In a bid to save Catholic education, major Catholic archdioceses are closing many schools and turning others over to the control of regional boards. This sad necessity has become an occasion for soul-searching within the Catholic educational bureaucracy. As Catholic leaders combat the causes of plummeting enrollment, they might look beyond the obvious financial barriers to examine the curricula and culture offered in their schools. Fewer Catholic parents are willing or able to make costly tuition payments when the differences between free government education and the local parochial option are negligible. However, an emerging movement in Catholic education offers an alternative both faithful and marketable. At the cutting edge of the effort to restore Catholic education are a number of schools, private and even diocesan, that are finding growth and enthusiasm in the rediscovery of a rigorous, classical liberal arts curriculum.
This movement first emerged among Catholic homeschoolers in the 1970’s and 1980’s, then spread to small independent schools in the early 1990’s. Today, around 100,000 Catholic students are homeschooled, and thousands more are enrolled in independent Catholic schools outside of the diocesan system. The enormity of this loss to the diocesan schools cannot be measured simply by empty seats. These parents, who have chosen “the road less traveled”, are among those most willing to sacrifice time, talent, and treasure for an authentically Catholic education. With parental devotion and American spirit, they have not settled for merely passing on catechesis.
Like many of their Protestant and secular counterparts, these parents have found inspiration and direction from an unusual source—a semi-whimsical, 1947 speech given by mystery author Dorothy Sayers, in which she laments the inability of her contemporaries to recognize shoddy reasoning and emotional manipulation and re-imagines a Medieval curriculum in a modern setting:
They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects.
The heart of Sayers’ reform lies in connecting the classically known trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric with her own insight into the developmental stages of learning. Learning the basic terms and facts of any discipline (grammar) is appropriate to the Parroting age (elementary), in which learning by heart is a natural and pleasurable activity. Making connections, drawing conclusions, recognizing fallacious reasoning are natural activities for the Pert stage (junior high). In the Poetic stage (high school), the student infuses forms with meaning. Overall, the goal is to develop those abilities that will make life-long learning a reality. Teaching to standardized tests in subject areas is antithetical to the classical movement. Those who practice Sayers’ methods add a commitment to classical history rather than social studies, a preference—drawn from the Great and Good Books movements—for original writings rather than textbooks, and a serious attention to integrating the curriculum within a Christian understanding of the world.
The last 15 years have seen an explosion of classical schools and homeschooling organizations among non-Catholic Christians. The Association of Classical and Christian Schools has 229 members, Classical Conversations claims to help 37,000 homeschoolers and the Circe Institute offers an impressive array of training services and products.
Although not yet so well organized, many independent Catholic schools also have embraced the classical approach. At first schools like the Lyceum Academy in Cleveland, Ohio and St. Augustine Academy in Ventura, California, were considered outsiders and even threats to the Catholic educational establishment. But the evident successes of these schools in forming strong Catholic academic communities with students knowledgeable about their faith, their Church, and Christian civilization have led pastors, bishops, and superintendents to open their arms toward these schools. In the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, the Most Reverend Robert C. Morlino has lent his support to the independent St. Ambrose Academy to such an extent that he teaches there on a regular basis.
In 2009, St. Jerome’s parish school in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., faced dropping enrollment and major debt that forced a diocesan review process. A group of parishioners approached Pastor James M. Stack with the idea of a classical curriculum, a bold move for an urban, socioeconomically and ethnically diverse school. Fr. Stack and Principal Mary Pat Donoghue embraced the idea, and a volunteer curriculum team of educators, theologians, and philosophers hammered out the 120-page educational plan for the pre-K-8 school. The superintendent supported the initiative, and St. Jerome’s today has gained national attention for its early successes. Some classes now have waiting lists. After the first year with the new approach, math and reading scores jumped. Disproving the notion that a classical curriculum is elitist, many students who previously struggled found motivation and success through the rich content and lively discussions that required them to think deeply.
“We have seen what it looks like for a child to be truly educated, and it is a very different thing than just the acquisition of skills,” said Donoghue. “This is about opening the treasure trove of the Catholic Church, and re-imagining ourselves in its heritage and thought.”
As public education moves toward nationally accepted common core standards, Donoghue insists that the Church has an opportunity to move in a different direction and resist the pressure to conform to decidedly secular content and pedagogy. Classical Catholic schools have made a conscious choice, not to turn back to the past, but to draw upon the riches of tradition to help children understand who they are in the modern world. The response of students, parents, and teachers reveals the fruit of these efforts.
