This year, we invited members of the Twin Peaks community to come in and learn more about what makes Classical Education different with Behind the Classical Curtain! Once a month, we would host conversations around various topics around the ideas that inform and inspire us at Twin Peaks Classical Academy.
As is often the case in classical corners, we started with discussions of Plato’s allegory of the cave. The allegory comes from Book VII of Plato’s Republic, and is an important metaphor for how we pursue Truth. (If you have a few minutes, I encourage you to check it out. Here’s a link!)
We also spent some time talking about Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and how it pertains to education. To Aristotle, the highest goal humans can pursue is happiness because it is the only thing pursued for its own sake. There are many different ways that people try to achieve it (wealth, power, tacos), but Aristotle argues that virtue is the only true path to happiness. These are important things for educators to contemplate as they guide their students to pursue Goodness.
We discussed the history of the liberal arts. We talked about how the idea of liberal arts education developed over time. The three arts of the Trivium (Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric) and the four arts of the Quadrivium (Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music) form the mind for free living. The liberal arts enable us to find Beauty in the world around us.
We plan to continue these great discussions next school year! Please be on the lookout for more information about the return of Behind the Classical Curtain next Fall. You may contact Max Kleber (kleber_maxwell@svvsd.org) with any questions or requests for future conversation topics.