Chris Westrate
At New Hope since 1999
B.A., English and History, Gordon College
M.A., English Literature, UMass Boston
PhD Candidate, Literature & Writing, University of New Hampshire
chris.westrate@newhopecourses.org
Chris Westrate studied English and history at Gordon College, concentrating on comparative literature and creative writing. He earned an MA in Literature from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, focusing his research and writing on the work of Vladimir Nabokov. He is a life-long reader, always looking for new books to enjoy and share.
Chris helped bring New Hope to life with former director and founder Joan Smith in 1999. From the beginning, he was invested in raising the bar for our students by establishing the humanities program at New Hope and teaching at both the middle and high school levels. The academic rigor and dialectical approach of his classes are frequently comparable to college classrooms, and the book lists challenge students to read the very best works of the tradition. Chris calls students to read the classics deeply, to wrestle with them on their own terms, and to go beyond plot analysis to the bigger questions in these works. For example, when his students read the Divine Comedy, he draws them into the philosophical, theological, political, and numerological connections in Dante’s multi-tiered poem. Mr. Westrate’s ability to equip students to tackle rich literature such as Homer’s Iliad, Shakespeare’s King Lear, Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God has paid off in spades, creating a culture of academic rigor and joyful engagement that influenced other courses and helped define the organization. Alumni routinely report a seamless transition between his classes and their college literature courses.
Mr. Westrate has been the Executive Director of New Hope since 2011. Throughout this decade, he recruited and developed high quality instructors and nurtured a thriving student community. Under his leadership, New Hope has grown to serve homeschooling families throughout Eastern Massachusetts and beyond.
English classes at New Hope are conducted according to the traditional university model. We participate in corporate learning (in classes of 8-10 students) while sitting around a seminar table. The tutor leads discussions about the curriculum, both striving for content acquisition and working to improve the critical thinking and discernment skills of the students. Students present ideas, questions, and written papers which provoke further exploration in the content areas.
Our slate of classes runs from 6th grade to senior year. We have built this program with the intention of providing a top-notch classical education in English Studies while at the same time growing and nurturing our students' love of reading, writing and speaking. Though our basic order of classes remains our ideal, it is possible and sometimes helpful to change the order for certain students or during certain years.
New Hope's literature courses are accelerated, but it must be stressed-and cannot be overstated-that New Hope seeks to accommodate all students who we believe are up to the challenge. We work with students at whatever level they come to us. “After years of experience, I have found that the overwhelming majority of our students, though challenged by our English program, are extremely successful in their goals. That is, they become better readers, writers and speakers.”
Our guest blogger today is Benjamin Wassell, a New Hope Senior who wrote this paper, “Join the Free”, for his Junior-year American Literature class with Mr. Westrate. In it, he argues that the liberal arts must not be eclipsed by skills-based education.
Join the Free
What do we consider to be the best education? In our current era, education attempts to fit what appear to be the needs of society. A common message is that what we need are men and women who have studied and specialized in certain skills. While this educational system has produced jobs, advancements in technology and medicine, and economic wealth for some, it is debatable if it has succeeded in producing a society geared toward the common good. Whether it’s the opioid crisis, sexual scandal in Hollywood, public fraud and fake news, or a population addicted to smartphones, a skills-based education does not seek to combat any of these problems. It just so happens that the educational solution to so many cultural ailments has been around for centuries. It is, in short, the liberal arts.We cannot let the liberal arts be eclipsed by skills-based education, for while a skills system does create effective workers, it does not bring those workers to a life driven by truth, beauty, and concern for the common good, which is actual freedom.