Tim Krumal has passionately served many homeschooling families throughout the last 20 years both within the church and by founding several classical Christian communities. Currently serving as a teacher and leader in the community, his focus is encouraging the vision and mission of Legacy to continue far into the next generation.

Presentation: The Habit of Piety and Virtue

Dr. Karla Memmott is has a heart to serve the classically educating homeschooling community. As co-founder of Acacia Classical Academy she and her husband, Kyle, minister the homeschooling needs in the greater Sacramento area. Together, they also strive to build an ecumenic community of classical educators in Northern California through the Western Consortium of Classical Educators conference.

Presentation: Fortitude: The Habit of Mental Strength

Perseverance and courage are virtues of action. However, fortitude is the mental habit  needed to prepare one for action. This talk explores the need to instill a habit of fortitude, and how classical christian education provides the why and the how to acquire fortitude.

Scott Postma is currently the president and CEO of Kepler Education. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his bride of more than 30 years. Inspired by the classical and Christian imagination, his passion is to help high school and college students obtain a Christian liberal arts education. Scott served as a minister for 20 years and as an educator for nearly 30 years. During this time, he helped plant two churches and found two private Christian schools. He holds a doctorate in the humanities with an emphasis in literature (Ph.D., Faulkner University).

Presentation: The Habit of Reading and the Ancient Art of Tsundoku

 Classical Christian Education is grounded in language-focused learning. That means a classical pedagogy is worthless if it is not applied to something; and, that something is books and letters, great books as it were. If Barnes & Noble’s recent spectacular comeback teaches us anything, it’s that even in a digital age dominated by social media, reading books and building personal libraries is essential to human flourishing. Thus, it’s incumbent on educated persons to develop a virtuous habit of reading and collecting good books.

Chris Swanson has been a tutor at Gutenberg since 1994, and in 2016, he became president of the college. He has a B.S. in physics and mathematics from Westmont College and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Oregon. His academic focus has been on the history and philosophy of mathematics and science, with a special emphasis on the art of scientific knowing.

Presentation: Habits and Learning: Polanyi’s Synthesis

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle claims, “intellectual virtue in the main owes both its birth and its growth to teaching,… while moral virtue comes about as a result of habit.” Aristotle, however, leaves the process of learning and habit formation unexplored. In the groundbreaking work, Personal Knowledge, Michael Polanyi takes up this challenge by exploring the nature of tacit knowledge. He shows that tacit knowledge forms the basis of both intellectual knowledge and habits. I will discuss this synthesis and its impact on teaching and learning.