the title of this session is ideas and ideas that made coolidge moderating panel will be ambassador richard graber. richard baker is president and ceo of the blind and harry bradley foundation. previously, he served as ambassador to the czech republic, was an executive at honeywell international and led the milwaukee based law firm of reinhart barner van doren. please join me in welcoming ambassador graber and our panelists the stage.

is. where. well, good morning and thank you very much for that kind introduction. and thank you for joining us. also like to welcome our c-span audience for tuning in during coolidge's centennial year to learn about coolidge and consider how example and values can guide us today. as was mentioned, the title of our panel is the ideas and ideals that made coolidge. it's a great for me to be part of this centennial celebration honoring. our nation's 30th president, a man who history truly has too overlooked. thanks to amity and her teams, to necessity and the commitment of the coolidge foundation under her leadership, president coolidge is finally, finally receiving long overdue

reexamination and that he so richly. president coolidge is origins were really quite a country last from the grandeur of our setting. today the library of congress in his inauguration didn't even take place in d.c. when warren harding passed away. coolidge was on vacation at his father's home in a tiny village in vermont. his father happily a notary public and swarm my kerosene light. as i understand, in the middle of the night, that humble inauguration tells you a great deal about president coolidge at a time in america where local deeply the only president born on the 4th of july, coolidge grew in plymouth notch, vermont. from 1872 to 1890, as he it this part of vermont was and still is made up of a series of narrow valleys and hills.

it was an isolated a place where everyone helped each other. the town's meetings were held above a general store. coolidge's father owned. as a boy, he was industrious much like his parents and sold apples and popcorn to the townspeople. people during those meetings. in his autobiography, coolidge describes the people of their neighborhood as having exemplary, he said. the speech clean. their lives were above. they had no mortgages on their farms. if any debts were contracted. they were promptly paid. credit was good. and there was money in the savings bank. they cherished the teachings of the bible and sought to live accordance with its precepts. mitch daniels just said i think we know how we would stand on forgiving student debt. this scene will be captured by panelist christopher coolidge, a great grandson of the president.

as a young man coolidge attended high school at black river academy in ludlow and then amherst in massachusetts. while his physical surroundings were very humble, his intellectual formation was influenced by the great writers and philosopher whose names adorn this building. coolidge in his own words described amherst as classical education. professor eric adler will speak about what effect that might have had on coolidge. his character and leadership. third, of course, there's coolidge, his legal training. in contrast to friends from college. coolidge didn't go to law school like president lincoln. the young coolidge read the law clerking a local firm in northampton, massachusetts, and then sat the bar. judge edith jones will speak about coolidge's legal background. well, we've given you so many of the the story of calvin coolidge

is the story of every american and village from the period. while listening to our guests today, think about what we've retained from that period as well as what we've lost and what we should to restore. and it's now my great pleasure to introduce our first panelist, the great grandson, the president. chris jeter. thank john calvin coolidge was, as you've heard already born on july 4th, 1872, in plymouth notch, vermont he was named after his father. the family referred to him always as calvin or cal. so over the years that john was dropped to better understand calvin. one needs to understand his family in, the environment in which he was raised. first notch is nestled in the green mountains of vermont. it is somewhat centrally located in a state 12 miles north of

ludlow. calvin was the fifth generation in the family to live in plymouth. his great great grandfather, captain john coolidge, served in the revolutionary army and later became one of the earliest settlers, the town. around 1780, the dutch sometimes referred to as an elevated area, surrounded hills and mountains full of natural beauty, with several streams. brooks running through it. there are a number of farms and open fields, but otherwise the area is largely forested with pines hardwoods. calvin's lived on a farm just down the road from the house where he was born. calvin's father, john coolidge, ran the general store in post office. family home was attached to the back of the store and was a modest. five room story and a half cottage. john coolidge, a well-regarded and respected member of the

community and served in numerous ways over the years. calvin had admiration for his father in his many capabilities. calvin would later write in his autobiography he he trusted nearly everybody but lost a surprisingly small amount. sometimes people he had not seen years would return and pay him the whole bill. he was a good businessman, a very hard worker, and did not to see things wasted. no surprise there. calvin went on to add, in addition to his business ability. my father, very skillful with his hands. he worked with a carriage maker for a short time when he was young and the best buggy for 20 years was when he made himself. he had a complete set of tools and can ample do all kinds of building and carpenter. he knew how to lay bricks and was an excellent stonemason. the lines he laid were true and straight and the curves regular.

and the curves regular. the work he did endured. if there was any physical requirement, country life which he could not perform. i do not know what it was. watching him and assisting him, i gained an intimate knowledge. all this kind of work. shortly after calvin was born, his father was elected the state legislature and served it for several two year terms. calvin sister abigail, better known as abby, was born in 1875, a year. the family moved across the street to a home now known as the homestead. this would be home to calvin, the rest of his youth and his spiritual home for the rest of his life. it was also the place, as you just heard, where he would happen to be vacationing. vice president. receive word the death of president harding and take oath of office from his father. calvin's mother was victoria.

