, p. 70, first look/say reading primer in 1791, 73) through which students would learn Nevertheless, the progressive words through pictures. (Gatto, p. 64) (I adoption of the whole language can remember my first reading lesson approach to reading promised just the using pictures to teach word association needed wholesale approach to retard ± the method we now call whole children's learning, and it also eventually language or word instruction. It was the provided the financial bonanza to first grade and there was the textbook publishing companies that led corresponding picture on a large easel to the famous (or infamous) Dick and with the words: Look baby, see the Jane reading series. (Anyone remember water.) Horace Mann and his wife Mary it?) Now, for several generations of Peabody promoted this word picture reading, it would be; Dick who had a reading method as Thomas Gallaudet dog named Spot. By 1920 sight reading had set it forth in his sight-reading had begun to replace phonics as the program for the deaf. (Gatto, p. 67) standard method of teaching reading in Learning to read in this way (you American government-sponsored certainly could not use phonics!) taught education, and by the 1930s the Dick deaf children how to speak. The first line and Jane series was becoming the most in the primer was Frank had a dog; his popular whole-language reading series. name was Spot. But Mann and later progressive educators sought to adopt the pictorial whole-language approach Instead of reading about the to teach reading to children who had no great Noachian flood, the battle hearing difficulties and who already had considerable facility in spoken language. between David and Goliath, and He battled the Boston School authorities until his death in efforts to bring the crucifixion of Jesus, children GallaudHW¶VZKROHODQJXDJHDSSURDFKWR reading to Boston. Said Mann, I am learned a few dozen words satisfied our greatest error in teaching repeated - ad nauseum ‒ with a children to read lies in beginning with the alphabet *DWWRS ,WZDVQ¶W color picture on each page. until the crusade for whole language by Francis Parker and other reading antagonists in the 1880s that the push Over the course of twenty years, succeeded with the help of a the series was progressively dumbed-

8 down further. In 1930, although the Dick there were two hundred and and Jane pre-primer taught only 68 sight twenty-three words to use in this words in 39 pages of story text, with one book. I read the list three times illustration per page, for a total of 565 and I almost went out of my ZRUGVLWV7HDFKHU¶V*XLGHERRNKDG KHDG,VDLG³,¶OOUHDGLWRQFH pages. In 1951 (when I entered the more and if I can find two words world of Dick and Jane), the same book WKDWUK\PHWKDW¶OOEHWKHWLWOHRI taught only 58 sight words. Yet it had P\ERRN´,IRXQGFDWDQGKDWand expanded to 172 pages, 184 said the title of my book will be illustrations, contained a total of 2,603 ³7KH&DWLQWKH+DW´ (Gatto, p. words, and the Teacher's Guidebook 73) had swelled to 182 pages ± all this to In 1840, records from teach 58 new words! In 1930, the word Connecticut and Massachusetts ³ORRN´DSSHDUVWLPHVLQ revealed that virtually everyone could WLPHV,QWKHHDUO\YHUVLRQ³RK´UHSHDWV read and at a very proficient level with 12 times; in the later version 138 times. almost no formal schooling (in terms of ,QWKHILUVW³VHH´KDVUHSHWLWLRQVLQ months in WKH\HDURU\HDUVRIRQH¶V the second, 176. (Gatto, p. 72) Contrast youth). By 1940, one hundred years also the content of Dick and Jane with later, 96% of whites and 80% of blacks the content of the King James Version were literate. Just sixty years later, by of the Bible. Instead of reading about the turn of the century, black illiteracy the great Noachian flood, the battle had doubled to 40% and white illiteracy between David and Goliath, and the had quadrupled to 17%. During these crucifixion of Jesus, children learned a sixty years, education expenditures few dozen words repeated - ad increased 400%. Meanwhile, between nauseum ± with a color picture on each 1955 and 1991, student/teacher ratios page. The books explored such mind- decreased by 40%, teacher emptying drivel as Dick and Spot go to compensation increased by 50%, and the grocery store, Spot spills some milk, the annual expense per student and Officer Friendly walks them back increased 350%. (Gatto, pp. 52-55) home. In 1993, the National Adult The famous Dr. Seuss of Cat in Literacy Survey surveyed 190 million the Hat fame put the mindlessness of all U.S. adults over the age of 16. Despite this before the public in an interview he an average school attendance of 12.4 gave in 1981: years, the following results emerged I did it for a textbook from these 190 million: house and they sent me a word 1. Forty-two million Americas list. That was due to the Dewey over the age of 26 could not revolt in the twenties, in which read. they threw out phonics reading and went to word recognition as if 2. Fifty million Americans could \RX¶UHUHDGLQJD&KLQHVH recognize printed words on a pictograph instead of blending 4th or 5th grade level, but could sounds or different letters. I think killing phonics was one of the not write simple messages or greatest causes of illiteracy in the letters. country. . . . Anyway they had it all worked out that a healthy child 3. Fifty-five million Americans th th at the age of four can only learn were limited to 6 -8 grade so many words in a week. So reading levels. A majority of

9 this group could not figure out We just happen to have the price per ounce of peanut WKHZRUOG¶VPRVWSURGXFWLYHZRUN butter in a 20-ounce jar force, the largest economy, the highest material standard of costing $1.99, even when told living, more Nobel prizes that the they could round the answer rest of the world combined, the to a whole number. best system of higher education, the best high-tech medicine, and 4. Only 30 million Americans the strongest military. These th th possessed 9 or 10 grade things could not have been level reading proficiency. This accomplished with second-rate group (and all of the previous) systems of education. (Gatto, p. could not understand a 151) simplified written explanation The paradox is that only by a second-rate educational system could of the procedures used by these things have been produced - attorneys and judges to select especially considering what was juries. accomplished prior to 1980. The progressive's school system did create 5. Only 3.5% were deemed to an effective and efficient mass labor have reading proficiency force that harnessed the energy of coal ready to begin college work, and petroleum to produce a standard of contrasted with 30% of all material living never before reached in high school students in 1940. the history of the world. The program worked, especially given that the third 6. 96.5% of this American adult world had yet to industrialize, and population was considered European western economies were decimated by two world wars during the mediocre to illiterate where first half of the 20th century. John Gatto deciphering print is concerned QRWHV*UHHQ¶VFRQIXVLRQEHWZHHQ ± they must rely on others to education and schooling. Our material tell them what things reported prosperity, affluence, and power came about their world mean. about through schooling, not through (adapted from Gatto, pp. 61- first-rate education. 62) 7KHWUXWKLVWKDW$PHULFD¶V unprecedented global power and Some Reflections spectacular material wealth is a In light of the question: Why direct product of a third-rate Educate?, how might we assess the educational system, upon whose history of progressive government- inefficiency in developing intellect sponsored compulsory schooling, and character it depends. If we especially during the 20th century? In educated better we could not response to criticisms about the sustain the corporate utopia we mediocrity of the American public school have made. Schools build system, Walter Green protested the national wealth by tearing down myth of our failing schools in 1998, in personal sovereignty, morality, the Atlantic Monthly, on the following DQGIDPLO\OLIH,W¶VDWUDGHRII grounds: (Gatto, p. 151) The continuing problem has been the virtual ignorance about the goals

