The King’s College is pleased to welcome Leigh Bortins, founder and CEO of Classical Conversations, to deliver a lecture on March 7 entitled “Mothers and Money: Building Businesses with Babies.”
Bortins will share the challenges of building an international corporation that disrupts educational bureaucracies while homeschooling four children, battling state legislators and prosecutors, and prayerfully seeking to know God and make Him known.
Part of the President’s Lecture series, Bortins’s presentation will take place at 12:15pm in the City Room on the King’s campus at 56 Broadway in downtown Manhattan. The event is free and open to the public, but attendees must reserve tickets via Eventbrite. The lecture will also be streamed on Facebook for audiences unable to attend in person.
Bortins’s relationship with King’s has a personal flavor: her son William is a senior at King’s in the business administration major. She says, “I appreciate The King’s College’s ability to challenge students to do their best at both work and home. I look forward to joining their conversations on navigating an integrated Christian life.”
Bortins is a nationally acclaimed educator, author, and commentator credited with helping to launch the “home-centered learning” education movement. After earning a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan, she worked in the aerospace industry before beginning her work as an educator. She has taught study skills for 30 years to children and adults and is the author of several books including The Core, The Question, and The Conversation, a series which explores the classical trivium from a parent’s perspective.
Her business, Classical Conversations Inc., models the home-centered learning approach to empower learners of all ages. Bortins trains facilitators dedicated to duplicating her methods, with the goal of transforming education and improving the quality of family and community life. Her emphasis on the time-tested enjoyment of learning and the fundamentals of education and critical thinking skills grew out of her own experiences homeschooling her four boys with her husband Robert. They, their children, and their grandchildren live near Pinehurst in North Carolina.
Provost Dr. Mark Hijleh says, “Leigh Bortins is a winsome advocate for the tradition of classical Christian education that we espouse here at The King’s College, and we commend her work equipping families to cultivate a lifelong love of learning. Hearing Leigh’s pursuit of academic freedom in the context of homeschooling should bring valuable insights to our campus community and to families tuning into the livestream around the country.”