josephine moore. she was not in good health. most of calvin's life and sadly died in march on 39th birthday. when calvin was just 12 years old, she likely suffered from tuberculosis. calvin spent good amount of time with his grandparents on their. they hope to see him grow up and work the land as they and progenitor nations had. but over time, calvin hoped to follow in his father's footsteps and keep store, as he put it. calvin attended the one room schoolhouse which, was just up the road from his house. he was an average student. in february of 1886, when he was 13 years old, calvin went away for high school to attend black river academy in neighboring ludlow, vermont. as he put it, going away to school was my first great adventure in life. one class he found particularly interesting was in civil government, which provided his

first exposure to the constitution of the united states. during the summers would return to plymouth and work on his grandparents farm. there he developed fondness for riding horses and march of calvin senior at black river academy. abbey passed away. his abbey passed away and joined mother. she was sick for only a week and probably died of appendicitis. that fall calvin was going to attend amherst college, but on his way there he developed a bad cold which interfered with his entrance examinations. so he came home to which took a few months. in the spring he saint johnsbury academy boarding school. that summer, he traveled with his father to the dedication of the bennington battle monument. there was much fanfare. public officials from vermont and new york in attendance, president harrison gave an address. this was the first u.s. president calvin had seen in person or his own life.

calvin to himself at that time, how it felt to bear so much response ability. later that year, in the fall of 1891, he was able to enter amherst. there he studied calculus, latin and greek, european history and u.s. history to name a few. one of his most influential teachers, charles garment, professor, moral philosophy and metaphysics. in june of 1895, calvin graduated from amherst. in summary, calvin's upbringing and small america grounded him with many fundament values, which would serve as an excellent foundation for the rest of his life. the importance of ethics strong character self-sufficiency. pairing for others, having trust in others and community service were among some of these values. calvin reflected on his youth in his autobiography country, life

not always have breadth, but it does have depth. it is neither artificial nor superficial but is kept close to the realities. i can think of many pleasures. we did not have in many nicest niceties of culture which we were unfamiliar with. yet if i had the power to order my life anew, i would not dare to change that period it if it did not afford me the best that there was and abundantly provided the best that there was for me. thank you. thanks. chris will now hear from adler, professor and chair of the classics department at the university of maryland. eric, thank you very much. in a speech delivered in 1921 to the american classic colleague calvin coolidge, content that quote all theories of education

teach us that the mind in the same way rising through the various stages that have marked the ascent of mankind from the lowest savagery to highest civilization. this is a compelling reason for the continuance of classics as the foundation of our educational system and quote, coolidge offered that sentiment at a strange time. by 1921, colleges in the u.s. made great efforts to remove the as the foundation of. our educational system as coolidge must have recognized. he was engaged in a losing battle, a lost cause that tells much about coolidge's concerns about the effects on human flourishing that stemmed from the diminishment of classical tradition. calvin coolidge had himself been a student at the most volatile time in the history of american higher education. as a student at black river st johnsbury academy and amherst

college had been caught between two curricular worlds one that harkened back to the dawn american higher learning and one of seismic change coolidge's intellectual formation and lifelong respect for the classics must be seen in this broader educational context before we turn to the specific of coolidge's own education, some remarks about the history of american of higher learning are in order. colleges and america were very different sorts institutions from the professionalized universities with which we are accustomed. thanks to the influence renaissance humanism, these colleges saw the development of good character as their chief goal. educators believed this project was best accomplished through the study of the masterpieces ancient greek and roman literature. when encountered in their original, accordingly, the study of greek and latin dominated the

curricula of the early u.s. colleges and the secondary educations of the college bound. since these institutions promoted the notion that particular classical texts were the key to moral improvement. the early colleges insisted on prescribed curricula. the foundation or role of the classical languages in higher education had always been controversial. many americans associated this sort of with the aristocratic ethos europe and hungered for a curriculum more in keeping with american pragmatism, partly as a response to such critiques, the american colleges slowly altered their curricula over granting more pedagogical attention to other subjects. the resistance to the classical curriculum came to a head in the decades following the civil war. by this time, a generation of academic took their pedagogical bearings from the german research universities.

the spirit of professionalization had first reared its head at these institutions, which encouraged rigorous training in particular disciplines and led the attainment of a ph.d. in the late 19th century. numerous academic leaders in america reoriented higher education towards the spirit of professionalization. typical of german institutions. of higher learning. they aimed to reduce the influence of the classical humanities. the american colleges creating institutions in which the scientific method would dominate. importantly, these reformers, the prescribed classical with the elective. undergraduates were now free to choose virtually all their own classes. by the closing years of the 19th century, even at many of the most established american colleges, greek and latin, were no longer required for a bachelor of arts degree. it is in this that we must put the educational and sentiments

