00:00:00.000there's a lot of people that they do live an unexamined life in a way and even highly educated
00:00:07.680people run the risk of kind of falling into a routine that doesn't force them to contend
00:00:14.940with ideas outside of the things that they really know well uh we've kind of chatted about this on
00:00:20.860the channel before if you you do have hyper specialization through our education system in
00:00:26.820way that you get people maybe you'll get a kidney doctor who's really great but outside of that
00:00:33.780they're not looking at these systems so you get people siloed in both their education but also
00:00:40.100siloed in in these kind of groups these bubbles through the online world which we are it's hard
00:00:47.700not to fall into these kind of algorithmic bubbles but it takes a lot of intention to be aware of the
00:00:53.620bubbles that you're in and to step outside of them so i i do see a need to stress test ideas
00:01:00.340in a guided setting to examine them but also like as we try to pull people out of some of these
00:01:06.100bubbles it's worth noting like we're not the first people to go through some of these experiences
00:01:12.500some of the things and these emotions that we're feeling right now that's not unique to 2026 right
00:01:18.980And so taking that lens back to the greats, I think, is also a very, it grounds it in this very real human experience, which pulls us out of this tunnel vision, if that makes sense.
00:01:33.940No, it totally does. I mean, I think it's a great counterbalance to, for instance,
00:01:38.580reading the news, which I think can be a beneficial thing, knowing what's going on in the world
00:01:42.800today, but to have this ballast in place where you're able to have a historical perspective
00:01:47.440and understand the roots of different ideas, right? You know, we have different conceptions
00:01:53.140of what government should be. We'll go, where did those come from, right? Are you familiar
00:02:00.400with the kind of philosophical underpinnings for them?
00:02:56.620But everybody has common human problems and situations that they'll need to deal with.
00:03:02.100And where do we learn how to deal with that other than through life and with family?
00:03:07.560Having broad exposure to past experiences of other people is certainly one very good
00:03:11.320way to understand how to deal with situations that we come through today.
00:03:15.300And that we're not so terminally unique and that our sufferings are not the first time
00:03:19.400in the history of mankind that they've occurred, right?
00:03:22.080To have that kind of perspective is very helpful.
00:03:24.720Yeah, that's a great thought. And I'd love to, I'd love to bring Steve back in here on this question. Steve, I know, I know you're still a young man, but your, your, your timing, your time with this program betrays your experience.
00:03:43.000And so I wanted to get your opinion on when you started doing this in the, I guess, in the late 90s or early 2000s, you know, were people having the same sort of conversations about the gaps and the lack of, you know, people talk about now, and, you know, I have a young family we were talking about earlier.
00:04:08.680i'm lucky enough to have a wife who who is a former elementary school teacher so we we are
00:04:14.060very strongly considering homeschooling our kids when they when they come of age if we can
00:04:17.660you know make it work financially like that would be perfect for me like i'm so confident that our
00:04:22.940that our kids would have a a great resource at home and i know that they would be insulated in
00:04:28.640a way from some of the um i mean i guess if you wanted to be charitable about it the
00:04:34.380the thematic direction of modern education, uh, in, in many ways where people, you know,
00:04:41.740you know, almost 30 years ago, having the same sort of conversations about, uh, the, the trajectory
00:04:47.100of, of, uh, of public education. Education has been, I'd say in the latter, really in the latter
00:04:54.260part of the 20th century, uh, to the present, uh, it's how many people talk about education
00:05:02.080and everybody who talks about education they uh they talk about how important it is
00:05:08.720people give you cliches and pat answers but if you simply inquire you know what
00:05:17.280what they mean by these things they for the most part in my opinion they really don't know
00:05:25.200what we talk about in the classroom i always tell people what we talk about
00:05:28.640are common human ideas and common human experiences and this notion of being familiar
00:05:35.040i mean we were criticized uh sharply when we started the program you know we saying
00:05:43.520well 14 year olds they can't be reading plato and aristotle and right
00:05:49.760well it turns out they can and they can understand what they're reading
00:05:54.400at least to some degree does anybody i would assert that nobody understands everything that
00:06:01.040they encounter in these works and how do you balance all these things what are the principles
00:06:08.160involved and how do you apply them here along with this idea it ties in with learning to love
00:06:14.000what we ought to love learning to love what's true what's good what's beautiful education isn't just
00:06:20.560an intellectual experience it's not just an intellectual endeavor it's because we humans
00:06:28.000aren't simply intellectuals we have passions we have appetites we have emotions all these things
00:06:37.520being good in themselves but they need to be ordered properly ordered by reason and those
00:06:43.680kinds of conversations talking about sorry to jump in here steve um just as one example
00:06:52.000i think happen but happen rarely in school so like what kind of education do you want for your
00:06:59.200children i think people have talked about that for ever the what you were asking mike about will
00:07:06.320have people had the same concerns uh you know in c's time that i i can't comment to i mean as a
00:07:13.440father definitely now i have those concerns uh i mean my son is 12 now so he'll be starting the
00:07:22.320program with it within a couple years not even just political questions that are tied to education
00:07:28.000uh but you know what steve was talking about earlier how does your school or the teachers
00:07:32.720how do they conceive of their job of their role to what end are they directing your child is it
00:07:37.280to be an activist is it just to get a good job is it to be a specialist as you were talking
00:07:43.120earlier uh i mean i think any responsible parent should be asking those kinds of questions it's
00:07:48.240like okay well what is the likely outcome of my child's education right what is the likely
00:07:54.800outcome of the institution or otherwise that i'm sending my child to that they're