One of our Daily Post readers recently sent me a link to a story by Joy Pullman, the executive editor of The Federalist. Ms. Pullman had written, a few days ago, about academic success at a charter school in Woodland Park, and my friend thought I would enjoy the article — knowing that I’m one of the founders of Pagosa Peak Open School, the only District-authorized charter school in Archuleta County, and that I have an abiding interest in politics…
The article was titled:
‘No Politics’ Classical School Opened By Conservative School Board Rocks Colorado Tests
A classical charter school that was preserved after Republican-backed candidates took over the local school board just posted the top state test scores in the district. Students at Merit Academy, a 3-year-old K-11 public school that opens its 12th grade in 2025, also posted the best scores among the four districts that families in the Woodland Park exurb of Colorado Springs can choose from, under open enrollment.
While test scores scratch the surface of student and school academic quality, these do help vindicate Teller County parents dissatisfied with extended school lockdowns, an increase in screen-based schooling, and creeping politicization of taxpayer-provided education…
You can read the full article here.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer board member at Pagosa Peak Open School, but this editorial reflects only my own personal opinions, and not necessarily the opinions of the PPOS board or staff.
Ms. Pullman is no stranger to politics, apparently, even if she refers to a “No Politics Classical School” in the title of her article. Her new book with Regnery is “False Flag: Why Queer Politics Mean the End of America.” She has testified before nearly two dozen legislatures on education policy and appeared on major media including Tucker Carlson, CNN, Fox News, OANN, NewsMax, Ben Shapiro, and Dennis Prager. She identifies as “native American” and “gender natural”.
To judge only by her photograph, I presume “native American” means she was born in the U.S. If she were Native American, I imagine she would, as a trained journalist, capitalize the “N” in “Native”.
He bio also mentions that she identifies as a “happy wife”, which I take to mean, she is married to a man.
We’re going to dig into what it actually means, in Colorado, to post the best test scores, “among the four districts that families in the Woodland Park exurb of Colorado Springs can choose from, under open enrollment.”
And we’re going to dig into what Ms. Pullman might mean by a “No Politics Classical School” when she writes about Merit Academy… because such a school might, in fact, be highly politicized.
Along the way, we’ll touch on the Colorado law that guides the creation of charter schools.
But first, let’s consider the meaning of a “Classical School”. Here are a few comments from an essay written for The Classical Academy in Indianapolis. (Although the essay is written in the First Person voice, the author is not identified.)
Whenever I share about my work or the school, nine times out of ten I hear the question, “What is classical education anyway?” For many people. they have visions of dark, cold, stone buildings with sullen children in pleated stuffy uniforms chanting things in Latin.
Some of that might be true… our students do wear uniforms (but we think they look adorable) and they do chant their Latin vocabulary, declensions and conjugations. But their education is far from dark, stone-like, or sullen…
How is a classical school different than a public school, traditional Christian school, or non-classical charter or private school?
In a nutshell:
Classical educational teaches students HOW to learn.
Traditional education teaches students WHAT to learn.
Many of the “Classical Schools” in the U.S. are also private Christian schools. The Classical Academy quoted above, for example, is accredited by The Association of Classical Christian Schools. But “charter schools” in Colorado are tuition-free public schools funded by the same tax revenues that fund traditional public schools, so a Colorado charter school — receiving public funds — cannot present itself as endorsing any particular religious belief. Presumably, this limitation applies to Merit Academy, the Colorado Springs charter school discussed by Joy Pullman.
So… what does it look like, practically, to teach students how to learn?
Apparently, in order to teach students how to learn, the founders of the Classical Education movement decided that modern thinkers, writers, scientists, and artists were not worth the time of day, and that a superior education would come from studying famous Greek and Roman teachers. On the Merit Academy website, this “No Politics Classical School” suggested a link to a YouTube video that explains “Classical Education”.
Here are the famous teachers to whom schools like Merit Academy are presumably looking, for ways to properly educate students:
That would be, from left:
Socrates (469-399 BC)
Plato (427-348 BC)
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
St. Augustine (354-430 AD)
Capella (400-475 AD)
Cassiodorus (485-555 AD)
These are the teachers who put the “Classical” in “Classical Education”. No wonder the teachers are giving instruction in Latin.
But Classical Education is not exclusively about teachers who lived 2,000 years ago. There are also more recent sources of wisdom to whom students can be exposed:
You might note some interesting characteristics about these two collections of teachers.
They are all white males. They all lived in Europe or in colonial America.
Apparently, nothing worth learning ever came from the mind of a woman… or from a person living in China, Japan, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Australia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Tanzania, Thailand, India…
Apparently, nothing that can be described as ‘wisdom’ ever came from the life and experience of a brown person.
To claim that “Classical Education” is non-political?
To claim that “Classical Education” teaches students how to learn? I suppose you could say that, if you believe that white males of European descent have the corner on wisdom.
Apparently, that’s Ms. Pullman’s belief? The “happy wife”?