Classical Education Expands

Classical Education Expands at the University of Dallas  

Last summer marked the beginning of the Classical Education Graduate Program and a partnership between the University of Dallas and Great Hearts Academies, a public charter system of academically rigorous, classical, liberal arts K-12 schools. This summer, the partnership continues to grow as the University of Dallas welcomed a second cohort of Classical education graduate students to campus.

Associate Professor and Department Chairman of English Greg Roper, Ph.D., was an early advocate of the program. “We’ve sent many of our best students to teach at Great Hearts schools over the years, and they send students here,” Roper said. “They have a wonderful way of taking students who are dedicated to the vision and teaching them on the job in the old apprentice method, how to do the teaching part. Great Hearts teachers want to earn their master’s degrees, and I think we’re the perfect place to do that.”

Ron Bergez, a current student in the Classical Education Graduate Program, is no stranger to classical education — nor to the University of Dallas. The father of two UD alumni, Bergez was excited to experience for himself a slice of the school his children attended.

“What I've always wanted is to keep feeding my mind and becoming better at my craft,” Bergez said. “I've been able to do some of that on my own, but I've long wanted to pursue an advanced degree to enhance my understanding of what I teach and how I can teach it better. A teacher should always be a learner, anyway, and the faculty at UD will bring my learning to a level way beyond whatever I can do for myself.”

Bergez has taught humanities subjects for 26 years, primarily in private and now charter schools like Tempe Preparatory Academy from which Great Hearts was founded. During his 16 years at Tempe Prep, Bergez also served two years as headmaster and one as dean of students.

Bergez is currently pursuing his Certificate in Classical Learning, the shortened 18-credit-hour version of the full graduate program. Last year, he took two courses in the program; the first was History of Liberal Arts Education, taught by Associate Professor of History Susan Hanssen, Ph.D.

“Dr. Hanssen's passion for history revivified my own attraction to it,” Bergez said. “She demonstrated connections among even seemingly disparate events that create new levels of understanding of the patterns underlying human activity; in doing so she reaffirmed that history is a combination of separately fascinating individual strands of human decision, woven in a pattern ultimately comprehensible but always too large to take in at once, or even over a span of years — which is thrilling. Her delight in teaching itself made me feel privileged to be a teacher.”

The second course Bergez tackled last summer was Teaching Classical Children’s Literature, taught by Affiliate Assistant Professor of Modern Languages Laura Eidt, Ph.D. 

“Dr. Eidt opened up for me new perspectives in the field of children's literature,” Bergez said. “Her knowledge of the field is profound, and the placing of these stories in the context of the times in which they were written, and within the development of literary tradition, renews the sense of connection between history and the arts — something I find fascinating.”

With classes available both onsite and online during both the summer and the academic year, students like Ron Bergez are able to draw from a wide range of resources in pursuit of the revitalization of today’s education system.

“I think we need to feed this movement,” Roper said. “We are the place that can provide teachers with this next step in their education.”

Visit udallas.edu/classicaled to learn more about the Classical Education Graduate Program.