Andrew Seeley is Director of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education and Tutor at Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, California. Elisabeth Ryan Sullivan is a writer who serves on the boards of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education and the Catholic Education Foundation. She is also Director of Communications for St. John Bosco Schools in East Rochester, NY.
RESOURCES
Dorothy Sayers’ 1947 speech, “The Lost Tools of Learning”
Association of Classical & Christian Schools
Become a fan of First Things on Facebook, subscribe to First Things via RSS, and follow First Things on Twitter.
Comments:
Time to recognize and return to a two-track system, in which those who have the intellectual capability and the desire can pursue an academic education, while those deficient in one or the other receive meaningful vocational training--training that should continue beyond high school, but not through traditional college-based four-year degree programs. Rather, as Charles Murray has suggested, a combination of apprenticeships and certification programs, based in community colleges, technical institutions and even industry-funded, would be able to turn out large numbers of skilled tradesmen and technicians this country badly needs. How badly? A good plumber, electrician or automobile mechanic can pull down a six figure salary, a lot more than your typical cubical rat--and the tradesman is not saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in educational loans that he cannot repay.
In short, the educational bubble is about to burst, and while there may be a (limited) place for classical education, there is a far larger, more pressing need for excellent vocational education. The Church ought to consider that, too--particularly in light of its social ideals of marrying young and having children in a single-earner family.
Your basic point about the need for more apprenticeships and certifications is well taken. However, I disagree with your assertion that we shouldn't be "pushing more people into classical education" in K-12. Particularly in the K-8 level, that's exactly what we should be doing. The classical approach actually teaches grammar and logic, which is sadly lacking in much of the public school system. If a student reaches the 9th or 10th grade level and does not show the aptitude or inclination to pursue further studies that would lead to a university-type education, then by all means a track of apprenticeship/certification/job skill training is appropriate. But the benefit of a better understanding of language and the ability to read and think logically is invaluable to anyone - from doctors and lawyers to electricians and auto mechanics.
One hopes that the auto mechanic can parse what's under the hood and know the functions of each part, just as one hopes the ethicist can identify the components of living well and how they are ordered to each other. A classical education will be of benefit in either case.
Sometimes parents are concerned that their children will not be able to keep up with the curriculum, but it has been used to teach ESL students and special ed students as well as the occasional genius that walks through our doors, and every one leaves enriched. Students' limits are partially in place through others' expectations. If you expect that they will read the novel, they will have a better shot at it.
Classical education is not the sort of thing that can be easily systematized and franchised. The Catholic Church failed monstrously when it legislated Thomism in its schools in the first half of the twentieth century. You can’t give what you don’t have: How can teachers who have no idea what a truly liberal education is pass such a thing on to students? But the early evidence suggests that when a group of committed teachers and parents desire to educate in the classical way and are willing to educate themselves about it, they can succeed.
If even a significant minority, say ten to fifteen percent, of Catholic schools embrace a classical approach, what kind of an effect would that have on both Church and society? On the economic side, we should not underestimate the attractiveness of classically educated graduates in an economy where information is more and more valuable but making sense of it and communicating its significance is vastly more difficult. And how valuable will it be to have leadership candidates who can think about our complex society in, through and with the Bible, St. Augustine, Herodotus, Virgil and Shakespeare?
This article by William Michael at Classical Liberal Arts Academy explains much about this Sayers cult.
http://www.classicalliberalarts.com/library/Against_Sayers.HTM
thought that one not so difficult way many Catholic schools can make a real diffrencealready would be , to focus on the families as a whole, who attend the schools and try to encourage them to live the faith the best way it is meant to be !
May be 'home work ' assignements for the parents , in bible studies , why Church life is important for our world and beyond ..
expectations of family prayers , regular confessions and even making occasions to make such happen, along with regular Eucharistic Adorations as family , leaflets and talks , to parents , even by other interested parents or teachers , on topics such as pervasive use of contraceptives , how to combat same effectively , as well as excessive T.V etc ..
may be one or two Sat morns, would be , for mission walks .or to shelters , not just for feeding but for prayers too , for distribution of sacramentals etc .... fund rasing programs too could be not on how to sell wrapping papers , but may be , again , such things as making available blessed oils, sacramentals , good books etc ;..so that the focus would be on how to bring forth saints ..and not loose many to the 'lost Catholics ' set , after school ..
