Dorothy Sayers Is the Answer to John Dewey

By Jesse Sumpter

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Jesse Sumpter, a graduate of New Saint Andrews College and teacher of classical Christian education, wrote an excellent and humorous piece laying out Dorothy Sayers’ challenge to the progressives–and why it persists today more than ever before.

“John Dewey is such a big name in the educational world that it can seem like there is no way to push back against his work, but Dorothy Sayers offers a way for the Liberal Arts not only to push back on Dewey but also to steal his thunder. Sayers takes much of Dewey’s power away because she offers a program that deals honestly with the reality of child development. In this way, we see that Sayers does not merely offer an education program based on the Trivium; rather she offers a way for Classical educators to answer many of the trends in the educational world today. This, in turn, suggests why Classical education has experienced such a revival in recent years. The true power of Sayers is that she harnessed the truths of child development and then built them into the older curriculum of the Liberal Arts. This integration of method and material is a powerful recipe that has yet to be surpassed by other educational theories.