Joanna Williams is a British author and public intellectual. She began her career teaching high school English prior to an academic career that included directorship of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education. We reached out to speak with Joanna about her recent essay, “How progressive education paves the way for the politicisation of schooling”, which reflects work on her upcoming book We Don’t Need No Indoctrination. Her essay succinctly contrasts forward-looking progressive education with classical approaches to the intergenerational transmission of Western civilization.
1:48 Joanna’s background and rising concerns about educational politicization
5:00 The origins of progressive ‘child-centred’ education
8:35 What is classical education?
10:56 How do we decide what’s important to teach?
16:20 Is classical education more effective than progressive?
19:55 The Western canon helps us understand modern literature.
25:45 Top-down propagation of UNESCO priorities and ‘global citizenship’
35:32 Gaslighting about history and ‘child-centered’ education
43:54 Future-focused progressivism leads to screentime and busywork
52:28 Students lose when we try to prepare them for an unknowable future
