There were 11 of us in the room: one teacher and 10 students, sitting around a large table discussing, reasoning, and debating the perils, challenges and gifts that technology has granted humankind. The class was called Technology and Politics.
Over the summer, I spent 10 days at Mount Holyoke College participating in the Tikvah Scholars Program, a residential summer institute for 11th and 12th graders that focused on the social sciences and humanities: specifically, the classics amongst other great works. All day long, from the two-and-a-half-hour seminars about philosophy, history and politics to dinner in the dining hall, the thoughts of Socrates, Plato and Ovid were discussed. Lessons, discussions and debates about philosophy allowed us to think, analyze and rationalize our own beliefs. I emerged with a deeper understanding of the philosophies and systems that play such an integral role in Western society. One thing particularly struck me: this was my first time exposed to classical thinkers.
While most of us are familiar with stories like the Myth of Daedalus, Icarus and other classical tales, we don’t truly understand the ideas from these stories past the basic morals like “check your ambition and respect limits.” The high school must pivot toward the classics and reinvigorate the curriculum with classical works, so students can learn to reason out statements, debate their points of view and gain a foundational knowledge of the Western world.
Let’s face it: the high school hardly teaches the classics. As a result, students are losing out on creativity and critical thinking. Classes like Ancient Literature have been stripped from the curriculum and replaced with the classes we know today that focus on the most contemporary and identity-driven literature. Today’s classes are full of endless notes and constant regurgitation without stopping to think and debate if those ideas are even sound in the first place. This is affecting the youth of America who graduate high school without the ability to think critically or solve complex problems. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. Classical thinkers and ideas need to be brought back into the classroom.
Adding Plato’s Apology to WHISP and English classes would train students to think critically, something the handbook claims is expected of all students. Engaging with the classics, students would become experts in logic and rhetoric, things currently lacking at the high school. Learning the classics wouldn’t involve a year of taking notes and tests just to forget the knowledge once it’s over, like many students do at our school. It would first focus on lectures and gathering information for understanding, and then shift to seminars and debates where students would form reasoning skills and learn rhetoric by discussing and debating.
It is practically impossible to understand our society’s customs and laws without understanding the fundamental ideas upon which they are based. The modern Western world, dominated by the ideas of the Enlightenment and constitutional framers, comes from the thoughts of Plato and Socrates. Almost every important scholar of the Renaissance, scientific revolution, enlightenment and modern era studied the classics throughout their childhood and in college. Without a basis in classical knowledge, it has become increasingly challenging for students to understand the philosophy and morals of the West. This has created a generation of students who do not appreciate the great ideas that Western society was founded upon.
Learning the classics has made me a more knowledgeable and capable person as well as a better scholar. But I never got that experience at the high school. I should have. The high school can no longer neglect to teach students about the foundations of our society. We need to be taught the classics.