10 and objectives we have outlined above, educated classes to the brightest and those that form the rationale behind best, and to relegate the rest of progressive schooling as it was American children to becoming efficient, established and matured throughout the effective laborers to produce and 20th century. The major resistance to the consume ever increasing quantities of program as it began and first evolved our own manufactured goods. Now, from the east to the west, from the after years of this system, we produce urban centers to the rural hamlets, were little ( mostly services, including parents. For the most part, they were entertainment) and are not competing out-resourced by educators, HIIHFWLYHO\LQWRGD\¶VJOREDOHFRQRP\ industrialists, and government officials, Today, our schools are the and they lost nearly every battle. product of startling incompetency due to Unwittingly and tragically, many both the vacuum of a passed bygone influential religious leaders in the industrial age and the paralyzing power American Protestant denominations RIWHDFKHUV¶XQLRns. We no longer have enthusiastically endorsed the the factories and mills that require a establishment of the legal foundations mass labor force. Since the close of the for government-sponsored, compulsory 1970s, the productive energies of education as a counter to the Roman American industrialization and the Catholic school system and its dream utopia have declined rapidly. influence. There is perhaps no better The baby-boomer generation, which place where this alliance between received from American mass secular utopians and Protestant production energies possibly the Churchmen finally achieved a complete greatest increase of material blessing victory over the civic influences of its over against the previous generation, Roman Catholic constituency than the saw the whole utopian enterprise to be city of San Francisco during the 20th completely unfulfilling. They started a century. It is what it is today, in part, by protest during the hippy generation in the eradication of longstanding Catholic the 1960s and early 1970s, and they influence in its culture and politics. pronounced the verdict that a life of Most generations of regular folk, great material prosperity and especially after the Second World War, consumption was empty, hollow, and have been completely ignorant of the hostile to the human spirit. In order to history of American education. The cope with the intellectual and spiritual common belief held by most parents vacuum of a materialist culture and a and teachers is that the innovations that third-rate education, they turned not to have come on the scene in the name of better and more traditional education, educational reform have been advanced but to drugs, sex, and entertainment - for the sake of improving the continuing staples of contemporary effectiveness of educating our children. escapist culture. This simply is not the case. The old education and its strategies and methods were not replaced by a system The purpose of the compulsory, of compulsory schooling designed to do government- sponsored schooling the job of educating our children in a superior or more effective manner. It system was to retard and to dumb- was quite the opposite! The purpose of the compulsory, government-sponsored down learning, to restrict the schooling system was to retard and to dumb-down learning, to restrict the educated classes to the brightest

11 and best, and to relegate the rest of American children to becoming How Classical Christian Education Created the Modern World efficient, effective laborers to By Dr. E. Christian Kopff produce and consume ever In 1960 Irving Kristol wrote in the English review Encounter³)XWXUH increasing quantities of our own historians may yet decide that one of the manufactured goods. crucial events of our century, perhaps decisive for its cultural and political destiny, was the gradual dissolution and Our CCLE conference theme this abandonment of the study of the classics as the core of the school year was meant to challenge us to i consider the most fundamental question FXUULFXOXP´ Just as the abandonment of that must be raised before anyone can studying the classics and the classical evaluate different pedagogies: Why curriculum that accompanied and educate? To what end? We have seen H[SODLQHGWKHPZDV³FUXFLDODnd that the answer to this question SHUKDSVGHFLVLYH´IRUWKH7ZHQWLHWK underwent a radical change from Century, so the spread of the classical previous time periods in Western and curriculum from the education of clergy American history, shaped by the and clerks at cathedral schools and materialistic utopian visions and cloisters in the Middle Ages to objectives of 19th progressive aristocratic courts in the Renaissance industrialists and educators. and then to schools for subjects and citizens in the Reformation and its aftermath was decisive for religious revival, scientific discovery and political If you are not clear on why your freedom in the Modern Era. children should be educated ‒ to Despite curricular differences in various parts of Europe, classical what end ‒ you are not yet in a Christian education in early modern Europe shared certain fundamental position to evaluate how and traits. There was a balance between instruction in the arts of language and where they should be educated. the arts of mathematics, the trivium and quadrivium. The arts of language were taught as (Latin) grammar, dialectic (or Today, there is a tremendous need for logic) and rhetoric. The reading lists of Christian parents, pastors, and the curriculum were taken from what educators to think through this question German classicist Manfred Fuhrmann very carefully before establishing calls the Two Canons, the Bible and the priorities and making decisions about pagan classics.ii This curriculum where and how their baptized children educated the people who created the should be educated. If you are not clear Modern World. on why your children should be educated ± to what end ± you are not yet in a position to evaluate how and …the two Canons, the Bible and where they should be educated. the pagan classics.This curriculum

12 and Maintain Christian Schools (WA 15; educated the people who created AE 45), the Magna Charta of classical the Modern World. &KULVWLDQHGXFDWLRQ0HODQFKWKRQ¶V visits to the schools of Saxony led in

