National Symposium for Classical Education – Early Bird Discount Has Been Extended

3 days, 70+ speakers, 80+ lectures, seminars, and workshops
Phoenix Convention Center
February 22–24, 2023

The Great Hearts Institute will be hosting The National Symposium for Classical Education at the Phoenix Convention Center on February 22-24, 2023. This symposium serves as the Institute’s annual flagship event. This one-of-a-kind event offers the biggest and brightest of classical education you’ll find with over 70 speakers and over 80 lectures, workshops, and seminars. It is designed to enrich our understanding of the classical, liberal arts in both the theoretical and practical dimensions of curriculum and pedagogy. Beginning with curated presentations from select scholars and practitioners, we provide school leaders and master teachers with some of the best thought on the subjects under consideration.

The Early Bird Discount has been extended. Click here to secure your seat!

The theme this year is The Tradition Today and the focus will be on tradition as a way of knowing. Tradition, or the handing down of knowledge, is something that classical education does exceptionally well. Our goal this year is to communicate to every participant the fundamental value of tradition as it informs the classical liberal arts model of education. With thoughtful attention to notions of Western civilization, culture, classical, and tradition, we will deepen our understanding of “the Great Tradition.”

Plenary speakers include poet and writer, Dana Gioia, who was recently interviewed on the VIRTUE Podcast; Headmistress and Co-Founder of Michaela Community School in Wembley, London and Chair of Social Mobility Commission, Katharine Birbalsingh, who was also featured on the VIRTUE Podcast; Great Hearts own co-founder and Chief Academies Officer, Daniel Scoggin; and co-founder of The Hope Institute, Liz Huntley. The vast topics include poetry, math and science, leadership, storytelling, drama, and culture.  There is something for everyone at the diverse workshops, panels, and discussions.

Nick Hutchison was a valued contributor to the National Symposium for Classical Education this past year, and we are very pleased to announce that he will be returning in 2023. Hutchinson recently reflected on his first experience at symposium with VIRTUE Magazine in an article he wrote for the Fall 2022 issue (Volume 13), Thoughts from a Symposium Rookie. “Flying into Phoenix for the 2022 National Symposium for Classical Education, I feared that I would be out of my depth: a practical theatrical director amongst erudition and scholarship, unsure what I had to contribute… I should not have been worried. From the electrifying first keynote by Frederick Turner, I knew this was a forum for precision, for a forensic approach to these mighty topics, and for a discussion of craft.”

Hutchinson added, “Shakespeare, in his grammar school on Chapel Lane, had the benefit of a traditional classical education. He used that education to inform every line he wrote, and found that rightness in every one of them. From 16th-century Stratford-on-Avon to twenty-first century Phoenix, Arizona, the line of beauty is tangible, and the thread unbroken. It is in the love of creation, the precision of craft, that beauty lives, and the scores of teachers and students in that vast hall were all there to delight in it.”

Registration is now open. For more information, visit www.classicaleducationsymposium.org. Time is running out to take advantage of the Early Bird Rate with a savings of $50 off the regular registration price.  The deadline for this discount has been extended to Friday, January 13. Do not delay any further and register here today!

Do you have a story or know of a story that you would like to see featured at Great Hearts?  Please contact jmoore@greatheartsamerica.org.