Classical Commons

Nearly 3,000 years after it was composed, The Odyssey continues to captivate readers and audiences around the world. Its enduring appeal reminds us that great books ask the questions every generation must answer: What is courage? What is justice? What do we owe our families, our communities, and one another?

Classical education invites students into these conversations—not to memorize the “right” answers, but to wrestle with enduring questions that form wisdom and character.

The classics have endured because they speak to what is timeless in the human experience.

📚 Read more:
https://zurl.co/Jnda0

'The Odyssey’s' Lesson for America’s Schools - The Daily Signal Hollywood has rediscovered Homer. It's time America's schools embrace "The Odyssey" and learn from its timeless lessons.

Is classical education becoming too disembodied? The article argues we've over-emphasized the liberal arts at the expense of manual training. True virtue is cultivated through hands-on work with real materials, not just abstract thought.
https://zurl.co/NmpVA

Decades of research suggest that increasing screen use in schools — especially laptop‑centric instruction — correlates with declines in standardized test performance and weaker comprehension compared to traditional learning modes. For educators committed to depth and rigor, this raises important questions about how we use technology in service of learning, not as a substitute for disciplined thought. 

📚✨ Read more: https://zurl.co/GV6YY

We Gave Students Laptops and Took Away Their Brains Decades of data show a clear pattern: The more schools digitize, the worse students perform, writes Jared Cooney Horvath.

What do C.S. Lewis, fairy tales, and the medieval imagination have to teach us today?

Theologian, medievalist, musician, and storyteller Junius Johnson joins us to share how Lewis and the medievals shaped his vocation—and why recovering this vision matters for classical education now.

In this episode, we discuss:
📖 Falling in love with fantasy and theology through Lewis
📖 Why the modern world resists integration—and how the medievals held it together
📖 How the Humanitas Project forms students through primary sources

🎧 Watch the full conversation: https://zurl.co/sKcXW

The medieval mind | Junius Johnson Theologian, medievalist, musician, and storyteller Junius Johnson joins us to explore how Lewis, fairy tales, and the medieval imagination shaped his vocatio...

More than political documents, they are examples of serious public reasoning—careful arguments about human nature, liberty, power, and the conditions necessary for self-government. Written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the name “Publius,” the essays sought to persuade citizens through reasoned debate rather than slogans or outrage.

This review invites readers to revisit The Federalist Papers not simply as historical artifacts, but as part of an ongoing conversation about constitutional order, civic virtue, and the responsibilities of citizenship.

At a time when public discourse often rewards speed over reflection, returning to these essays reminds us that free societies depend upon citizens capable of thoughtful judgment.

📚 Read more:
https://zurl.co/ajw6P

Essay | The Federalist Papers - Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy As the United States approaches its semiquincentennial celebration, Americans would do well to examine how we talk and, indeed, how we think about our

What does it mean to rebuild a culture after decline?

In “Repairing the Ruins,” the author reflects on the work of recovering what modern education and society have too often neglected: wisdom, moral formation, reverence, and the pursuit of truth. Renewal rarely begins with grand programs. More often, it begins quietly—in schools, homes, classrooms, and communities willing to preserve and pass on what is good.

For classical educators, this work is deeply familiar. To teach well is not simply to prepare students for careers, but to initiate them into a civilizational inheritance worth loving and sustaining.

Even amid cultural fragmentation, there remains reason for hope: ruins can be repaired.

📚 Read more:
https://zurl.co/zkrut

✍️ In an age of screens and keyboards, handwriting is far from obsolete — in fact, it might be more essential than ever. This article argues that the physical act of writing by hand engages multiple senses, strengthens memory, and unlocks higher-level thinking. 
At Classical Commons, we believe this kind of foundational skill is central to classical education: forming minds, not just filling them.

🔗 https://zurl.co/AJQ50

The Power of Handwriting: Improved Reading, Thinking, Memory and Learning Educators' view: Far from being a relic of the past, writing by hand engages multiple senses at once and strengthens cognitive abilities.

What sustains an institution: branding—or conviction?

In “Small Colleges Must Prioritize Mission Over Marketing,” the author argues that colleges lose their way when they chase trends, enrollment strategies, or surface-level differentiation at the expense of a clear and coherent mission. Marketing may attract attention, but only a strong intellectual and moral vision can sustain a community over time.

For institutions committed to classical education, this is a familiar truth: clarity of purpose must come before strategy. When a school knows what it is for—the formation of students in truth, goodness, and beauty—its identity becomes not something manufactured, but something lived.

📚 Read more:
https://zurl.co/5DlQZ

Reviving the True Purpose of Small Colleges in Education Explore how small colleges can thrive by focusing on character formation over competitive branding in higher education.