1528 to the publication of a model The idea that Martin Luther was school plan, the Instructions for Visitors hostile to the pagan classics is found in (WA 26; AE 40), that outlined a the twentieth century from committed curriculum of catechesis in the faith, classical Christian educators like Louis teaching the trivium beginning with Latin Markos to learned specialists like grammar, and reading the Two Canons. +DUYDUG¶V'RXJODV%XVKiii The origins of Under the leadership of men like the error may be due to the background Johannes Sturm in Strasburg and UDGLDWLRQIURP/XWKHU¶VSROHPLFZLWK Johannes Bugenhagen in Scandinavia, Erasmus, who had a tendency to treat this curriculum spread across Europe, KLVRSSRQHQWVDVHQHPLHVRI³JRRG including England. The results were an OHWWHUV´,WZRXOGEHDQXQDFFHSWDEOH explosive growth in literacy among simplification to treat the Reformation as ordinary folk and artistic creativity in art, primarily the result of educational music, literature and science. reform, but it is equally unacceptable to ignore the role of classical Christian education in the creative turmoil of the ...but the classical Christian roots sixteenth century. In his letter to Humanist poet Eobanus Hessus (1523), of the Scientific Revolution are Luther insisted that his theology was compatible with Humanist ideals. more often denied outright... ³:LWKRXWNQRZOHGJHRIOLWHUDWXUHSXUH theology cannot exist, as until now, with That Shakespeare was the product of letters collapsing in ruins, theology fell a classical Christian education is often most pitifully and lay ruined. I see there ignored, but the classical Christian roots has never been a great revelation of of the Scientific Revolution are more *RG¶V:RUGXQOHVV+HILUVWSUHSDUHGWKH often denied outright, as in such way by the rise and flourishing of triumphs of American jurisprudence as ODQJXDJHVDQGOHWWHUV´ :$%U$( -XGJH-RQHV¶VGHFLVLRQLQ.LW]PLOOHUHW 49: 34) al. Y'RYHU$UHD6FKRRO'LVWULFW³([SHUW Martin Luther devoted much of his testimony reveals that since the early years at Wittenberg to reforming scientific revolution of the sixteenth and the university in a humanist mold. Hiring seventeenth centuries, science has Philip Melanchthon was part of that been limited to the search for natural initiative.iv Luther discussed the ideas FDXVHVWRH[SODLQQDWXUDOSKHQRPHQD« behind university reform in his 1520 While supernatural explanations may be letter To the Christian Nobility of the important and have merit they are not German Nation (WA 6; AE 44). When SDUWRIVFLHQFH«7KLVVHOI-imposed the Reformation led to the closing of the convention of science which limits cathedral and cloister schools that had inquiry to testable, natural explanation been the locus of medieval schooling about the natural world is referred to by since Charlemagne, he and SKLORVRSKHUVDVµPHWKRGRORJLFDO Melanchthon turned to grammar QDWXUDOLVP¶DQGLVVRmetimes known as VFKRROV/XWKHU¶VILUVWUHVSRQVHZDVKLV WKHVFLHQWLILFPHWKRG´v 1524 letter To The Councilmen of All

Cities in Germany That They Establish

13 Nineteenth and Werner Heisenberg in The results were an explosive the Twentieth. growth in literacy among ordinary Thomas Hobbes called geometry folk and artistic creativity in art, “the only science God hath seen fit music, literature and science to bestow upon mankind.” :KHQHYHU³WKLVVHOI-imposed FRQYHQWLRQ´DURVHLWZDVQRWGXULQJWKH Scientific Revolution. Historians of Lutherans played a significant role in science know that both Christian what they, like Copernicus and Vesalius, theology and the classics influenced viewed as the restoration of ancient science in the sixteenth and science. Georg Joachim Rheticus seventeenth centuries.vi They tend, composed the first accessible however, to study them as two separate GHVFULSWLRQRI&RSHUQLFXV¶VLGHDV$V sources instead of insisting that the mathematics professor at Wittenberg in decisive factor was the uniting of 1539, Rheticus visited Copernicus and Christian and ancient thought, and the in 1540 published Narratio Prima ³7KH obvious source of this union of )LUVW$FFRXQW´ /XWKHUDQWKHRORJLDQ Christianity and the classics was the Andreas Osiander saw De classical Christian education enjoyed by revolutionibus through the press. His most educated people in that era. influential anonymous preface praised The Scientific Revolution was self- the work for ³VDYLQJWKHSKHQRPHQD´ consciously a return to the ideals and that is, providing a mathematical model even the texts of ancient science. that predicted the movement of the Copernicus knew that he was reviving planets more elegantly than other the heliocentric hypothesis of models, without claiming the heliocentric Aristarchus of Samos from the third system was physically real. Scholars in century BC. Andreas Vesalius based the sixteenth century Wittenberg followed foundational text of modern medicine, OsLDQGHU¶VOHDGDQGLJQRUHGWKH De humani corporis fabrica, on the physical truth of Copernicus. They second century AD Greek physician, usually began their astronomy courses Galen. It appeared in 1543, the same ZLWKDVXPPDU\RI3WROHP\¶VDUJXPHQWV \HDU&RSHUQLFXV¶VDe revolutionibus for a stationary earth and then used ZDVSXEOLVKHG³/LNH&RSHUQLFXV &RSHUQLFXV¶VPRGHOWRPDNH Vesalius presented his work as calculations of the movement of the restoration of an ancient practice; also celestial bodies.viii like Copernicus, he pointed out flaws in This was the method of Tycho Brahe, the work of his great model from the greatest naked-eye observational antiquity; and like Copernicus the astronomer who ever lived. His accurate rationale for his project emerged directly observations cleared up many IURPKXPDQLVWYDOXHVDQGDPELWLRQV´vii problems. His modification of the Historians often refer to this age as the Ptolemaic model, with the sun circling Scientific Renaissance. The classical the earth while the planets circled the Christian curriculum these men studied sun, contended with Copernicus for continued to educate important generations. Among Lutheran scientists scientists like Linnaeus in the Eighteenth formed by the classical Christian century, Charles Darwin in the curriculum, Johannes Kepler believed in Pythagoras and Plato as deeply as the

