To Embrace Classical Texts or to Decolonize: A Third Way Conversation with Dr. Anika Prather

What should kids be reading in school? A movement has swept through K-12 classrooms to cancel classic texts and replace them with more racially diverse voices. Yet the very authors these activists are seeking to eliminate from school curricula influenced prominent African-American thinkers like Martin Luther King Jr. and James Baldwin. In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Dr. Anika Prather, professor in the Classics department at Howard University and founder of The Living Water School. To “decolonize” the curriculum, eliminating works by Shakespeare and Socrates, explained Dr. Prather, is to create holes in our understanding of black authors and the interconnected history of people today. While these educators might mean well, their decision to stop reading the classics in the name of social justice will only prevent our children from forming a broader worldview. For a better understanding of how to teach the classics, educators should draw inspiration from Dr. Prather’s own classically inspired school based on the Sudbury model. Resources:• Living in the Constellation of the Canon: The Lived Experiences of African-American Students Reading Great Books Literature | Dr. Anika Prather• The Living Water School: A Classically Inspired School for Independent Learners in a Global CommunityShow Notes: • 1:45 | Background of the fight over literature education• 3:10 | Using literature to understand the Civil Rights Movement• 5:20 | Accessibility in Literature Education• 7:20 | The Harlem Renaissance and Classical Education• 9:30 | Decolonization Literary Movement• 13:20 | Background of the Living Waters School • 20:25 | Recommended Reading• 24:30 | Responding to Pushback • 29:15 | Chinua Achebe and the classics