
Episode #19
The Life An Education Makes with Elspeth Currie
What if the books you read at sixteen, the habits you formed in a classroom, or the things you learned simply because they were beautiful were never meant to “pay off” only in a career? Christine Perrin talks with historian Elspeth Currie about education as lifelong formation, and about the ways learning can shape motherhood, family culture, work, and our capacity for attention and enjoyment. Drawing on Currie’s research into educated women in Renaissance England, they explore why learning matters even when its effects cannot be measured, how good books and thoughtful teachers shape us over time, and why practices like reading aloud, Sabbath rest, community, and celebration can keep us from simply drifting through family life. It is a conversation that recognizes the good work that might already be unfolding in ordinary life. About the Guest Elspeth Currie is a PhD candidate in history at Boston College, where she studies women and Latin in Renaissance England. She holds a BA in History and Classical Studies from Gordon College and a MSt in Women’s Studies from the University of Oxford. Prior to her doctorate, she taught Latin and history in a classical Christian school. She is the author and translator of To Marvel More: Holy Attention in the Incarnation Poems of Martha Marchina, a Christmas devotional on the Latin poetry of a seventeenth-century Italian woman. Elspeth and her family make their home on Boston’s North Shore. Guest Links Elspeth Currie at Boston College | https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/morrissey/departments/history/people/graduate-students/elspeth-currie.html To Marvel More | https://a.co/d/0c9g6eJq Connect with the Humanitas Institute Humanitas Institute | https://humanitasinstitute.org X | https://x.com/HIClassicalEd Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/humanitas_institute/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@humanitas_institute Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588606585070 YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@TheHumanitasInstitute