of calvin. although a principal certificate exempted coolidge from having to take amherst college's admissions examination before matriculating in 1891. we can tell very much about his secondary school from the vicissitudes of this exam. academies such as the ones coolidge attended could serve as training for prospective undergraduates american colleges, and they therefore taught to the test the college catalog for the academic year of 1892 1891 provides much detail about the subjects tested on its admissions examination and therefore about the content prospective students would have encountered in their secondary schooling. the nature of this exam underscores that amherst remained a comparatively tradition new england college in coolidge's day. amherst admissions necessitated much experience with classical latin and ancient greek. the exam included passages to be translated from such works as

cicero's and aryans. virgil's aeneid, xenophon's anabasis and homer's iliad. although test takers had to demonstrate their abilities in a variety of other subjects. the comparative attention granted to latin and greek demonstrates that amherst still considered classical studies the cakewalk known for its candidates for a bachelor arts degree. the amherst college catalog from coolidge as freshman year further testifies that it was an institution in limbo still deferential to earlier traditions of american higher education but also changing with. zeit geist the catalog spells out a curriculum that remained wedded the tenets of renaissance humanism while also moving in the direction of greater curricular breadth and elective coursework. the freshman year at amherst seems comparatively traditional, except for a choice between the study of french and german. all coursework in the freshman year was prescribed in ancient greek and latin dominated,

starting with the sophomore year. however, an increasing of coursework was elective. had coolidge chosen to attend, say, harvard university rather than amherst college, it is likely that his education would have differed markedly. harvard, after all, had removed ancient greek from the subjects required for its admissions examinations in 1886, and it was beholden above all, to the elective system. by 1894, harvard required one class of all undergraduates, a class in english rhetoric. coolidge have been looking back wistfully at his education when in 1921 he told anthat any instr the purpose of teaching literature should neglect the and quote even in calvin coolidge as day. that prospect was very thinkable indeed. thank you very much much.

that was great. thank you, professor. our panelist is judge edith jones fifth circuit judge for the states court of appeals. judge, thank you. already heard coolidge's undergraduate education was during a time of foment. he became a lawyer at what is just what i would call the fulcrum of american legal history. the founders view of law was being challenged by the scion pick approach which spread among law schools from its home base. harvard. progressive theories about direct democracy in active government regulation, economic affairs were pressing constitutional change, but largely at the framework of constitutional amendment. coolidge, however, his ideas and ideas from the common law tradition and homage to the written constant fusion. his lessons law were first

taught at home and school. john coolidge, his young son with not just local governance as you have heard from schooled to the town council as well as officers of justice of the peace and county sheriff john held. coolidge in his autobiography that his broad knowledge of local law led many people to seek his by observing father's public service. quote came to have a working knowledge of the practical side government. i understood it consisted of restraint which the people had imposed on themselves in order to promote the welfare. close quote at black river academy, the 13 year old coolidge was introduced to american history and u.s. constitution. how many of you studied the u.s. constitution in eighth grade with exceeding interest.

however, he studied the constitution then, and as he puts it never ceased doing. proverbs 22 six says train a child the way he should go. and when he was, he will not depart from it. coolidge's apprenticeship under his father's guidance and primary school fostered a clear understood of the needs and limits of local government. early education shown in the constitution's beautiful symmetry. impressed on the need for checks and balances and the dual sovereignties of of the federal system. coolidge's former study of law reinforced these views. it very important to know that he became a lawyer by reading the law as a clerk in the firm northampton, massachusetts to gain a license assisted in preparation of various legal documents attended sessions and

studied the law of massachusetts. most important, his required reading included commentaries on laws of england, which predated the american revolution, and chancellor james kent on american law. first published in 1838, most american law lawyers of coolidge's era were trained in this fashion. blackstone john's treatise held that the first choice of law is divine. god created natural laws, the rule this world and its creatures laws and the law of nature, which all are bound, is identical with the law of god. god enabled men to discover it through reason but quote eternal, immutable laws of good and evil. so far they are necessary for the conduct of human actions. close quote a universal of

nations derived from natural jurisprudence, right reason, morality, custom, well munis of law reflecting these principles determined the rules of conduct for particular societies kant and blackstone inculcated this fundament hierarchy and this background. kant common terry discussed the anglo-american law system, which had evolved from immemorial court decisions and statutes. kant covered the rights of proper, real, impersonal commerce and, descent and distribution can also explain the tradition understanding of american government, constitutional jurisprudence. he focused on enumerate of powers and limitations of the federal and state government as reading law was an inherently

conservative mode of study. it impressed on the student. the age, continuity and stability law along with steady but careful adaptation to economic and social change. it is no surprise then, that in his famous speech have faith in massachusetts. coolidge expressed basic law axioms quote men do not make laws. they do. but discovered them. laws must be justified by something more the will of the majority. they must rest on the eternal foundation of righteousness. close. it's also no surprise that he would have agreed with chance kant's description of great and manifest resulting from an indigestible of laws and legal authorities. that's in 1838, which could destroy legal certainty and

