The Historical Semantics of the Contemporary Classical Education Movement

Abstract

As contemporary classical education continues maturing as a pedagogical tradition, an institutional reality, and an academic tradition, the need has grown to clarify the nature of the project and to understand how it relates to the past. The classical education movement, which seeks to encourage human flourishing by studying and imitating the past, uses an unstable terminology to describe itself. Some speak of a “Renaissance,” others work toward what they call a “Renewal,” and still others conceive of the project in terms of a “Recovery.” In using these terms, contemporary educators and writers, knowingly or not, reenact historiographical debates about the nature of Western culture and embrace differing opinions about the meaning of the term “classical” and consequently, about what period or periods of the past are worthy of imitation. This article seeks to clarify the history of these terms, delineate how the process of cultural emulation works, and encourage classical educators to come to a deeper appreciation of the past as they chart a course for the future of their disciplines.