Guest-post: What Should Guide the Classical Education Movement? (Fr. John Rickert, FSSP)

Conversatio Nostra in Caelis Est

Fr. John Rickert, FSSP

The decline of education in the United States, and, I fear, in much of the Western world, has become increasingly apparent and dire, and the decline has accelerated in recent years. It brings chagrin, or even shame, to realize that many college graduates would not even pass the final examination for the 8th grade from Salina, Kansas, of 1895.[1]

One response to this decline has been the rise of Classical curricula, academies, and colleges. This response is undoubtedly a great improvement and may even succeed in staving off the utter collapse of education. I believe it is too early to tell, but it is worth a valiant effort. Yet, there is a caveat that I believe is absolutely necessary, or else these efforts will ultimately be in vain.

Classical education, in whatever form or implementation it takes, must be informed by the supernatural truth of the Catholic faith. Too often, I fear, “Classical curricula” are really some variant of Renaissance Humanism, which was a more-or-less conscious rejection of the Church and hence a move towards intellectual apostasy. To read, study, and discuss Plato and the Philosopher King, in and of itself, can be intellectually beneficial, but why should there be less interest in kings who were actually saints? Why should the wisdom of Plato be held in higher esteem than the divinely revealed wisdom of Solomon? Why is that students read the consciously non-committal C.S. Lewis yet have no acquaintance at all with the highly-committed Juan Donoso Cortés?

“The Illustrated Liturgical Year Calendar” — Beautiful New Posters for the TLM

Set 1, Poster 1: Advent

Little Latin Readers 'third level' now available for homeschoolers

A couple of years ago we brought our readers a wonderful new tool for children, especially homeschoolers, to learn Latin (see original post with more details below this update). 

The third level of the newly revised Little Latin Readers series, Liber Tertius: Civitates Europae, has just arrived, and it continues and expands the unique Catholic cultural experience of the preceding levels. The stories in this reader focus on the beginnings of Catholic Europe, with selections on the geography, fauna and flora, and history of four key Catholic nations: Ireland, France, Spain and Poland. 

Traditionalist Publishing Renaissance (1): St. Augustine Academy Press

Many times, I have heard Catholics lament the "good old days" when there were so many Catholic writers, journalists, publications, and bookstores. It's true that we lost many of those things in the nuclear winter that followed the Second Vatican Council. However, as one who has spent a lot of time looking at older books and magazines (as in: from the 1890s to the 1960s), I'm not convinced that the level of material was consistently high. There were masterpieces, to be sure; but much that is now forgotten deserves to be forgotten.

Fast forward to 2020, fifty years after the mandatory imposition of the New Order on the Church. What do we see? Contrary to all the expectations of the party of rupture, we are witnessing a veritable renaissance in traditional Catholic publishing, of a consistently high quality, both in content and in production values. Such names as Angelico Press, Arouca Press, Angelus Press, Cluny Media, Loreto Publications, Preserving Christian Publications, Cana Press, Romanitas Press, Roman Catholic Books, Sophia Institute Press, and Te Deum Press come to mind. There are more, and there will be more. It is perennial tradition, not the banality of the sixties and seventies, that excites enthusiasm and enkindles a lifelong desire to learn.

Review: Little Latin Readers -- a wonderful tool for Catholic students (and 15% off!)

As a father of many homeschooled children, due to a demanding job, I only have a 30,000-foot understanding of how they actually learn, as my wife carries that burden. However, I do know that, while Mrs. Adfero has always tried to keep up with the kids' Latin courses, it was never a core subject that must be completed every day. 

Then, we were sent the Little Latin Readers. 

At first, Mrs. Adfero was hesitant to even look at a new product, with the start of a new school year just a few weeks away. But she did, as the creators sent us a package, and she felt obligated. But that hesitancy quickly turned to excitement. So much so that she changed course at the last minute and now a number of our children will be using these Readers exclusively for their Latin studies this year. 

While I am not qualified to go deeply into this tool, here are some key features to know:

(Keep reading to get 15% off in an exclusive Rorate reader discount!)

Michael Davis attacks home schoolers

The quiz at the end of the St Catherine's Trust annual Summer School, attended
by about 50-50 home-educated and school-educated children. Details of this year's here.

(Supporters of Home Education may like to support this petition on the latest UK government attack on it.)

A while ago the Catholic Herald journalist Michael Davis thought he'd do a good turn to the Traditional Catholic movement (with which he apparently identifies) by describing us as hateful bigots and antisemites. Now he's decided to do a similar favour to homeschoolers.

It works like this. First, Davis starts the article with a reference to the staggering success of homeschoolers: it seems that they are providing 10% of vocations to the priesthood in the USA, a proportion vastly in excess of their numbers.

Second, Davis lists all the tired old criticisms of homseschooling. Homeschooling is against the teaching of the Church; the children aren't 'socialised'; the parents are 'helicopter parents' who 'seal off their children in a bubble'; even the apparent good of the vocations is undermined by the snarky suggestion that the vocations aren't genuine and the priests won't be good pastors.

