Genius Exists in Every Child—My Policy for Reinstituting Classical Education

I would emphasize that my commitment to political work has come from being surrounded in an environment of classical education. From my high school years, I was given the chance to participate in several summer school programs which focused on what the Ancient Greeks called the “quadrivium” — arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. In the morning, we would begin by singing for up to 2 hours, learning the works of the great classical composers: Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and others. Then, after our lunch break, we would engage in mastering the principles of constructive geometry, and proceed to mathematics as derived from the physical domain. We would construct the five platonic solids from scratch, build astrolabes to determine the position of the sun and determine the time, figure out why we lived on a round earth, and from there discover the circumference of our planet, as the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes did many years ago without a smartphone to look up the answer!

This is what I mean by a classical education policy. I was taught that any child, regardless of their circumstances, could be raised to be a genius, if given the right education. This was taught by the great Greek philosopher Socrates to a young slave boy named Meno, who had no formal education, but despite that was able to double the area of a given square without being given the answer beforehand! How was he able to do that? “Because,” Socrates told him, the answer was in his mind from the very beginning, as it is in every human being.

To implement some of the economic programs I have proposed for the Bronx and the rest of the nation, such as my “Space CCC” policy, we will need to educate a large number of young people who will be creative scientific thinkers, as well as skilled engineers, builders, and artisans. I think we should start from the basis of treating every child as equally capable of developing their creative potential. The current curriculum of pre-k, elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education is completely inadequate, and has failed in nurturing a sense of independent scientific authority within the student. Instead, students are taught to remember several “facts” and “information” without truly knowing for themselves, and are later tested on a series of such “facts” with the hope of getting a good grade.

The failure of our current education policy is evident. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, approximately twenty-one percent of U.S. adults have difficulty completing basic tasks in three domains (literacy, numeracy, and digital problem-solving). That equates to roughly 43.0 million people who lack basic literacy. Compare that to China, whose overall adult literacy rate in 2020 had reached 97%. Literacy rates among young adults (ages 15-24) had reached 100% that same year! Look at the condition of American school infrastructure.The American Society of Civil Engineers in their 2025 infrastructure report card gave public schools in the U.S. a D+. The report states, “The annual funding gap to reach a state of good repair for the nation’s public schools has grown from $60 billion in 2016 to $85 billion in 2021. Critical needs at school buildings include water upgrades to remove lead and installation of cooling systems amid increasing temperatures.”

More than half of young Gen Zers want to be social media influencers, at least 57% according to a 2023 Morning Consult survey. How can we motivate younger generations to become geniuses, if they believe their future is to become a TikTok influencer, and not an astronaut, doctor, or physicist?

We must inculcate the passion for scientific discovery, truth, and beauty at the beginning of each child’s development. Here are four main areas of focus which can form the preliminary basis for a classical education policy:

• Science: Students will begin by discovering for themselves the great achievements of scientists, all the way from the ancient Greeks who measured the Earth without circumnavigating the globe, to Albert Einstein, who changed our view of physics by laying down the theory of general relativity. Students should be given access to laboratories where experiments can be performed, telescopes to study the stars at night, and more “hands-on” oriented assignments. Study in the work of great Renaissance thinkers, including Leonardo Da Vinci, Johannes Kepler, Nicholas of Cusa, and Fillipo Brunelleschi, will form the basis of knowledge in astronomy, mechanics, geometry, and perspective in painting.
• Poetry/Classical Literature: Students will read the works of the great classical authors, philosophers, and poets. I would recommend the writings of Plato, Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, Schiller, and Edgar Poe. Not only reading these texts, but also learning how to act/recite great dramatic works of Shakespeare and Schiller will also be important in teaching literacy to students. Each student should be given the task of reciting several of their favorite poems from memory, writing their own poems, and acting out drama and designing their own costumes and theater sets.
• Language: Each student should be acquainted with at least 2-3 languages by the end of their high school years. The teaching of Classical Greek, through Homer and Plato, should be reinstituted. A study of Italian, beginning with the work of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio, can provide the foundation for mastering other Romance languages, such as Spanish and French. Other courses should be offered in non-European languages, such as those of Asia and Africa. There are approximately 1.4 billion people in China, and another 1.4 billion in India. Wouldn’t a basic familiarity in those languages be practical for a young student, who would endeavor to travel to learn more about other cultures?
• Music: Every child should be required to sing in a chorus, according to the method of bel canto singing. Children should be taught the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, and Haydn from a very young age. Other programs featuring courses on instrumental learning, such as in the piano, violin, and other orchestral instruments, should be offered to students, with each school being given the necessary funding to procure such equipment. Monthly or even semi-weekly trips to different concert halls, or masterclasses with trained professionals, should be part of the musical education of students.