To get a better sense of The Classical School’s purpose and mission it would be beneficial to read Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book. First published in 1940 by a high school dropout (expelled, actually) who would become an editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica and one of the founders of the Great Books of the Western World program, HtRaB became a classic best seller. It is also one of the most tedious books to read. Adler argued that people should read books that are initially too difficult to read in order to elevate their minds. How to Read a Book, required reading for students entering Classical Independent Studies, teaches the reader how, in fact, to accomplish this noble and challenging task. The Classical School, over the six years of grammar and dialectic classes, is consciously and deliberately coaching students through the various stages of improving reading skills in order to furnish them with the freedom and ability to be independent, critical and reasonable adults.

In a February 1976 with Bill Moyers Dr. Adler comments about his early relationship with Professor John Dewey (one of the leading Progressive proponents at the University of Chicago, signer of the Humanist Manifesto and one of the primary architects of our modern system of public schooling). The transcript of the interview includes the following exchange:

MOYERS: There’s a story that you used to write letters to Professor Dewey at Columbia challenging his educational theories. Are they true?

ADLER: Yes. In fact he spoke ... he lectured very slowly, haltingly. So that I could take his ... almost the entire lecture down in long-hand. And I would go home and then sit down and type it out. And as I typed it out, I recognized there were some inconsistencies in it. Or that what he said today didn’t quite cohere, hang together, with what he said a week or two days ago. So, I’d write a letter, “Dear Dr. Dewey: According to my notes, a week ago you said... But today you said... How do you put these things together please?”

And he’d come to class and say, “A member of this class has written me a letter,” and he’d read the letter out loud, and answer it. I’d write the answer down and then I’d find that the answer was inconsistent with something else. So, he put up with this for about three weeks, and then of course ... I was unrelenting. I kept on writing the letters. He finally called me in his office and he said, “Would you please stop?”

MOYERS: Did you?

ADLER: Yes, I did.

MOYERS: And you were how old?

ADLER: I was then 17.

MOYERS: And you were challenging John Dewey?

ADLER: Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed.

A 17 year old, high school dropout (expelled, actually) challenging one of the most influential professors of his day and of the twentieth century! What nerve! What chutzpah! What a role model! No doubt we will wish that there had been more young Adlers before the Twenty First century is over.

In that same interview Adler proposes a plan diametrically opposed to Dewey’s plan which has been implemented and dictates the standards of schooling in the United States. Again the transcript:

MOYERS: Wouldn’t the consequence of this be some very radical changes in the structure of education in our country and the timing of education in our country?

ADLER: It’s the most radical change proposed: that a liberal education be completed in 12 years and the people be given the Bachelor of Arts degree at 16 and after that, no one be in school between 16 and 20. I want compulsory non-schooling; I want them to start at four. Twelve years to 16. And at 16 everyone out of school. No one allowed to come back to school until 20 and then only by selective examinations. Everyone admitted; free admissions up to a Bachelor of Arts degree. Highly selective admissions for the University, for the advanced degree. And then, everyone...somehow everyone taken into adult learning in one form or another.

This plan never stood a chance. But it is interesting to note that in The Classical School graduates we are seeing how reasonable and possible it is for 16 and 17 year olds to move into our modern college environments as bona fide and successful students. A classical liberal arts education, well balanced by a sound curriculum in mathematics, securely prepares a student for the next stage of learning, the Quadrivium, just as the Trivium intended. At Classical we contend that a true classical education prepares students to meet the challenges posed by our school and state university system.