promote litigation, delay and subtlety kant extolled the need stability in the law, which facilitated commerce and people's confidence dealing with each other. but the same speech, coolidge cautioned quote, don't hurry to. give administration a chance to catch up with. legislate. close quote. coolidge was not a fan patter, but he sought incremental reform that had also taken to heart cancer account of the constitution of distribution of powers is exemplified in his 22 speech to the aba titled the limitations of the law. in this speech, she analyzes with great perception the the the implications of the progressive movement to effect dramatic social change through

legislation. one facet of his speech defense the authority of the supreme court which was then under attack on account of constitutional decision ins that were claimed to inhibit social change, and specifically because it had recently overturned a federal law regulating labor relations. think again. time. you know, history repeats itself in our own day. coolidge noted that the court had seldom found any humanitaire in legislation beyond the power of. he pointed out a decision, however, does mean that the court took a polluter position on the law. the decision, quote, simply means that the congress has gone outside of the limits prescribed by the people in their constitution and attempted to legislate on this subject, which the several states and the people themselves have chosen to keep under their own control. close quote. if the people wanted to entrust

the federal legislature with this power, he added, let them amend the constitution. this is a very expression of constitutional traditionalism, a world of difference. separate coolidge trained and the common law from lawyers like his hammers classmate harlan fiske stone metric related at columbia law school and soon became a professor and later dean of that prestigious institution. stone stone was a dogged advocate of the then novel, quote, science, artifact and case study, orient aided approach to legal education. this innovation broadly proposed to not rush analyzed law removing, outdated rules and assumption and might conflict with the needs. an increasingly complex economy, modernize law, study devalued

and ultimately disrupt waste laws. nobler heritage. oscar. wendell of oliver wendell holmes on the bench famously called that common law tradition a brooding omnipresence. the sky. unlike coolidge, stone was sanguine about social legislation. he saw no constitutional for protecting individual property rights, and he had no quarrel with national economic regulations. in light of their conflict, legal predispositions. it is ironic, though, under standard both politically that coolidge appointed his former to the us supreme court. in 1941 after franklin roosevelt had brought about a constitutional revolution through supreme court appointments. stone, in fact, over but authored the opinion that

overturned the very coolidge had defended in his 1922 speech. the foundation such structural, traditional, have been challenged ever since the transformation by a heap of indies indigestible authorities. coolidge gained and the statesman prudence from early in self-government and traditional law training. as a result, he loved structural constitution and common law. his education and yields important lessons for those who would restore limited government and preserve liberty for future generations. thank you. thank you, judge. while you're thinking about your questions for our panelist, let

me start with a few and chris, let me start with you. i've got a couple of questions. is there any personal stories about your great grandfather that we might be surprised to learn or that you think captured the kind of man that the president was? i, in coolidge fashion, i guess i'd that probably after 100 years, i think all the stories have told by. but may not be remembered, but they've been told. but i the more specifically to answer the question i think it's perhaps and not necessarily saying this is the most important characteristic but one of them which is oftentimes i think maybe over dramatized is silent count is a for brevity. i think certainly he e had that reputation it was somewhat deserved but i think there were times when in the right

situation, the right people and the right topic would speak more freely. he'd be more verbose than he's oftentimes characterized as. and he certainly had a good sense of humor. but a lot times it was so dry, it was lost on people. so that's. he speaks fondly of his childhood, for sure, in his autobiography. and places. yet it was not without its tragedy. he writes endearingly about his mother passed away when he was only 12, said after her death. that life was never quite the same again. five years after that, his younger sister died. what what effect do you think those had on him? well, sort of interspersing a little bit of my own history, so to speak, with the cadence actually lost mother when i was 20, just turned two. but calvert-lewin's in his at the age of 12 is is you can't

imagine that and certainly then you as you say five years later, the death of his sister certainly tough things to go through but you find a way is certainly he did. and of course then death in early age was a little more prevalent than it is today. fortunately, thanks to and medicine. but i think it caused him to grow up a little faster, to take on more responsibility, more maturity than than his peers at those respective after those events. professor adler at the bradley foundation, where i work, we believe in value of a classical education and we've supported it. how do you think that coolidge and you started to talk about that the drill down on it a little bit what was a classical education at the time. what was the curriculum like? i think we're starting see a

growing classical education rebirth within this country, which is great. but why do you think that and how do we sustain it? yeah, a lot of questions. yeah, that's lot. any art is fine. unlike calvin coolidge, i am not called silent either, so i have to be quicker about this. in my response. but so one thing that sort of interesting about calvin coolidge, i think, is that if you look at his career at amherst, he did the classical studies that were required of him in his freshman and sophomore year and therefore he did a lot of classical studies in secondary school in order to get into to begin with. but the moment he was given the opportunity to take other kinds of classes, he ditched the classics as quickly as could and took other subjects. if you look at his autobiography, the professors who meant the to him but one was a historian and one was a philosopher, but he still thought that there something foundational about classical

studies and he believed that education was for character. and in that regard, i think he was old fashioned. the sort of people who brought the german research university and use that model as the sort of primary model for american higher education. no longer believe that the creation of good character was the chief goal of an education. instead they believed it about power and service, supposedly to society and in that speech from 1921, when he suggests that the classics need to be foundational, in a sense, looking back at his own education, and i think he's implicitly critical of what's happened in american education since that time when the classics were really removed, because i think coolidge recognized that, you need to have a kind of foundation in character order to have the sort of constitute final personality