14 Bible. He followed the arts of Aristotle and Plato, of Livy and Cicero, mathematics, even when they led him to of Sidney, Harrington and Locke: the postulate that the heavenly bodies principles of nature and eternal moved in ellipses, instead of circles, an UHDVRQ´xi Jefferson, Mayhew and hypothesis denounced by the equally $GDPVWUDFHG³WKHGRFWULQHVRIFLYLO classical Galileo for breaking with a OLEHUW\´³WKHSULQFLSOHVRIQDWXUHDQG tradition of positing circular motion for HWHUQDOUHDVRQ´WKH³DXWKRULW\´RIWKH the heavenly bodies that went back to Declaration of Independence back to Plato. Kepler used geometry to describe classical antiquity. WKHXQLYHUVHQRWRQO\WR³VDYHWKH SKHQRPHQD´EXWWRJLYHDWUXHSLFWXUH of the heavens, as Plato argued in The Founders knew that the Republic VI and the curriculum of classical Christian curriculum Republic VII. Geometry haunted the seventeenth century. Thomas Hobbes preserved a legacy of wisdom, FDOOHGJHRPHWU\³Whe only science God KDWKVHHQILWWREHVWRZXSRQPDQNLQG´ justice and beauty that was Newton composed Principia in Latin with geometrical proofs. The liberal arts were essential for faith and freedom. fundamental for the Scientific Revolution. Classical Christian education was as David Bederman points out the danger of ignoring the FoXQGHUV¶ central for the American Revolution as xii for the Reformation and the Scientific classical piety. Revolution. When Henry Lee doubted It would be easy to dismiss the WKH'HFODUDWLRQ¶VRULJLQDOLW\-HIIHUVRQ influence of the classical tradition denied he was attempting to be original. on the Framing generation as ³,WZDVLQWHQGHGWREHDQH[SUHVVLRQRI some peculiar and pretentious WKH$PHULFDQPLQG«$OOLWVDXWKRULW\ residuum of the elite culture of rests then on the harmonizing the times. Indeed, in the modern sentiments of the day, whether historiography of the intellectual expressed in conversation, in letters, life of the early republic, that is printed essays, or in the elementary precisely the prevalent view: that books of public right, as Aristotle, classicism was a mere window &LFHUR/RFNH6LGQH\ F´ix dressing to the pragmatic, hard- -HIIHUVRQ¶VUHFROOHFWLRQVDUH knuckled politics of the period. In confirmed by other colonial activists. the same fashion, these same Jonathan Mayhew said in his 1766 historians have tended to sermon on the repeal of the Stamp Act, discount the religious fervor of ³+DYLQJEHHQLQLWLDWHGLQ\RXWKLQWKH tKHWLPHV«,QDFFRUGDQFHZLWK doctrines of civil liberty, as they were this view, when the script of the taught by such men as Plato, Framing morality play veers off Demosthenes, and Cicero, and other into unexpected pieces of renowned persons among the ancients, dialogue²as when the Framers and such as Sydney and Milton, Locke VSHDNRI*RG¶VSURYLGHQFHDQG and Hoadley among the moderns; I liked the role of churches in the new WKHPWKH\VHHPHGUDWLRQDO´x In 1775 society, or of classical models of John Adams wrote to a Tory opponent, government and republican ³7KHVHDUHZKDWDUHFDOOHGUHYROXWLRQ virtues²our modern, internal principles. They are the principles of dramaturge excises these

15 scenes, or, worse yet, annotates still 728,637 students of high school them as irrelevant. Latin.xvii Historian Clinton Rossiter gave the The Founders knew that the EHVWSUDLVHRI$PHULFD¶VROGFODVVLFDO classical Christian curriculum preserved education.xiii a legacy of wisdom, justice and beauty It is easy to smile at the dull, that was essential for faith and freedom. rigid, crabbed methods that John Adams wrote to his friend, Dr. prevailed in colonial colleges, but %HQMDPLQ5XVK³,VKRXOGDVVRRQWKLQN if we judge the vineyards by the of closing all my window shutters to fruit they brought forth, we must enable me to see as of banishing the acknowledge them a fertile Classics to improve Republican ground of learning, science, LGHDV´xviii They valued the Christian reason, and liberty. They may not heritage as well. When Lutheran pastor have taught young men enough Frederick Christian Schaeffer sent useful knowledge, but they did James Madison his sermon for the teach them²in their own IRXQGLQJRI6W0DWWKHZ¶V&KXUFKLQ1HZ tradition-ridden way²to think, York City, Madison responded from FRPPXQLFDWHDQGOHDG«7KH retirement in Montpellier, Virginia roll call of Harvard and William 'HFHPEHU ³

Renaissance and English Humanism Antebellum United States (Cambridge MA: (Toronto: Toronto UP, 1939) 66-67 Harvard UP, 2009), quote on p. xii ivVolker Leppin, Martin Luther (Darmstadt: xviJohn Francis Latimer, :KDW¶V+DSSHQHGWR Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2010) Our High Schools (Washington DC: Public 104-106 Affairs Press, 1958) 26 vhttp://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._ xvii6DPXHO$*ROGEHUJ³+LJK6FKRRO Dover_Area_School_District, pp. 64-65 Enrollments in Latin 1964-´Classical Bulletin 59 (1966) 299 viRonald L. Numbers, Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion xviiiOld Family Letters (Series A), Alexander (Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 2009) Biddle, ed., (Philadelphia: J B Lippincott, 1892) 39-40 (19 June 1789) vii Peter Dear, Revol uti oni zi ng the Sci ences: European Knowledge and its Ambitions, xixJames Madison, Letters and Other 1500-1700. Second Edition (Princeton: Wr i t i ngs (Philadelphia: J B Lippincott, Princeton UP, 2009) 39 1865) 3:242-243 viii 5REHUW6:HVWPDQ³´7KH0HODQFKWKRQ A Research Study: Effects of Circle, Rheticus, and the Wittenberg Classical Education on Achievement InterpretaWLRQRIWKH&RSHUQLFDQ7KHRU\´ in Lutheran Schools Isis 66 (1975) 165-193 By Anthony B. Splittgerber ix Thomas Jefferson, Wr i t i ngs, Merrill Classical education is (and Peterson, ed. (New York: Library of remains!) a growing movement in America, 1984) 1501 (8 May 1825) education, but as a pedagogical model x classical education has not often been Jonathan Mayhew, The Snare Broken researched quantitatively. Indeed, (Boston: R & S Draper, 1766) 43 many of classical education's most xiLetters of Novanglus (January 23, 1775) in compelling elements cannot be Wo r k s, 4 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1851) 15 quantified. Its core philosophies are highly compatible with Christian xiiDavid J. Bederman, Classical Foundations teachings; consequently, many Christian of the American Constitution (Cambridge: schools have embraced classical Cambridge UP, 2008) 222-3 education, even though classical education is not just for Christian xiiiClinton Rossiter, Seedtime of the schools. Classical education can be Republ i c: The Origin of the American implemented by any school, and its Tradition of Political Liberty (New York: proponents often tout both its academic Harcourt Brace, 1953) 122 rigor and academic superiority. Prior to this writing, there had been no published xiv Caroline Winterer, The Culture of research to validate these assertions. Classicism: Greece and Rome in American There had, however, been several Intellectual Life 1780-1910 (Baltimore: studies on the teaching of Latin (which Johns Hopkins UP, 2002) all classical schools taught), with empirical evidence to suggest that xvCarl J. Richard, Golden Age of the Classics students who study Latin fare far better in America: Greece, Rome and the on academic tests, especially the

