Schooling America
How to Draw the Cynical Middle Schooler Into the Great Ideas w/ Elizabeth Williams
Send us Fan Mail Elizabeth Williams knew she wanted to teach from the time she lined up her stuffed animals for class as a small child, but it was a homeschool high school built on classical literature—and a self-led reading of The Grapes of Wrath—that showed her what her early Catholic schooling had left out. After studying literature, history, and theater at Franciscan University of Steubenville and starting her career in the classroom at Great Hearts, she now teaches middle school and is building a theater program from the ground up. She joins Ryan and Alex to talk about awakening wonder in the most self-conscious students in the building, turning a classroom into a mead hall, and why anything worth doing is worth doing badly. What's in This Episode: Awakening wonder in middle schoolers—the age where "it becomes cool not to care"—and why that window shapes lifelong beliefs about what a student can and can't do Transforming the classroom into the world of the text: candlelit mead halls for Beowulf, a conch shell for Lord of the Flies, a projected balcony and foam swords for Cyrano de Bergerac Using whatever's on hand as a prop—a rolling chair as a horse, a talent-show flyer as a love letter—because the symbol matters more than the object Selling students on a book by exaggerating your own enthusiasm, since middle schoolers see through a single glimmer of discontent Trading an overwhelmed, perfectionist first year for a "firm but kind" classroom by asking for help and putting yourself on the hot seat Resources Mentioned: Great Hearts Academies Classical Learning Test Arcadia Education Chapters: 00:00: Introduction and Elizabeth's path into classical education 05:00: A self-led study of The Grapes of Wrath 10:07: Awakening wonder in the self-conscious middle school years 21:03: Why drama forces students into the great ideas 27:20: Cutting through cynicism at each student's pace 31:14: Turning the classroom into the text 36:22: Keeping your own imagination alive 47:39: Teaching Shakespeare to eighth graders 55:40: Pointing students toward God in a charter classroom 59:30: Perfectionism and the "firm but kind" classroom Hosted by Ryan Klopak ( Arcadia Education ) and Alex Julian ( CLT ). The Furrows podcast features leaders in classical education who have been transformed by classical education. Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios .
