Ken has taught at both Fordham University and American International College, besides invited lectures at the Higgins Armory Museum, numerous academic conferences, and elsewhere. Some of the subjects he has taught include medieval history, medieval technology; exploration, conquest, and colonization; and both Western and wold civilization. He is also a fencing instructor at the Higgins Armory Museum.
Ken's teaching philosophy, whether in the classroom or on the fencing piste, is profoundly humanistic and geared towards the individual student. Each person is unique, bringing unique gifts, experiences, and insights with them, and learning in a different way. The pedagogical experience must, in turn, be tuned to each person's pitch.
In shepharding the student down their path, Ken stands by classical method: St. Augustine, in his dialogue The Teacher notes that “there is a kind of teaching, and a most important kind, which consists in reminding people of something.” Though Ken might disagree with the Bishop of Hippo on several important issues, what stood about education in Augustine’s time stands in our own: The best education is not accomplished through mechanical repetition of facts or by rote drill, but by awakening the student to the power of his or her own intelligence to see patterns in the world, and thus inspiring them to further their knowledge and so deepen their understanding of the underlying causes of these patterns.
This approach is eminently well-suited to the teaching of history, for history is all around us. The world we live is the product of a historical dialectic, and behind the most seemingly obvious social conventions and cultural artifacts lie centuries and millennia of development. Some of these are atavistic remains of past socioeconomic-historical realities and are ultimately doomed to extinction. Yet, this process of change itself, played out in the arenas of art, politics, religion, and elsewhere, is of inherent interest to the vast majority of people. By uncovering the causes behind the effects, we gain a superior understanding of our world.
Finally, by investigating the patterns behind these processes of change, we can uncover the universal principles underpinning our world and empower ourselves to change it.