Wokeness Is Coming For Classical Christian Education

It’s been a good year for classical Christian education. Threefold more school starts have been made, and a book about classical education ranked No. The New York Times Bestseller List ranked 1 and Fox Nation will launch season 2 of the popular series on classical Christian education on January 26. “The Miseducation of America.” Naturally, growth brings attention. It is not common for someone to have ties with our movement at this time. — One of our own — A growing divide is brought to the forefront

Jessica Hooten Wilson, an online journalist, asked the question, “What is your favorite thing about January 12?” “Is White Supremacy a Bug or a Feature of Classical Christian Education?” It is not surprising that she experiences pressure in her main academic environment at Pepperdine University. “I experience regular pushback from those who perceive [classical Christian education] as white, Western-only, and male-dominated.” She proceeds to cast aspersions on a few people and organizations — including, indirectly, mine. Her accusations serve as a pretext for her thesis. “If the classical Christian school movement is to survive — let alone flourish — we must oppose all forms of racism and misogyny and stand with the beauty, goodness, and truth that we hold up for our students.” I’ll take her up on that charge.

Hooten Wilkinson is a staccato note that appears at the end to a new tune within our circle. Her article praises groups that she believes are doing the right things. So far, I’ve heard no one publicly state the thesis so clearly as she does: “We should peruse the authors of the works and, if applicable, the editors or introductory writers to ensure an assortment of voices … as well as an equality of both sexes. If we look at the table of contents of a textbook or a reading list for a semester and find not a single woman or person of color in that list, then that curriculum is misrepresenting the classical Christian tradition.”

The Classical Canon

The classical canon has been a source of many cultural influences for the past three millennia. It was created by philosophical, literary, and theological authors. During much of the same period, learned scholars made lists of those who deserved it. “canon” status. It is unclear if there are minorities or women in Cassiodorus’ list of authors (400 A.D.), or Leonardo Bruni or Battista Guarino’s lists (humanists from the 1400s) — they don’t use those categories. Mortimer Adler, along with his 40-strong team of renowned scholars, chose the most well-respected list of books based on their contributions to history. “the great conversation.” Adler’s merit-based criteria required a work to have changed the course of history and to have developed the collective Western mind. What Adler’s team did not do is look to race or sex as criteria.

The Western classical tradition has included people of all races and sexes for a long time: It includes a number of texts that address universal truths about humanity.