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Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln sits down in studio with Ryan Klopak as Arcadia Education searches for the diocese’s next superintendent. A self-described happy pagan who got by on B’s in high school, he found his way into the Catholic Church through a great books program at the University of Kansas, where three professors discussed the Odyssey and Augustine’s Confessions as if their freshmen were equals. Then he speaks directly to whoever becomes the next superintendent.

What’s in This Episode:

• Why a brochure showing a barefoot kid in a Kansas wheat field, looking up at the stars, sold a bored B student on Latin and the great books
• The lecture format that banned note-taking and questions, and why it made 150 freshmen feel part of the conversation
• What Bishop Conley means by the industrial model of education
• Why his friends’ example did more for his conversion than the reading list
• How a principal covering fifth-grade science rediscovered her joy in the classroom through a liberal arts approach

Resources Mentioned:

• Bishop James Conley, The Joy and Wonder of Catholic Education
• Saint Augustine, The Confessions
• C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
• Classical Learning Test
• Arcadia Education

Chapters:

• 00:00: Introduction and the Diocese of Lincoln superintendent search
• 05:08: Growing up with baseball and the Beatles
• 13:13: Bored in school and primed for rebellion
• 21:09: Why a rebellious kid chose a great books program
• 30:20: Three professors in conversation, with no notes and no questions
• 37:03: Why the professors despised grades
• 39:54: Two streams of conversion: the books and the friends
• 47:48: Seeing himself in Augustine’s Confessions
• 52:53: Why Catholic, and Father Moriarty’s Catholic bus
• 01:05:45: The joy and wonder of Catholic education in Lincoln

Hosted by Ryan Klopak (Arcadia Education). The Furrows podcast features leaders in classical education who have been transformed by classical education.

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios