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Our Vision
All education, to be Catholic, must tend to this end, the union, without absorption of either, or intermixture or confusion of the two natures, of the human and the divine, and therefore of civilization and religion. It must be dialectic, and tend to harmonize all opposites.... Orestes Brownson
Catholic culture is fundamentally Incarnational. For two thousand years, the Church has been in a living encounter with human culture. In every case, she has taken the best in human culture, purified it of its evils, and infused it with the divine.
Catholic Schools are privileged places where students are formed within this culture. Schools develop the students’ human powers so that they can live the best human life as they look forward to eternal life. Students develop their Tastes, Habits, and Skills as they Learn.
TASTES
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Php 4:8
All learning must happen within the learner. Awakening the inner drive to learn is the first task of the educator. Schools must help students develop a taste for what is best in life. “Whatever is lovely” – ideally students come to see that truth, nobility, rectitude, and purity are lovely. The school directs them to live their life for these above all other goods.
Liturgy, Curricular materials, physical environment, music, drama, and sports should be seen as opportunities for developing the desire for the true, the good and the beautiful.
HABITS
But education is a higher word [than instruction]; it implies an action upon our mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and permanent, and is commonly spoken of in connexion with religion and virtue. When, then, we speak of the communication of Knowledge as being Education, we thereby really imply that that Knowledge is a state or condition of mind.... Newman, Idea of a University
Education for life must focus on what will last for a lifetime. Facts will be forgotten after the exam is passed; education provides the foundations for a lifetime of growth. Have standardized tests reduced history class to a memory drill of names, dates and facts? Or are my students coming to understand the motives, the ideas that have shaped great events? Do they understand why George Washington was admirable? Will they recognize the next Napoleon or Lenin, or the conditions that might produce him? Are they learning to raise probing questions about the historical interpretations that are being presented to them? Scantrons don’t answer such questions.
Education above all aims at developing the proper habits of mind. Wonder, questioning, diligence, study, discussion, clarity, respect, responsibility are character traits that need to be developed in every class and throughout the school. These habits make strong, intelligent, caring adults.
SKILLS
Education presupposes and builds on training. Learning the alphabet, memorizing Latin paradigms, repetitious practice of scales are necessary for Dickens, Cicero and Mozart.
The Liberal Arts exercise students so that they develop the skills they will need in every area of their lives. They enable them to learn from the great authors whose ideas have formed Western Civilization and bring them to bear on the important issues they will face.
CONTENT
The immediate goal of the Catholic school should be to immerse students in the great works of Catholic and human culture. Graduates should be able to read, discuss, and draw on authors such Homer, Herodotus, Cicero, Virgil, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, Milton, Shakespeare, Lincoln, Dickens, Chesteron, and Lewis.
Care should be taken to make works central to Catholic culture central to school curriculum. Works of other cultures should be introduced in such a way as not to undermine its fundamental focus. Works that undermine the cultural unity should be introduced with attention to areas of conflict.
