The empire strikes back

The empire strikes back: An attack on a prominent classical Christian school shows the movement has the liberal establishment running scared

A major hit piece in the liberal media might be what most schools fear, but for one prominent private school in Kentucky, the hit reveals the extent to which the establishment fears the rising power of classical Christian schools. In other words, we now have their attention.

I see the rise of the classical Christian education movement as one of the most encouraging developments of our times. Seen correctly, those three words belong together. They cohere in a distinctive model of education that is, in truth, a recovery of one that would have been considered the gold standard among educators in previous generations. It is driven by an educational philosophy deeply rooted in classical Greece and Rome, channeled through the Middle Ages, and was updated and explicitly adopted by leading educators on both sides of the Atlantic generations ago. I am a vocal proponent of classical Christian education, and I am proud that my grandchildren are in a classical and Christian school.

This movement has caught the attention of the secular educational establishment and its media allies, precisely because it represents a rejection of the establishment’s secularism, liberal theories of education, progressivist ideologies, and educational failures. And it’s growing. It’s growing fast.

The light is dawning on Christian parents that the public schools represent both educational failure (driven by progressivist ideology) and leftist moral indoctrination. Many parents are learning this only after hearing their children spout the latest affirmation required by the LGBTQ movement. In California, the public schools do not even have to inform parents that their offspring identify as transgender at school—even adopting a new name and pronouns. What happens in California spreads fast, driven by teachers unions (just look at their activism on these issues) and the dominant educational establishment.

But what makes the classical Christian educational model so powerful is its comprehensive continuity with the educational models that produced literate and thinking citizens while also sharpening and strengthening Western civilization. And that, dear reader, is what is driving defenders of the secular status quo absolutely crazy.

The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., recently ran a series of reports on Highlands Latin School, which has become one of the most prominent schools in the classical Christian movement. HLS defines itself as classical, Christian, and traditional. These days, all three are contested words that can cause cardiac arrest among self-styled progressives. In the massive series of articles billed as “The Cost of Empire,” the newspaper claims that its two reporters have “pieced together the formula for Highlands Latin School’s staggering growth and the way it approaches teaching.”

The reporters, Josh Wood and Krista Johnson, describe the rise of HLS as “a classical Christian education empire.” They traced the origins of the school and chronicled its development. In one telling passage, the reporters stated, “Classical education emphasizes ancient historical texts and ancient languages, such as Latin. At Highlands, it is merged with Christian ideology.” Christianity is now reduced to an “ideology,” and learning what generations of American children learned at school is presented as strange. That sentence tells you the extent to which modern public education is detached even from its own history.

The rise of classical schools is presented in this series as a clear and present danger to society, even as these schools represent a recovery of lost learning and produce stellar graduates. Predictably, the reporters found some disgruntled graduates and former students for comment. But the series of articles, taken at face value, reveal the fact that the secular establishment is not really concerned about the classical Christian school movement’s failures but its successes. The reporters reveal themselves when they cite public school advocates who decry even classical charter schools as “right-wing.”

At this point, we need to see what the progressives really hate about the movement. It is the words “classical” and “Christian” that set them off. But this series also hits directly at what it sees as another danger represented by the classical Christian school movement—its defense of Western civilization. The tagline of Memoria Press, a curriculum publisher that is part of the HLS family, is “Saving Western civilization one student at a time.” The reporters say the motto “is seen as a dog whistle by some former students and experts.”

That tells you far more about the state and stance of the current secular education establishment than about Highlands Latin School—that the secular establishment now sees Western civilization as a threat and any affirmation of that tradition as thinly disguised racism and a “Trojan horse” for “white nationalism.” Here is the lesson: Anyone who defends the lasting truths and values of Western civilization is now a “white nationalist”? Do those who make such claims know that much of the classical tradition was based in North Africa?

Here is a great lesson for us all: If you take on the educational establishment, you will be hated. If you seek to teach children so that they will learn to appreciate Western civilization, you will be called a white nationalist, even if you are not white. If you produce stellar graduates who go on to illustrious universities, you will be denounced as too strict and too demanding.

Parents are not fools, and increasing numbers of them are looking to schools like HLS and the larger classical Christian education movement (including intrepid homeschoolers and consortium models) for their children. Without apology, they are choosing an education for their children that is defined as both classical and Christian—and many like what they see.

Therein lies the threat to the establishment. But add to all this the fact that Kentucky voters will face the question of ending the state’s public school monopoly in November with what is known as Amendment 2. That, let’s be clear, is what has them so scared, and all this reminds you why voting “yes” on that amendment is so important.

My guess is that this series of hit pieces in the Courier-Journal will backfire and turn out to draw even more families toward the school and others like it. No school is perfect, but if one can drive the liberal establishment crazy and lead it to respond with this much fury, it’s doing something big, something important, and something worth your attention. Count on it.

This article originally appeared at WORLD Opinions on October 3, 2024.