17 language arts, than their counterparts The selection of the second who do not receive Latin instruction. group, non-classical Lutheran schools, Latin was but one component of the was made upon receipt of demographic classical curriculum which this research data from the participating classical project studied. Lutheran schools. A concerted effort The purpose of this study was to was made to find Lutheran schools that determine whether or not there was a had similar total K-8 populations. Race, significant difference in academic ethnicity, and gender were not factors of achievement between comparable consideration in the selection of Lutheran schools which utilized a appropriate matches. Instead, school classical education model and those population was the primary factor in that did not. This project analyzed determining matches, with geographic standardized academic test scores to characteristics considered as well. For gauge the academic prowess of the example, a classical Lutheran school classical education model within with a student population of 60 students Lutheran schools. located in the Midwest would be matched with a non-classical counterpart with 60 students also

Indeed, many of classical located in the Midwest within a similar education's most compelling population setting, such as rural or urban. elements cannot be quantified. Lutheran schools had been specifically chosen because of convenience ± namely the accessibility, A quasi-experimental design was availability, and willingness of selected for this project because participants. With such a convenience assignment of groups would not be sample it would become more difficult to random, as would be the case in a true assure that the sample was experiment. This project utilized a representative of the population; relatively small set of self-identified however, by using only Lutheran classical Lutheran schools. The schools that were relatively researcher then sought to match each geographically diverse (that is, schools classical Lutheran school with a non- not confined to a predetermined district Lutheran counterpart. Random or state), the degree of representation assignment was not an option if a should have remained quite high sufficient amount of data was to be because of the relative homogeneity of acquired. Lutheran schools. This study utilized two subject WHVWJURXSVD³FODVVLFDO/XWKHUDQ This research project analyzed VFKRROV´JURXSDQGD³QRQ-classical the results of standardized tests every /XWKHUDQVFKRROV´FRXQWHUSDUWJURXS school conducts annually. The data Initially, the first group would consist of collection instrument for this project was 11 schools from the Consortium for the nationally-normed, standardized test Classical and Lutheran Education administered for the 2008-2009 school (CCLE). The schools were selected year, such as either the Iowa Test of because of their curricular similarity and Basic Skills (ITBS) or some similar solidarity of beliefs and teaching, as measure, such as the California evidenced by their membership in this Achievement Test (CAT). As long as consortium. the test used by each school was a

18 nationally normed test, then the national adjusted slightly to bolster the total percentile rankings (NPR's) of each test number of participants in order to would remain comparable. prevent invalidation of the research. To In order to compare the this end, each classical participant was achievement of each school, this project matched with three to four potential focused on the national percentile matches in the hopes of strengthening rankings of each class per school in the data with more participants. An each subject. Paired classical and non- emphasis would now be placed on the FODVVLFDO135¶VZHUHFRPSDUHG7KH number of overall students in the pooled NPR's of reading, language, math, and population of classical Lutheran schools core tests in classical Lutheran schools and that of the non-classical Lutheran were aYHUDJHGDVZHUHWKH135¶VRIDOO schools. Ultimately nine non-classical non-classical schools. A t-test assessed Lutheran schools agreed to participate the significance of the differences in in the study to be compared with six NPR scores. Significance was classical Lutheran schools. determined at a .01 level due to the An analysis of the data showed small sample size. the following results: The comparison of means and the use of the t-test to evaluate First, of the 36 subsets of data, significance answered the research only five of those subsets were question: How do the standardized test statistically insignificant. Second, scores of Lutheran classical schools when one graphed the data compare to those of Lutheran schools by test type one could see that at not using the classical education model? an early level, non-classical National percentile rankings were used Lutheran schools outperformed because they were comparable to the classical Lutheran schools; percentile rankings in other similar tests. however, the reverse happened While stanines and grade equivalencies for grades four through eight. could also be compared, these scores From the fourth grade through were not as easily understood by the the eighth grade, classical average reader as were national Lutheran schools outperformed percentile rankings. In addition to the non-classical schools in comparison of means, statistical academic achievement as analysis also included the mode, assessed through standardized median, and range in an effort to elicit testing. additional data for evaluation. These In general, non-classical tools were examined for unexpected Lutheran schools' NPR's declined trends and to support the comparison of steadily from kindergarten means and the use of the t-test. through eighth grade while The quasi-experimental design FODVVLFDO/XWKHUDQVFKRROV¶135 V allowed for smaller sample populations, increased steadily from because various conditions limited the kindergarten through eighth pool of available test subjects. In the grade. end, six of the eleven classical schools participated with submission of their test This researcher had scores. As it became clear that lower hypothesized that the mean test scores than expected numbers of classical of classical model schools would be Lutheran education schools would be significantly higher than non-classical participating, the research design was schools. The research indicates that the

