How (Jewish) Classical Education Can Save America’s Youth

Christopher Nadon isn’t Jewish, but he decided to give up teaching at Claremont McKenna College for a chance to teach middle- and high-schoolers at Emet Classical Academy, a new Jewish school in New York City. In conversation with Greg McBrayer and Alex Priou, Nadon discusses what drew him to teaching at the institution, the crisis of the universities and the parallel crisis in secondary education, and what it takes to get today’s young people to read serious books seriously. He asserts that “having a serious religious background today is probably one of the best gateways to being open to reading classical texts,” and argues that currently Jerusalem and Athens form “a united front . . . against a lot of what ails modernity.” (Audio, 59 minutes.)