Author: Kolby Atchison

The Human Brain and the Liberal Arts

For some Christians, brain science and talk of “caring for your brain” can be uncomfortable. It smacks of a physicalist conception of reality in which all we are is our physical bodies. As Christians, we believe in the reality of the soul and a transcendent immaterial world. To focus myopically on the brain may cause us to lose sight of the spiritual aspect of what it means to be human and the hope we have for eternal life. Moreover, some Christians fear, utilizing brain science to boost cognitive performance through strengthening the brain sounds like a mad scientist’s version of

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Liberal Arts and the Transmission of Culture

In classical circles, we speak often about the importance of the liberal arts, over and against mere career-readiness skills, but we do not always elaborate. The reality is that career-readiness skills–skills like analyzing data, applying information technology, preparing for an interview, and completing tasks efficiently–are immensely helpful. The problem is not their usefulness, but their limitations. Career-readiness skills fail to lead students outside the realm of function and into the world of value and meaning. What our world needs today more than anything is not faster internet or a new task-management system, but better stories injected with purpose. Telling better

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Cultivating the Discipline of Study

Our world is restless, this much is clear. As I have observed in previous blogs, the speed of the modern world is only accelerating as new technologies allow people to access whatever they seek at unprecedented rates. Surfing the web, in particular, has never been easier, and with it, the vulnerability to succumb to the siren’s song of amusement. Amusement is a passive state of entertainment. At its core, it is a form of distraction. People seek amusement when they are bored, when they seek to delay or avoid more difficult tasks, or when they have simply grown habituated to

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Insights on Education from the Life of John Adams

This past month I have been reading David McCullough’s biography on John Adams. Adams, as you may recall, was a key leader amongst the colonies throughout their concerted effort to gain independence from British rule. He experienced first hand the benefits of life in the British Empire as well as the eventual challenges. Adams would play a key role in the earliest meetings of the Continental Congress, debating loyalists, those desiring to stay loyal to King George III. Later on, John Adams would participate in the early governmental efforts of the colonies, serving as the first Vice-President and second President

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6 Tips for Teaching Classically

This past fall, I announced the launch of my free eBook “The Craft of Teaching: ‘Teach Like a Champion’ for Classical Educators.” I am now excited to share that this summer I will be presenting a workshop on the same topic at the Society for Classical Learning‘s Annual Conference (you can access the full schedule here). I look forward to gathering with fellow classical educators across the country to mentor and inspire one another as we seek to follow in the footsteps of the great philosophers of education. In this short blog, I want to share six tips for teachers

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Rest for the Weary: On Cultivating the Intellectual Life

As the pace of our modern world grows busier and busier, spurred on by the services of smartphones and laptops, people need somewhere to turn for relief. Our glowing rectangles promise us conveniences such as efficiency and a life of ease, but for what purpose? More efficiency, more ease. It’s a never-ending cycle. Technology frees us up to consume…more technology.  In order to escape the technological addiction that has mystified the 21st century, it is not enough to take smartphones, laptops, and video streaming services away. They must be replaced with something better. Something deeper. Something more satisfying. In this

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Life in Plato’s Republic, Part 2: Building the Just City

“Don’t you know that the beginning is the most important place of every work and that this is especially so with anything young and tender? For at that stage it’s most plastic, and each thing assimilates itself to the model whose stamp anyone wishes to give it.” Plato, Republic, Book II Welcome back to my series on Plato’s Republic! As I shared in my first article, I’m producing this series for two reasons. First, I want to make Plato more accessible to everyone. Part of preserving the western intellectual tradition, or at least, not losing it, entails cracking open the

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Life in Plato’s Republic, Part 1: Is Justice Worth it?

“Whether we like it or not, whether we know it or not, we are all more or less Platonists. Even if we reject Plato’s conclusions, our views are shaped by the way in which he stated his problems.”1  In today’s article, I begin a new series on Plato’s Republic. I’ve been wanting to start this project for some time now for two reasons.  First, I want to make Plato more accessible for everyone. The philosopher is a seminal figure in the history of ideas. Without his writings, it is difficult to know where western civilization would be today. In particular,

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Christian Education and the Calling of the Church

Every Christian family has to make the difficult decision at some point where to send their children for school.  With the widespread availability of public education over the last hundred years, the conventional option for some time now has been public schooling. Here the cost for admission is free and the overall education they receive is, generally speaking, adequate. However, more recently, some parents have developed concerns about this option as secular and progressive principles have increased prominently within state legislation. For example, the Illinois State Board of Education recently passed rules requiring teachers to align their lessons with “culturally

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Educating for Resilience in a Coddling Culture

In The Coddling of the American Mind (Random House, 2018), authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt make a forceful critique of the way Americans today go about raising and educating their children. Their point isn’t complicated: parents and teachers, in general, overprotect children from the challenges and rigor of everyday life. As a result of such coddling, the majority of youth today are soft and fragile students, easily perturbed, anxious, and intimidated. The key to raising strong, independent young people, the authors argue, is not to shield boys and girls from these challenges, but instead to allow for situations in

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