There has been a recent change in education. Teachers face behavioral challenges inthe classroom that continue to increase. Students no longer show respect for teachers simply because they are the authority in the classroom. The need for change is evident. But the answer to what needs to change was fist articulated in the late eighteen hundreds through the work of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche is one of the first thinkers to articulate the effect that civilization had on man’s psyche and speaks to the internalization of his instincts. Further thinkers such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung add to the understanding around what is named the unconscious and help readers to understand its importance. The missing link in education then is the failure to recognize and respond appropriately to this aspect of students so that they become whole in themselves and develop into true individuals.

Aristotle’s great work, Nicomachean Ethics, presents a complex and sometimes overwhelming account of ethical virtue and the perfected nature of man. However, if one looks at the conflict inherent in ordering oneself to a telos, such as the pursuit of happiness or eudaimonia in Aristotle’s terms, then the prospect of sharing in or attaining Aristotelian virtue becomes less overwhelming and perhaps even inspiring for modern readers.

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.

Political and educational institutions inevitably shape one another. When the telos, the end for the sake of which a thing exists, of either is incompatible with the other, tension inevitably mounts. One of the significant sources of friction which prevents both governmental institutions and educational institutions from effectively functioning is the way in which their teloi are at odds. The political philosophy which shaped the United States comes in no small part from John Locke, but the country could not and should not attempt to implement his educational theories. I argue that attempts to do so are disastrous, and that it would ultimately be better to have pedagogical truths shape political mechanisms. I end by offering a detailed examination of two ancient sources for better educational approaches, both found in the Socratic dialogues of Plato.

In this essay, I explore a claim that Socrates makes in Plato’s Gorgias where he professes to be the only true practitioner of the political art in Athens, the only true statesman. I argue that the Gorgias enables readers to have a greater understanding of how Socrates conceives his own purpose and relationship with Athens as a practitioner of the “true science of politics” as he calls it and as a skilled user of what he develops as the "true art of rhetoric." This ennobling art of rhetoric, which Socrates professes to be a practitioner of, is opposed to the sycophantic and flattering art propagated by Gorgias and others. Furthermore, I argue that the view of rhetoric and politics that Socrates develops in the Gorgias serves as a foundation for his actions and statements in the Apology of Socrates.