Denver Catholic

22 JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 9, 2018 | DENVER CATHOLIC What Is classical education? W e celebrate Catholic Schools Week beginning Jan. 28. That day also marks the feast of the patron of Cath- olic schools, St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote that "whoever teaches the truth enlightens the mind, for truth is the light of the mind" (De Ver- itate, 11). The stu- dent, however, does not receive this light passively, Aquinas says, but, with their teacher as guide, should actively seek to realize their potential to know. As so many students have lost their love of learning, some schools have returned to the wisdom of the Cath- olic tradition for new inspiration. In particular, classical education has taken root across the country, with one entire diocese and over two hun- dred Catholic schools adopting it. The Archdiocese of Denver has two classi- cal schools, Our Lady of Lourdes and Frassati Catholic Academy, as well as a classical track at Bishop Machebeuf High School. But what is classical education? Some think it must be an advanced curriculum only for elite students. Rather, classical education takes us back to the basics: how to read, how to think, how to speak. These three skills are often referred to as "the three ways," the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Classical education focuses on inspiring students to read more, think about what they read, and communicate e„ ectively about it. It is called classical, as it looks back to Greco-Roman civilization and the Christian culture of the Middle Ages for inspiration, both in approach and in content matter, such as classical language. This approach does not focus primarily on practical outcomes as the goal, but the formation of mind. Ironically the approach has proven that it does prepare students well for their future. No matter what students will do for their careers, classical education gives general preparation through deep thinking, problem solving, and creative expression, which help them to excel. It has been proven that as children become more immersed in technology, they fail to develop these skills. As the workforce becomes more automated and com- puter driven, classical training will be more in need and will not be replaced by machines like other practical skill sets. There are a number of books that can help us to learn more about the classical approach and the Christian tradition on education. First, An Intro- duction to Classical Education: A Guide for Parents by Christo- pher Perrin (Classical Academic Press, 2004) provides a short, basic introduction. It leads the reader through a short history of clas- sical education, the key approaches of the trivium and quadrivium, the importance of classical languages, and the general stages of learning. Perspectives Homage to Don Briel I n the history of U.S. Catholic higher education since World War II, three seminal moments stand out: Msgr. John Tracy Ellis's 1955 article, "American Catholics and the Intellectual Life;" the 1967 Land o' Lakes statement, "The Idea of a Catho- lic Univer- sity;" and the day Don J. Briel began the Catholic Studies Program – and the Catholic Studies movement – at the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities. I've long had the sense that Msgr. Ellis's article was retrospectively mis- interpreted as a relentless polemic against Catholic colleges and uni- versities mired in the tar-pits of Neo-Scholasticism and intellectually anorexic as a result; on the contrary, it's possible to read Ellis as calling for Catholic institutions of higher learning to play to their putative strengths – the liberal arts, including most especially philosophy and theol- ogy – rather than aping the emerging American multiversity, of which the University of California at Berkeley was then considered the paradigm. But that's not how Ellis was under- stood by most, and there is a direct line to be drawn between the Ellis article and the self-conscious if tacit defensiveness of the Land o' Lakes statement, which seemed to say, yes, we're second-rate, maybe even third- rate, and the way to be fi rst-rate is to be like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the rest of what would be called, in 21st-century Catholic academic jargon, "aspirational peers." The problem, of course, is that by 1967, those "aspirational peers" were beginning to lose their minds, liter- ally, en route to the postmodern sand- box of authoritarian self-absorption they occupy today. So there is another direct line to be drawn: this time, from Ellis and Land o' Lakes to Don Briel's catalyzing the Catholic Studies movement, which, among other things, works to repair the damage that was done to institu- tions of Catholic higher learning in the aftermath of Land o' Lakes. But there was, and is, far more to Don Briel's vision, and achievement, that damage-repair. Nourished intel- lectually by John Henry Newman and Christopher Dawson, Briel's work has aimed at nothing less than creating, in 21st-century circumstances, the "idea of a university" that animated his two English intellectual and spir- itual heroes. And, one might say, just in the nick of time. For the deterioration of higher education throughout the United States in the past several genera- tions has contributed mightily to our contemporary cultural crisis, and the cultural crisis, by depleting the nation's reserves of republican virtue, has in turn produced a political crisis in which constitutional democracy itself is now at risk. The answer to that cultural crisis cannot be a retreat into auto-constructed bunkers. The answer must be the conversion of culture by well-educated men and women who know what the West owes to Catholicism as a civilizing force, and who are prepared to bring the Catholic imagination to bear on reconstructing a culture capable of sustaining genuine freedom – free- dom for excellence – in social, politi- cal, and economic life. Conversion, then, is what "Catholic Studies" and Don Briel's life-project are all about: the conversion of young minds, hearts, and souls to the truth of Christ and the love of Christ as manifest in the Catholic Church, to be sure; but also the conversion of culture through those converted minds, hearts, and souls. According to the common wisdom, Land o' Lakes and its call for Catholic universities to "Be like the Ivies!" was "revolutionary." But the true revolutionary in American Cath- olic higher education over the past decades has been Don Briel, who has enlivened an approach to higher edu- cation that embodies the New Evange- lization as no one else has done. Those of us who love and esteem him pray for a miracle that will cure the rare forms of acute leukemia that now a¶ ict him. But, like Don Briel himself, we commend our prayers, as we commend him, to the mysterious and inscrutable ways of divine Prov- idence. We also know that the truths with which he ignited an academic revolution will win out, because this quintessential Christian gentleman and educator taught us by his witness and his work to trust the Lord's guar- antee in John 8:32: "...the truth will make you free." Thank you, Don, and Godspeed on your journey. The work, thanks to your inspiration and example, will continue – and it will fl ourish. The Catholic Di« erence George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. GEORGE WEIGEL The Catholic Reader R. Jared Staudt, PhD, is a husband and father of six, the catechetical formation specialist for the Archdiocese of Denver, a Benedictine oblate, prolifi c writer, and insatiable reader. DR. R. JARED STAUDT

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