It’s an eye-catching title, yes? To be fair, we didn’t really brawl. It’s hard to brawl when everyone mostly agrees. Instead, we grappled on this panel with the question of how to cultivate the Fine Arts as an indispensable element of a child’s education.

Maybe some brawling is needed, though. (I did suggest it at one point.) The tendency to relegate the Fine Arts to the status of Elective is hard to dislodge. The association of “elite” that has been attached to the arts has deep, if inaccurate, roots. If anything needs to be overturned, this would be a good place to start!

Furthermore, there is an uncertainty about how, pedagogically, to incorporate the arts among people who, otherwise, are committed to the value of classic literature (sometimes called The Great Books). Finally, ready access to the arts remains a problem for many people. We live in a cultural landscape where the arts simple have been removed from so many children’s (and adults’) lives.

I hope you will enjoy our discussion of these issues as moderator Shane Saxon, Martin Cothran, Paul Schaeffer, and I join together for Brawling over Art, part of Memoria Press’ podcast series Classical Et Cetera.