If folks don’t know, in the charter school world, “Classical Academies” are often code for right wing indoctrination. The idea is that if you just focus on the “classics” of western education and their direct descendants, then HEY NOW! Suddenly Rudyard Kipling is your best insight into Indian literature, and Joseph Conrad into African. The American founding fathers were totally into Roman republicanism! The King James Bible is literally poetry! What is a Chinua Achebe anyway?!?!?!?!?!?
It’s an inherently conservative idea that a viable totality of useful knowledge is contained within books that are all part of the western canon circa 1937, so even if a few schools engage in it in good faith, a watered down version offered at the primary and secondary levels is just catnip for those who want to engage in a little brain washing at the public expense.
Edit: This MCA is likely a little less explicitly creepy than some, but it’s an E.D. Hirsch “Core Knowledge Foundation” school that is designed to hammer home a certain set of facts and cultural touchstones, rather than worrying about the emotional well being or broad-based thinking skills that a good modern curriculum will include. It’s basically the old story of “old person sees kids don’t know everything he was taught, lashes out at schools,” if it were from a curmudgeonly English professor. It almost certainly draws the same type of parents and administrators that other Classical Academies do.
If folks don’t know, in the charter school world, “Classical Academies” are often code for right wing indoctrination. The idea is that if you just focus on the “classics” of western education and their direct descendants, then HEY NOW! Suddenly Rudyard Kipling is your best insight into Indian literature, and Joseph Conrad into African. The American founding fathers were totally into Roman republicanism! The King James Bible is literally poetry! What is a Chinua Achebe anyway?!?!?!?!?!?
It’s an inherently conservative idea that a viable totality of useful knowledge is contained within books that are all part of the western canon circa 1937, so even if a few schools engage in it in good faith, a watered down version offered at the primary and secondary levels is just catnip for those who want to engage in a little brain washing at the public expense.
Edit: This MCA is likely a little less explicitly creepy than some, but it’s an E.D. Hirsch “Core Knowledge Foundation” school that is designed to hammer home a certain set of facts and cultural touchstones, rather than worrying about the emotional well being or broad-based thinking skills that a good modern curriculum will include. It’s basically the old story of “old person sees kids don’t know everything he was taught, lashes out at schools,” if it were from a curmudgeonly English professor. It almost certainly draws the same type of parents and administrators that other Classical Academies do.