Classical Education

About the Guest Joshua Herring is the Curriculum Program Manager for the Rafiki Foundation, Director of the Logres Institute for Classical Liberal Studies , and author of Sons of Adam, Daughters of Eve: C.S. Lewis’s Images of Gender . He has taught 6-12th grade humanities, spend three years in high school administration, and built classical education programs at the college level. He loves helping...

About the Guest Autumn Kern is the host of The Commonplace , a place to help new homeschooling moms get their bearings in the classical, Charlotte Mason world. She explores the Classical Tradition on her podcast , releases practical philosophy videos on YouTube , offers ongoing education for mother-teachers in Common House , and, more recently, leads directed programmes of study under Mother Acade...

About the Guest Mandi Gerth is a teacher and classical education consultant who lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three of their five children. She currently serves as the Administrative Director of the Cowan Center at the University of Dallas. She holds a master of humanities degree from that institution with a concentration in classical education. Her first book, Thoroughness & Ch...

About the Guest Dr. Keith Buhler is an entrepreneur, philosopher, and teacher. He co-founded the Saint Andrew Academy in Riverside CA, where he serves at Director of Advancement. When he is not teaching Great Books at Azusa Pacific University Honors College, he coaches other start-ups and serves in the west coast Alcuin Fellowship.  His writings include Into the Light (a chapter on education); Vir...

About the Guests MELODY FOWLER: Roots Farm Education Founder, Director, Form III Instructor Ages 10-12 Melody is a happy wife of 28 years, a proud mother of three and now an over-the-moon grandma of four grandchildren. She was born in El Paso, Texas, and moved to Redding when she was five years old. She loved learning as a child and her favorite pastime was to play school in her garage with younge...

About the Guest Charlene Thompson is a first grade teacher in her fourth year at Founders Classical Academy in Rogers, Arkansas. She holds a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from Harding University and is a passionate learner of classical education. She believes in cultivating wisdom and virtue through rich literature, narration, and the development of lifelong habits of attention and exp...

About the Guest Dr. John Ahern holds a PhD from Princeton University in historical musicology. He currently teaches at The Wilberforce School as an Upper School Humanities and Latin instructor. He is also faculty at the Theopolis Institute and directs their Te Deum Fellows Program in Liturgical Music. His writings on a variety of topics have appeared in First Things , Ad Fontes , The Lamp , Mere O...

Dr. Erik Ellis is Assistant Professor of Classical Education at the University of Dallas. After graduating from the University Scholars Program at Baylor University with concentrations in Greek and Latin, Dr. Ellis received an MA in History from the same institution and served as a middle school and high school Latin teacher for five years in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Along with Latin, Dr. Ellis was privil...

About the Guest: Dr. Fred Putnam Fred Putnam retired after forty years of teaching high school, college, and graduate school; for twelve of those years he was Professor of Bible & Liberal Studies in the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University (2012-2024), where he helped to design, and taught in, the program leading to the MA in Teaching [MAT] in classical education.  Beginning as a sem...

About the Guest Jonathan Pageau is a French Canadian liturgical artist, icon carver, writer, and public speaker. With a YouTube following of 191K, he has become a sought out interpreter of the deep patterns in stories. His podcast entitled The Symbolic World features, in both English and French, Jonathan's interpretations and conversations with other artists, thinkers and culture champions who are...

About the Guest Kolby Atchison serves as the head of school at Clapham School, a classical Christian school in Wheaton, Illinois, that implements the educational philosophy of Charlotte Mason. He is a founding director of Educational Renaissance where he speaks, writes, and podcasts on classical Christian education, Charlotte Mason, and modern research. He lives with his wife and three children in...

About The Guests Karen Glass is part of the Advisory of AmblesideOnline . She has four children, ages 13 to 27, who have been homeschooled using Charlotte Mason’s methods from beginning to end.  Karen has been studying and writing about Charlotte Mason and Classical Education for over twenty years and has written the popular books Consider This: Charlotte Mason and The Classical Tradition ,  Know...

Guests  Dr. Louis Markos: Houston Christian University :  Professor of English Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Patrick Egan: Clapham Christian Classical School Academic Dean Contributor of Educational Renaissance  Jason Barney: Coram Deo Academy in Carmel, IN School Principal Author of Charlotte Mason: A Liberal Education for All (published by CAP ) Contributor of Educat...

