In modern society, schooling is required by law. It’s unfortunate because no matter what governments wish for, there will always be a few good students and many bad students. The reason is because most students never actually understand what the purpose of schooling is.
When new families contact the Academy, I can predict quite accurately whether they will do well or not. I can tell by the questions the parents ask. Parents of bad students will ask the same question:
How much time is required for this class?
This question makes no sense for anyone seeking to become a good student. This is a question for someone looking to complete artificial courses with meaningless grades–as conveniently as possible.
Despite talking about grades, these students are not the students who earn good grades because they never learn to study. Moreover, when they don’t get the good grades they desire, they move to an easier school until they finally find a place where they can get the grades they desire. Such grades are meaningless.
What students and parents should be focusing on is learning how to study. This is what separates good students from bad students. Good students know how to study.
When given a lesson, good students can get to work and have a process they work through until the lesson is completed. Good students are not concerned with “getting a grade” or “finishing a lesson”. They are concerned with learning.
Often, good students will use lessons to think about other subjects. For example, a good student may be reading Homer’s Iliad and come across an illustration that relates to one of Aesop’s Fables. The student may also think of a Bible passage, maybe one of Jesus’ parables that relates as well. He may take a break from his lesson to write in a journal or on a blog to capture this reflection and elaborate on it a bit. His studies in one subject enlighten his studies in other subjects.
A good student also uses his lessons to improve his life. He considers what his studies reveal about his strengths and weaknesses. He may find that his studies reveal sin in his life that holds him back from learning or doing other good works. He may find that when he begins to study he is lazy and doesn’t want to work. He may find that when he works on an assignment, he is inclined to cheat or sneak around instructions. His studies are understood to be a part of his spiritual and moral life, and he improves himself through them.
Compare this to the bad student. The bad student doesn’t care about the content of his lessons. The bad student is willing to ignore instructions and cut corners, even cheat, to get a good grade. He learns nothing, but pretends his grades have meaning.
A bad student can get away with these habits when he is young, but when he gets older and the time comes to enter into more difficult studies, the kinds of studies that are required for vocations and learned professions, he will be found out. He simply won’t know they things good students know, won’t know how to learn new challenging lessons, and will not have time to study the right way. His good grades from his school years will be useless.
Therefore, rather than complain about grades or time requirements, a student needs to ask whether he will be a good student or a bad student. If he wishes to be a good student, he has to love studies and engage with them to learn as much as possible. Such a student will not ask, “How much time will this lesson take?”.
The Classical Liberal Arts Academy is a place where good students can thrive. There’s no limit to what good students can learn through our courses. Bad students, however, who aren’t interested in learning, but in “getting grades” won’t enjoy the Academy because it is not designed for bad students.
The goal of schooling (for good students) is to learn how to study. When students focus on the true goals of schooling, they will learn how to study and then, good grades will come easily. More importantly, they will be able to move into more and more challenging studies and gain expertise that fewer and fewer people possess. This is the kind of knowledge that is needed to make a living in a complex, competitive society.
Students need to learn that there is no rush to get anywhere. A student does not need to have a diploma at age 18 and a college degree at 22 if following that schedule means he never takes time to actually learn. When he is finished and has learned well, no one will care whether he took extra time. He will have awards and honors that are more important, and best of all, he will know how to study and will be able to solve new problems that he faces throughout life.
The goal of schooling is to learn how to learn.
Mr. William C. Michael, O.P.
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