From such holy children and parents then can come forth , good grandpas and grandmas , like Sts Ann and Joachim ..who brings forth The Virgin ..and good skilled men , like St.Joseph !
Unfortunately, in my own country (Austria) they are now in the process of dismantling the two-track public school system in favor of a "common school for all ten to fourteen year olds", and of course the classics are on their way out, too.
9th/10th grade is probably too late for vocational training to begin without contributing to the problem of infantilization.
The well-formed soul is equipped with truly human arts for a truly human adult life. Part of that life includes skills with which a oerson can add to the common good, and plumbing is one of those parts of the common good. The well-formed soul is one at home with itself, not one which has particular training in thomism. Sure, thomist thought is well within bounds, but the idea that without it no soul is well formed without training in that philosophy (or any other particular school of thought) is fallacious. I mean, Augustine never studied thomism; was his soul ill-formed because of it?
The folks who appeal to a "soul over carpentry" kind of division of education miss the fact that, firstly manual labor is not illiberal per se, and secondly that a well-formed soul includes knowledge in practical arts.
Thirdly, the reality is that our souls are being formed well, and none of us claim to have reached a complete measure of fullness. How is it just to pick on a living breathing plumber whose soul is being well-formed while extolling an abstract, unparticularized and vague "well-formed soul"? Though I'm not trained in philosophy, I submit that an actual soul of a happy carpenter or plumber is much better formed than, say, a nameless soul which is allegedly formed to an ideal regimen of ideas existing only in potential.
The aim is to learn liberating arts that can be enjoyed as they are applied to a real life. And wealthy plumbers could well be enjoying their humanity, and not just their money, more than a vicious student of homer or Plotinus. It is the conceit of the (content focused) classically educated to presume that theirs is the only valid mode of living well.
Many of the BEST souls I've met are those who educated themselves rather than pay homage to some institution of "learning" that really only exists to perpuate its own myth. They are good people to begin with and continue to seek to do better.
The experience of St. Jerome Academy in Maryland, with its socioeconomically diverse population, should put an end to the notion that the transcendentals are only for so-called elites. Children, it turns out, respond to the big ideas of history, literature, and even mathematics. They become far more engaged in this kind of learning. They begin to discover the wonder of truth, the unity of faith and reason, the fallacies of relativism, and can relate ideas across disciplines as early as first grade. At St. John Bosco Schools in East Rochester, NY, six-year-olds explore the ways in which Odysseus’ search for home relates to the human search for God. Some of them may turn out to be professors of Greek, and others may be carpenters, plumbers or homemakers. Their future livelihood is irrelevant. Each of them will be enriched by an education that cultivates wisdom and virtue, leading them to God.
Having years as a Substitute Teacher in various Parochial schools, I have seen the good and the bad and a lot in between. There is so much more We Catholics could be doing, but so many have left the Church to operate on 'autopilot' for so long (donate on Sunday, ignore during the week) - that there are few who even know how to steer, let alone where to aim the boat (the answer should be Obvious = JC).
I would like to see a Coordinated effort to Recruit and Support Teachers (Tuition Free Schools) & Curriculum that do more than baby sit, and to promote a Catholic Discipline System that is not about Punitive Punishment...
Hollyweird movie Stereotypes about Nuns with Yardsticks notwithstanding - We Can Do Better.
I don't know. Who needs an honorable career, a wife, and a family when he can be a jobless, perpetually single, lonely, government dependent with a fully formed soul that no one either knows or cares about?
Yeah, Diece. Who needs an honorable occupation that can support a family when you can be a jobless, lonely, involuntary single with a fully-formed soul that no one knows about or appreciates living on the dole?
Being an academic without a patron is hard enough for someone who is actually fit to be an academic. Would you condemn to such a living death someone who is better fitted for something else simply to please neo-medieval occupational snobberies?
Having been educated in a classical school paid for by my father, a tradesman who completed the 6th grade. His admonition? "Son, get an education and make sure your children have even more opportunities then you did." I am honoring my father through obedience. Now, if you will excuse me, my three year old son needs help. He has the Greek alphabet almost memorized.
"Repititio est mater studiorum." -- pater mi (et alii)