Modern men and women think they’re pretty smart when it comes to education. The subjects and methods of ancient and medieval learning are dismissed with the simple reason that they’re not modern. They neither serve the ends of modern schools, nor do they fit into the structure of such schools. Therefore, they are obsolete and useless.
The modern school model, consisting of grade levels and subjects, divided into individual courses, units, lessons, etc., is the new “normal” and everything else is “weird”.
The reason modern men have this confidence in modern education is the progress of technology in modern society. Men today point to the assembly line, the skyscraper, the jumbo jet, the electric car, the smartphone, artificial intelligence, etc., and say, “Ancient education could never have produced this.”
That is true, but there’s a question being ignored: “Was ancient education aimed at such an end?”
The answer is clearly, “No.”
The development of the assembly line changed the world and made the industrial revolution possible. It is quite a brilliant discovery. A wise master-builder begins with a product, then analyizes the making of that product into many incremental steps. He then arranges the factory so that each individual step of production is served by a specialist who attends to that one function in the assembly line. By this means, complex products are assembled quickly by unskilled workers at great profit to the designer.
When this industrial process was discovered, men working in education thought to apply it to the design and operation of schools. The administrators of the schools thought of themselves as the master-builders. The school was the factory. The teachers were the specialists on the assembly line. The students were the products.
Today, all schools–even home schools–follow this modern model of education.
On the surface, it seems to make sense. However, there is a great difference between the end of true education and the end of modern education. The end of the assembly line is a product inferior to the master-builder. The product is a good he seeks for his own benefit. Normally, the benefit desired is temporal and material. It shouldn’t surprise us to find that this was, in fact, exactly what the engineers of the modern public school system were seeking: an assembly line that would produce useful subjects.
This is not the end of true education.
In true education, a wise man seeks to form a student who is like himself. The assembly line model does not make this possible, for several reasons. On the assembly line master begins with a knowledge of the final product–he knows the whole of it and all of its parts. He can analyze it and re-assemble it, being a master of it. The product being assembled is ignorant and passive. It receives the work of others and collects additions as it moves down the assembly line. It has no knowledge of itself and no understanding of what is being added to it. It is a dumb product.
Unsurprisingly, the same is true of modern school students. There are some, the designers of the school program, who know the desired product and its parts. They are sucessful in producing that which they desire. The students have no idea what’s going on at any time. They simply “go to school”, receive whatever the “teachers” add to them and move down the assembly line. At the end, they come off the finish line, receive a “diploma” as a sign that they have passed all necessary inspections and then are sent to find their spot in the economy where they serve the interests of the masters. They have no idea what they are, what all the lessons they were taught are for, or what they’re supposed to do–and it doesn’t matter. The society is designed to receive them, find a place for them and keep running.
This is not human education–and certainly not liberal education, that is, the education of free men.
True education can only be found in a Catholic environment–but that does not mean a modern “Catholic” school. The modern Catholic school is simply a form of the modern assembly line owned and operated by the Catholic Church. The Church, in history, never conceived of such a system, but followed unbelievers after it was popularized in the 19th-20th centuries. The results that have followed from this education have been disastrous. The so-called “vocations crisis”, which is spoken of as some kind of mystery, is directly related to the Church’s inexplicable adoption of the modern assembly-line school model. It also does not mean a homeschool program that is designed according to the same model.
True education is an individual endeavor, from beginning to end. It begins with a wise man who wishes to lead others to the same wisdom–even more, if possible. The very first lessons of a true education begin with the student learning what he is, through simple catechesis.
Q. 48. What is man?
A. Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and made to the image and likeness of God.
Not only the essence of man is learned, but also the end for which he was made and exists:
Q. 3. Why did God make us?
A. God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven.
This is the beginning of true education. Learning that he was made in the image of God, the student is then taught about God that, being known, he may be loved, and being loved, imitated (Eph. 5:1). The child is taught, moreover, of the history of man, the existence of evil influences, the fall of man, and the corruption of human nature, which knowledge allows the student to understand his own confused condition and circumstances in life. The Gospel is preached to the student, explaining that God promises redemption and assistance, enabling every man–if he wills–to fulfill his end and receive the reward. As the Gospel presents God coming into the world as a man, through the Virgin Mary, the student learns that He does so not merely to suffer for man’s sins, but to provide an example of how men may live with the help of the Holy Spirit, that we may “follow in His steps”. (1 Pet. 2:21). Christ teaches man to “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) and promises the needed help to those who seek it. (Luke 11:13). Learning that the Holy Spirit was given to the Church by Christ after His Ascension, at Pentecost, and that the grace of the Gospel is made available to all through the Sacraments, the student finds, in the Church, the only proper context for true education. Looking back through history and learning of the lives of the Saints, he finds many examples of the life he is to live in his own generation.
