All parents and teachers know the proverb,
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
However, when it’s time to educate children, they all do exactly the opposite of what that proverb advises. Rather than teach students how to study, they try to give what needs to be studied.
It never works. Yet, they never stop repeating the same fault they know will never work.
Yes, we can force some kids to recite some math facts, or catechism answers or spelling words, but there is so much to be learned for one to have a real Christian education and relatively no progress is made after years of schooling and thousands of dollars in costs.
No matter how many ways parents and teachers come up with to attempt to do the same thing, it will never, ever work.
There’s simply too much that needs to be learned for a good education.
This is where the Classical Liberal Arts Academy breaks with modern education. We don’t attempt to force feed students information or train them to appear to have skills they don’t actually have. We don’t lie to parents and tell them that if they give us more money, then we will help their children achieve their learning goals.
In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, I teach students how to study and learn independently.
The problems begin when parents first contact me. They want to dive into deep discussions about the curriculum; they want to see course descriptions; they want to know what textbooks we use; they want to know if there are videos available–on and on.
What they are looking for is all of the modern school stuff, but we don’t do it. We don’t play the curriculum-shopping games, don’t talk about different methods or programs. The reason is that there aren’t different options to choose from in modern education. There is the Classical Liberal Arts Academy on one side and a million other programs and schools that all offer the same thing on the other side.
I do my communicating with students who study and submit assignments. They are the only students who are going to achieve anything in the long run. For all the noise and activity of prospective parents and students, if no assignments are submitted they remain at the starting line. I’ve seen homeschool families spend years in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, without ever submitting any work. They are always collecting information and poking around, but they never actually study or submit assignments.
In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, all of my attention and energy is directed to the students who are actually studying. I ignore all of the homeschool noise. When I look at the lists of assignments submitted every day, I see the same names, everyday. It’s a small group of students who are always studying and submitting work. They are the only students who make progress. They are the only students I write to and chat with.
When I was working through the accreditation process, I was asked by evaluators how many students I have. I said, “Well, there are over 3,500 users enrolled in our Study Center, but only about 200 of them are students.” Many families enroll, look around and leave as soon as they learn that the CLAA is not a multimedia library but a study program with readings and assignments. It’s a place for students…to study.
Very few students enrolled in the Academy actually submit work. Consequently, very few students in the Academy get help because we are not selling information or entertainment, but teaching students how to study every subject, for life.
Mr. William C. Michael, O.P.
Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
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