We recently sat down with Dr. Christoper Perrin, Ph.D., a publisher with Classical Academic Press and national leader, author and speaker for the renewal of classical education, to ask him a few questions about the content of his keynote address that will take place at our upcoming Gala, April 15 at 7 p.m. at Windows on Washington. In addition to being a wealth of knowledge on the subject of Classical Education, he also brings a delightful approach to explaining classical education to others.
PROVIDENCE: Dr. Perrin, we have an amazing community here at Providence Classical Christian Academy. Our families are extremely involved in our school and we all have a sense of ownership that helps to keep our program vibrant and successful. When we think about expanding our community and taking our message out beyond the walls of our own school to tell others about the amazing benefits of classical education, the task seems somewhat daunting. It has taken us many years to understand the approach, so how do you suggest we succinctly explain classical education and all of its facets to someone who has never heard of it before?
DR. PERRIN: This is a great challenge isn’t it? There are two reasons why it is hard for us to summarize classical education well: 1) We haven’t had a robust classical education ourselves, so it is hard to describe what we don’t know first-hand. 2) Classical education is broad and deep, and multi-faceted; there is a lot to summarize. Imagine trying to describe “democracy” to someone who knows nothing about it, or consider how hard it is to describe Christianity or “the church” to someone completely familiar with the Christian faith. Where do you start (when you can start anywhere)? How do you succinctly cover even the elements of the Nicene Creed (which is a very good summary)? Because of these two challenges, I like to describe classical education by means of analogy. I find this the quickest way both to pique interest and spark one’s imagination about what classical education is or could be. So here are three analogies that I use frequently: Classical 
education is like a garden, a cathedral and a museum. It is like a garden in that we cultivate students, slowly, in a place of beauty, seeking the fruitfulness of our children who having been blessed, will bless others. We seek to keep out weeds and plant them in the rich soil of the liberal arts and the great books. It is like a cathedral because it has been created by the long labor of love by many who have preceded us; it has been built for our enjoyment and delight and facilitated our love of the true, good, and beautiful and our worship of the source of all that is true, good and beautiful–God himself. It is like a museum in that it is a place of study and wonder inspired by the muses and therefore is the opposite of amusement, those trivial activities that are bereft of inspiration. A museum contains room after room of delightful objects and ideas for our study that delight, move and instruct. A museum (like the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the British Museum) is big–much bigger than we, and containing more excellencies that we can know and love in a lifetime. A museum therefore awes us, delights us, but also humbles us. The tradition of classical education is a beautiful, immense museum that we can’t completely know in a lifetime; it is a garden that cultivates our children on truth, goodness and beauty; it is a cathedral built by our loving predecessors that blesses and humbles us and lifts our faces upward to God.
PROVIDENCE: You make a great point that there are so many layers to classical education, that it takes a while for one unfamiliar with the subject to embrace it, that we must be patient in our approach to telling others about classical education. How has it come to be that you have taken such an interest in the renewal of classical education? Where did your interest first begin?
DR. PERRIN: My interest began (without me knowing it) by reading some good books around my childhood home. Perhaps before that I should trace it to my mother reading to me good children’s books. A second stage of interest began when I decided to study history and classics sitting one day in a freshman history class at the age of 18. The professor of ancient history (a towering, silver-haired, Irish American with a red nose) bellowed at us that we were a sad set of students, not knowing any language but English. On the spot, I decided to change my major to history and study Greek. In college I learned some classical languages and history, but I did not learn much of anything about classical education, and the education I received was classical only in slim fragments and pieces. Slowly those pieces began to come together through my theological studies and my time at the Graduate Institute at St. Johns College in Annapolis. The greatest help to recovering classical education was my fateful decision to become the founding headmaster at a classical school in Harrisburg, PA in 1997. Having to lead a classical school propelled me into a deep study of the tradition of classical education that continues to this day–and I still feel as a child.
PROVIDENCE: At our upcoming Gala, where you have so graciously agreed to give the keynote address, we are going to highlight the many ways in which our school community has built, is building, and will continue to build upon the legacy of classical education. What advice do you have for our community as we embark on this next chapter of growth in broadening the awareness of classical education in our region?
DR. PERRIN: Enjoy it. Enjoy the museum, cathedral and garden. Only wonder, curiosity a
nd delight will lead you to meaningful, lasting knowledge, wisdom and virtue (the traditional ends of a classical education). As you mature in your understanding and implementation of classical education your delight and wonder should increase and come to characterize your community. SAT scores may rise too, but don’t let a fixation with modern measurements of success rob you of the joy that a classical education can impart. Remember that a classical education (perhaps in its most succinct expression) is the liberal arts and the great books and the truth, goodness and beauty they impart. A soul nourished on these things will be far more than a functional worker in the global economy.
PROVIDENCE: Dr. Perrin, our school’s mission is to equip students for a life of wisdom, virtue, and eloquence to the glory of God. This is a mission we feel very passionate about. We believe this mission goes hand-in-hand with the classical education tradition of seeking truth, goodness and beauty. Do you have any advice for our parents and teachers in helping to instill these virtues in their students daily?
DR. PERRIN: See my comments above. Perhaps the most important thing that parents and teachers can do is model the love and pursuit of wisdom, virtue and eloquence. Far more than a mere syllabus or “curriculum,” classical education should be a communal way of life, a culture of learning, pondering, delighting, seeking, savoring, conversing, and celebrating. Put another way, the ideals of classical education must be embodied in
our lives, in our daily activities. Parents should not aspire to be mere homework-checkers (though don’t stop that!) but should be reading great books themselves, memorizing poems, continuing to learn an art (yes, mom might have her own piano lesson), taking the family to museums, great concerts and community lectures. Of course a parent can’t do all of these things at once, but every parent could be reading a great book and sharing his or her thoughts with the family. Great music and art should fill the home. Even great meals should be viewed as one of the most important educational opportunities parents have. Dinners should be filled with relaxing time to enjoy the fruit of our study–recited poems, discussion of literature, songs sung, music played and the praise of good food and drink and of the one who provides for all of this. This brings me to one last analogy for classical education: It is like a banquet table where we join together for celebration and conversation not only with those living at the moment, but those who have lived before us and yet still are very much alive.
I look forward to seeing you all on April 15.
To RSVP for our upcoming Gala, please call the office or email your guest list to Gala@providencestl.org.
