Christian and Conservative news hand-curated the way it’s supposed to be. Stay full-MAGA despite the so-called “civil war” waged by the Islam-loving “woke right”.
In this The Federalist article, Auguste Meyrat argues that classical education succeeds not merely because of its curriculum or lofty virtues, but because it rests on discipline, standards, tradition, and accountability that progressive education has spent decades dismantling.
- Meyrat responds to a New York Times essay praising Eagle Ridge Academy, a classical charter school near Minneapolis, while arguing that the Times analysis missed the real reasons classical schools succeed.
- He says classical education is not simply about discussing great books or displaying virtues on the wall, but about pedagogy, rules, assessment, and school culture.
- The article contrasts classical schools’ use of difficult texts, objective testing, uniforms, technology limits, and firm discipline with public schools that often rely on excerpts, projects, lax rules, and constant screen use.
- Meyrat argues that discipline is central to classical education because students and families voluntarily accept stricter expectations, including real consequences for repeated misconduct.
- He criticizes progressive public-school practices such as restorative discipline, endless second chances, project-based learning, standards-based grading, and social-emotional learning.
- The piece frames classical education as fundamentally aligned with Christian and conservative values, even when schools do not explicitly use religious language.
- Meyrat says accountability, personal responsibility, meritocracy, and respect for Western tradition are not incidental to classical learning but essential to it.
- He argues that bringing classical education to all students would require a deep transformation of public schools, including restored discipline, content-based teaching, and removal of persistent disruptions.
- The article concludes that progressives would have to abandon John Dewey-style educational ideology and admit that conservatives and Christians may have been right about education all along.
Read the full story: https://thefederalist.com/2026/05/11/progressivism-is-incompatible-with-classical-learning/
