Classical Education and the Rise of A.I.

Since the early days of the classical education renewal movement, one of the primary distinctives of a classical education has been strong academics. Through books like The Well-Trained Mind and Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning, classical educators have sounded a clarion call back to a tradition that offers a challenging yet rewarding academic program steeped in the liberal arts.

It should be no surprise that a message promoting academic rigor would gain traction. Public education in the United States has been the subject of criticism for decades. Despite varied efforts in education reform, there is a growing lack of confidence in the American school system to prepare students adequately to read and write with proficiency or analyze data with a solid foundation in math and science.

Economically, we inhabit what scholars call a knowledge economy, an ideal context for an approach to education that champions academics. In this evolutionary development of the marketplace, a person’s intellectual productivity becomes her chief value proposition. Whereas an agrarian economy is dependent on farming and the raising of animals, and an industrial economy is dependent on facilities and manufacturing, a knowledge economy is dependent on the growth and accessibility of information. A student trained as a master of knowledge, which includes the retention, analysis, and communication of information, will set herself apart in such an economy.

Or, at least, the student would have before artificial intelligence (A.I.) entered the scene. With the rise of generative A.I., like Chat GPT, it becomes an open question precisely how valuable a person’s intellect will remain. From writing poetry to solving calculus problems to composing literature essays, generative A.I. offers a compelling intellectual pathway for what was once thought to be a lane reserved for the human race alone. If robots can analyze complex literature, identify fallacious reasoning, craft persuasive arguments, and write eloquent speeches, why take the time to train students?

To answer the question, we must dig deep into anthropology, and remember that classical education is not at its core about academic rigor, but about the formation of a particular type of person. This person is not one of bare intellect, indiscernible from a robot, but of a virtuous, fully-integrated soul of mind, heart, and body. As we navigate this new era, it is this purpose and no other that will set classical education apart in the educational landscape, not to outsmart A.I., but to work alongside it and steward it wisely. 

Men and Women of Virtue 

What kind of person are we trying to form? How do we form such a person? 

If classical educators are going to offer something more than strong academics in the age of A.I., we need to have clear answers to these questions. Please do not misunderstand: high-quality academics will continue to be important, essential even, for an effective program. The key point I wish to make here is that academic rigor, though necessary to prepare the next generation, is no longer sufficient. We must provide more to separate our graduates from robots. We need to form more than bare intellects. We need to form men and women of virtue. 

Virtue can be defined in a variety of ways. Aristotle famously defined virtue as “a moral habit.” In classical Greek, the words for “virtue” and “excellence” were one and the same: arete (excellence). To be a virtuous human is to be an excellent one, fully aligned with her moral identity and purpose. 

Interestingly, St. Augustine, a Christian rhetorician very familiar with the works of Aristotle, redefines virtue as “the possession of rightly ordered loves.” For a person to be virtuous, he must love the right things in the right order, with God as the supreme object of our love. One’s prospects for growing virtuous are bound up with not only putting the right habits in place, but about training the affections. 

Finally, Christopher Perrin, a prolific leader in the classical education renewal movement, has offered a contemporary definition of virtue: becoming the fullest version of yourself. Following Aristotle, he connects virtue to excellence and explains that humans become virtuous in whatever areas they excel. In the educational formation of a person, the list of example virtues he shares includes perseverance, industry, industry, love, and humility.

In a knowledge economy fueled with A.I., human knowledge workers will remain in top demand, but only with a distinctive trait: knowledge workers of virtue. Robots may be able to instantaneously calculate how to maximize profits in a particular business decision, but they cannot tell you if it is morally right to do so. Chat GPT may be able to list the dangers of substance abuse, but it cannot lend you the moral strength to abstain from debauchery in the dark night of the soul. Generative A.I. may be able to predict the probable success of certain life choices, but it cannot offer compassion to a friend in need of grace.

Habits and Communal Practices 

In Desiring the Kingdom (Baker Academic, 2009),  philosopher James K.A. Smith argues, following St. Augustine, that humans are fundamentally creatures of desire. In other words, what we love orients and drives who we become, over and above anything else. Therefore, if education is about shaping persons, then it is going to be about shaping loves. 

Smith writes, “Education is not primarily a heady project concerned with providing information; rather education is more fundamentally, a matter of formation, a task of shaping and creating a certain kind of people…What makes them a distinctive kind of people is what they love and desire—what they envision as “the good life” or the ideal picture of human flourishing” (26).

So how do we shape men and women of virtue? Smith identifies two primary ways: individual habits and communal practices. In the diagram below, which I have reproduced from a diagram in the book (p. 48), we can make a few observations. 

First, there is the vision of the good life that each person holds. This is the particular state of affairs that each person consciously (and subconsciously) aspires to see and experience in a future state of the world. Small tastes of this future state, such as a home game win or a developing romantic relationship, bring joy and hope that we are on the right track. 

Second, there are the desires aimed at this future vision. The things we love and have our desires set on serve as the GPS coordinates for where we are going. For example, I love when my lawn is green, thick, and healthy. I experience joy when I come home from work and my lawn is nicely edged and free of weeds. This love is determining not only what I currently see in my lawn, but what I hope to see in the future. It is orienting my whole self, including my financial resources, towards this vision.

Third, there are the individual habits and communal practices that shape that which we love. The most effective way to begin loving something new is to make a habit connected to it and join a community who embody similar habits. Likewise, the most effective way to stop loving something is to eliminate habits and withdraw from communities that reinforce the object of our love that we want to move away from. 

If classical education is about forming people of virtue, and if this sort of education in formation is ultimately what will separate humans from artificial intelligence, then we need to take seriously what habits and communal practices are at work in our schools. 

Forming Virtue in Your School

Here are some diagnostic questions to consider:

Habits

• What is the first thing each student does when they enter your classroom?
• How do students approach their individual school work? With care and devotion or pragmatistic speed?
• What happens if you call on a student at random to answer a question?
• If a student needs help on an assignment, is his deskmate eager to help?
• Are students showing that they care about what they are learning, and are not simply learning it for an upcoming test?

Communal Practices

• What does your school community do together in large groups? How is this shaping school culture and affections?
• What kind of games are played at recess? Are these games reinforcing the sort of traits you want to form in your students?
• What role does leisure reading play in your school culture? How can you move beyond reading as an assignment to reading as a way of life? 
• How often do you sing together as a class or school? 
• What does service look like in your school culture? Does service only occur on pre-scheduled trips or is there an effort to integrate small acts of service in daily life?

Conclusion

As Andrew Kern from the Circe Institute writes, we have a single goal as classical educators, virtue, “for which other words might be blessedness, fulness, fruitfulness, wholeness, integrity, harmony, Christlikeness, and so on.” As we navigate the age of A.I. in a knowledge economy, classical educators must remain faithful to cultivating these traits in our students. My prediction is that A.I. will become more and more part of regular life, just as past technological innovations, such as the calculator and microwave, already have. The way forward is not the way of the Luddite–refusing to use technology at all–but rather training students to use it wisely, and being especially careful to not let it replace the assignments, activities, and experiences students must encounter themselves in order to grow as men and women of virtue.