necessary to live in the united states as a good citizen citizen. judge president coolidge's legal background was certainly unconventional by today's standards. i suspect. well, i know i would have had trouble reading law. maybe you would have. but and obviously, abraham lincoln had the same background. how do you think reading law as they influence their. well, as i said, it was an inherently conservative way of learning. if you read blackstone parts, which i have read, but not when i read philosophy in the the whole idea, the common law was that it was a shared understanding, ultimately derived from the law of god, and therefore law had to have a moral purpose. law to preserve liberty and law

had to preserve stability and stability and property. blacks china recently come at the time of the american and was became the fundamental treatise for american lawyers. probably coolidge was among the last of the generation actually read blackstone columbia to where stone went was going away from that in pursuit of progressive utopia we've seen how that worked out legally haven't we. so i would say that the point of reading law was to confer stability stability. coolidge was not a real chatty guy, but of his famous quotes and i repeat what you've already mentioned in your comments judge men do not make laws. they do, but discover them. laws must be justified by something more than the will of

the majority. they must rest on the eternal foundation of righteousness. how do we elevate that perspective today in the modern american law school? that's impossible because, justice holmes division of the brooding, omnipresent, captured everybody and in fact, captured lot of the conservative legal movement quite some time. we're now seeing sort of the end point of where all that leads, which that modern american law schools are in my particularly the leading ones ten more to undermine our culture and our law and our society in pursuit of ideals that are fundamental alien esthetical to those of self-government and liberty period and through the federalist society, through a small but, hearty band of

scholars we are trying to recover, one of whom is in the audience today, professor arcus, but there is an attempt, there is movement, try to recover the idea the traditionalist ideals. great. thank you, judge. okay, it's your turn. students. i hope you're ready. the coolidge foundation is more than 100 students were joining us at this conference. as was mentioned. so students will have the first opportunity to questions. if you have a question we'd ask that you please raise your hand rob hammer from the coolidge will bring the microphone around to you when the microphone to you please tell us your name, where you're from and then ask your question who to go first. back here. okay. thank you. my name is audrey carmena and i'm from san francisco, california. yeah, so a little bit different

than this is for professor adler. so as a prospective student of the classics myself, i find myself often standing alone amongst my peers. how do we make a classical and moral education and more appealing to the modern student and their ambitions? that's a good question. if i had the full to that, that convinced everybody i might be a far wealthier and more successful person than i am. so it's hard to say. i do think that there's something pernicious about the contemporary american concern about what is perceived to be cosmopolitanism in which a lot of american educators and american students seem to believe that in order to be a cosmopolitan person, which is a good thing, you merely need to have certain warm feelings about other parts of the world rather than actually to real things, those cultures. and as a result, don't think

this is only true with latin and greek. i think this is true with language study in general. there's all this discussion about diversity, inclusion on college campuses and how important it is and multiculturalism and how important it is. and then you say, hey, would you like to take a french name? oh, no i don't really want to do that. so there is a sense in i think people want this kind of very easy and there's something kind of strangely and american about this cosmopolitanism that doesn't actually require real knowledge about other parts of the world. so i do think that educators really need to step up and say that we need to have language requirements, serious language requirements in college education. we need serious language requirements and secondary education as well that will enable people to get some sense of what the rest of the world is really and also to enable them to read firsthand what great writers who have been of foundational to civilization have had to say about great questions. if we can do that and we can have classes that do, then i

think students will gravitate toward them. even though it's a lot of work. whose next? right here. is is. think thank you. my name is lauralee godfrey. i'm from portsmouth, new hampshire. my is for judge jones. you have touched on education was a fundamental aspect of developing calvin coolidge as character. would you say that modern education continues to do today? no. i had children. i have grandchildren. the quality of primary has declined significant and the way i explain it to my law clerks is

very simple in 19 when my husband graduated from high school in 1964, the standardized tests and scores peaked in the united states. they went down very, very little. by the time i graduated. in 1967, the entire nature of the s.a.t. is changed. but i will say my mother, who was the top graduate, a high school in lancaster, pennsylvania, in the late thirties, in some ways got a better secondary education than i did from the nature of the courses she studied. my dad, who graduated from a high school in central texas, was flourishing. berg of 1200 people in south texas in some ways got a better education than i did. because even though john dewey had tried to take over the

residue of traditional education, which means the classics appreciation for patriotism and the founders and american history, as it used to be taught, i'll in a word for bill macaulay's land of hope here gave people pride in their back. pride in the past abilities of freedom, of opportunity in this country and prior and optimism about the future and those are all things in addition to character, that education should instill. bill maclaine's book is terrific. totally agree. yes, ma'am. my name is daniel miller. i have a question for judge

jones. what is one thing that you did in college and the years immediately after that was most for your later career. i would have studied classics at cornell. actually, i was going to study philosophy, but in 1969, the university was riven by famous demonstrations as anti-war type demonstrators and and the arguably best political philosophers in the country. all left as a result. so i went to economics and i asked a young professor to be my to my mentor for my b.a.. his name was thomas. so. unfortunately, cornell proved be an inhospitable place for professors.

