David Ancell / Saturday, September 30, 2023 / Comments(0)
In my last post, I wrote about how we needed to consider the practical aspects of how one will learn to practice his or her chosen profession and make a living while receiving a classical education. There’s another side of the coin that I want to present here. If I have a choice between my kids studying advanced calculus in high school or studying philosophy, I want them to study philosophy. I don’t want them to waste time with asinine questions like “How do you know the sky is blue?” Rather, I want them to learn to think. I want them to gain wisdom.
Many people accuse religious believers of just believing what they are told and not really thinking. If they weren’t serious, it would be hilarious! Such people should see the ridiculous groupthink that nonbelievers seem to accept without question these days. I grew in my critical thinking skills by leaps and bounds when I took more time to study my Catholic faith, especially in the field of apologetics.
The groupthink is precisely what I don’t want my kids to fall for. I want them to have at least a basic understanding of the aims of their life and why they should attain them. I don’t want them to settle for the superficial. As for how I know the sky is blue, my answer would be “I don’t, and I do not care that I don’t.”
David Ancell / Saturday, September 30, 2023 / Comments(0)
Let me start by saying that I am very much opposed to utilitarian education. In fact, I would even go so far to say that, if you think that the purpose of getting an education is to learn how to make a living, then you don’t have a proper Catholic view of education. I definitely don’t think that we should be educating people with the end of college, which may land in the trash bin of irrelevance at the rate we are going. We should be forming the person.
I’ve been interested in writings that advocate for a return to Catholic education. I read with interest the book entitled Renewing Catholic Schools: How to Regain a Catholic Vision in a Secular Age. The book clearly advocates using a classical model of education, forming a community, and making God the center of everything. These are all aims that I would support.
However, whenever I encounter someone writing about this, there is one thing I find missing. At some point, people need to learn a skill that they can use to earn a living. They need a skill that makes a contribution to society. At what point is this taught, and how? While I’m no fan of the career mentality of our society, the fact is that many of the professions that are practiced in the world are needed. Where would we be without doctors, engineers, electricians, plumbers, etc? So, while I am in total agreement that education should not be utilitarian, I think it’s important that advocates of classical education address the practical questions that arise from their writings.