Sword&Spade Taste, Formation, and the Perpetual Adolescent w/ Joshua Gibbs
Apr 2, 2026
01:15:35
Jason Craig sits down with Joshua Gibbs, a classical literature teacher of 19 years, author, and director of the Classical Teaching Institute at the Ambrose School to talk about what it actually takes to form young men and women. Drawing from his book A Parlay with Youth and his essay "Overgrown Adolescence," Gibbs offers hard-won wisdom on taste, discipline, coeducation, and what perpetual adolescence is costing the rising generation.
What We Cover:
- Why the sophomore year is the critical window for forming young men, and what happens if they miss it
- How consuming bad things dulls the mind, and what it looks like when a student finally wakes up
- The case for sex-segregated education and why coed classrooms make boys harder to form and discipline
- What the rise of the "18-to-34" demographic reveals about arrested development and perpetual adolescence
- Why over-praising children is more likely to stunt their growth than almost anything else a parent can do
Chapters:
- 00:00: Introduction
- 01:33: Gibbs' background and the making of A Parlay with Youth
- 09:35: How bad consumption creates dullness
- 12:23: The sophomore year awakening
- 17:28: The age of accountability and middle school
- 19:55: A second crack at life at age 26–27
- 26:53: The first rule: adults must genuinely like youth
- 34:24: The case for sex-segregated education
- 49:51: The rise of the 18-to-34 demographic
- 58:48: What perpetual adolescents are missing
- 01:12:31: Closing advice for fathers: on over-praise
Resources Mentioned:
- A Parlay with Youth by Joshua Gibbs
- Something They Will Not Forget by Joshua Gibbs
- Love What Lasts by Joshua Gibbs
- In the Trenches podcast
- Gibbs Classical
- Divini Illius Magistri by Pope Pius XI
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Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios