A left-wing university professor argues that “great books” education is not a conservative project but a deeply humane one. Drawing on Paulo Freire and classroom experience, the essay makes a case for classical education as a path to freedom, community, and the good life.
February 01, 2026
The Left Case for Great Books
In this episode of Forged, Chris Hall reflects on the formative power of the “common arts”—the ordinary skills and embodied practices that introduce us to the givenness of the world and manifest our humanity. Drawing on stories from the classroom and the farm, Hall argues that formation and education flourish when intellectual study is joined to hands-on craft, inviting students into apprenticeship, real responsibility, and attentiveness to the natural world. He also addresses the cultural divide between academic learning and vocational skill, urging a recovery of an older vision in which the liberal arts, practical arts, and fine arts enrich one another for the sake of a fully embodied, fully aware human life of discipline, delight, craft, and calling.
What does it mean to build a school and a life shaped by community, conviction, and daily rhythms of grace? In this episode, Madeleine Hewitt, Assistant Head of School at Claritas Classical Christian Academy, shares her journey through education, motherhood, and mentorship, and how each has shaped the other. She reflects on the challenges of idealism, the power of guiding principles, and the formative role of liturgy in everyday life. Madeleine closes by reading Gerard Manley Hopkins beautifully, capturing the wonder and weight of it all.
Poet, priest, and professor Malcolm Guite invites us into a conversation that moves from the Arthurian legend of the wounded king and ruined land to our own modern struggle to see the world as meaningful and alive. He shares how a childhood encounter with the Grail stories taught him that one reckless act can wound a whole world, and how healing begins with recovering wonder. Guite makes a compelling case for poetry and story as wisdom-bearers that help restore our vision. He closes with his radiant poem “O Sapientia,” a final invitation to recognize hidden wisdom “disguised as everything.”
