Policy analysts and educators Adam Kissel, Rachel Alexander Cambre, and Madison Merino Doan join us to discuss their new book Slacking: A Guide to Ivy League Miseducation (Encounter Books)—an eye-opening look at the decline of liberal education in America’s most prestigious universities. Together they uncover what’s gone wrong with general education, what’s missing from modern curricula, and why the recovery of real learning still matters.

In this episode, we discuss:
📖 How the Ivy League abandoned the core curriculum and the study of Western civilization
📖 What their research uncovered in hundreds of “slacker courses” at top universities
📖 The historical shift from classical to elective education—and how Emerson and Eliot helped pave the way
📖 Why Columbia remains the lone Ivy preserving a true core curriculum
📖 How reform might begin—through trustees, states, and new classical colleges

LINKS:
➡️ Slacking: A Guide to Ivy League Miseducation (Encounter Books): https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/...
➡️ National Association of Scholars: https://www.nas.org

Are you interested in teaching at a classical school? A school administrator in need of talent and resources? A supportive parent, business owner, or lobbyist?

Classical Commons is building a network of classical K-12 schools, exceptional teachers, and pedagogical resources to advance classical liberal arts education in the 21st century. We're a unique digital community connecting growing schools with job searchers and other interested parties within the movement.

Join us every Wednesday at 1 PM ET for conversations from the cutting edge of K-12 classical ed, and join our community at www.classicalcommons.org.

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For viewers interested in: Classical education, liberal arts, ICLE, SCL, ACCS, CLT, Classic Learning Test, Jeremy Tate, Susan Wise Bauer, Well-Trained Mind, Classical Conversations, Spencer Klavan, Latin schools, Great Hearts, Memoria Press, Tracy Lee Simmons, Hillsdale College, University of Dallas, UDallas, UATX, University of Austin, Joshua Gibbs, CiRCE, Jonathan Pageau, Anglican schools, Orthodox schools, Catholic schools, Reformed schools, Doug Wilson, Inklings, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Pints with Aquinas, St. John's College, Great Books, the trivium, the quadrivium, John Senior

Writers and editors Timothy Lawrence and Timothy House join us from FilmFisher—a community of classically minded Christian film critics dedicated to bringing the Great Tradition into conversation with modern cinema. Together they discuss the site’s origins, its recent relaunch, and the enduring need for thoughtful film criticism in an age of algorithms and crowd-sourced reviews.

In this episode, we discuss:
📖 How FilmFisher emerged from the classical education movement through Christopher Perrin and Joshua Gibbs
📖 Why film criticism matters—and how it can once again become humane, literary, and formative
📖 What sets great criticism apart from “thumbs up/thumbs down” crowd scores
📖 How to watch films more attentively by learning the language of images and perspective

LINKS:
➡️ FilmFisher: https://filmfisher.com
➡️ FilmFisher Substack: https://filmfisher.substack.com
➡️ Jedi Archives (Timothy Lawrence’s Star Wars lectures): https://explicatingstarwars.substack....

Are you interested in teaching at a classical school? A school administrator in need of talent and resources? A supportive parent, business owner, or lobbyist?

Classical Commons is building a network of classical K-12 schools, exceptional teachers, and pedagogical resources to advance classical liberal arts education in the 21st century. We're a unique digital community connecting growing schools with job searchers and other interested parties within the movement.

Join us every Wednesday at 1 PM ET for conversations from the cutting edge of K-12 classical ed, and join our community at www.classicalcommons.org.

...

For viewers interested in: Classical education, liberal arts, ICLE, SCL, ACCS, CLT, Classic Learning Test, Jeremy Tate, Susan Wise Bauer, Well-Trained Mind, Classical Conversations, Spencer Klavan, Latin schools, Great Hearts, Memoria Press, Tracy Lee Simmons, Hillsdale College, University of Dallas, UDallas, UATX, University of Austin, Joshua Gibbs, CiRCE, Jonathan Pageau, Anglican schools, Orthodox schools, Catholic schools, Reformed schools, Doug Wilson, Inklings, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Pints with Aquinas, St. John's College, Great Books, the trivium, the quadrivium, John Senior

Former congressman Bob Schaffer and physician Dr. Randy Everett—co-founders of Liberty Common School in Fort Collins, Colorado—join us to tell the remarkable story of how a small group of parents built one of the nation’s most successful classical charter schools. From living-room meetings to legislative battles, their work helped shape both Liberty’s founding and Colorado’s charter school law itself.

In this episode, we discuss:
📖 How a parent movement in the 1990s became a model for classical education nationwide
📖 The political and legal fight that made Liberty Common possible
📖 Why E.D. Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy became the foundation for the school’s curriculum
📖 How conviction, scholarship, and community built a school that still defines excellence thirty years later

LINKS:
➡️ Liberty Common School: https://www.libertycommon.org
➡️ Core Knowledge Foundation: https://www.coreknowledge.org

Are you interested in teaching at a classical school? A school administrator in need of talent and resources? A supportive parent, business owner, or lobbyist?

Classical Commons is building a network of classical K-12 schools, exceptional teachers, and pedagogical resources to advance classical liberal arts education in the 21st century. We're a unique digital community connecting growing schools with job searchers and other interested parties within the movement.

Join us every Wednesday at 1 PM ET for conversations from the cutting edge of K-12 classical ed, and join our community at www.classicalcommons.org.

...

For viewers interested in: Classical education, liberal arts, ICLE, SCL, ACCS, CLT, Classic Learning Test, Jeremy Tate, Susan Wise Bauer, Well-Trained Mind, Classical Conversations, Spencer Klavan, Latin schools, Great Hearts, Memoria Press, Tracy Lee Simmons, Hillsdale College, University of Dallas, UDallas, UATX, University of Austin, Joshua Gibbs, CiRCE, Jonathan Pageau, Anglican schools, Orthodox schools, Catholic schools, Reformed schools, Doug Wilson, Inklings, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Pints with Aquinas, St. John's College, Great Books, the trivium, the quadrivium, John Senior