As a foundation for building and establishing an international network of like-minded conservative educators, actors, and thinkers, the Learning Institute, in conjunction with MCC Brussels, has written The Declaration on the Classical Approach to Education. This declaration serves as a starting point for our project and outlines the key values, principles, and ideas that ground our vision.
We, the undersigned, in recognition of the renewed crisis facing education systems across the Western world, seek to renew education by returning to its classical roots.
Classical education is a rigorous system of education that is content-heavy and based on an appreciation of the best of human culture from Socrates to David Hume and Shakespeare to Goethe. This classical approach has been followed by generations of people, from Ancient Rome right through the rise of industrial society and beyond.
The knowledge-based curriculum assumes that a child needs to know the facts about their world before they can develop their critical faculties. Classical education trains children in the foundations of human knowledge and understanding so that, as they grow and mature, they can develop their ability to observe, analyse and question, compare their understanding with others, and engage in dialogue and debate.
We declare
Lead Authors of the Declaration
Frank Füredi, Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Brussels, Executive Director
János Setényi, Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Learning Institute, Director
Jacob Reynolds, Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Brussels, Head of Policy
Richárd Fodor, Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Learning Institute, Research Project Leader
Signatories of the Declaration
Jean-Paul Brighelli, Professor of French Littérature, Marseilles
Antonio Fernández-Cano, Retired chairman, University of Granada, Spain
Tim Crowley, University College Dublin, School of Philosophy, Professor
Angela Gandra, Director of institutional and International Relationships of In Search for the Truth, President of the Institute ives Gandra of Law, Philosophy and Economics
Thibaud Gibelin, Essayist, doctoral student in political science, visiting fellow at MCC
Dennis Hayes, University of Derby, Emeritus Professor of Education
Inger Enkvist, Lund University, professor emerita
Till Kinzel, Technische Universität Berlin, professor
Penny Lewis, University of Dundee, Lecturer in Architecture, Editor for Scottish Union for
Education.
Filip Ludwin, Collegium Intermarium University, Vice-Rector for Education, Dean of the Faculty of Law
Martin Luteran, Kolegium Antona Neuwirtha, Rector Ruth Mieschbuehler, University of Derby, Senior Lecturer in Education Studies
Szabolcs Nagypál, Head of Mathias Corvinus Collegium Law School
Joe Nutt, Author, and Freelance International Educational Consultant
Cornelis J. Schilt, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Professor
Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert, Educator and co-editor and contributing author of 'What Should Schools Teach? Disciplines, subjects and the pursuit of Truth.'
Nicholas Tate, Author of "Conservative Case for Education: Against the Current"