What is education? Fundamentally it is not the transference of knowledge, the development of skill sets or preparation for the next stage of schooling. Education is the formation of loves. Its primary task is to cultivate an ordo amoris, an ordering of love, that corresponds to reality and enables students to live lives of virtue. Drawing on thinkers from Plato and Augustine to Josef Pieper and C. S. Lewis, this seminar examines the cultivation of well-ordered loves as the central goal of education and questions how this conception of education should affect what we do in the classroom and how we measure “success.”
David Diener
Dr. David Diener holds a BA in Philosophy and Ancient Languages from Wheaton College as well as an MA in Philosophy, an MS in History and Philosophy of Education, and a dual PhD in Philosophy and Philosophy of Education from Indiana University. In addition to working as a high-end custom trim carpenter for an Amish company and living as a missionary for three years in Bogotá, Colombia, he has taught at The Stony Brook School and Taylor University and has served as Head of Upper Schools at Covenant Classical School in Fort Worth, TX, and Head of School at Grace Academy in Georgetown, TX. He currently works at Hillsdale College where he is the Headmaster of Hillsdale Academy and a Lecturing Professor of Education. He also is an Alcuin Fellow, serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Classical Learning and the Board of Academic Advisors for the Classic Learning Test, and offers consulting services through Classical Academic Press. He is the author of Plato: The Great Philosopher-Educator and serves as the series editor for Classical Academic Press’ series Giants in the History of Education. The Dieners have four wonderful children and are passionate about classical Christian education and the impact it can have on the church, our society, and the world.
