Why we’re choosing classical education

Plus: 'American Covenant,' an AI influencer, and more

Good morning! It’s Wednesday, and here are this week’s five items for you.

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1. the rest of the first item

2. American Covenant

3. just a great apron

4. some recent work

5. an AI influencer talking to the AI camera in her AI car

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1. A take I haven’t written elsewhere

Why we’re choosing classical education

(via)

Classical education is buzzy lately.

The Free Press

ran a report about it over the weekend, lauding the movement’s rapid growth, “liberating” socratic dialogues, low-tech classrooms, and high SAT scores. The New Yorker published a longer story from Emma Green, whose work I’ve appreciated since her days covering religion for The Atlantic, which I thought was a fair exploration of the model’s strengths and blind spots.

And locally, the classical school where we’re sending our twins has grown at a frankly shocking pace. Some of that was pandemic policy-fueled—many private schools saw enrollment grow in areas where public schools stuck with digital learning through that second school year—but not all of it. There’s a real appetite for this approach, so much so that we had to do a whole application process and interview to snag some kindergarten seats.

Part of that interview (for us—the twins’ interview seems to have mostly involved counting and playing trains) was a question of why we’re interested in classical education. And since I’ve already been asked to think about it in that context, I thought I’d share it here, too.