“[W]hen modes of music change, the fundamental mores of the state always change with them.” – Plato, Republic, 400b and 424c A few years ago, as preparation for a course in European history, I assigned the students in our high school di Lam … [Read more...]
Questions Answered – September 2023
What American Education Lost Question: What is the bottom line in the almost universal rejection of objective truth in American education today? Answer: This problem is twofold. One is the destruction of Western Civilization. The other … [Read more...]
Hedging the Heart
Five Preconditions of an Authentic Human Formation
Human formation — that pillar of seminary life often affirmed and rarely understood. Certainly, we believe it to be the basis of all priestly formation, and remain convinced by the words of St. John Paul II: “The priest should mold his huma … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – December 2022
Before Austen Comes Aesop: The Children’s Great Books and How to Experience Them. By Cheri Blomquist. Reviewed by Kathryn Sadakierski. (skip to review) Through the Heart of St. Joseph. By Fr. Boniface Hicks. Reviewed by Joseph Tuttle. ( … [Read more...]
Wisdom for Another School Year
As my holy namesake proclaimed, “It is good for us to be here” (Mt 17:4). So, what are we facing in our upcoming Catholic school year? Our Catholic Education Foundation has received consistent input from teachers, administrators, parents, an … [Read more...]
Teaching Racial Harmony from Theology of the Body
How should Catholic educators respond to the racial turmoil in recent years? Instead of adopting new materials and programs rooted in critical race theory,[1. Patrick Reilly, “Wrong Way to Teach About Race in Catholic Education,” Newman Soc … [Read more...]
Making Parishes Home Sweet Home
Parish-Based Homeschool Cooperatives for the Next Academic Year and Beyond
John Kingdon proposed that public policy change comes about when the three streams of problems, policies, and politics come together at the same time.[1. J.W. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies (Boston: Little, Brown and … [Read more...]
The Gift of the Mind: Scholars and Saints
If one thing characterized priesthood fifty years ago (especially in Europe, even if less so here), it was the priest as a man of learning, that is, possessing a broad grasp of knowledge, a true Renaissance man — an in-depth knowledge of a f … [Read more...]
Online Education Is Not Fully Catholic Education
I am a Catholic high school teacher, and, by May 1st, I will have taught five weeks of online education. This is an act of obedience to various authorities so that, instead of having nothing available for my quarantined high school … [Read more...]
Evolution vs. Intelligent Design
Ever since, in late 2005, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones ruled that the school district of Dover, Pennsylvania, could not mandate material about intelligent design in its science curriculum on evolution (declaring it unconstitutional to … [Read more...]
Classical Education Is the Answer to De-Hellenization
It seems that the notion of “Hellenization” in various ways is catching people’s imagination more and more. A few years ago I was listening to a radio program where a Dominican priest named Fr. Gabriel Gillen said, “Before we can have a New … [Read more...]
Five Tips for Graduate School
During my first semester of graduate school in theology, the required class on the Trinity nearly “ate my lunch”. To put it simply, I could never study enough to understand the subject more, nor could I seem to improve my papers enough to el … [Read more...]
Serving LGBT Students in Catholic Schools
How do Catholic schools best serve students who struggle with same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria (popularly called “transgendered”)? What should a school’s policies prescribe in order to prevent confusion, disputes and even litig … [Read more...]
Catholic vs. Secular Classical Education: What’s the Difference?
Introduction The rise in classical education in America is not insignificant. It cuts across public and private school divisions; secular and religious commitments; Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic denominations; and even school … [Read more...]
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