6–12 Workshops at the 2026 National Symposium for Classical Education

The 6-12 workshops at the 2026 Great Hearts National Symposium for Classical Education are designed to enhance the theme, Classical Education and the American Experiment, with interactive workshops for upper school educators in History, Lesson Planning, Art, Poetry, Science, Essays, Shakespeare, Logic, and more.

In the workshop, Teaching Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, Peter McNamara will discuss how Franklin’s Autobiography is multilayered. According to McNamara, Franklin was a genius, but he did not simply write for geniuses or even potential geniuses. He wrote also for the common man and without condescension. The challenge of reading and teaching Franklin is to do justice to both sides of Franklin’s teaching.

McNamara is a faculty member of the School of Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. His interests include the Scottish Enlightenment and the American Founding. He has also taught at Boston College, Clemson University, and Utah State University.

During the workshop, The American Experiment and the Politics of Science: Reflections on Science as Civic Education in a Moment of Challenged Democracy, J. Benjamin Hurlbut, PhD will discuss how science has long figured centrally in American democracy. According to Hurlbut, the conception of the American “experiment” was inflected with a scientific sensibility. The incorporation of science education into higher ed in the 19th and 20th centuries was as much about the cultivation of civic virtues as it was about bolstering the practical arts. Yet this thread has been largely lost in science education, even as science — and the public authority of scientific expertise — has become a locus of significant contestation and fracture in contemporary American democracy. This talk will reflect on the relationship between science and American democracy, exploring how contemporary political challenges offer an opportunity — and an imperative — for a better understanding of that relation and how it can inform approaches to both scientific and civic education.

Hurlbut is Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. He is trained in science and technology studies (STS) and his research lies at the intersection of intersection of STS, bioethics and democratic theory. His work explores the relationships between science, politics and law in the governance of biomedical research and innovation, with particular attention to developments in biotechnology that raise fundamental questions of human integrity and dignity. He is Co-director of the Global Observatory on Genome Editing, an effort to develop new approaches to technology governance grounded in inclusive and far-reaching deliberation that draws upon a wide range of human knowledge, experience and moral imagination. He is the author of Experiments in Democracy: Human Embryo Research and the Politics of Bioethics (Columbia University Press, 2017) as well as numerous articles and book chapters. He is often called upon by the media to comment on issues relating to reproductive technology, genome editing, synthetic embryo research, and related areas. He holds an A.B. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard University. He held a postdoctoral fellowship in the program on Science, Technology and Society at the Harvard Kennedy School.

These 6-12 workshops, along with many others, will be presented at the Great Hearts National Symposium for Classical Education, held February 25–27, 2026, in Tempe, Arizona. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with fellow educators, renew your sense of purpose, and explore how classical education continues to shape the American experiment. Learn more and register for the pre-conference event and the Symposium at https://classicaleducationsymposium.org/

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