Why Your Classical Education Should Include Food

 The night I realized that every detail that goes into a family meal is important, I had made a rather routine dinner of kid-friendly meatloaf and was hoping to liven up the vegetables they were surely not going to eat with a homemade hollandaise sauce. I had been reading more about how to cook and learning that experimentation was an important part of the learning process. With lofty ideals in my head and while attempting to make space on the counter, I upset the food processor, which toppled over and knocked a plate off the counter, shattering to the ground. Getting dinner on the table, I realized, is an act of love at every level: from preparing the space ahead of time to last-minute garnishes, and, for those with small children around, humbly accepting that Plan A has failed and adjusting to Plan B.

Flannery O’Connor famously gave instruction to those tasked with the teaching of literature to children: “…If the student finds that [the Great Book] is not to his taste? Well, that is regrettable. Most regrettable. His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed.”

 As classical educators, most of us readily find wisdom in O’Connor’s words and have seen firsthand the importance of forming the moral imagination of children by providing them a rich fare of fairy tales and beautifully illustrated works. Charlotte Mason describes the work of classical education as providing an “abundant and delicate feast.”

And yet, while we readily accept the task of forming their metaphorical intellectual palates, we so rarely give thought to forming, well, their actual palates. This is an unfortunate result of the culture we live in which prioritizes quick and convenient foods, and which prizes a specific kind of academic achievement over holistic living. But it is not the classical way. Food and all that it entails: nutrition, community, accepting imperfections, and the connection of the body and soul is the purview of classical educators who are intent on teaching children to love order, beauty, and tradition.

In her 2017 bestseller, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, chef Samin Nosrat drives home one salient point about cooking: that good cooking is based on real, knowable principles. We are not at the mercy of our whims and cravings that in today’s world can be answered instantly with an app. Order governs the principles of good-tasting food. We are free human beings who can learn these knowable principles and take simple ingredients to form colorful dishes that are truly satisfying to our bodies and minds.

Moreover, we eat together. As Paul Krause notes in The Imaginative Conservative, “Aristotle identified man’s eating habits as one of the cornerstones of civilization—one of two activities that highlighted the nature of man’s exquisiteness (and barbarousness).”

Furthermore, he states: “Eating together, as a social event, is meant to be time-consuming because it is meant to be an intimate experience where friendship—true friendship—is experienced, rekindled, and love stands at the center of the dinner table. It is, in its own way, a call to sacrifice.” This tradition of togetherness at the dinner table ought to be cherished by those who love classical education. It is also where ideals meet reality and good habits are taught with a healthy dose of flexibility. “Perfectionism has nothing to do with sanctity,” states Fr. Jacques Philippe. Or, as Aristotle would have it, virtue is found in the mean. For parents tasked with forming the habits of small children, including those habits around food, a lightheartedness and acceptance of the messiness and chaos of the dinner table keeps perfectionism at bay.

In a recent article, Joshua Gibbs discussed how home life and school life cannot be at odds in a classical education. “A classical education is not a set of facts, but a pattern of living,” he states. What is more, he says, “…a classical education is more concerned with loving what is right than merely knowing it, and the culture and customs which are consumed and conducted after school can either strengthen the work of teachers, or simply blot it out.”

As a home educator myself, learning and communicating the habits of a home that teach children this “pattern of living” increasingly has become an integral part of classical education – and we are going to be paying more attention to the part that food plays in this rhythm.