Classical Liberal Arts Academy
CLASSICAL CATHOLIC EDUCATION + AUTHENTIC & ACCREDITED
Mr. Jared Haselbarth, O.P.When the modern State’s pedagogical reformers approach Catholics and offer them a better vineyard or a sum of money in exchange for the use of our field – not to continue producing long tested, deeply rooted Catholic educational outcomes but for the State’s own immediate needs – what is our response?
Objection 1. It seems that public charter schools are a good and prudent choice for Catholic communities in 2026. For in this age of high taxation and burdensome private tuitions, such schools grant families from a range of economic backgrounds access to rigorous, smaller-scale learning environments that often emphasize classical methods and virtue formation. Recent expansions in school choice and legal developments have made it possible for parents to direct public resources toward options that escape the worst failures of traditional school districts, thereby fulfilling the natural duty of parents to provide fitting education without impoverishing the household. Objection 2. … Continue
Good Works. The unfortunate result of the debate between Protestants and Catholics regarding the nature of good works is that Christian works have been compartmentalized and thus left mostly undone in our age. The daily work of Christians is reduced to mere faith – even if one accepts the Catholic doctrine of the merit of works, they are understood to be something done by clerics, or nuns, or extraordinary people like saints. But this was never the understanding of Christian works in history. Rather, Christians have always understood good works to be essential, central, and necessary to one’s lived experience … Continue
I recall when I first studied Aristotle’s On Interpretation in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy’s Classical Reasoning course, I came across a passage that struck me. Upon explaining what the focus would be of his treatise, Aristotle clarifies that the purpose of On Interpretation is the study of enunciative speech, and that the study of other kinds of speech would be omitted. One such omission he provides: “Thus, for instance, a prayer, is, indeed, speech, but is neither true nor false.” It made me curious. What is the nature of prayer? Is it a distraction from human study? Is Aristotle … Continue
You will never guess the course of studies which existed at the beginning of the English university system in the medieval world. I am studying a course at the University of Oxford entitled The Architecture of the English Medieval Cathedral. One of the assigned texts is The History of England’s Cathedrals by Nicholas Orme. For those interested in church architecture and the history of English Catholic worship in general, it is a helpful read, even as it is told from a secular perspective. One significant theme is the role played by Cathedrals (which were not so called until the modern … Continue
In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, we know that success requires a lot of individual student effort and study. Unfortunately, this kind of self-motivated study does not come easily. This is so because it is the opposite of what has been established as the norm in schools for a hundred years. Homeschools are no different. Children are taught to sit and wait for the teacher or parent to direct (which in some cases means limit) the activity of the students. This recent talk discusses why modern education has distorted the role of the teacher. This other talk shows demonstrably that … Continue
In Catholic circles today, it is common to accept the theory of Evolution uncritically. It is assumed that ancient or medieval wise men did not ever consider such a theory or that they lacked evidence to propose it. But this is not the case. They had the same evidence modern men have and they were able to observe it, speculating that form in nature is a result of natural selection. Indeed, Aristotle tells us that the theory of Evolution, and its more developed criteria via “natural selection” was already known and posited even before his time. Obviously they did not … Continue
St. John Henry Newman on the Strategy of 19th Century Scientists Catholic schools are closing or consolidating. Colleges and universities are moving to shut down their classics departments and move away from liberal studies. Curricula in Catholic schools and colleges are substantially the same as that of public schools and secular colleges; that is, Math and Science are the foundation of nearly all Catholic educational endeavors today. This despite the fact that the liberal arts, philosophy, and theology were the foundation for a thousand years. What is the purpose of all these changes we see in education? Are they deliberate? … Continue
In response to arguments against the Catholic practice of taking vows of perpetual continence1, St. Thomas Aquinas offers several in particular that are relevant to a discussion of the purpose of college. This may seem like two disconnected topics, but, often times when we begin to reason rightly about one part of life, it becomes apparent where we are in error about other parts of life. In this short essay, I wish to familiarize readers with the noblest principles which ought to inspire a young man or woman to consider college, drawing from these arguments about continence in Aquinas. The … Continue
Somewhere in the deep recesses of the wilderness of Kadesh on the Sinai Peninsula, far away from the Egyptian masters from whom he had led the people from slavery, the humble Moses sat among the crags. The irony may have made him smile because those slavedrivers from whom he escaped had also been his teachers. When he was young, they taught him the classical arts, mathematics, and how to meditate. After all that he himself had witnessed – the great wonders that the God, “I Am Who Am” had inflicted upon his adversary Pharaoh – he now had some quiet … Continue