Ian Lindquist

In Memoriam, 1986-2022

Ian Lindquist was a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His work focused on liberal and classical education, civil society and civic education, and the traditional and communal grounds of liberty in modern and contemporary society and culture.

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Ian Lindquist was a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His work focused on liberal and classical education, civil society and civic education, and the traditional and communal grounds of liberty in modern and contemporary society and culture. He previously served as the program manager for education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he wrote on charter-school innovation and expansion. His writings on education policy and his frequent book reviews were published by the American Enterprise Institute, U.S. News, the Weekly Standard, and the Washington Free Beacon.

Concurrent with his post at EPPC, Mr. Lindquist served as Senior Advisor to the Public Interest Fellowship. He previously served as the Public Interest Fellowship’s Executive Director, where he oversaw organizational operations, strategic partnerships, and the professional and liberal education of the fellows.

From 2009 to 2015, Mr. Lindquist was a middle and high school teacher, and assistant headmaster, with Great Hearts Academies in Phoenix, Arizona, where he taught Socratic seminars on great books to high school sophomores and juniors. During his time at Great Hearts, he was a Leadership Fellow and a network-wide instructional coach for faculty of the Socratic seminar Humane Letters course.

He held a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis. He resided in Hyattsville, Maryland, with his wife and family.

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Eva Brann on Liberal Education

Ian Lindquist

In a time that prizes vocational training, on the one hand, and indoctrination masquerading as education, on the other, Eva Brann’s writings can help readers recapture a vision of education that is truly free — free from utilitarian concerns, and a good in itself.

Articles

Real Clear Education / November 10, 2021

More Inane Myths about Chosenness

Ian Lindquist

A new book aims to dispel the idea of the divine chosenness of the Jews. In fact, it promotes a moralism as heavy-handed as that of the most simplistic preacher.

Articles

Mosaic / January 12, 2021

Columbus Day: Accuracy & Public Honor Can Co-Exist

Ian Lindquist

Columbus’ legacy is as important as ever today because it reminds us that historical accuracy and public honor are not mutually exclusive. While recognizing Columbus’s imperfections, we can also honor the good he passed down to us.

Articles

Real Clear Policy / October 12, 2020

What Christians Can Learn from the Jewish Schools of the Future

Ian Lindquist

Traditionalist Christians and Jews can take advantage of this moment to renew classical and civic education.

Articles

Mosaic / August 20, 2020

The American University Must Reaffirm Its Liberal Character

Ian Lindquist

This core mission of the American university is the common ground of American society, apart from partisan rancor and mob tactics, and dedicated to the proposition that all positions are created equal and up for debate.

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Real Clear Policy / June 19, 2020

To Rebuild After COVID, Look to Faith-Based Organizations

Ian Lindquist

Combatting distrust, despair, and isolation during the coronavirus pandemic will mean looking to America’s faith-based organizations for help feeding the poor and needy, for encouragement in prayer which engenders hope, and for remembering that human beings will once again feast together with joy.

Articles

Lessons from the Renaissance: A Case for the Teaching of Classical Virtue

Ian Lindquist

Renaissance education reform is in many respects the ancestor of a current education-reform movement in American that has been growing since the early 1980s. Like the Renaissance reformers, classical educators today introduce their students to classical virtue and classical authors. Today’s classical educators do not view their approach as an exercise in antiquarianism but rather as necessary for a life fully lived.

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Classical Schools in Modern America

Ian Lindquist

By rediscovering and dusting off ancient forms and ideals of education and at the same time utilizing decidedly modern associational forms, classical education schools have become some of the most successful and thriving educational options in America.

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National Affairs - Fall 2019 issue / September 23, 2019

Pondering the Glory of America: Wilfred M. McClay’s Land of Hope: An Invitation to the…

Ian Lindquist

A land of hope is one that is ever moving toward a better future but also one that must see its limitations and appreciate how to work within the context of limitation. Wilfred McClay’s account of America ultimately points readers toward this seeming contradiction which, in his woven-together story of the country, reveals itself in the end as the glory of living out tensions inherent in the human condition.

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Providence / August 2, 2019

Learning to Argue

Ian Lindquist

From college students’ inability or unwillingness to tolerate disagreement to the increased partisanship of political elites, American society appears to have forgotten that a bedrock practice of liberal democracy is the hurly-burly back and forth of the intellectual arena. Some K-12 schools are taking notice and responding by recommitting to teaching the intellectual and moral habits that allow students to enter contentious debate and to disagree agreeably with their peers in high school and afterward.

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The Weekly Standard / December 17, 2018

Denmark’s Challenge and Hamlet’s Task

Ian Lindquist

The title of Shakespeare’s play—The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark—suggests that Hamlet has a public role to play in Denmark. But what is that role and how should we understand it? To do so, we must first understand what is rotten in the kingdom of Denmark—and try to understand what Hamlet the prince can and should do about it.

Articles

Self-Expression and Moral Certainty on Campus

Ian Lindquist

Colleges today encourage students to conflate youthful arrogance with high moral purpose.

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The American Mind / November 29, 2018