In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, Jesse Hake welcomes Classical Academic Press video producer Cody Wanner for an illuminating conversation about storytelling, wonder, and his growing encounter with classical Christian education. Cody reflects on formative experiences such as hearing The Hobbit read aloud by his sixth-grade math teacher and explains why poetic knowledge and awakening wonder have become central to his understanding of education. The conversation turns to their recent work capturing stories from graduates of the University of Kansas Integrated Humanities Program, including its radical emphasis on attentive listening, meaningful limits, and learning through beauty.

Drawing connections to pickleball, flow state, and the rules that make genuine play possible, Cody explores the paradox that boundaries and discipline can actually create greater freedom. Jesse and Cody also consider the formative power of heroes and stories, from The Hobbit and The Count of Monte Cristo to The Princess Bride, and why good education allows students to wrestle honestly with both virtue and human frailty. The episode concludes with a behind-the-scenes look at capturing great teaching for ClassicalU and Cody’s reflections on the creativity, resilience, and shared purpose he has encountered among his colleagues at Classical Academic Press. Listeners will come away with an invitation to rediscover education as an encounter with wonder, disciplined freedom, great stories, and the beauty of learning well.

Listeners may also be interested in learning more about the Kansas Integrated Humanities Program in James S. Taylor's Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education. To explore these themes further, consider the following ClassicalU Courses: The Good Teacher, The Festive and Praying School, and The Art of Poetry.

In this episode, Jesse Hake talks with Sarah Kwilinski about her new ClassicalU course, Restoring Wonder for Every Learner: Universal Design in the Classical Tradition, and how classical education can faithfully serve every learner through what she calls "durable hospitality." Drawing on more than twenty-five years in special education and the influence of Dr. Amy Gilbert Richards, Sarah explains why universal design is not merely an accommodation strategy but a return to time-tested classical practices that benefit all students. She challenges prevailing assumptions about homework, standardized testing, inclusion, and early academic pressure while offering practical alternatives rooted in narration, the common arts, Charlotte Mason's philosophy, and the principle of festina lente. Sarah also shares how Sundial Classical School & Farmstead's small-group instruction, multi-age classrooms, collaborative culture, and emphasis on building the student before emphasizing academic performance have produced remarkable outcomes for learners with and without disabilities. The conversation explores why assessment should cultivate student ownership rather than anxiety, how parents become indispensable partners in education, and what schools can learn from current research on early childhood education. Throughout the discussion, Sarah and Jesse point toward resources including Chris Hall's ClassicalU course, Common Arts Education, Dr. Amy Gilbert Richards' ClassicalU course, Disability and Classical Education: Student Formation in Keeping with Our Common Humanity, Christopher Perrin and Carrie Eben's The Good Teacher, NOVARE Science, and the Templeton Master of Arts in Classical Teaching program while highlighting research from Vanderbilt University's Tennessee Pre-K Study. Whether you're a classroom teacher, school leader, or parent, this conversation offers a hopeful vision for restoring wonder, dignity, and genuine flourishing to every learner.

Listeners may also be interested in related ClassicalU courses, including Jason Barney's Charlotte Mason: A Liberal Education for All and Narration: A Classical Guide, which further explore the educational philosophy and teaching practices that complement many of the ideas discussed in this episode.

Recorded on site at True North Classical Academy, Jesse Hake speaks with Patricio Mendez, philosophy teacher and the Director of EdTech & Analytics, about recovering teaching as a vocation of love rather than a transaction of grades. Mendez describes his philosophy course as an effort not merely to teach the history of philosophy, but to help students philosophize, encounter wisdom, and enter into a living relation with texts, teachers, and one another. He explains why he tells students at the beginning of the year that they already have an "A”, a practice meant to unsettle grade-driven habits and open space for love of the true, good, and beautiful. The conversation turns to concrete classroom patterns: beginning with poetry recitation, using catechism to place students before trusted authorities, moving through Socratic circles toward student-led seminars, and treating writing as a spiritual exercise rather than a mere performance of answers. Mendez also reflects on how Classical U, especially a lesson on Flannery O’Connor, has shaped his sense of Christ, scandal, and the true, good, and beautiful as a real encounter rather than a mere academic exercise. The episode closes by considering how data and analytics can serve a school only when they are understood as partial reflections of the student rather than the student himself. Throughout, Mendez presents education as a communal, contemplative act in which students gradually learn to ask genuine questions, participate in truth, and “know the place for the first time”.

Listeners may also be interested in other ClassicalU courses such as “Awakening the Moral Imagination through Fairy Tales and Stories” and "Teaching the Great Books".