The Everlasting Education

Ep. 14 - Chapter Seven of Norms and Nobility: The Ennobling the Masses

This is Episode 14 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production.

In this episode, Scott Postma and Joffre Swait discuss the importance of bringing an "aristocratic" education to a "democratic" people. "Classical scholars," says Hicks, "recognize that material efficiency may make life possible, but it does not make society civilized or life worth living, nor is it alone capable of preserving the democratic ideals." We need to recognize that Dewey was wrong and that we should not allow democracy's tendency to race to the bottom influence education. Instead, we need to make normative learning (liberal arts learning) a universal goal.

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David V. Hicks's, Norms and Nobility was first published in 1981 when it won the American Library Association's Outstanding Book Award. Since that time, it has gone on to become one of the most influential books in the Classical Education movement. Hicks's "purpose in writing the book is to offer a personal interpretation of classical education—its ends, as well as some of its means—and to respond to the objections of those who might approve of the goals of such an education, but who believe that it cannot meet the needs of an industrial democracy ro that it is not feasible as a model for mass education."

Ep. 13 - Chapter Six of Norms and Nobility: On the Necessity of Dogma

This is Episode 13 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production.

In this episode, Scott Postma and Joffre Swait discuss the importance of dialectical learning and how that is different than dialectical materialism. In Chapter Six, Hicks asserts that "all knowledge of first and final causes in which man defines himself and his purposes begins with doma, not with doubt, and feed on itself dialectically. Man's knowledge is without value to him unless he reaches it dialectically—unless it animates his body, indwells his mind, and possesses his soul. True dialectical education points man upward while its opposites brings man down to his least common denominator, his utility.

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David V. Hicks's, Norms and Nobility was first published in 1981 when it won the American Library Association's Outstanding Book Award. Since that time, it has gone on to become one of the most influential books in the Classical Education movement. Hicks's "purpose in writing the book is to offer a personal interpretation of classical education—its ends, as well as some of its means—and to respond to the objections of those who might approve of the goals of such an education, but who believe that it cannot meet the needs of an industrial democracy ro that it is not feasible as a model for mass education."

Ep. 12 - Chapter Five of Norms and Nobility: Saving the Appearances

This is Episode 12 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production.

In Chapter Five, Hicks treats the modern shift in mathematics and the sciences from its program of seeking to "save the appearances" to mere material analysis; that is, from man seeking his highest level-of-being (the normative) to serving his lowest level-of-being (the analytical).

In this episode, Scott Postma and Joffre Swait unpack the chapter by explaining what the phrase "save the appearances" means—(hint: from the Greek: σῴζειν τὰ φαινόμενα [sozein ta phainomena], which means "to propose explanations that enable us to account for what appears before us")—why it was important for humanity, and how the shift in focus from the theoretical to the concrete "fixes a gulf between the arts and the sciences" in modern education. 

 

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David V. Hicks's, Norms and Nobility was first published in 1981 when it won the American Library Association's Outstanding Book Award. Since that time, it has gone on to become one of the most influential books in the Classical Education movement. Hicks's "purpose in writing the book is to offer a personal interpretation of classical education—its ends, as well as some of its means—and to respond to the objections of those who might approve of the goals of such an education, but who believe that it cannot meet the needs of an industrial democracy ro that it is not feasible as a model for mass education."

Ep. 11 - Chapter Four of Norms and Nobility: The Tyrannizing Image

This is Episode 11 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production.

In Chapter Four, Hicks “Tyrannizing Image,” which is to speak of the Ideal image of human perfection. In this episode, Scott Postma and Joffre Swait unpack the chapter and discuss one of the more subtle but efficacious distinctions between modern and classical education—the educator’s goal for the student. The aim of modern education is the Real: the student’s efficient existence. The aim of the classical educator, on the other hand, is the Ideal, the difficult-to-define standard of excellence by which a man apriorically judges himself and others; it’s an intuited standard which has manifested itself in every age, from the Homeric hero to Chaucer’s “parfait, gentil knight.” It is a standard, that while not achievable, reveals the gap between what a man is and what he ought to be.

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David V. Hicks's, Norms and Nobility was first published in 1981 when it won the American Library Association's Outstanding Book Award. Since that time, it has gone on to become one of the most influential books in the Classical Education movement. Hicks's "purpose in writing the book is to offer a personal interpretation of classical education—its ends, as well as some of its means—and to respond to the objections of those who might approve of the goals of such an education, but who believe that it cannot meet the needs of an industrial democracy ro that it is not feasible as a model for mass education."

 

Ep. 10 - Learning in War-Time, C. S. Lewis - Part 2

This is Episode 10 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production, and part two of a two-part episode in which Joffre Swait and Scott Postma read and discuss C. S. Lewis's sermon, "Learning in War-Time."

C. S. Lewis, himself a veteran of World War One, delivered the sermon at St. Mary the Virgin Church, Oxford, on Sunday, October 22, 1939. In his sermon, Lewis defends traditional humanistic learning even when there was little chance of finishing the task since WW2 was looming. Lewis suggests, "The larger issue is not learning in war-time, but learning at any time, especially when our eternal destiny is at stake." It's a powerful sermon, and Scott and Joffre's comments make it relevant for us today at a time when a modern European nation (Russia) has, for the first time since WW2, invaded another independent European nation (Ukraine).

 

Listen to Episode 9, Part 1 of "Learning in War-Time".

Read C. S. Lewis's Sermon, "Learning in War-Time".

 

Ep. 9 - Learning in War-Time, C. S. Lewis - Part 1

This is Episode 9 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production.

This is part one of a two-part episode in which Joffre Swait and Scott Postma read and discuss C. S. Lewis's sermon, "Learning in War-Time."

C. S. Lewis, himself a veteran of World War One, delivered the sermon at St. Mary the Virgin Church, Oxford, on Sunday, October 22, 1939. In his sermon, Lewis defends traditional humanistic learning even when there was little chance of finishing the task since WW2 was looming. Lewis suggests, "The larger issue is not learning in war-time, but learning at any time, especially when our eternal destiny is at stake." It's a powerful sermon, and Scott and Joffre's comments make it relevant for us today at a time when a modern European nation (Russia) has, for the first time since WW2, invaded another independent European nation (Ukraine).

 

Read C. S. Lewis's Sermon, "Learning in War-Time".

 

Ep. 8 - Chapter Three of Norms and Nobility: Teaching the Father of the Man

This is Episode 8 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production.

In this episode, Scott Postma and Joffre Swait unpack some of the salient points in chapter three of David V. Hicks, Norms and Nobility. Hicks argues that "the activity of learning takes place in a no-man's land between what the student can accomplish and what he may not be able to accomplish." Contrary to the modern child psychologist's aims, the classical educator emphasizes mastering an inherited body of knowledge rather than on "developing a happy, well-adjusted child."

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David V. Hicks's, Norms and Nobility was first published in 1981 when it won the American Library Association's Outstanding Book Award. Since that time, it has gone on to become one of the most influential books in the Classical Education movement. Hicks's "purpose in writing the book is to offer a personal interpretation of classical education—its ends, as well as some of its means—and to respond to the objections of those who might approve of the goals of such an education, but who believe that it cannot meet the needs of an industrial democracy ro that it is not feasible as a model for mass education."

 

Learn more about Kepler's approach to marking time as a Classical Christian Education platform serving homeschool families at Kepler Education.

Ep. 7 - Marking Time as a Liturgy for Learning and Life

This is Episode 7 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production.

In this episode, Scott Postma and Joffre Swait set aside Norms and Nobility to talk calendars and liturgy.

As most are aware, a calendar is a way of marking time by reference to important events in our lives. What many may not immediately recognize, however, is the way in which a calendar is liturgical. Calendars shape our common thinking about the way we should live and learn and worship together by marking time according to those most important events, particularly surrounding the life of Christ.

Learn more about Kepler's approach to marking time as a Classical Christian Education platform serving homeschool families at Kepler Education.

Ep. 6 - Chapter Two of Norms and Nobility - The Word is Truth

This is Episode 6 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production.

In this episode, Scott Postma and Joffre Swait unpack Chapter Two of Norms and Nobility and discuss the tensions in language as it pertains to the classical educator. Modern education want to strip language of its mythos and focus merely on its logos. But, argues Hicks, this will not do. The Classical Christian educator knows better and must hold the mythos and logos in tension as they each play a vital role in a person's knowledge of reality.

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David V. Hicks's, Norms and Nobility was first published in 1981 when it won the American Library Association's Outstanding Book Award. Since that time, it has gone on to become one of the most influential books in the Classical Education movement. Hicks's "purpose in writing the book is to offer a personal interpretation of classical education—its ends, as well as some of its means—and to respond to the objections of those who might approve of the goals of such an education, but who believe that it cannot meet the needs of an industrial democracy ro that it is not feasible as a model for mass education."

 

Ep. 5 - Chapter One of Norms and Nobility - Virtue is the Fruit of Learning

This is Episode 5 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production.

In this episode, Scott Postma and Joffre Swait unpack Chapter One and discuss some of the misconceptions of modern education, discuss the importance of Inquiry, Aesthetics, and Ethics as parts of the dialectical core of a classical Christian education. 

David V. Hicks's, Norms and Nobility was first published in 1981 when it won the American Library Association's Outstanding Book Award. Since that time, it has gone on to become one of the most influential books in the Classical Education movement. Hicks's "purpose in writing the book is to offer a personal interpretation of classical education—its ends, as well as some of its means—and to respond to the objections of those who might approve of the goals of such an education, but who believe that it cannot meet the needs of an industrial democracy ro that it is not feasible as a model for mass education."