While books like “Gender Queer” and “Flamer” are roiling public school districts, another heated debate is unfolding in the small niche of classical education—focusing on whether writers such as medieval French nun Héloïse d’Argenteuil and Ralph Ellison are worthy enough to belong in the Western canon.
While the content of the works at issue may be very different, both controversies center on questions of inclusivity and diversity and the relative importance of having children read books by people with whom they might identify.
The deeper issue is who decides what books are the most meritorious. Goodwin says that in the 1950s the renowned scholar Mortimer Adler created the worthiest list of hundreds of Great Books that was later revised. But Hooten Wilson points out that such efforts overlooked great women authors like Julian Norwich, a medieval Christian mystic considered the first female author of a book in English. Norwich is unknown today because she had little status in society and opportunity for influence when she published centuries ago.
Hooten Wilson’s campaign is gaining some traction. She joined a group of scholars that revised the list of canonical authors used to create the classical learning test, an assessment that some colleges accept as an alternative to the SAT. And last month, Hooten Wilson was invited to address classical education leaders at an event hosted by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school that supports a network of classical charter schools.
Professor Josh Herring, a Hillsdale alum and critic of Hooten Wilson, said he expected that she would face a grilling. Instead, she says, Hillsdale leaders seemed very amenable to diversifying the list of classics used in classrooms.
“I was very impressed with what Hillsdale is doing, and how they are open to canon expansion,” Hooten Wilson said.