Guests Dr. Matthew Post:  Founder and Former Director of the Classical Education Graduate program at The University of Dallas; Served with The National Classical Education Symposium, The Institute for Classical Education, and The National Council for Classical Educators; Currently serves as Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Honors College at The University of Tulsa Dr. Laura Eidt: University of...

About our Guest Kiernan Fiore has worked as a teacher, administrator, trainer, and curriculum developer since 2011. Kiernan was classically home educated using a Charlotte Mason methodology, and her own educational experience is the inspiration for her work. She holds a BA in English from Hillsdale College and an MA in Shakespeare Studies from King’s College London and is certified in 4-8th Grade...

About our Guest Chris earned a BA in Philosophy from Gettysburg College and an MAT in Elementary Education from Towson University.  He has been a classroom educator and administrator for 29 years, having served in public, independent, and classical schools.  His is an author, speaker, and consultant in classical education, as well as an online and in-person teacher, coach, and tutor. Along with hi...

About our Guest Andrew J. Zwerneman serves as Cana Academy’s President and as one of their MasterTeachers. For 40 years, he has taught and consulted in secondary schools that emphasize classic humanities. For 19 years he headed schools—2 at the public charter school, Tempe Preparatory Academy in Tempe, Arizona, 17 at Trinity School at Meadow View in Falls Church, Virginia. He is the founder and ow...

About The Guest Anna-Marie Carter is an enthusiastic classical education convert. After years of disillusionment under the philosophy of progressive education, she had about given up teaching altogether. Her hope in education was saved by a call to teach music at Founders Classical Academy of Mesquite where she made lifelong friends and fell in love with the craft. She continues this love by shari...

About The Guest Mariah Martinez has worked in education since 2015 as a teacher, curriculum developer, and mentor teacher. Mariah attended the Honors College at Houston Baptist University where she received a B.A., double majoring in Philosophy and English. In 2021, she received a Master of Humanities  in classical education from the University of Dallas. She is certified as a 7-12 ELAR instructor...

About The Guest David V. Hicks retired in 2015 as Chief Academic Officer for Meritas LLC, a company based in Chicago that owned and operated K-12 college preparatory schools worldwide.  The day after his retirement, Meritas was sold to Nord Anglia Education.     Before joining Meritas, Hicks spent thirty years in independent education, heading St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Jackson, Mississippi;...

This podcast is produced by Beautiful Teaching, LLC.  Our team provides immersion courses, seminar led book studies, and comprehensive support for parents & K-12 classical educators. This episode was sponsored by Classic Learning Test (CLT), Beautiful Feet Books , and Eighth Day Books ! Conference attendees have a chance to win gift certificates from these sponsors as well as our other confere...

About The Guest Bryan Smith has been in education for over thirty years, primarily in schools with a liberal arts or classical education philosophy. His own education at the University of Dallas was a solid classical liberal arts formation in great texts, classical Greek, and rhetorical practice. Bryan has worked in private schools for most of his career, but for a decade he worked with Great Hear...

About The Guests ACCESS LITERACY TEAM Dorothy Kardatzke I live with my husband in Columbus, Ohio. I taught for more than 25 years in both general education classrooms and in classrooms for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Since 1997, when I was first trained in the English code, all my literacy instruction has been delivered using programs that are Orton-based. I left the classroom in 2018 to create...

Guests Rhonda Bedee is an instructor endorsed by SWR author Wanda Sanseri for Spell to Write and Read seminars. My specialty is finding solutions for individual spelling needs via spelling coaching, Mom & Dad encouragement, accountability, and assessments. Experience comes from four decades of home education, public schools, private classical academies, homeschool co-ops, tutoring, English lan...

Guests Michael Fitzgerald (Principal) Michael is an experienced educator with an M.S. in Brain-Based Education. After a decade teaching in a variety of school models, he is using his knowledge of classical education to lead Northern Schoolhouse , all while pursuing his doctorate in education. A dabbler in logic, philosophy, hiking, archery, chess, music, and handiwork, he brings his deep interest...