How Teachers Kill Classical Education | CiRCE Institute (2024)

The following is written by a recent high school graduate, Matthew DeGraaf, who will be studying Secondary Mathematics Education at Geneva College.

I spent my whole life being classically educated without knowing how it was supposed to benefit me. Why was I supposed to care for the subjects that had nothing to do with the job I was going into? It didn’t hit me until I attended one of my first college classes that the subjects I learned when I was younger were actually supposed to benefit my life! My whole educational experience was spent in classical classrooms, but none of my teachers explained how a subject like literature was supposed to enrich my life. I still learned a lot as a student: my education helped me think critically, see an argument being made, and know how to best and most effectively go about responding to it. It helped me to be precise in the language I was using and helped me to think logically about anything I read or heard. Yet despite its benefits, I found it hard to actually want to learn all that my teachers had to offer. Classical education promises a life-changing experience but, by not explaining the point of learning the subjects being offered, the benefits I did receive were vague and fleeting. My experience as a student gives me a unique perspective to explore how best to help other students value their education. Looking back, I would have appreciated my education more if my teachers had helped me cultivate three ways of studying.

Give me a reason to care. If you had asked me as a high school freshman what made classical education different from public education, I would have said something like “It is supposed to teach me to think.” But if you had persisted with me on this point, I would truly have had no idea how it helped me that was in any way different from public school. I didn’t understand because while my teachers may have known how each subject benefitted me, they didn’t spend the time to help me know that.

I know now that literature helps me decipher the meaning of what people are saying. It helps me when I am reading articles to understand the true point that the author is getting at. It helps me to think critically about what I read and not just accept it as true. But in school I didn’t realize this. I thought literature was just about helping me to read faster and gain some knowledge about the book’s content. And for me, those books were usually boring, so I didn’t care to pay attention at all in class. If my teacher had explained these benefits of studying literature, I would have paid more attention and better appreciated this education.

Students need to appreciate that Latin is supposed to help them understand English better. It’s supposed to help them be more precise when they are speaking with others in English, and that by learning it, they will be able to better articulate their thoughts. If the student does not understand why Latin, literature, or math is important and beneficial, they will not care to pay attention or learn in the class.

I truly believe my teachers knew this, but they jumped right into the subject before helping us to care about what we were learning. The classic answer my teachers always told us is that the subject was supposed to help expand our brains. But is that the only point of doing school? Classical education cannot be dumbed down to such a low standard! If the students know the “why”, they will care about the subject. I would have, at any rate.

Give me a reason to enjoy. What’s the difference between a personal gym trainer and a Medieval torturer? In both cases, you’re forced into painful physical exercises—but in one case you know why it is beneficial for your body. Without explanations, your students may view you as a Medieval torturer. Now I know this may seem a little extreme but think back on when you were young. You were forced to spend eight hours of your day in school. When you were done, you would go home and spend even more time doing school. You did this for five days straight. Now, what if you didn’t see the point? This may seem like torture, and at least for me, I’m sure at one point in my life I called it torture.

What is the answer to joy in education? Understanding. Understanding leads to true joy. I didn’t know why I was being forced to spend my whole day in school, and when I asked, I got an answer that didn’t really satisfy me. But when I received that answer, my view on school transformed. Without understanding, teachers can appear as a medieval torturer, and all the student was supposed to get out of education they don’t, because they didn’t care, and they didn’t enjoy it.

Give me a way to live. Classical education, however, is more than individual subjects; let’s examine the final destination. Classical education is supposed to help the student to think freely. It’s supposed to make them into a leader who knows what they believe, why they believe it, and how to articulate what they believe to others. It’s supposed to make them into someone whom others want to follow. I didn’t realize this because I never understood the broad scope of the purpose of classical education. I never understood that my logic class and my years in dialectic school were supposed to help me to think for myself or that my years in rhetoric school were supposed to help me to properly articulate these beliefs to others.

One teacher finally helped me to see the benefits of my education. My history teacher did this by getting down to my level, telling me that he understood why I may not enjoy my education, and laid out for me the importance of the subject I was learning: that it wasn’t just about the tests. It was about strengthening my mind, helping me to think critically, and looking analytically at what other authors were saying in their books, not just accepting them as true. This inspired me to look more into the reasoning behind the other subjects I was learning. And when the student understands this—when they understand that there is a point to each subject they learn—when they understand that this is what classical education is supposed to do, they will embrace their education. They will become the student that every teacher wants. They will become the student who cares. The student that enjoys their education, and the student that knows how to live.

If you look at any school in the country, almost every kid is saying the same thing: “I hate school!” I missed out on a big chunk of my education because I did not enjoy school. When every kid is being forced to do school, and every kid is hating school or just not trying, something really must be done, and there is a short, simple answer. Spend time, maybe an entire class period if you must, and help your students see the many benefits that come from learning each subject. Use the subject you teach and your time spent with your students to inspire them to pursue the virtues; to strive to fulfill their potential; to each become the person you believe they can become: the one who cares, the one who loves their education, and the one who understands the point of it. Isn’t this the goal of education, the goal of classical education? Empower them to pursue wisdom and seek after all the good that God has given them in this life.