all. but i had been exposed to him. one of the great intellectual minds of our century and i have been exposed to professor alan, who later wrote the closing of the american mind. i a course of his on plato's republic and those were foundation tunnel experiences that i tried to build on from self-education and. a fortuitous seminar attendance ever since. i've been ignoring side of the room. i see we have a question here. hi, my name is juliana. i'm from deborah in jersey and i have a question for professor adler. so i am politics major and i have aspirations of serving in

nation's government. and i'm wondering what the value of classics is in governance. yeah, a great question. thank you so much. it seems to me that there's a lot one can learn about governance from, the classics, and this is one of the reasons why american education, the colonial period up until basically the civil war, focused so much attention on the classics as it was perceived. a number of greek and roman writers from antiquity had really been trailblazers in political thought. i mean, obviously, as was talked about, just a moment ago, plato and his republic are part of this. but aristotle and politics, so forth. cicero been highly influential as well. so a number of different ideas about, political theory really do stem from the greeks and the romans and think that they're of profound importance as we think

about today, about what's best for us. i would also say that there's a sense in which and here i guess borrowing a little bit from alan bloom's the closing of the american mind although this comes from plato too. i do think having a kind of prescribed of one's own education so that it's not just a choose your own adventure curriculum, but instead that the curriculum actually offers some substance as to what students ought to study is of deep importance and possibly allows a kind of balancing of students souls. if we live in a democrat country in which we're treated as customers so often in our lives, there's maybe a value for a university to be countercultural and to require our students to take particular subjects. previous generations have that those subjects and that material is of deep importance to human flourishing. i the sense that calvin coolidge recognized that and that's one of the reasons why he offered

this speech in 1921 to the american classical league, in which he still believed there. needed to be a classical foundation to contemporary american education. and in some sense, because of his more free market ideals, it's especially that we have students and citizens ultimately of character. that could be done through the classics. it can be done through other means, too but the classics are deeply important, i think, for that project. back. um, my question is for you, mr. jeter, do given that american culture has at this point withered from what it used to be, what fundamental aspects of the american character can be

transplanted into business and finance in america today and take root. yeah, that's a good question. i think think i guess a comes first to mind is, is. doing doing the right let's say so it's it feels as though often times it's all about yes businesses are there for profit but the coolidge see you bring yourself in coolidge's shoes you would have thought that you know businesses there not just for profit but higher good to serve the american people. and we're talking about within the u.s. so to to not only pursue profits because in that's you got to pay the electric bill to keep the lights on that's understood but to also be mindful of society and each

business as well as each individual do what's not only in their personal best interests, but do what's in the best interest. the community or the larger body of people as a whole. and can i keep that higher perspective? going right back here, i got. hi there, my name is camden dempsey. i'm from colorado. my question is for judge jones. your honor, you talked about how the law establishes stability and the traditional values. how do you that same sort of mindset to very modern problems that you face the bench today and reconcile sort of traditional values approach to problems that maybe where the law hasn't been written yet. well, i hasten add that as as some judge on an intermediate appellate court it i, i cannot

decide cases based on my values. so i have to follow the law. and i would advocate the originalist and textualist who were made famous or whose views first began to be gained with attorney general, mrs. famous speech about the need, a true original approach. constitution is probably the best way to to do that. and think we have a majority. i was recently on a panel where somebody was talking about the illegitimate supreme court because forbid they're trying to interpret the constitution in the way it was written. and i had a few to say about that. but the i mean, that that's you know, that's the point where we live under constant.

the constitution was framed by men who believed they may you know you can argue about what their religious beliefs were but they all believed that our inalienable rights come from god and that government is not god. because when government comes, that's tyranny and. they tried to frame a constitution that would prevent from becoming god. and that's why we look at that constitution very seriously in the nature of checks and balances and original understanding. which all of your colleagues looked at the world exactly like you do. unfortunately, that's not the case. you have let's go over here. i can't ignore the right side of

the room. hi. name is sophie share. i'm from advanced carolina. so all around society is becoming increasingly scientific with new innovations and technologies day. as a computer science major myself, this is for professor adler. i'm curious how you feel that a classical foundation can be best integrated in emerging more technical fields of study. thank you much. first, as someone a very strong supporter of the classics, i would say that that doesn't mean that i think everyone needs to be classics, majors and, frankly. i think that there's too much that's placed upon one's major as the sort of chief goal of to college in the first place that it's actually an experience overall and one's so-called general education is as important as what you choose to major in. so there's that to me nothing wrong with being a computer science major, what have you.

