Is a Catholic Classical Education Practical?
Bryce Carson
“Pragmatism is a matter of human needs; and one of the first of human needs is to be something more than a pragmatist.”
- G.K. Chesterton
Catholic classical educators sometimes gently chastise parents who fret over practicality. “I understand the need for truth, beauty, and goodness,” the practical-minded parent says, “but we all have to live in the real world. How will this education actually prepare my son or daughter for college and the workforce?”
The pressure to get into a respectable college and land a well-paying job permeates our culture. Parents’ anxious response to this pressure can leave them feeling torn – perhaps even guilty. But is this concern inherently wrong – or simply out of order?
The practical must not rule our family decisions. We need the gentle correction, the reorientation, of the Catholic classical educator. Yet it is precisely in the practical, rightly understood – daily practices and habits directing us to greater goods – that the ideals of the Catholic classical education movement truly incarnate and become real in our lives.
For Aristotle, the habit was the moment-by-moment crucible in which we either form virtue, or fall into vice. Most of us associate a “habit” with a repeated, unthinking – and likely bad – practice. Tellingly, we typically reference “bad habits” more than “good habits.” However, Aristotle viewed the humble habit as the daily, practical application of excellence (or vice). Habitual decisions big and small serve as the means to a person’s true end (Aristotle, Ethics). Aristotle’s medieval heir, St. Thomas Aquinas, refined this idea further in light of Christian revelation: goodness is, in order of priority, the virtuous, the delightful, and the useful – with the latter two serving the first, if they are to be good at all (Summa Theologica, Book I, Question 5, Article 6). Aquinas here echoes Our Lord himself, who commands us to put things in proper order: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and its righteousness. Then all these things will be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). When we seek God first, surely “all these things” that will be added to our lives are, in fact, good – and in Aquinas’ understanding, delightful and useful as well.
Most parents assume the workplace, and children’s preparation for it, is the primary arena of the useful and practical. Conceding the limits of this assumption, what practical habits of mind does the modern workplace prioritize? Two recent personal examples from the workplace may offer some possibilities.
The first example was a brainstorming session involving a major technology company which our organization had recently awarded a contract. One might assume such meetings would be full of technical jargon and painstaking instruction on particular IT solutions. Yet the concepts that dominated the discussion could have been mistaken for a classical seminar on great literature or philosophy – story creation, effective questioning, and critical, creative thinking that uncovered and examined the logical basis (or lack thereof) of assumptions behind the status quo. Some participants relished the exercise. But many others, startled and uncomfortable by the process, struggled and ultimately gave up.
The second example was an alumni panel discussion at a local university on career trends. Students in the audience asked repeatedly what skills employers would seek when they entered the workforce. Was it a particular degree, sector, or specialization? All panelists agreed, the answer was no. Instead, employers would seek logical thinkers and effective communicators who could grapple with a rich variety of substantive, even technical, issues in creative ways. Specialization, the group agreed, could wait; far more important were fundamental skills like critical thinking, grit, emotional intelligence, and courage in the face of complex, interdisciplinary problems.
Does a Catholic classical education cultivate these particular practical competencies – these habits of mind? Let’s look at some examples and see how this unique educational model stacks up, including some of the modern professional terms that align with each:
Empathy (Emotional Intelligence, Teambuilding): Empathy is the ability to accurately sense and understand the feelings and ideas of others – without necessarily accepting them as one’s own. Not only is empathy a building block for virtue (we might relate it closely to compassion and mercy), but it is also important in almost any work setting, particularly jobs that involve collaboration. In a Catholic classical education, students place themselves directly in the shoes of others through acting and drama; encounter the greatest representations of feeling and human experience in classic literature; and meditate on human perspective in painting.
Classroom experience alone is of course inadequate to instill empathy. To address this limitation, Our Lady of Victory (OLV) buttresses academic practices with hands-on, empathy building experiences, rooted in our Catholic faith: students serve the poor, the Church, and others in the community; they dedicate time for teambuilding and outdoor adventure in the rugged grandeur of Colorado. Combined with OLV’s intimate setting, these features encourage students’ empathetic development, friendship, and a warm engagement with the world rather than the loneliness that can occur in a larger school.
Storytelling (Effective Communication; Narrative Intelligence; Scenario Thinking): Working with words – writing and speaking – is a critical competency in almost any job, and an increasingly rare and prized skill. No matter how complicated the issue, modern workplaces require concise, compelling narrative summaries – in short, a good short story that sets the scene, defines the problem, and offers a satisfying resolution.
Catholic classical education excels in this area, presenting students with the best stories our civilization has produced. Salvation history, woven into every discipline, shows students that reality itself has a narrative structure. Rigorous writing and speaking permeate Catholic classical education, including that unique proving ground for communicating ideas clearly – the Socratic dialogue.
Beyond writing and discussion, communicating complex ideas and processes visually is becoming as important. To this end, Catholic classical education prizes mathematics and the visual arts, both of which enhance a student’s ability to represent complex ideas in elegant images and figures.
Fortitude (Grit, Resilience): A student’s ultimate career path may be uncertain, but one thing is not: he or she will face challenges, setbacks, and the temptation to discouragement. Fortitude is an essential virtue in life, and in work. Catholic classical education nourishes this virtue through deep reading and courage in the face of texts that challenge and develop the student’s grit.
The Catholic classical integrated approach to education prevents students from simply focusing on subjects that the student “likes” or to which he or she is naturally inclined. Students must courageously engage with the full range of human knowledge.
Catholic classical formation also involves persistent commitment to the spiritual life. Students, in communion with others, make a firm decision of the will to participate in the sacraments and spiritual formation, even (or especially) when feeling distant from God.
Critical Thinking (Intellectual Curiosity; Outside-the-Box Thinking; Evidence-based Analysis): Catholic classical education rests on a foundation of Faith and Reason, the two wings by which we rise to contemplation of the Truth (Saint John Paul II, "Fides et Ratio"). Through these powerful God-given wings, reality is both knowable and fascinating. The Catholic classical student finds that the more one learns about a topic – however boring on the surface – the more interesting and relevant the topic becomes.
Because Catholic classical education does not artificially divide human knowledge into unrelated “subjects,” students develop the freedom and creativity to imagine solutions across boundaries, within the sturdy guard rails of logic. Many forms of education prepare students merely to analyze – to break down an issue into digestible parts. An integrated Catholic classical education takes this process a step further, training the student to synthesize seemingly separate parts into a coherent whole. Workplaces, regardless of field, value this mindset highly.
An excellent Catholic classical education develops all of these competencies, these habits of mind, without making them ends in themselves. To do the latter would simply set up an idol before our children. A useful, practical idol, leading us away from the good but toward a prestigious career, is an idol nonetheless. Inordinate focus on college admissions and career attainment shackles our children’s imaginations, hinders their discernment of vocation, and limits the vast horizons that God may have planned for them.
We can do better. Instead of presenting a disordered view of reality, a Catholic classical education places the useful in proper relation to our true end: sainthood and discipleship of Jesus Christ, within each person’s unique vocation. This form of education reorients us as parents to heed Our Lord’s words by seeking first the kingdom of God. By doing so, we unlock the true potential of practical skills and competencies, as useful and delightful tools to work with excellence in the service of God’s kingdom.
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