91原创

In a society in which education is routinely confused with a truncated form of vocational training or as secularized ideological indoctrination, the liberal arts have gotten a bad reputation.

A book on the top of my stack these days helps to clarify the liberal arts, revealing them as the center of a powerful paradigm for classical Christian education. The book is聽. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Philosopher and author Peter Kreeft, in the book鈥檚 forward, argues that liberal arts education is no longer 鈥渕ainstream鈥� education. Rather, 鈥渢he educational establishment feels deeply threatened by it.鈥� Then he lists what he calls 鈥渆ight silly objections to [liberal arts education] that are really advertisements for it.鈥� These objections are well worth considering. They take us to the heart of what 91原创 is striving to accomplish.

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1. It鈥檚 鈥渄ivisive.鈥� It鈥檚 not what everyone else is doing. It marches to a different drummer. It cultivates excellence rather than conformity. Yes it does. And this is actually sometimes used as an objection rather than as a selling point!

2. It鈥檚 old, outdated, unfashionable. Yes it is, like honor, courage, integrity, and honesty. It doesn鈥檛 try to tell the truth with a clock; it doesn鈥檛 practice chronological snobbery. In an age which has embraced every novelty, the true rebel is the traditionalist.

3. It鈥檚 not in line with modern philosophies: skepticism, cynicism, subjectivism, relativism, naturalism, materialism, reductionism, positivism, scientism, socialism. That鈥檚 exactly right. It鈥檚 not. It鈥檚 countercultural. It harnesses teenagers鈥� natural proclivity to rebel and turns that force against 鈥渢he bad guys鈥� who are now the 鈥渆stablishment鈥� instead of against 鈥渢he good guys.鈥�

4. It鈥檚 鈥渏udgmental.鈥� It believes there really is good and bad, true and false. The typical modern education is judgmental only against being judgmental, and skeptical of everything except skepticism.

5. It鈥檚 small. It鈥檚 private. It鈥檚 grassroots. It鈥檚 implemented mainly in small schools, not big ones. This is true, and it鈥檚 another plus rather than a minus. 鈥淪mall is beautiful.鈥� The bigger the school, the more standardized it has to be and the more the person tends to get lost in the system and get identified with his or her race, economic class, gender, sexual orientation, or political party.

6. It seeks the truth for its own sake, not primarily for pragmatic uses. It aims at wisdom, not wealth. It makes its graduates philosophers instead of millionaires. This is also true. But it鈥檚 not a fault. As Chesterton says, 鈥淢an鈥檚 most practical need is to be more than a pragmatist.鈥�

7. It鈥檚 not specialized. It doesn鈥檛 include courses on underwater basket weaving or pickling and fermentation (which was actually a major at Ohio State). It doesn鈥檛 teach you clever ways to outguess Microsoft Word, or the government, or lawyers, or your professor, or the standardized tests. It just teaches you how to think and how to live. But businesses, law schools, and government agencies don鈥檛 want specialist drudges and drones; they want people who can read and write and think logically and creatively.

8. It鈥檚 religious. It鈥檚 Christian. It doesn鈥檛 pretend that the most important man who ever lived never lived, as our public education now does. It assumes that the supernatural is not the enemy to the natural, that 鈥済race perfects nature rather than demeaning it,鈥� as light perfects all colors.

Kreeft closes his forward with these words: 鈥淚t鈥檚 precious 鈥� because children are precious.鈥� Amen.