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Christopher Perrin, MDiv, PhD, is the CEO with Classical Academic Press, and a national leader, author, and speaker for the renewal of classical education. He is the author of An Introduction to Classical Education: A Guide for Parents, Greek for Children Primer A, The Scholé Way: Bringing Restful Learning Back to School and Homeschool, and co-author of The Good Teacher: Ten Key Pedagogical Principles that Will Transform Your Teaching, as well as the Latin for Children series. He serves as a consultant to classical Christian schools, schools converting to the classical model, and homeschool co-ops. He is the board president of the Alcuin Fellowship, former co-chair of the Society for Classical Learning, the Director of Strategic Content with the Humanitas Institute, and an adjunct professor with the honor’s program at Messiah College and with the Classical School Leadership master’s program at Gordon College. Chris previously served for ten years as a headmaster of a classical Christian school in Harrisburg, PA.
The tradition of classical, liberal arts education in America was present from the beginning of the nation and before. Both the flowers and seeds of this tradition were carried forth across the Atlantic in the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The tradition was embedded in the Mayflower Pact and in the governing norms of the Massachusetts Bay colony. It can be seen flourishing in the Federalist Papers and in the Constitution–what Chesterton called the creed upon which the United States was founded. In this presentation, we will trace the flowering of this tradition, noting the ways in which American education flourished and then slowly withered; but then also noting the ways it is reemerging with new vitality, like those perennials that seem to disappear in the winter only to come back in the spring in greater numbers.
I intend to show by means of a historical overview those key principles from the classical tradition that informed and animated early American education which were challenged and weakened in the progressive era, but which started to renew in the 1980s to the present day. Those principles include: sustained study in a common curriculum of the liberal arts and the great ideas archived in the great books of the western and Christian tradition; the collaborative effort of home, school, and church; the prudent adaptation of the classical tradition to new and unforeseen circumstances (like settling a vast continent); the prudent adaption of the classical tradition to a new form of governance (a constitutional republic which assumed vital faith, piety, and self-governance). The key benefits will be inspirational: We are renewing what others gave us and continuing in the path of prudent adaptation of the core, unchanging principles of Christian classical education.
Christopher Perrin, MDiv, PhD, is the CEO with Classical Academic Press, and a national leader, author, and speaker for the renewal of classical education. He is the author of An Introduction to Classical Education: A Guide for Parents, Greek for Children Primer A, The Scholé Way: Bringing Restful Learning Back to School and Homeschool, and co-author of The Good Teacher: Ten Key Pedagogical Principles that Will Transform Your Teaching, as well as the Latin for Children series. He serves as a consultant to classical Christian schools, schools converting to the classical model, and homeschool co-ops. He is the board president of the Alcuin Fellowship, former co-chair of the Society for Classical Learning, the Director of Strategic Content with the Humanitas Institute, and an adjunct professor with the honor’s program at Messiah College and with the Classical School Leadership master’s program at Gordon College. Chris previously served for ten years as a headmaster of a classical Christian school in Harrisburg, PA.