Students at Charleston’s American College of the Building Arts are finding hope for a stable future in mastering crafts like blacksmithing and architectural carpentry.
September 04, 2026
Inside the Unconventional College That Blends Classical Building Trades With Liberal Arts Education
Dwell • Anjulie Rao
At a moment when higher education is scrambling to prove its relevance, a Charleston college is betting on patience, mastery, and work made to last. By joining liberal arts study with blacksmithing, stone carving, timber framing, and other classical building trades, it offers a hopeful picture of education that forms the mind while training the hands to build something beautiful and enduring.
Dwell
What if mathematics is not merely a tool for solving problems, but a way of encountering reality? In this episode of Forged, Brian Williams talks with mathematician and educator Jake Tawney about the beauty of number and shape, why wonder belongs at the heart of education, and what we risk losing when technology begins doing our thinking for us. From Euclid and fractals to calculators and artificial intelligence, Jake makes the case that education should begin with real things worth knowing and loving. Their conversation ultimately turns toward a larger question: What habits, practices, and encounters help us become more fully human? Jake and Brian explore why mathematics has so often been reduced to computation, how teachers can invite students into genuine wonder, and why AI raises deeper questions than efficiency alone. Jake also reflects on the practices that have shaped his own life as a husband and father, including prayer, cooking, wine, reading aloud, and the conviction that our first calling is to give ourselves for the good of others. Books & Resources Mentioned Another Sort of Mathematics: Selected Proofs Necessary to Acquire a True Education in Mathematics by Jake Tawney Euclid’s Elements A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World), especially paragraphs 22 and 24
After nearly 20 years of homeschooling, this mother is honest about both the work and the gift of educating her children at home.
_Z1ThKSD.png)
Classical Christian education in Africa is not a cultural import or a luxury reserved for the materially secure. It is a humane education that equips students to think, speak, serve, and flourish within their own communities.