what i'm concerned about is that many students today don't seem to get kind of humanistic education at all or anything that's really serious in that regard. and what i mean by that is that often times and this is one of the things i think calvin coolidge was critical of often times we get simply distributed requirements. so you have to take a humanities class, but there's a thousand choices and you can choose whichever one that suits you. so you could take a class homer's iliad or one on comic books. it doesn't really make difference, right? this a bad way of educating people, seems to me if we can't actually stand up and say there are certain texts that strike us as so profound that they can help students today, people today in to answer for themselves life's great questions in order lead good lives. i think that that's really important for someone who's ultimately going be a classics major, and i think that's really for someone who's ultimately going to be a computer major. it doesn't really matter what

you major in. you need that foundational core to think about what it means to be a good person. or if not, i'm a little nervous about sending you out in the world at without that kind of foundation foundation. right here. if you're a non student, you're now allowed ask any questions you'd like. hello, my name is dustin from dallas, texas. i have a question for judge jones. so you mentioned before that should come from somewhere higher. how we as a society get everyone to have faith in the same higher ideals? well, that's kind of require another great awakening or also another widespread exposure to classical learning because those the the dual influences on the framers. but everybody can do his part.

i mean every citizen has obligation to stand up for active citizen and share community involvement. doing the right thing is. chris cheater said and you know so you don't you don't have to preach bible in order to move things in the right direction as long as you're in the i hate to use word values confidence in the moral and educational foundation that you have. i here and then we'll go back. thank you. this is also for judge jones. my is kwong. i'm from harlem, new york. so thank you for mentioning chief justice stone. wolf, his most famous cases was korematsu versus the u.s..

how do you think coolidge would have respond to that case, which decided on japanese internment? what are some cases that really exemplify legal philosophy and might that philosophy how should that philosophy applied today? i don't i am not familiar with coolidge expressing himself in terms of legal philosophy. i know he practiced a small town type of mixed practice law. it curious to me, i've wondered whether he ever discussed legal philosophy with stone. i do not know about that. i'm sure he would have disagreed. as far as korematsu goes as well, here on, i believe, coolidge, out to the african-american community. he reached to the american indians. they were then called. i doubt that he would have that an entire community of at least

to 100,000 people should be segregate it any more than. i know whether he expressed himself about the prejudice against germans during world war one, or at least i've forgotten if i read about that. but korematsu is definitely a black mark in our legal history. that was later his later been repudiated. fortunately. back here. thank you. name is dr. carmena and i'm still from california. this is from mr.. do you believe that the physical and agricultural aspect of coolidge's early life and family education should be somehow integrated, modern primary, secondary school education across the country. well, in in coolidge modesty, i

would say not necessarily that coolidge particular or some special on just him as as an individual, but yeah, i think certainly any of breadth in in is is always better than the not put it that way. and and not that i'm an academics kind of person but there certainly seems to be more and more controls or adjustments to the curriculum is and and what's okay and what's not okay and perhaps maybe a in some respects narrowing of what the offerings are, what the subjects are being taught, or even if the subject is being covered. the slant that's taken on that subject. so i guess answer your question. yes, i think it it's always good to have a well balanced and

diverse set of perspectives. and if that would include the rural life and agricultural life. so much the better. chris, do you think your great enjoyed being president. or was it more of a sense of duty. well, i'd like to think that enjoyed parts of it, but i'm sure was plenty of times where it was, you know, not a small task, say the least, but to your point about the duty. certainly there was one thing that he a fair amount and it's just come across that you know you're very proud of his father but always was looking for his appreciation and and in respect and just, you know, doing what his father would thought was a good thing to do. so i think it's probably a mix of of duty to his country and

duty to his family, if you will. i think we had another question back here. well, my name is theresa gao. i'm currently a senior at mit. and i have a question for professor adler. so you've spoken a lot about the standards and standards ization of college education, especially with the classics. and i assume when you say classics, you just mean western classics. so i was wondering how you reconcile your perspectives, the reality of the diversity of younger, highly educated generations in college in terms of ethnic diversity, socioeconomic diversity, etc.. yeah. thank you very. so i'm really glad asked that question because it allows me to plump for my latest book, which is available in the lobby too if you're interested in fine prices everywhere, it called the battle of the classics and. in it, i attempt to offer a defense of a kind of core curriculum that i think is really important for students to

encounter in education. but i recognize also that the old classical curriculum is simply too narrow as far as its content concerned, to be intellectually and morally appropriate for the present especially in a highly pluralistic democracy like our own. and so i attempt to argue in of a kind of omnichannel cultural curriculum core curriculum that examines texts from a variety of different civilizations, the idea being that if there happened to be texts that various cultures perceived to be of foundational to their civilizations, and if those particular texts are written by cultures that do necessarily have a deal of interplay over the course of the time when these texts were created, then it's possible that those texts may be signaling something about differing ways in which human

beings have come to similar conclusions about the best ways live one's life. an example could be there are certain similarities between what confucius to say about being a good person or the buddha has to say about being a good person. and the way aristotle talks about being a good person. you're not going to see complete correspondence, those differing traditions, but you're going to see things that overlap. if they overlap in essential ways. there's a possibility that they've hit upon something edmund burke talked about as wisdom of the ages, and that doesn't mean that students have to just passively take this information, say, oh, well, this is what aristotle says, so i'll live like that. but instead it gives students an opportunity to, an omni cultural core curriculum to examine what various civilization have had to say about the best ways to live lives so that students can grapple that question themselves.

