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Do you know why classics is "not in growth mode"? Because, in any university there are going to be only about 70 students studying classics. That is it. And, that number has remained the same at almost any time in history since the 1700s.

I suspect that what it really boils down to is this: only a small percentage of any population is intellectually capable of this sort of study. The vast majority of people want jobs that involve a skill (one that doesn't require deep thought) and make money. For entertainment, they want games, sex, and stimulants. That's why they were always called "the masses."

OK, but solutions must address this first: please separate general education from special education.

We should ask ourselves, what kind of liberal arts education (general education) is beneficial to the vast majority of people? Whatever the answer to that, it all belongs in K-12.

In order to truly appreciate the classics there must be an introduction to it. Some homeschooling parents are dipping into it because they understand its excellence. And some are using the Code of Education that came out of the School of Salamanca which was the education blueprint for almost every school in Europe throughout the 1600s. That Code taught children how to think. Something woefully missing today.

I went to a classics college which gave me a modified version of what our Founders had. I was taught to appreciate Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Cicero, etc.

Kids have enough smarts to learn the classics, they are just not being introduced to it, for the same reasons the professor was so rudely treated at the conference.

One of the reasons seemingly so few take up the classics is because not everyone plans a life of diligent research in classical philosophy.

Our Founders were trained to understand the human person by way of virtue and vice. That is moral philosophy. They got that training because at the time it was important for the colonies to train for good preachers and good judges. Both of those professions required that they understand the human soul so they could guide it or judge it.

My daughter got a minor in classics at Hillsdale. She was introduced to it throughout her schooling and she took a lot of Latin.

The problem seems worse than that if professors in Classics departments don’t want Latin and Greek taught.

I think it’s easier to just say “Gildersleeve was a racist” then not have to actually learn Latin and Greek. Now, how these people got to be professors in the first place is beyond me.