The question immediately arises: If I educate according to the principles of true classical education will that look anything like what currently passes for education? If I choose to prepare my children for life, can I afford to ignore current preparation standards for college?

My heart tells me that I must break free of societal norms in order to achieve a truly classical education. My current position is to do what I want to do with my children and when the time comes learn how to translate that into educationese if the child desires to attend college. I do not feel our current home education will keep them from learning in college but I must be able to communicate that to colleges.

In visiting Bryan College this weekend, the financial aid officer suggested that the boys take 3 SATs and 3 ACTs for financial aid purposes. This immediately made me think that my best bet for college financial aid was to make high school a time of test preparation. And so on the wings of the Circe conference I am escorted back down to these troublous times.

And then I read in Jayber Crow:

“The school had eight grades. If it had taught the grades all the way through high school, maybe it wouldn’t have interested me so much. The future presses hard upon a high school, and somehow qualifies and diminishes it.”

Don’t we all feel it?