1. Classical education is by no means only for the gifted. In fact, I would say that for the intellectually challenged, classical education could well be the best method! They’ll have to go slower, to be sure. But any subject inherently has this structure of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom; hence, the intellectually challenged as well as the gifted need to arrive at more-or-less the same spot.

2. As for “heart”, I would say that classical education has historically been aimed at the whole person, at least in terms of head and heart. Not only have Christian practitioners wanted to educate the affections, but the ancient Greeks and Romans did as well. So all strands of classical education try to get at the heart.

3. As for the “hand” aspect, the purely classical (with no explicitly Christian element) education has possibly fallen short, and not been incarnational enough. Witness Aristotle’s Physics, e.g. However, the Christian element of classical Christian education corrects that. Surely, if the student learns wisdom, that means actually going out there and doing the right thing. Is that not the definition of wisdom?

Therefore, taken as a whole, I would still say that classical Christian education is the best thing going right now.

I’d also throw in Latin for training the mind; there’s nothing quite like it.