Tea at Trianon: Real Classical Education

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Real Classical Education

From American Mind:

In 1991, Pastor Wilson published Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning: An Approach to Distinctively Christian Education. This book remains the blueprint for Christian Classical Education across America. Its title was inspired by “The Lost Tools of Learning,” a 1947 lecture by Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957). Outside Pastor Wilson’s movement, Sayers is mostly known, if at all, as the author of some moderately entertaining detective stories. Her translations of Dante for Penguin Classics are still in print, but so dated as to seem older than the medieval original.

“The Lost Tools of Learning” is the sort of text that one stumbles across randomly in secondhand bookshops, usually after it has been deaccessioned by a university library on account of a conspicuous lack of scholarly interest. It was first presented as a lecture for a summer school in Oxford, and later published as a pamphlet. No doubt Sayers herself quickly forgot about it. She seems to have written it in a hurry: 20 minutes of material is stretched to an hour’s length. Perhaps this is why schoolteachers love it so much.

Educated English people tend to dismiss Sayers’ work, on the rare occasions they condescend to notice it. They also scoff at the Christian Classical Education movement and sneer at the Americans who take part in it. People like Pastor Wilson must seem barbarians to them. But are the English themselves really so civilized these days? (Read more.)

There are many Pied-Pipers now! From AND Magazine:

Teachers' actions nationwide are part of a broader effort under the umbrella of the Sunrise Movement. Sunrise is funded by the usual collection of radical billionaires, including George Soros, and radical dark money entities like Arabella. It began with a focus on environmental issues, but by this point, it is dedicated to virtually every radical proposition you could name, with a particular emphasis on radicalizing students and organizing in schools.
In January and February 2026, National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle participated in a virtual event series hosted by the Sunrise Movement titled "Roadmap to Political Revolution." The event description read: “It’s time we dream — and organize — at the scale that Trump and billionaires are creating nightmares. 2026 is the year we break it all open…We need mass disruption to stop authoritarian consolidation.”
The Sunrise moderator of the event described Sunrise as having a “deep partnership” with the NEA when introducing Pringle to webinar participants. During the event, Pringle characterized the current administration under Donald Trump as a “dictatorship” and “nightmare,” calling for a “big and non-cooperative” movement leading toward mass student strikes on May Day (May 1, 2026). (Read more.)