The Consortium Podcast

Recovering the Education of the Western Tradition: An Interview with Dr. Robert Woods

This is episode 4 of the Consortium Podcast, an academic audio blog of Kepler Education.

The state of higher education has been adrift since the 1960s, and this drift from a truly liberal education to indoctrination for the ideological agendas of the elite has taken our K-12 schools with it. As a matter of fact, the public schools (as well as many "woke" private and prep schools) are little more than the "reeducation camps" so many conspiracists are shouting about today.

The solution to the education crisis is not to throw more money at it. The solution is creating alternative paths to teaching and learning. In this episode, Dr. Robert Woods joins us to discuss the dangers of modern education (a.k.a indoctrination), the benefits of the education of the Western Tradition, and the apprenticeship model model of education--the Medieval model of seeking out the scholars and studying with that person best suited for the work.

We further discuss how to get a great education without spending a fortune on a degree and what parents should know about accreditation.

• Learn more about Dr. Robert Woods and the course he teaches at Kepler Education.
• Learn more about Kepler Education and the consortium of teachers who share this vision for student flourishing by visiting our website at https://kepler.education.
• Or, visit the Consortium Blog at https://consortium.kepler.education/.

  

Ten Books That Shaped Our Own Education

In Episode 3, Scott Postma and Joffre Swait riff off of the humorous anecdote where Chesterton was asked which book he would want with him if ever stranded on a desert Island--Chesterton quickly answered, “Thomas’ Guide to Practical Shipbuilding”--and they discuss the top ten books they would recommend in a similar situation.

 

Joffre comes at this question from a personal standpoint and discusses the books that shaped his own education. Scott comes at it from both a personal and educator's perspective, highlighting the books that not only shaped his thoughts, but books worth reading again and again, books every person should read in their lifetime.

 

Leisure and Knowledge in Education

When a culture is in the process of denying its own roots, it becomes most important to know what these roots are. We had best know what we reject before we reject it. If we are going to build a chair, the first thing we need to know, above all else, is what a chair is. Otherwise, we can do nothing. We are not a culture that never understood what a human being was in his nature and in his destiny. Rather we are a culture that, having once known these things, has decided against living them or understanding them. - James Schall

 

In this episode, we discuss the way in which education, properly understood, requires leisure (Skolé) so students can apprehend, learn to appreciate, and finally, approximate their lives to that which is good, true, and beautiful in the world.

 

Learn more about Kepler Education and the consortium of teachers who share this vision for student flourishing by visiting our website at https://kepler.education.

Or, visit the Consortium Blog at https://consortium.kepler.education/.

 

Classical Christian Education: A Light Against the Coming Dark Age

We are witnessing the post-modern project collapse in on itself and left unchecked it will bring a new dark age in its wake. In this inaugural episode of the Consortium Podcast, Kepler Education president, Scott Postma, and Kepler student advisor, Joffre Swait, discuss the current effort to erase the past on which the pillars of Western civilization have been built by censoring literature and scapegoating those who challenge their power. They argue the light of the gospel, which is the only hope for this coming dark age, is best dispensed through classical Christian education.

 

Learn more about Kepler Education and the consortium of teachers who share this vision for student flourishing by visiting our website at https://kepler.education.

Or, visit the Consortium Blog at https://consortium.kepler.education/.