Renewing Classical Education

Dr. Christopher Perrin has been a leader in the renewal of classical education in the United States for 25 years. In this podcast, he traces the renewal of the American paideia exploring the recent history of the American renaissance in light of the 2500 years that have preceded it. Dr. Christopher Perrin has been a leader in the renewal of classical education in the United States for 25 years.

Banner image from filmfisher.substack.com I think books are more important than film; with sufficient energy and a pledge to use my time well, I choose a good book. But I don’t always have sufficient energy, and there is more than one way to use time well. In the last three months, did you talk to a friend about a good book you were reading? Didn’t you also talk about a film? If a good book has changed your thinking, isn’t there a powerful film that has done the same?

The Christopher Perrin Show Hildegard College: Restoring Polymathy and Redemptive Entrepreneurship 1× 0:00 Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:25:58 -1:25:58 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Hildegard College: Restoring Polymathy and Redemptive Entrepreneurship Matthew Smith joins me to share why he left higher education to found Hildegard College, a micro college built on friendship, great books, and a common curriculum shaped by six foundational questions.

As I have often discovered, and often say, we could recover great education simply by studying educational vocabulary. Hidden in the very words we use are clues to what education used to be and could be again. To those of you new to my writing, I will cite just two examples before considering the marvelous word “colleague.” 1 Liberal Arts: We use this phrase often but very few can name the liberal arts. Can you?

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:30:37 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Dr. John Mark Reynolds joins me to clarify “classical education” as a living tradition rooted in wonder and dialectic, not nostalgia. We talk virtue, science, and his St. Constantine K–16 model. Discussion about this episode Dr. Christopher Perrin has been a leader in the renewal of classical education in the United States for 25 years.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:11:23 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Recorded at the 2026 Great Hearts National Symposium (Feb. 25, 2026), I share my keynote on the history, meaning, and renewal of classical education—asking what, exactly, we’re trying to recover.

Over the years, I have done a lot of thinking and then writing about pedagogy. Most recently, I published two books on pedagogy—The Scholé Way, and The Good Teacher (this one co-authored with Carrie Eben). Before, during, and after the publication of these books, I write about pedagogy here on my Substack. To keep readers from having to wade through various articles and podcasts to find my writings on pedagogy, I have created this section entitled, as you might guess, Pedagogy.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:26:36 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Heidi White joins me to explore The Divided Soul and the inner tug-of-war between duty and desire, using the Prodigal Son as a map of the two brothers within us. We trace how desire can be healed and ordered toward joy—and what that means for teaching through habits, “much, not many,” and the slow formation of love.

Some of us volunteer to speak. Some of us are volunteered to speak. Chances are you have been asked to speak when you would rather not. If, like many, you have a phobia for public speaking, most of the time you would rather not. Perhaps you were asked to give a toast as best man or maid of honor at a wedding. We have all heard these speeches which range from surprisingly good to the cringe-inducing.

Replanting Heirloom Seeds This essay is a form of a presentation I prepared for the Great Hearts Symposium on Feb. 25, 2026. It reads like a speech…I will be updating this essay (with footnotes and additional content) in the weeks to come, so some of you might want to revisit it. In a week or so, it will also be posted at the Substack hosted by Great Hearts called On Classical Education. What Is That We Are Seeking to Renew?