Mr. Anderson
Mr. Anderson grew up in Montana and received his secondary education in Colorado. He spent time studying in the United States, France, Ireland, and England. His undergraduate work culminated in an honors dissertation comparing the work of Isaiah Berlin, R.G. Collingwood, and Michael Oakeshott. He graduated with a BS in political science and international relations from the University of Denver. Mr. Anderson completed the bulk of his graduate work at universities in England and France. Throughout his academic career, he has been primarily interested in intellectual history as well as moral and political philosophy.
Since coming to Ridgeview, Mr. Anderson has taught seventh-grade Literature, eighth-grade American History, eleventh-grade American History, American Government, American Political Philosophy, Advanced Political Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Political Novel, Rhetoric, and Russian Literature. Mr. Anderson continues to be interested in the American founding and the origins of constitutional government. He has helped to create the Ridgeview Classical Institute, which has assisted dozens of schools around the country in implementing classical curricula in their classrooms.
In Mr. Anderson’s early years at Ridgeview, he created an extraordinary student book group called the Bent Nib Society at which students and alumni came together to discuss texts that included Isaiah Berlin's The Hedgehog and the Fox, Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield, and John Ruskin's The Nature of the Gothic, among many, many others. Since becoming Ridgeview’s Headmaster, Mr. Anderson has hosted weekly, monthly, and summer parent reading groups at which great ideas and great texts are regularly discussed. Logan Pearsall Smith of Oxford once said, "People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading." That may be going a bit far, but only a bit. Mr. Anderson is a voracious reader who tries to keep up by not only reading books related to his courses, but much that lies outside of his immediate areas of study. As Headmaster, Mr. Anderson teaches the Moral Philosophy course, conducts colloquia, advises senior theses, meets regularly with both Student Council and Student Ambassadors, and hosts a monthly Headmaster’s Coffee.
Mr. Anderson has made the outdoors a priority both as a part of his personal life and as a part of Ridgeview’s sense of how a classical education can best be communicated. He enjoys hiking, mountaineering, rock and ice climbing, backcountry ski touring, Nordic skiing, camping, fly fishing, shooting sports, and generally seeking out adventure wherever it can be found in the outdoors.
