Anchored by the Classic Learning Test

Faith Moore is a freelance writer, editor, and a stay-at-home mom. She has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, The Daily Wire, and more. She joins Jeremy to discuss her recent Federalist article, "Instead of Canceling Snow White, Learn to Read Fairy Tales." In this episode, she discusses her response to the authors of an SFGate article in which they describe Disneyland's depiction of the famous kiss scene from Snow White as problematic. She further discusses the ways in which the current cultural zeitgeist is assigning literal meanings to fairy tales whose generational relevance continues because of their symbolism and moral depictions. She shines light on important aspects of Grimm's Fairy Tales, and the universality of fairy tale themes when considering the similarity of story themes across cultures. Host Jeremy Tate @JeremyTate41Guest Faith Moore @FaithKMoore"Instead of Canceling Snow White, Learn to Read Fairy Tales"Saving Cinderella: What Feminists Get Wrong About Disney Princesses And How To Set It Right

Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a New York Times bestselling author. In this week's episode, Heather discusses her time as a graduate student in comparative literature at Yale and the events that led her to uncover the faults in deconstruction and other postmodernist theories. She illustrates how current trends in higher education have impeded a manner of education which philosopher Michael Oakeshott referred to as the "transmission of an inheritance from one generation to the next."  She also discusses her article, "The Bias Fallacy"— she outlines why efforts to remove objective measures of accomplishment in the name of equity is nihilistic, as well as efforts to vilify Western civilization.Host Jeremy Tate @JeremyTate41Guest Heather Mac Donald"The Bias Fallacy" in City Journal

Brent Everett Dickinson is a multi-disciplinary conceptual artist and associate professor of art at Azusa Pacific University in California.  In 2017, Dickinson founded the MMHTT (Marcel Maus Hermeneutical Think Tank), a multimedia web project driven by philosophical concepts such as power, authorship, immanence, performativity, and deterritorialization. In this week's discussion, Dickinson delves into the interplay between philosophy and art, as well as conceptions of beauty, stirring the debate as to whether beauty is truly objective. Dickinson also discusses "Chaosmos" (a term coined by James Joyce) in relation to the production and sustainment of culture—he notes that Western culture is one that perpetually produces the new, and thus conservatism and progressivism act in accord to some degree.Host Jeremy Tate @JeremyTate41Guest Brent Everett Dickinson 

Erika Donalds is the founder and CEO of the Optima Foundation—its goal is the successful launch of Hillsdale College Barney Charter School Initiative classical academies and other schools of excellence across the state of Florida. She also served on the Advisory Committee on Education and Workforce Development for Florida governor Ron DeSantis. In this episode, she joins Jeremy to discuss the events that led her to question the Common Core State Standards and other top-down approaches to education, and she illustrates the benefit of classical education in her son's life, and how this revelation led her down the path to becoming a school choice advocate and facilitator. Host Jeremy Tate @JeremyTate41Guest Erika Donalds @ErikaDonaldsOptima Foundation

Dr. Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars (NAS), joins Jeremy to discuss the recent NAS report, "Corrupting the College Board: Confucius Institutes and K-12 education." He discusses the connection between the College Board and Hanban, the Beijing-based headquarters of the Confucius Institutes—an organization that provides Chinese government-funded language and cultural education within both U.S. colleges and K-12 schools. In recent years, the Confucius Institutes have received criticism from professors due to their role in Chinese government influence on academic freedom, overt censorship of academic materials, and surveillance of classroom activities. Dr. Wood delves into the growing relationship between the College Board and Hanban at a time when  American scholars were growing increasingly alarmed by the pernicious influence of the Chinese state-funded academic initiatives on U.S. campuses. He also sheds light on the implications of these developments for academic integrity within U.S. K-12 schools. Host Jeremy Tate @JeremyTate41Guest Dr. Peter WoodCorrupting the College Board: Confucius Institutes and K-12 EducationRegister now for the CLT10 on April 28th!

Sean-Michael Pigeon, Young Voices Contributor and Yale University student, joins Jeremy to discuss his recent USA Today op-ed, "Don't Blame the Tests: Getting Rid of Standardized Testing Means Punishing the Poor." He discusses studies over the past decade which examined score disparities in relation to socio-economic status and led to public questions concerning higher education access—ultimately, the current social moment deems standardized tests as a driver of systemic unfairness. Sean-Michael discusses this movement as promoting equity by attacking "academic sorting." He notes that school districts across the country are eliminating advanced learning classes and traditional A-F grading systems in an effort to reduce unequal outcomes, but are in effect eliminating opportunities for marginalized communities to showcase their talent. He argues that this approach will only exacerbate the ability of the wealthy and well-connected to dominate academic systems.Host Jeremy Tate @JeremyTate41Guest Sean-Michael Pigeon @pigeon_seanUSA Today: Don't Blame The TestsApril 13th Remotely Proctored CLT: Register Here

Elias Moo, one of the youngest Catholic school superintendents in the country (Archdiocese of Denver), joins Jeremy  to discuss a trend of recent years in which Catholic schools attempt to replicate a utilitarian public school model, one which increasingly dehumanizes students in its attempt to make education production-focused.  Elias makes the case that Catholic schools should be committed to the liberal arts and poses the important question to all educators: "What is the true nature and purpose of education?" He also cites Pope Pius XI's Divini Illius Magistri —"Education must prepare man for what he must be and what he must do here below in order to obtain the sublime end for which he was created," a radically different sentiment than derived from the education we see in modern American society.Host Jeremy TateGuest Elias Moo @ArchDenSuperCLT10 coming up on April 28th! Click here for more details.

Eric Cook is the Head of School at Covenant Classical School and President of the Society for Classical Learning (SCL). He joins Jeremy to discuss classical education in the 21st century and the ways in which teaching in a public school led him to the classical education movement. He also examines the holistic nature of classical education, which has informed his endeavors as SCL president to make classical education accessible to all backgrounds. Jeremy and Eric also discuss the importance of finding good teachers at classical schools, as well as having strong thought leadership throughout the classical renewal movement in education.Host Jeremy Tate @JeremyTate41Guest Eric Cook

Kevin Clark (founder of the Ecclesial Schools Initiative) and Ravi Jain (calculus and physics teacher at the Geneva School) join Jeremy to discuss their book The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education, as well as the classical education renewal movement in modern society. They begin by briefly discussing the history of 20th century education, to include the exportation of the American progressive education model across the world. They also discuss the reasons they began their book by discussing gymnastics, the critical role of culture to a school's success, and the deeper meaning behind musical education. Mathematics education is also examined thoroughly, to include the misguided notion that a math education must always be presented to students in terms of its practical application—that is, its value in study can lead students to much more meaningful questions about the connection of the physical world to the world of ideas, as well as a greater understanding of truth. Host Jeremy Tate @JeremyTate41Guests Kevin Clark and Ravi JainThe Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education

Dr. Anika Prather joins Jeremy with a group of her humanities students from Howard University—Nia Anderson, Joseph Andrew Jordan, and Joshua Hughes. The students discuss the meaning of classical education within the African-American intellectual tradition, to include such important figures as Phillis Wheatley, Anna Julia Cooper, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor Prather and her students also discuss the #DisruptTexts movement and what it means for the future of education—the removal of books from curricula may be the product of good intentions, but will likely have harmful educational outcomes.  Host Jeremy Tate @JeremyTate41Guest Dr. Anika Prather @AnikaFreeindeed