The teacher, having supplied this environment for the child, plants his roots beside the streams of living water, gives the student the opportunity–if he wills–to bear fruit in due season. (Psalm 1)
At this point, with an elementary knowledge of God, the nature and end of man, and the grace of the Gospel, a child has enough to begin learning. To begin, he must compare himself with the models of perfection (Christ and the Saints), and discern what they possess that he lacks. A wise teacher can help him to understand what is lacking and what ought to be sought first in his formation. This includes both moral virtues and intellectual arts. We see, for example, in the childhood of Christ, that his behavior was marked with obedience to His parents and respect for His elders–especially those in religion.
Intellectually, the student’s catechism teaches him more of his own nature, of his soul in particular:
Q. 49. Is this likeness to God in the body or in the soul?
A. This likeness to God is chiefly in the soul.Q. 50. How is the soul like God?
A. The soul is like God because it is a spirit having understanding and free will, and is destined to live forever.
This knowledge of the nature of his soul, that it has understanding and free will, leads to the need for intellectual formation. Through history the order of study for this formation has been discovered by the work of many wise men and saints. This order of study is what we refer to as the classical Catholic curriculum. Thus, the student is lead from the beginning of the seven classical liberal arts into and through the study of the philosophical and theological sciences. This is the only true and proper intellectual formation for man.
As the student learns and grows in virtue (goodness and truth), he learns more about God and is able to compare himself to God in more detail. He learns of more defects in himself and is thus prompted, if he be of good will, to more true learning.
Thus, a lifelong cycle of learning continues, which is true education.
This education cannot be provided with the degrading assembly line model of modern society. The modern educational model was designed by men who had no concern for the true nature of man or his end. They viewed other men as their subjects and formed them to be such. Again, that Catholic leaders would adopt this model of education is amazing, but it seems they did so from an urgent sense of temporal necessity rather than any deliberation. Two hundred years later, we have no excuse to allow it to continue.
Some will object and ask, “But what of college and career preparation? How can a classical Catholic education prepare students for their chosen careers in modern society?”
This question is dark and pessimistic, no? It assumes that Catholic students will have no interest in philosophy or religion, and then goes on to ensure they do not.
For Catholic students, the ideal vocation in this life is religion. Very few Catholic students have any need to pursue a secular state of life and corresponding occupation. One of the goals in Catholic education is to help students understand why a religious vocation should be most desirable for them. A lifetime of contemplation, prayer and study is a modern vocational path–and always will be so.
The question also reveals a disrespect for Wisdom, which is not gained through modern schooling, but only through classical Catholic education. In suggesting that specialized training in/for a modern occupation is best for a student, modern scoffers contradict the teaching of Sacred Scripture, which they are likely ignorant of themselves:
“[Wisdom] is more precious than all riches: and all the things that are desired, are not to be compared with her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory. Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths are peaceable. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her: and he that shall retain her is blessed.” (Proverbs 3:15-18)
The question, then, is not a prudent concern for the future, but an ignorant objection to the excellence of true education. Such a person forces his own faults upon the his children, rather than allow true education to free them from them. In fact, true education would free the parents as well if they willed to be free.
The challenge in education, then, is not to determine what the assembly line workers should be supplied with, whether Catholic or non-Catholic parts. The thought that true education might be provided by means of an assembly line is one that must be abandoned. True education is an active, lifelong, individual pursuit. Thankfully, we have for our inheritance, a full knowledge of how this education may be sought and how we may share it with others seeking it. This is classical Catholic education and its promotion the mission of the Classical Liberal Arts Academy.
God bless your studies,
Mr. William C. Michael, O.P.
Headmaster
