A Republic If You Train It—Legislation for Classical Teacher Training

Classical education is growing rapidly in America—and with good reason. Set aside for the moment whether classical education provides a better character education than mainstream K-12 education. It does a good job simply in conveying basic knowledge and preparing students for college and careers.

[R]esearch shows CCE graduates possess uniquely valuable skills for modern employers.

David Goodwin, President of the Association of Classical Christian Schools, explains: “Employers need people who can adjust to any situation and make good decisions, no matter what the industry or where the twists and turns of business lead” … This flexibility appears in standardized test results, where classical Christian students consistently demonstrate superior verbal and quantitative reasoning skills compared to peers from other educational backgrounds.

Classical education includes a strong Christian component, but there’s also Jewish classical education, secular classical education, and classical education for every American. Classical education is as pluralistic as our country.

The best thing about classical education is that its teachers actually believe in education reform. An unfortunately large proportion of mainstream public school teachers have been educated to hate the principles of education reform. Reforming state laws and policies can only do so much when the teachers have no wish to put them into practice. Every K-12 and higher education reform ultimately depends on the establishment of a body of teachers who believe that education reform is good and necessary, and the steady replacement of the too-large body of teachers determined to ignore or sabotage education reform. The keystone to education reform, the way to ensure that it actually extends to classroom practice, is the education of our educators.

Classical education is not the only means to achieve this goal, but it is the best available one in America in the 2020s. Classical schools reject the dysfunctional bureaucracies and pedagogies that afflict mainstream education in America, and their focus on moral character, civic virtue, the liberal arts, and Western civilization restores the finest traditions of Western and American education. Classical educators, both teachers and administrators, also have spent more than a generation building up practical knowledge of how to teach in their growing network of schools, and they are fully conversant with the latest educational research—although they are wise enough to exercise judgement about which research has value. Americans are pluralist by temperament, and they should not and will not simply adopt classical education as their only form of education. But Americans should reform education policy to foster classical education and classical schools.

[RELATED: The Rebirth of Liberal Education will be Classical]

Above all, Americans should work to increase the supply of potential teachers for classical schools. Classical schools would expand faster than they do now, save for the bottleneck of an insufficient supply of properly educated teachers. While private universities such as the University of Dallas already do an excellent job of educating classical educators, we need more schools of classical education—and, above all, cost-effective, public schools of education, that will make it possible for would-be teachers with limited financial resources to make a career in classical education.

The National Association of Scholars’s model School of Classical Education Act outlines how state legislatures can direct public support toward classical education. It establishes an independent School of Classical Education (SCE) in a state university, which will have the administrative autonomy that allows it to teach proper courses on classical education. The SCE will also be tasked to report annually to state policymakers. This will allow SCE personnel to report if the education establishment has attempted to abrogate their autonomy or subvert their mission.

This model Act aims to facilitate an existing movement to regularize the position of classical education within the states. Florida already has directed state monies to support the Flagler College Institute for Classical Education, while in Arizona, the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University has established a Classical Liberal Education and Civic Leadership Masters of Arts program. Florida’s Department of Education, meanwhile, now issues a Classical Education Teaching Certificate. Our Act contributes to the best existing practices of American education.

This model Act also aims to complement our model School of Intellectual Freedom Act, model Core Curriculum Act, and model General Education Act. All of these will function to increase the supply of properly educated K-12 teachers by redirecting colleges toward teaching courses in Western and American civics and humanities. These other model acts, however, are not explicitly focused to act as—in effect—a reformed education school. This model Act, in complement with our other model acts, will ensure that reform of higher education connects with and reinforces reform of K-12 education.

Americans should provide public support for schools that train teachers of classical education in the short term to strengthen K-12 classical education schools. In the long run, this public support should build toward a great transformation—to educate the majority of public school teachers and administrators in the principles of classical education. When we have done that, our schools will carry out education reform willingly, rather than reluctantly.

And that will make all the difference for the classroom success of education reform.

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Image: “Courtyard, Flagler College, St Augustine” by Steven Martin on Flickr