G.K. Chesterton once wrote a famous essay in which he described being suddenly arrested by the beauty of the furrows plowed across bending hills during a walk through the English countryside. Quick to marvel at a paradox, he reflected on the one before him: straight lines, carved into the soil by farmers with dogmatic persistence, yielded into graceful sweeps and bows as they traced the contours of the land. “Rigidity yielding a little, like justice swayed by mercy, is the whole beauty of the earth. The cosmos is a diagram just bent beautifully out of shape. Everything tries to be straight; and everything just fortunately fails.”
This image is the heart of Furrows, the new podcast series on Schooling America launched by Arcadia Education’s Director of Search Operations and Partnerships, Ryan Klopack, in collaboration with CLT’s Director of Classical Baccalaureate, Alex Julian. As longtime colleagues and co-leaders in classical education, they became convinced that the best part of working in these schools was not merely the philosophy or pedagogical techniques, but the stories of transformation they encountered at the hand of the plow in both students and colleagues alike. Virtue, truth, goodness, and beauty are all well and good, but classical education is, at best, the pursuit of pious abstractions unless those pursuing them are themselves formed by these ideals. The word must become flesh.
Ryan and Alex are joined by Associate Vice President for Hillsdale K–12, Katy O’Toole; SCL CFO Matt Skinner; University of Dallas Vice President of Enrollment Andrew Ellison; Iliad Athletics founder Patrick Whalen; and many others. Whether arguing with atheists in a post-communist spiritual wasteland, converting from Hinduism to Christianity, or encountering the divine in the midst of combat, the pursuit of truth leads to endlessly surprising stories.
However, it also stories like these: CLICK HERE
Be sure to subscribe and follow Arcadia Education and catch the latest episodes of the Furrows at the links below:
Arcadia Education YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@arcadiaeducation215/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=2
Furrows on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3RJEEn9bnpFYDNCcMijct1
Furrows on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/schooling-america/id1717554058