Today is August 13, 2025, and I’m William Michael, the headmaster of the Classical Liberal Arts Academy. If you’d like to learn about the work we do in making real classical Catholic education available for students of all ages, visit our website at classicalliberalarts.com. I’d love to have you join us for studies.
When I was in college studying Classics and Ancient History at Rutgers University, I took a course in educational philosophy. The course was taught by an old, retired professor, Dr. Adam Scrupski, who became a mentor and great friend to me. He was the source of my interest in education and it all started one day in class when he asked the class the question, “What would you fix in modern education?” I sat and listened as my classmates all made their comments and suggestions and could tell he wasn’t impressed. He was looking for something that they were not giving him. I raised my hand, annoyed at this waste of my time, and asked, “How can anyone talk about what needs to be fixed in education without ever establishing the end for which education even exists?”. As I said that, his eyes lit up and he smiled. That’s what he was looking for: a discussion on the ends of education. That day, he took me under his wing and invested in me. He persuaded me of the importance of working in education and that’s where my educational career began. I owe it all to my interest in the ends of education, which is the topic I’d like to discuss today.
SEGMENT 1: Truth and Goodness According to Aristotle and Aquinas
The “virtuous pagan” philosophers were interested in many topics, but their main topic of interest was human happiness. Socrates, for all of his fame, was in the end a moral philosopher. Plato’s philosophy, likewise, focused on questions of justice and happiness. Aristotle taught that every action and every art is ordered toward some good, and that the highest good for man is the activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, especially the virtue of the intellect in contemplating truth. For him, the intellect naturally seeks to know what is true, and the will naturally seeks what is good.
Aquinas takes this further, explaining that truth is the conformity of the intellect to reality, and that goodness is the perfection of a thing according to its nature. For man, made in the image and likeness of God, truth perfects the intellect and goodness perfects the will. The end of man, therefore, is to know the truth—ultimately God Himself, who is Truth—and to love the good—ultimately God Himself, who is Goodness.
From this perspective, education is not an end in itself. It is the cultivation of human potential, leading to the perfection of man as a rational creature. Its purpose is to form the mind to know the truth and the will to love the good, so that man may serve God in this life and enjoy Him forever in the next.
SEGMENT 2: Education as the Cultivation of Human Potential
Because man is a rational creature, his perfection depends on the proper development of the intellect and will. The intellect is perfected by knowledge of truth, and the will is perfected by the pursuit of the good. Education exists to guide this process from childhood to maturity.
In the Catholic tradition, this means leading the intellect from basic knowledge of language and number, through the liberal arts, to the study of philosophy and theology. At every stage, the goal is not simply to accumulate information or develop skills, but to order the soul toward its highest end—union with God.
Aquinas explains that this ordering is both natural and supernatural. By nature, man seeks truth and goodness; by grace, he is elevated to the supernatural end of eternal life. A complete education must prepare him for both.
SEGMENT 3: How Ancient and Medieval Schools Served These Ends
Ancient Greek and Roman education aimed at forming the virtuous citizen, one capable of acting justly in the community and contemplating higher truths. The liberal arts provided the tools for thinking, reasoning, and speaking well. Philosophy trained the mind to seek wisdom and live according to reason.
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church took this structure and elevated it. The trivium and quadrivium prepared students for philosophy, and philosophy prepared them for sacred theology. Monastic, cathedral, and later university education all assumed that the goal was the perfection of the soul in truth and goodness.
This system did not separate intellectual formation from moral formation. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric shaped the intellect; philosophy and theology directed it to eternal truth; moral training in the virtues formed the will in the pursuit of the good. Every part of the curriculum was connected to man’s ultimate end.
SEGMENT 4: The Modern Abandonment of These Ends
In the modern period, beginning in the Renaissance and accelerating after the Enlightenment, the original ends of education were progressively replaced. Humanism severed learning from its theological purpose, treating education as a means to human glory rather than divine service. Later, utilitarian philosophies reduced education to preparation for economic productivity.
Today, in most schools, colleges, and universities, truth is treated as subjective, and goodness is redefined in terms of personal preference or social utility. The connection between intellectual and moral formation has been broken. The natural and supernatural ends of man are ignored. Education has been reduced to a tool for career advancement, political ideology, or personal entertainment.
In such a system, the intellect is no longer ordered toward truth, and the will is no longer disciplined toward the good. The result is a generation of men and women unformed in reason and virtue, lacking both the knowledge and the moral habits necessary for a truly human life.
SEGMENT 5: The Classical Liberal Arts Academy’s Restoration of True Ends
The Classical Liberal Arts Academy corrects this error by restoring the authentic Catholic understanding of education. Our program is ordered explicitly toward truth and goodness as understood by Aristotle and Aquinas.
We begin with the original liberal arts—grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—not as an antiquarian exercise, but as the proven method for perfecting the intellect. We lead students through the philosophical sciences, which form the intellect in natural truths and the will in moral virtue. Finally, we lead them into sacred theology, where both intellect and will are directed to God Himself.
Moral formation is not separated from intellectual formation. Every lesson is ordered toward the life of virtue, and every discipline is presented in light of man’s ultimate end. The study of language is for the sake of truth; the study of mathematics is for the sake of order and harmony; the study of philosophy is for the sake of wisdom; the study of theology is for the sake of knowing, loving, and serving God.
By restoring this order, the Classical Liberal Arts Academy provides education as it was understood in the ancient and medieval world—an education that cultivates human potential to its fullest, perfects man as a rational creature, and prepares him for eternal life.
SEGMENT 6: The Continuing Necessity of Truth and Goodness
Truth and goodness are not optional elements of education; they are its very ends. Without truth, the intellect cannot be perfected. Without goodness, the will cannot be perfected. Without both, man cannot fulfill his nature or reach his final end.
Aristotle and Aquinas both teach that happiness consists in the activity of the soul according to virtue, and the highest virtue is the contemplation of truth, which directs us to the supreme good—God Himself. Education that ignores this is not simply incomplete; it is fundamentally disordered.
The restoration of true education is therefore not a matter of nostalgia but of necessity. Only by returning to the pursuit of truth and goodness can we form men and women capable of living fully human lives in this world and attaining eternal life in the next.
CONCLUSION
The real ends of education are truth and goodness, as understood by Aristotle and Aquinas and preserved by the Catholic Church. Education exists to cultivate the intellect and will so that man may know, love, and serve God in this life and enjoy Him forever in the next. Ancient and medieval schools served this end; modern schools have abandoned it. The Classical Liberal Arts Academy restores it.
I’m William Michael, and this is the Classical Liberal Arts Academy Podcast.