19 hypothesis was an incorrect one ± at standardized testing until the third least in part. The classical model grade. From the third grade on, similar schools did score higher than their non- populations were being compared, but classical counterparts in grades four at the kindergarten level there were 94 through eight (with data statistically classical students compared to only nine significant in all but the sixth grade). non-classical students. The non- However, the hypothesis was incorrect classical score was extremely high (98th in respect to the data for the lower percentile) and was probably not grades, where the non-classical representative of the entire non-classical Lutheran schools performed significantly population. better than the classical schools. Classical Lutheran schools showed achievement gains in each of the four areas reported, even

There was most definitely a mathematics. This researcher had significant difference in hypothesized that at the very least, classical Lutheran schools would show achievement between the gains in reading and language, because previous research indicated that the comparable Lutheran schools that teaching of Latin would have this effect. So it is some surprise that the classical utilized a classical education school would still outperform the non- model and those that did not. classical Lutheran school in the upper grades in mathematics. This data would give credence to the thought that it is Despite the partially incorrect the whole classical curriculum and hypothesis, the research was successful pedagogy, not just the teaching of Latin, in answering the research question and which helped to account for the in achieving the purpose of the difference in scores and the upward research. There was most definitely a trend of the classical scores. significant difference in achievement This research offers some between the comparable Lutheran preliminary quantitative data to schools that utilized a classical demonstrate the effectiveness of education model and those that did not. classical education in areas of academic The questions then became: Why did achievement. This research no doubt is the scores of the classical models begin not without error, and some may take so poorly in comparison to their later issue with some assumptions this scores? Why did non-classical scores researcher has made. This researcher have such a decline from their considers this research a starting point; kindergarten scores to their eighth grade perhaps others will expand on the scores? These questions warrant research and further validate its results further investigation. or refute them. It should be noted further that most classical schools did not begin the Anthony B. Splittgerber teaching of Latin until the third grade, Principal which possibly explained why their Zion Lutheran School of Kearney, scores continued a steady increase and Nebraska overtook the non-classical schools in the fourth grade. In addition, most non- *Author's note: This article summarizes classical schools did not begin a much more thorough work. Research

20 citations and references have been Dr. Korcok, a pastor in the removed, as have all graphs, tables, Lutheran Church of Canada, conducted and appendices. For those who wish to this research for his doctoral dissertation read the full, original research, a free at the Free University of Amsterdam. download is available from this web He begins with an illuminating account address: of how the fathers of the early church² http://www.zionkearney.org/curriculum/a especially St. Augustine²Christianized cademics/further-reading/ the Greco-Roman educational program designed for the free citizen (the artes The Book Classical Lutheran liberalis), as opposed to the manual Educators Have Been Waiting For training given to tradesmen and slaves. This included the insight that the best of A Review of Thomas Korcok's Lutheran secular culture could be used by Education: From Wittenberg to the Future Christians in service to Christ. This (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, tradition of Christian classicism was 2011) systematized further in the Middle Ages, By Gene Edward Veith with the invention of the university, whose curriculum was organized around 7KRPDV.RUFRN¶VKLVWRU\RI the Seven Liberal Arts (the trivium, with Lutheran education shows that the its three language-related arts of classical liberal arts approach is not just grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and the another educational alternative with quadrivium, with its four mathematics- which some Lutherans, as well as other related arts of arithmetic, geometry, conservative Christians, are music, and astronomy) and the three experimenting. With scholarship that classifications of knowledge (scientia): will come as an eye-opening surprise Natural Science, Moral Science, and even to advocates of classical Theological Science. education, Dr. Korcok shows that Medieval scholasticism classical education combined with emphasized logic above the other liberal catechesis is the Lutheran educational arts, but the Renaissance educational tradition. reforms emphasized the importance of Moreover, he shows how this rhetoric, which included the study of distinctively Lutheran approach to literature and the use of original education is grounded in confessional sources²such as the Bible. It was in Lutheran theology, to the point that the context of Renaissance liberal arts throughout the history of Lutheranism² education that the University of especially the strain that would become Wittenberg was founded and that the the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod² Reformation took place. A major theological controversies were often priority for Luther and Melanchthon was played out not just in churches but in the establishment of schools. These schools, curriculum, and pedagogy. went beyond simply teaching Christians Church leaders from Luther to Walther how to read the Bible. They also believed that the classical liberal arts implemented a liberal arts curriculum, integrated with catechesis was the thus opening up an education designed educational model that could best equip to cultivate intellectual growth, creativity, church members to understand and freedom to all Christians, including Lutheran theology and to serve their women, peasants, and others neighbors in their vocations. marginalized under feudal society.

to be too worldly and wanted education This included the insight that that was restricted to learning how to the best of secular culture could read the Bible. On the other extreme, the Renaissance humanists believed be used by Christians in service to that a liberal arts education is sufficient in itself to teach religion and good Christ. morals. No, said the Lutherans, the liberal arts by themselves, while valuable gifts of God, are not enough. The new Reformation schools Christians also need thorough were built upon two theological catechesis in the revelations of foundations. The first is Baptism. All Scripture and the truths of theology. Christians, by virtue of their Baptism, The Pietists would also have an DUHSULHVWVLQ&KULVW¶VFKXUFKAs Luther educational agenda. They, like the says in The Babylonian Captivity of the Enthusiasts, also disapproved of the Church, in the church there is no ³SDJDQ´DQG³ZRUOGO\´VFRSHRIWKH ³GLIIHUHQFHEHWZHHQOD\PHQDQGSULHVWV classical liberal arts. They also had a princes and bishops, between religious more narrow understanding of vocation and secular, except for the sake of office than the orthodox Lutherans, taking it DQGZRUNEXWQRWIRUWKHVDNHRIVWDWXV´ RQO\WRPHDQ³MRE´RU³RFFXSDWLRQ´7he This leveling effect meant, in the words Pietists wanted pragmatic schools that RI'U.RUFRNWKDW³LIHGXFDWLRQLQWKH emphasized job training. Then came liberal arts was suitable for the child of a the Rationalists who wanted to throw out prince, then it was suitable for the child the liberal arts as relics of the past in RIDODERUHUDVZHOO´7KHFRQQHFWLRQ IDYRURIDQHZ³VFLHQWLILF´HGXFDWLRQ between Baptism and a liberal arts which, ominously, would be combined education was further developed by with an emphasis on German Johannes Bugenhagen, whose nationalism. In each case, orthodox contribution to Lutheran education, Lutherans defended and put into Korcok shows, rivaled that of practice an education that combined the Melanchthon. The other key theological liberal arts with Lutheran catechesis. foundation to Lutheran education and the distinct shape that it assumed is the doctrine of vocation. Christians must be The desire to give their HTXLSSHGWRVHUYHLQERWKRI*RG¶V children a truly Lutheran Kingdoms. A liberal arts education, Luther and his fellow Reformers education̶consisting of the believed, best equips Christians for service to their neighbor in each of the liberal arts plus catechesis̶was estates to which God assigns us: not only the workplace (as in the current enough to make them leave their PHDQLQJRI³YRFDWLRQDOHGXFDWLRQ´ EXW also in the family, the church, and the homeland in search of both state. religious and educational freedom. Dr. Korcok shows that the theological conflicts faced by the Lutherans often manifested themselves in educational controversies. The Dr. Korcok makes an important Enthusiasts considered the liberal arts contribution to the history of