we've got a question way in the back over here, and then we'll go here. thank you very much, jason stevens, from ashland university. and i apologize in advance. my question someone has to do with hegel. the panel mentioned college studying with professor garman, the philosopher. my understanding is that he was also a hegelian and given coolidge's close relationship with garman and hegel's profound effect on early american progressivism. it's always me as striking that coolidge didn't become a progressive because of hegel's influence on garment and garments. influence on on coolidge. i'm wondering if anybody on the panel could say more about that. help me to understand that, because it's always been surprising to me.

yeah, everyone's looking at me like. yours are. i'm not a political philosopher or a philosopher at all. so this is going to be a bit of a stretch for me, but i would suggest it with my less than comprehend sort of knowledge of hegel that hegel influenced, lots of things. and not just the progressive movement. and so i do think that it's maybe a kind of narrowing of his importance as a thinker to perceive that there's a sort of logical connection between from being a hegelian to being a progressive or being a marxist or what have you. i do think that there is a of other traditions that have been partly inspired. hegel's thought. right over here. thank you, professor adler, for your remarks. my questions for as well.

so within the universities today, the disciplines been extremely specialized and sometimes that can be good, but sometimes it can not be good if you don't have that more foundational education in the classics and humanities, as you say. so my question is, how can we encourage a more foundational, broad and firm education in the humanities and classics still encouraging for students to be able to find what interested in? mm hmm. yeah. thank you. this is a problem that really goes back to coolidge's day. it really goes back to the late century when american higher education moved in fundamentally different directions from a concern originally with character to one concern really with research and power and a kind of narrowing of frame of interest which has required professors to really think about their jobs, chiefly as scientists, even if they're actually humanists.

so idea is that one isn't supposed to learn texts. one is supposed to learn about texts. and so so many of my colleagues write books and articles in which a normal person looking at it would say, oh my, this is the most narrow, boring thing. i can't imagine spending this much time working on that of subject. i do think there needs to be a kind of broadening of study that the kind of natural goal a professor is not to try to make students into mini professors, but instead to make them into good human beings, good adults. the problem is that you have to fight against the entire system of american higher education because. it requires for getting a job and one's advancement and moving up the totem pole to write this very kind of narrow scientist stick sort of work. so we have think about ways in which we can reform american academia so that there's a possibility of students using their education to think about

most important, rather than to focus on what's least important. we have time for one or two more. let's right here. hello, my name is patrick. i go hillsdale college. i have a question for judge jones. article one of the constitution says congress shall have the legislative power. yet increasingly that seems not to be the case with executive agencies legally binding rules and require ments. is there a solution to that problem? if so, what is it? well, there's certainly challenge as to that situation on right now. and as you know, professor prieto is leading the charge against the administrative state

from a constitutional standpoint. there are there are serious questions being raised about the the independence of the administrative agencies versus the status of the presidency, of the the the extent to which the rules would regulations are binding when compared with the laws that congress has. and of course, the underlying is that over the years, maybe mr. cox knows this very well. congress has seen it to its benefit to delegate the lawmaking away for a number of perfectly interesting reasons, which include, you know, you can't take respond to ability. but as a congressman well, you know, this is what the did or this is what the agriculture department did. but you can you can constituent,

you know, maintenance, but oh, you have a problem with the scc well maybe you'll remember me when i'm running again and i will give them call. so congress has to take chris font's ability back or. i don't want to predict. supreme court is going to move dramatically in direction, but it's possible that it will move in that direction, requiring to do its job again. thank you. great question we got one more question and. okay. right here. oops. okay. that's hello, i'm caleb and i'm from south carolina. and my question is for judge jones. how does the fundamentals of the constitution being a living document and also jefferson's idea that constitution should be

rewritten every 19 years? how that balance with your originalist of the constitution. well obviously jefferson and john marshall see things in the same light and marshall was the chief justice. right. so when you've got a constitution and interpreting the constitution, it is fundamental law, period. it sets the framework of government. the fact that our government doesn't work in the way that it was fully envisioned is is, you know, partly partly maybe good in a lot of ways, maybe not so good, but jefferson had a lot of ideas and never got any traction. and i can't remember first part of your question, but that's the answer to the second part. the constitution being. a living document. well, i agree with justice scalia. i'd rather see a document etched on mt. rushmore than, a document that

changes with the perceptions of nine unelected ten. you'd life tenured in. sadly we are out of time. well, thanks so much for. taking this deeper dive into early life at the bradley foundation. we devote a lot of our energies to sustaining and restoring the very of civil society that was evidence during coolidge's times. and i think we can draw some conclusions about what we need to do, take us back to a better place, a return to civility. government and self. where we can. as coolidge said in the late 1920s, it would be hard to imagine better surroundings for the development of a boy than those which had almost a cey.