The Consortium Podcast

You've Been Schooled! - Deinstitutionalizing Society

This is Episode 7 of the Consortium Podcast, an academic audio blog of Kepler Education.

In this episode, Scott Postma and Joffre Swait discuss the radical idea of deinstitutionalizing society and contend that the modern school, as we know it, doesn’t work for educating free men and women. 

It does work well, however, toward the goal for which it was designed, which is to cultivate a society of both consumers and cogs—simultaneously consumers and cogs—a self-licking ice-cream cone if you will.

Building off of previous discussions, they get down into the weeds and make two very important declarations about the said self-licking ice-cream cone.

First, schools, as we have come to accept them, literally create a dependent society, not a free society. Good people scratch their heads wondering why Americans (and most Europeans for that matter) are so dependent on the State, but we need look no further than our public school model which were modeled after the Prussian schools and introduced to the U. S. in the 19th century by secular humanists like Horace Mann (1796-1859).

Second, schools, as we have come to accept them, have no logical limits, and therefore, create an abyss, a black hole of jobs, money, advisors, bureaucracies, and bureaucracies to regulate bureaucracies—and the list goes on and on. 

Listen to Episode 7 to learn how schools create and legitimize student values and shape student worldviews, which essentially gives the school system a monopoly on the professional, political, and financial aspects of a society.

You can also 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/.

The Architecture of Classical Christian Education

This is Episode 6 of the Consortium Podcast, an academic audio blog of Kepler Education.

In this episode, we tackle the architecture of Classical Christian Education. All education has a foundation, a function, a form, and body of materials from which to build. And like any building, the excellence of an education not only depends on the excellence of the materials but on the excellence of the craftsmanship.

The foundation must be solid or else it will collapse under pressure. Additionally, the form of the education should follow the function of the education. Unfortunately, that's not always the case, and there are consequences for that kind of a building mistake.

Join Scott Postma and Joffre Swait for this 45 minute segment as they discuss the architecture of a Classical Christian Education and learn what it takes to be a good builder of young people.

You can also 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/.

Cosmology and Truth in Education

This is Episode 5 of the Consortium Podcast, an academic audio blog of Kepler Education.

In his fabulous work on recovering Classical Education, Norms and Nobility, David Hicks writes, “Education at every level reflects our primary assumptions about the nature of man and for this reason no education is innocent of an attitude toward man and his purposes.”

In this episode Scott and Joffre take Hicks thesis from an anthropological discussion to a cosmological discussion by arguing, “Education at every level reflects our primary assumptions about the nature of the universe and for this reason no education is innocent of an attitude toward the nature of the universe and its purposes.” 

If education is the transference of the collective knowledge of the universe from one generation to the next, modern education not only falls far from this goal, it has changed the goal posts. Classical Christian education seeks to recover the truth about the nature of the cosmos and what that means for mankind in every generation.

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/.

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/.