Questions concerning who should attend college, for what purpose, and by what means are of great importance, for many young adults are making decisions that require decades to recover from.
It is necessary to begin by correcting a common and costly misunderstanding concerning the nature of modern higher education. Many today continue to speak of colleges and universities as though they were heirs of the medieval institutions of Christendom, ordered to the pursuit of wisdom and governed by philosophy and theology. This assumption is false, and it leads students and families into serious error. Decisions about education are not merely theoretical; they involve the investment of years of life and substantial financial resources, and therefore require a clear understanding of the ends being pursued. This is a matter of prudence.
The medieval university was an institution of the Church, and its purpose was defined by that origin. Its end was wisdom, understood as the perfection of the intellect in the knowledge of truth, culminating in the knowledge of God. Theology stood as the highest science, and all other disciplines were ordered toward it as to their completion. The liberal arts were not cultural ornaments but necessary preparations, forming the habits of mind required for philosophical and theological study. In such an order, education was not directed toward employment, but toward the fulfillment of the human intellect according to its natural and supernatural ends.
Modern colleges and universities differ from this not accidentally, but essentially, for they are institutions shaped by the modern state and the demands of a complex economic order. Their primary function is professional formation: they exist to prepare individuals for specialized roles within the workforce. Degrees serve as credentials by which students gain access to particular fields, and the success of institutions is measured accordingly, in terms of job placement, earnings, and institutional reputation. This orientation is not hidden, but openly acknowledged in the structure of programs, the language of recruitment, and the expectations of those who enroll.
Even those institutions that present themselves as “Catholic” or “liberal arts” schools must be understood within this same framework, for they operate under the same systems of accreditation, finance, and public expectation that govern modern higher education as a whole. While they may attempt to preserve certain appearances of older traditions, or market religious benefits over secular schools, these do not determine their essential purpose. The governing end remains professional qualification, and whatever is retained of the classical or theological heritage is necessarily subordinated to that end, rather than ordering it. When institutions bearing the name “Catholic liberal arts” offer degrees in narrowly commercial specializations, the disorder of ends becomes evident.
From this recognition follows a practical conclusion that ought to guide decision-making with clarity and sobriety. If modern college education is ordered to professional preparation, then it must be judged according to its effectiveness in achieving that purpose. The costs in time, labor, and money are considerable, and they require justification in the form of stable and sufficient employment. Degrees that do not provide a clear path to such outcomes fail in the very end for which modern universities exist, and to pursue them under the assumption that they constitute a “liberal education” is to accept real burdens without proportionate return.
At the same time, it is necessary to reject the equally persistent belief that enrollment in such institutions is required for a true education in the liberal arts, philosophy, or theology. These disciplines do not depend upon the modern university for their existence or transmission; indeed, they arose and flourished long before the structures now taken for granted. Their study requires intellectual discipline, sound teaching, and fidelity to a coherent tradition, but it does not require the administrative complexity, financial burden, or institutional prestige that characterize contemporary higher education.
In fact, the conditions of modern academic life often impede rather than support the pursuit of wisdom, for knowledge is divided into isolated specialties without a unifying principle, and the higher integration once provided by metaphysics and theology is largely absent. Philosophy is frequently detached from its proper foundations, and theology, where it exists, is often removed from the authoritative framework that once governed it. Under such conditions, what is presented as a “liberal arts education” is often fragmentary and disordered, lacking both coherence and a clearly defined end.
For those who recognize these realities, a more rational course becomes possible. The modern university may be used prudently as an instrument of professional preparation when such preparation is necessary and when the expected return justifies the investment. But it must not be mistaken for a school of wisdom, nor relied upon for ends it is not ordered to achieve. Those who desire a true liberal education must seek it deliberately, and in a form that preserves the unity, order, and purpose proper to it. The materials needs of this life may be obtained through many channels, especially by a man who is truly wise and virtous.
A useful illustration can be found in the life of Thales of Miletus, narrated by Aristotle in his “Politics”. Thales was one of the earliest philosophers, who was once reproached for his poverty as evidence of the supposed uselessness of philosophy. In response, Thales demonstrated that the fault did not lie in any lack of practical ability, but in the choice of ends. Having foreseen, through his knowledge of natural causes, that there would be an abundant olive harvest, he secured control of the olive presses in advance at a low cost, and when the season arrived, he rented them out at great profit, thereby quickly acquiring wealth. The point of the demonstration was to show that the philosopher possesses the capacity for money-making but lives in a state of voluntary simplicity to devote himself to more noble pursuits. The lesson is directly applicable: the power to succeed in economic matters belongs to a lower order of goods, which may be used when necessary, but must not be mistaken for the end of education itself, which is the perfection of the intellect in truth.
Even in those cases where institutions present themselves sincerely as schools of classical learning, committed to the liberal arts, philosophy, and a recovery of the Catholic intellectual tradition, they nevertheless attempt to do so within the framework of the modern university model, and this introduces a fundamental disorder. For they adopt the same financial structures, administrative systems, and tuition models that govern professional education, thereby attaching an artificially high cost to studies that, by their very nature, do not require such an apparatus. The result is a form of education that is not only misaligned in its means, but often financially unsustainable, requiring students to incur significant expense for what is presented as a liberal education, even though the substance of that education—texts, principles, and methods—remains accessible without such burdens. In this way, even well-intentioned efforts to restore classical learning are compromised by their dependence upon a model that was never designed to support it.
The Classical Liberal Arts Academy exists to provide precisely such an education, offering an ordered course of studies in the liberal arts, classical philosophy, and Scholastic theology, grounded in the intellectual tradition of the Church and directed toward the proper formation of the mind, with an aim not of credentialing or economic advancement, but of cultivating intellectual virtue and leading the student toward the pursuit of truth. Because this end exceeds the limits of any brief period of study, the Academy makes such formation available as a sustained and lifelong discipline, proportioned to the nature of the human intellect itself.
The conclusion, therefore, follows with consistency from the premises established. Modern colleges and universities are instruments of professional formation and should be approached with prudence and without illusion, while the pursuit of wisdom requires a different path, one ordered not to credentials but to truth itself. Those who distinguish these ends clearly are able to use each means appropriately, and in doing so avoid both the financial burdens and the intellectual frustrations that arise from confusing one for the other.
Mr. William C. Michael, O.P.
Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
This article has been produced by Mr. William C. Michael, O.P., through directed composition using AI tools, a method that allows for the regular and efficient sharing of important information with the CLAA community. All ideas expressed herein are his own unless noted otherwise, and the text has been reviewed, edited and approved by him prior to publication. To discuss this topic, please connect with us by live chat, phone, or schedule a free Zoom meeting.