Dr. Reno Lauro on Tolkien’s View of Education & Why it is Important for Classical Education

About our Guest
Dr. Reno Lauro received his PhD from the University of St. Andrews Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts in 2011, where he wrote on J. R. R. Tolkien’s philosophy of Mythopoeia. For the past 10 years, he has worked at the intersection of Humane and Digital learning.After completing his degrees, Theology (MDiv) and History (BA), Reno apprenticed for 18 months on the Palme d’Or winning film The Tree of Life with director Terrence Malick, which transformed his understanding of the Classics, the modern world, and how to communicate the relationship between the two.

He has taught at the graduate and undergraduate level as well as in both Lower and Upper School classrooms of Classical Schools. Most recently, Reno has served as the Assistant Headmaster at St. Peter’s Classical School in Fort Worth, TX and of a Great Hearts Archway School and also worked closely with the CEO of the globally recognized BASIS.ed charter schools to create and pilot seminar-style history courses as alternatives to AP classes.

Reno resides in Ft. Worth, Texas with his wife and 4 gloriously active young boys. He is passionate about philosophy, history, and beautiful teaching. He currently works as a Classical Pedagogy and Curriculum Specialist for Coram Deo Academies in DFW. He also is an active consultant for Beautiful Teaching: Consulting in Classical Education Philosophy & Pedagogy.

His 2 Bonus Podcast Episodes can be downloaded from our Patreon Page here.

Show Notes
We discuss Tolkien’s view of education through the lens of cosmology, anthropology, and story. Reno discusses the theological implications between language and story and how this view ties to the recovery of Christian classical education. Philology is the foundation of the humane letters and there is more to learning than the seeking and the mining of literature in an academic way. This “lifeless” and “dull” style of the university in Tolkien’s Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford, points to a larger anthropological view of education. This leads us to think of education as a living, breathing, and whole that is multi-faceted and varied.

In this world of machines, we need to recover the fullness of human life.

Key Text:
We discussed at great length from The Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford refers to J.R.R. Tolkien's retirement speech from the University of Oxford, delivered on 5 June 1959. The valedictory speech is included in J.R.R. Tolkien, Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam. Another draft was published in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1983).

Some topics in this episode include:
What was Tolkien's struggle with his peers at The University and how does it show us his philosophy of education?
Tolkien as a Dante for the technocratic age
Encountering education as a living, breathing, whole within the cosmos
The medieval view of education
What was Tokien’s relationship with the cosmos and trees and how does this influence his view of learning?

Books & Titles Mentioned In This Episode

The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Their Friends by Humphrey Carpenter (chapters 2-3)
Secret Fire: The Spiritual Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien by Stratford Caldecott
Mythopoeia by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis
The valedictory speech is included in J.R.R. Tolkien, Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam. Another draft was published in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1983).

Reno's quote at end of podcast:
Hail Earendel, brightest of angels,
Sent to men over middle-earth,
And true radiance of the sun,
Fine beyond stars, you always illuminate,...
Source:
Christ I poem from Anglo-Saxon advent liturgy

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Credits:
Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel
Logo Art: Anastasiya CF
Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo

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