Step three is to hold up his hands and say: Oh well, maybe these problems can be avoided by some homseschoolers. Citing one particular group, he says vocations coming from it 'won’t be stereotypically paranoid, socially awkward homeschooled kids': unlike all the other homeschooled children, right?

No doubt he expects us all to congratulate him on what a balanced article he has produced.

The problem is that, just as in the 'oh perhaps not all traditional Catholics are hateful bigots' article, he has reiterated and reinforced an extremely damaging negative stereotype which needs confronting and assessing. Is it true? Because obviously, if the stereotype isn't true, then a balanced assessment wouldn't use it even as one side of the see-saw.

Encouragement for homeschoolers

For those who homeschool, especially for those either just starting or with all fairly young children in their early educational years, we don't have to tell you -- it's hard. It's really hard. 

If you read some of the homeschooling blogs, while they mean well, they often leave you with the feeling that homeschooling should always be this wonderful, permanent joy. It should always feel like that painting of mother in her chair with the perfectly behaved little ones at her knees listening to each and every word emanating from her mouth.

Then there's reality. 

The reality is, for many, homeschooling isn't just an option, it's the only option. It's a spiritual life or death situation for your children. You know you can't send them to public school, where they'll lose their souls. You know you can't send them to the local "Catholic" school, where they'll lose their faith. Yet, that doesn't make your day to day any easier. 

A traditional priest has recorded a short but very inspirational reminder of why you homeschool and why you must keep at it. 

Click here to listen now.

Homeschooling growing seven times faster than public school enrollment

And test scores of students educated at home by their parents, compared to government-schooled children, are much higher, while absurd fears of the children not being "socialized" are put to rest:

From Breitbart:

As dissatisfaction with the U.S. public school system grows, apparently so has the appeal of homeschooling. Educational researchers, in fact, are expecting a surge in the number of students educated at home by their parents over the next ten years, as more parents reject public schools.

A recent report in Education News states that, since 1999, the number of children who are homeschooled has increased by 75%. Though homeschooled children represent only 4% of all school-age children nationwide, the number of children whose parents choose to educate them at home rather than a traditional academic setting is growing seven times faster than the number of children enrolling in grades K-12 every year.

As homeschooling has become increasingly popular, common myths that have long been associated with the practice of homeschooling have been debunked.

Any concerns about the quality of education children receive by their parents can be put to rest by the consistently high placement of homeschooled students on standardized assessment exams. Data demonstrates that those who are independently educated generally score between the 65th and 89th percentile on these measures, while those in traditional academic settings average at around the 50th percentile. In addition, achievement gaps between sexes, income levels, or ethnicity—all of which have plagued public schools around the country—do not exist in homeschooling environments.

According to the report:

Recent studies laud homeschoolers’ academic success, noting their significantly higher ACT-Composite scores as high schoolers and higher grade point averages as college students. Yet surprisingly, the average expenditure for the education of a homeschooled child, per year, is $500 to $600, compared to an average expenditure of $10,000 per child, per year, for public school students.

The high achievement level of homeschoolers is readily recognized by recruiters from some of the best colleges in the nation. Home-educated children matriculate in colleges and attain a four-year degree at much higher rates than their counterparts from both public and private schools. Schools such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Stanford, and Duke Universities all actively recruit homeschoolers.

Similarly, the common myth that homeschoolers “miss out” on so-called “socialization opportunities,” often thought to be a vital aspect of traditional academic settings, has proven to be without merit.

According to the National Home Education Research Institute survey, homeschoolers tend to be more socially engaged than their peers and demonstrate “healthy social, psychological, and emotional development, and success into adulthood.

”From the report:Based on recent data, researchers such as Dr. Brian Ray (NHERI.org) “expect to observe a notable surge in the number of children being homeschooled in the next 5 to 10 years. The rise would be in terms of both absolute numbers and percentage of the K to 12 student population. This increase would be in part because…[1] a large number of those individuals who were being home educated in the 1990’s may begin to homeschool their own school-age children and [2] the continued successes of home-educated students.”

Homeschooling: Persevering Out of Love for Others

Here at Rorate, we understand that reporting on tradition means more than just the latest news from Rome, bishops, promotion of the traditional liturgy, etc. We try to report on everything that helps Catholics become more steeped in tradition as a whole, whether it's learning about the Traditional Mass, traditional music, traditional theology, and more.

Many Catholic families across the world are now or will shortly be starting another year of homeschooling. And, sadly, as if the task in front of them isn't taxing enough, they will be hit from all sides: homeschooling is wrong; your children will be anti-social; you can't keep them in a cave; they're too young to start homeschooling, just relax; and on and on.

We urge all parents, whether already homeschooling or only thinking about it, just starting out or long-time veterans, to listen to this podcast by a very learned, traditional priest. Please take the short 10 minutes and listen -- and listen to again, over and over, when the going gets tough.

Conformity to God's will is always the right thing -- but no one said it's ever the easy thing. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that truth.

CLICK HERE to listen and consider forwarding this to all your homeschooling friends.