Lutheranism in America by showing that by a thoroughly-trained, superbly- a major catalyst for the Saxon migration, educated professional teacher, who in which confessional Lutherans fled the worked from an academically rigorous Prussian Union of the state church for curriculum. Dr. Korcok argues that the America and other countries, was the material success of the German condition of the schools. Confessional immigrants in the 19th century, in congregations generally managed to contrast to those of other countries, practice their Lutheran faith, despite the owed a great deal to the quality of the forced union with Reformed education they were receiving in congregations, but they could not Lutheran schools. control the schools, which were dominated by Enlightenment rationalism, and they were appalled by Eventually, the distinctively the secularist education their children classical quality of Lutheran schools were receiving. The desire to give their started to fade. The pioneering Missouri children a truly Lutheran education² Synod educators J. C. W. Lindemann consisting of the liberal arts plus and C. A. T. Selle, who founded in 1865 catechesis²was enough to make them WKHWHDFKHUV¶VHPLQDU\LQ$GGLVRQ leave their homeland in search of both Illinois (now Concordia University religious and educational freedom. Chicago), did not themselves have a Dr. Korcok documents how this classical education. Though the distinctly Lutheran brand of education gymnasia, such as the boarding schools was a major priority for C. F. W. Walther in Milwaukee (now Concordia University and the other fathers of the Lutheran Wisconsin) and St. Paul, Minnesota Church Missouri Synod. The book (now Concordia University St. Paul), H[SORUHV:DOWKHU¶VH[WHQVLYHZULWLQJVRQ continued to prepare future pastors with education and describes the early the classical languages, the typical schools and educational projects of the parish school dropped Latin in favor of newly-formed synod. These included English. Dr. Korcok argues that just as the founding of gymnasia, the full-blown Latin prepared students for participation six-year classical high schools as in intellectual and cultural life of devised by Melanchthon and that still to Medieval and Renaissance Europe, WKLVGD\HGXFDWH*HUPDQ\¶VHOLWH English played that same function for These schools were primarily for church German immigrants. Dr. Korcok workers, young men who wished to challenges the conventional view that prepare for the pastoral ministry with Missouri Synod schools simply wanted further seminary training and those who to retain the German language as a way desired to become teachers. The to preserve their German culture. ordinary parochial schools in virtually Instead, these schools, while keeping every parish were not on this level, WKHLPPLJUDQWV¶QDWLYHODQJXDJHDOLYH² doing far less with Latin and Greek and which was also the language of for a smaller period of time, but they Lutheran theology²did a great deal to were nevertheless academically promote assimilation to American impressive. In the 19th century, the culture. German nationalism, again, fabled one-room schoolhouse was was an unwelcome fixture of the presided over by a teacher who herself rationalist education they were trying to barely had an elementary education. escape. Instead, these German schools But the German immigrants who were made a point of teaching English, which, going to Lutheran schools were taught again, contributed to the unusual

23 success of this particular immigrant Western Civilization to illustrate his group. Still, the decline of Latin marked SRLQWV)RUH[DPSOHIURP&6/HZLV¶ a decline in the classical quality of these Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Esolen schools, though in other ways the presents the memorably annoying heritage of the liberal arts remained. character Eustace Scrubb as a student Dr. Korcok does not deal with the more who has been taught facts, but who recent history of Lutheran education, lacks moral training and imagination. In with the eventual acceptance of John the chapter on the essentials of memory 'HZH\¶V³SURJUHVVLYH´HGXFDWLRQ work as foundational for imagination, SURJUDPLQWKHV\QRG¶VWHDFKHUFROOHJHV Esolen sites Homer, whom tradition and the impulse to follow the lead of holds to be blind, and Milton, also blind, American public schools in their as examples of creative individuals who approach to education, with catechesis used memorization to feed their own remaining as the sole remaining imaginations and create poetic Lutheran distinctive. masterpieces. Today, as public education seems to have lost its way²to the point For all their talk about imagination, of exhibiting the anti-intellectualism of the Enthusiasts, the social engineering he helps the reader understand, of the Humanists, the economic preoccupations of the Pietists, and the progressives do everything to crass materialism of the Rationalists, all at the same time²many educators are destroy it... rediscovering again the virtues of classical liberal arts education. Dr. .RUFRN¶VERRNLVDQLPSRUWDQWVFKRODUO\ Anthony Esolen entertains with contribution to that effort. For Lutheran sarcastic humor throughout his book to classical educators, it is the book they illustrate the absurdity of progressive have been waiting for. education and its clear attempts to kill the imagination of children. The title The Lutheran Homeschool itself is sarcastic. Placing himself in the shoes of progressive educators, he What has Imagination to do with seeks to destroy imagination. For all Classical Education? their talk about imagination, he helps the reader understand, progressives do A book review from Kathrine Bischof on everything to destroy it²sometimes Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of unknowingly, sometimes not. Your Child Progressive education does, indeed by Anthony Esolen must, destroy the imagination of the child. Why is this a necessity? Anthony Esolen is the author of The 3URJUHVVLYLVPDQVZHUV³,IZHFDQEXW Politically Incorrect Guide to Western deaden the imagination, then we can Civilization and Ironies of Faith. He is settle the child down, and make of him also Professor of English at Providence that solid, dependable, and inert space- College and senior editor of Touchstone filler in school and, later, a block of the magazine. JUHDWVWDWHS\UDPLG´[i] Esolen writes In Ten Ways to Destroy the that the main goal of public education is, Imagination of Your Child, Esolen relies and has been for a long time, to teach wonderfully upon classic literature and just enough information to children so

