Renewing Classical Liberal Arts in Catholic Schools: The Path Forward

Catholic education is an education in the scriptural and traditional teachings of the Church as well as knowledge of the world in. As the main educational aid to the Catholic family, Catholic schools have an obligation to provide an environment in which students are not just taught doctrines through rote memorization or for the sake of passing an exam, but to come to understand the Catholic faith for the sake of knowing and living it out. In America today, Catholic education looks eerily like public education, a system of schools that is notoriously failing the American people and students. While Catholic schools compete with public schools in college and career readiness, they are failing to educate students effectively in the doctrines of faith and morality, neglecting to prepare them to enter society with at the very least a non-relativistic worldview, let alone a Catholic one.The modern progressive model of education employed in American public schools has been adopted by Catholic schools en masse. This pedagogical model undermines Catholic education because it is based in philosophies that espouse that education is for the sake of becoming a good worker, that man does not need supernatural help to work towards his perfection, and that morality is relative. Research shows that this model has not served Catholic students well; they are just slightly more likely to believe in Catholic teachings than their public counterparts. One major facet necessary for renewing the spiritual and academic rigor of Catholic education is re-implementing the classical liberal arts in the Catholic schools. Classical liberal education is an education in the great books and languages of the Western tradition with the intention to seek the fullness of truth, goodness, and beauty. The Catholic and classical traditions both hold a view of man as teleological, an understanding that truth can be known, and that moral training is essential to a proper education. Re-adopting a classical liberal education would bring a synergistic pedagogical method and curriculum to Catholic schools, working with Catholic doctrine to reinforce understanding of man and the world in which he lives.