There’s a revolution underway in American education, and First Lady Melania Trump and the White House are leading the way.
They’re taking America’s dismal reading and education numbers head-on, as well as the challenge of getting our children ready for the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.
Melania Trump launched her “Foster the Future” summit on March 24, to highlight how AI can expand children’s opportunities as a learning tool rather than as a threat or a crutch.
Among the leading attendees was the CEO of Alpha Schools, MacKenzie Price. Alpha Schools is a private company establishing schools across the country, working to encourage children to see AI as their partner and guide in learning, as well as supporting the key “life skills” needed to live a full and productive life.
As fears grow that AI may be taking over our culture as well as our economy; and that our kids may not be equipped to deal with the challenges AI will pose; the White House needs to know it has a powerful ally in the educational movement that’s sweeping the country right now.
That movement embodies the reasoning and understanding future generations will need to protect themselves from manipulation and misinformation, as well as to prosper, in an AI-dominated world.
Called the Classical Education movement, it is being led by teachers, educators, parents and philosophers who are fed up with our schools becoming indoctrination factories for socialism. And unlike education advocates on the left, they are committed to advancing the interests of every child — rich and poor, and from every ethnicity and background — as well as the advancing the future of Western civilization itself.
WHY A CLASSICAL EDUCATION MAY BE THE KEY TO HUMANITY’S FUTURE IN THE AI ERA
Classical education is a content-rich approach to learning, emphasizing the development of wisdom and virtue through the study of the liberal arts, starting with grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and expanding to history and great literature.
This is the curriculum that has supported Western and Judeo-Christian civilization for thousands of years. Rather than a scatter-shot system of superficial electives or an overfocus on skills for job training or professional career preparation, Classical education rests on a bedrock of traditional academic subjects and the Great Books. It seeks to educate the whole child and cultivate an appetite for lifelong learning; build a deep respect for traditional principles of right and wrong; and teach the importance of citizenship and leadership.
Classical education upholds the saying of the Greek philosopher Epictetus, that “Only the educated are free.” It believes education must be about teaching children to appreciate the good, the true and the beautiful, and the best of what America and Western civilization has to offer.
SCHOOL CHOICE IS BOOMING AND FAMILIES ARE WINNING AS THE EDUCATION CARTEL CRUMBLES
There are currently over 1,500 classical education schools (public, private and charter) in the United States serving roughly 700,000 students as of 2024. And the movement is experiencing rapid growth, with over 250 new schools opening since 2020.
From early learners up to university students, this private initiative has filled the educational gap left by government schools and their teachers unions, where students are too often denied actual learning, and teachers use the classroom to advance their own political agenda.
Instead of indoctrinating our children with ideological and agenda-based material, classical education strives to teach the child how, as opposed to what, to think.
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If there are indeed any skills that can prepare younger generations for the future, and can supplement and support the most advanced classroom technologies, including the use of AI, they are the time-honored principles of classical education.
We know Alpha Schools is taking a revolutionary approach to the school day with accelerated learning with AI as a guide for looking more deeply into subjects of interest such as history and geometry. Then afternoons are dedicated to “life skills,” from riding a bike (for the youngest) to how to manage a bank account, and even how to start a business (for the oldest).
Reading, writing, and reasoning — the key ingredients in the classical education curriculum — are as essential to leading a strong and happy life, as financial investment or running an Airbnb. So why not include “life skills” such as learning the principles of grammar and rhetoric as generations of students have done? Why not study the timeless principles of Plato, Aristotle and our greatest Judeo-Christian thinkers, as well as great American writers such as Mark Twain, Stephen Crane and E.B. White, in the curriculum for getting our children ready to meet the technological world to come?
In short, classical education offers a major opportunity for Fostering the Future, and the rest of us, to see an AI-dominated world more optimistically — and to see America’s children as our greatest intellectual asset.
Beth Herman is a visiting fellow at Independent Women’s Education Freedom Center. She is a school docent at The National Gallery of Art and is completing her degree in Classical Education at the University of Dallas.