24 that they may get a job. In order to fulfill FRQWUROOHUVíii Those men who have a that goal, educators must make nice database of not just knowledge, but also little conformists who fit into society like wisdom, from which to draw can be cogs in a machine. independent and can think freely. They have an imagination. The discipline of ...when the imagination is memory work gives children a kingdom in which they may play; their imagination destroyed, so is the ability to know separates them from the dull, gullible masses. Truth. What is another way we stifle imagination? (VROHQ¶VDQVZHU.HHS children indoors as much as possible. Esolen makes the claim that when ³&RQWHPSRUDU\OLIHKDSSHQVEHKLQG the imagination is destroyed, so is the ZDOOVív Today's children spend most of ability to know Truth. Two of the ways their lives indoors. And yet humans progressive education eliminates the yearn for that place which is without concept of Truth is first by defining a walls, so they create escapes; they thing as nothing more than the sum of create artificial worlds. "Virtual" worlds all its parts and, second, by deleting are one example; parks and zoos are memory work. By defining a thing as the another. Children become convinced sum of parts²an apple is a fruit made that giraffes are impressive, but wrens up of a core, seeds, the flesh, and the are drab and boring. Esolen asserts skin--then it has neither an origin (a that quiet time alone with the outdoors creator) nor a purpose (to be eaten for provides children the very things they pleasure and nourishment). When need to develop their imaginations and educators seek to eliminate Truth, they to learn the Truths of creation. They also weaken minds through the deletion see the beauty of the sunset, feel the of memory work from the curriculum. rain on their skin, hear the sounds of Again putting himself in the birds whose names they might not even SURJUHVVLYHV¶VKRHV(VROHQVD\V³+RZ know yet. They feel the roughness of then to do away with the facts? The first dirt on their palms, notice the life cycle thing is to keep the memory weak and of plants around them, and gaze up at empty. That may sound the starry night sky. Indeed, the counterintuiWLYHµ:HGRQ¶WWHDFKE\URWH heavens declare the glory of God. PHPRUL]DWLRQ¶VD\RXUHGXFDWRUVWRGD\ UDLVLQJWKHLUFKLQVLQSULGHµZHSUHIHUWR teach critical thinking. We prefer to tap …it eliminates venues where you LQWRWKHLPDJLQDWLRQíi Esolen reveals this ironic hypocrisy when he recounts a would most likely find heroes, story of a farmer friend who could recite Paradise Lost by memory as he plowed such as a battlefield. They teach his fields. Progressive educators would DVN³:KDWLVWKHJRRGLQWKDW"´ Esolen passivism. They belittle and answers that the local politician could shame the soldier. not SXOOWKHZRRORYHUWKLVIDUPHU¶VH\HV to cheat him out of his land and Esolen reveals yet another method to SRVVHVVLRQV³7RKDYHDZHDOWKRIVXFK kill the imagination: cut all heroes down SRHWU\LQ\RXUPLQG«LVWREHDUPHG to size. How does progressive education against the salesmen and the social

25 get rid of heroes? First, it eliminates the knowledge of truth, beauty and venues where you would most likely find goodness comes the knowledge of our heroes, such as a battlefield. They God. Jesus is the Truth who sets men teach passivism. They belittle and free. His beauty is hidden on the cross shame the soldier. Progressives also for the work of our salvation. His WHDFKFKLOGUHQWR³KDWHDQGVXVSHFW Goodness rescues those who are not H[FHOOHQFH´LQH[WUDRUGLQDU\LQGLYLGXDOV good from destruction. Without eyes to One subtle way to accomplish this is by see, we are blind to all this. While only making everyone a hero, even if they the Holy Spirit can grant saving faith in are just ordinary. ³,IHYHU\RQHLVDKHUR our Redeemer, when we kill the then no one is a hero; and genuine imagination we strengthen the walls that heroes will go unnoticed in the mindless block receptivity to seeing our Creator, self-FRQJUDWXODWLRQ´vi %XW³WKHKHUR to learning language, and to learning stretches our imagination. He anything that is worth knowing. introduces us, for better or for worse, to I recommend this book to all possibilities we had never considered. Lutheran homeschoolers and classroom He extends the limits of what is teachers. Esolen writes in an KXPDQ´v entertaining, yet poignant manner. He What can classical educators is careful to include not only the extrapolate from this book? How does philosophy behind the ideas, but also Classical Education encourage the many practical examples of how we can imagination, and why should it do so? teach our kids and nurture their Classical educators are, for the most imaginations, all to the glory of God. part, not bound by and dedicated to state standards. They know that there is a danger in mind-numbing entertainment sources, those that [i] p. xi LQIOXHQFHDFKLOG¶VHYHU\PRYHDQG ii p.8 decision. They know there is much to iii p. 14 learn which does not (and cannot) iv p. 30 appear on standardized tests. Classical v p. 143 educators teach about heroes by vi p.148 teaching rich history, not random social studies. They encourage memory work in great poetry and in all that the mind needs to develop and think: multiplication tables, history timelines, geography, great speeches from great leaders, and more. Classical education has as its goal the knowledge of Truth, goodness, and beauty. Without a good imagination, the student is destined to live with a pack mentality, to be trapped in the world of mass entertainment, to live within the literal walls which contribute to mental ones. (VROHQFDOOV0HWKRG³'HQ\WKH Transcendent" or "Fix Above the Heads RI0HQWKH/RZHVW&HLOLQJRI$OO´:LWK

...when we kill the imagination we strengthen the walls that block receptivity to seeing our Creator, to learning language, and to learning anything that is worth knowing.