The Vision & Distinctives of Veritas

A Place at the Feast: Classical Education and Learning Differences

As Lesley Lanphear wraps up thirteen years building our academic support program from the ground up, she sits down to dismantle a stubborn myth: that classical Christian education is only for a certain kind of student. Drawing on the program's grassroots beginnings, Lesley makes the case that the great Tradition is a feast meant for every child, not a hurdle reserved for the naturally gifted. Along the way, she takes on dyslexia and the surprising friendliness of Latin, and why schools that love old things still pay close attention to the science of reading.

Jeremy Tate on Resetting the Standard with CLT

Jeremy Tate, founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test (CLT), joins the show for a conversation about educational renewal and assessments. Jeremy shares the unlikely story of how a dissatisfied educator with a passion for the Great Books set out to challenge the dominance of the SAT and ACT and ended up launching a national movement. Together, they explore why tests matter, how assessments shape curriculum and culture, and what happens when schools reclaim standards rooted in truth, goodness, and beauty rather than college and career metrics.

Narrative Grading: Knowing the Student, Not Just the Score

Why does Veritas use narrative grading instead of letter grades in the Lower School? In this episode, Karen Gray discusses how assessment shapes the way students think about learning, failure, and growth. Together, they explore the limits of numerical grading, the purpose of narrative feedback, and why classical Christian education seeks something more humane than reducing students to percentages and averages.

Why Latin? Language and the Classical Christian Imagination

Why do classical schools spend so much time with a "dead" language?  Will Killmer, Director of Classical Language Instruction, sits down to discuss why learning an ancient language is central to human formation, how Latin has carried the Christian tradition, and why studying it gives students more than just test-taking advantages.

Thinking in an Age of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has arrived with the promise of transforming education. But what if the more important question is not what AI can do, but what it is doing to us? Rather than reacting with either fear or enthusiasm, we seek a more careful path: one that keeps human formation, not efficiency, at the center of education. Andrew Smith, Dean of Academics, and Dr. Charlie Cisco, Upper School Humanities teacher, discuss how we should think about the evolving technological landscape.