The Progressive Boogeymen in the Classical Closet

It seems in vogue today to label your enemies within the classical education movement as “Progressives,” Such a move stinks of feebleness and the contemporary polemics and fever brain of the most vacuous elements of the Right in American politics. It is a feeble move because it is a cheap attempt to brand one’s intellectual rival with the scarlet P in order to scare away those not invested. If I scream loud enough that Sayer’s is a progressive, then certainly some will hear me and trust that she is and rule her out because the progressives are after all the bad guys. It stinks of the worst intellectual laziness of the Right today because one can easily hear faint echoes of RINO, Squish, and Elite which are all used to signal that certain persons should not be listened to since they are not sufficiently indulging in populist rage.

But will you seriously tell me that Sayer’s and the classical education tradition influenced by her are progressive? Once I finish laughing, let me remind you that that tradition includes Doug Wilson, Memoria Press, and a legion of homeschoolers. Perhaps in some precise yet strained academic sense, they are progressive in comparison to English finishing schools, but by that definition so is everyone since Quintillion, and we are all Progressives now. I’ll let that font of wisdom the Incredibles offer commentary on such a situation: “If everyone is progressive, then no one is.”

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