OLD IS NEW Returning Catholic Schools to a Classical Model
By Matt Post, PhD ’15
he University of Dallas is presently piloting a K-12 curriculum and professional development for Catholic schools transitioning to a classical model of education. UD’s faculty have long served teachers and schools of all kinds, educating current and aspiring teachers as well as contributing to curricular projects and professional development. That said, the development of a full-blown K-12 curriculum is new territory for the university. What has inspired us to serve our community in this way?
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TOWER MAGAZINE
Across the country, more and more K-12 schools and home-schoolers are turning to what has come to be called “classical education,” but which has traditionally been called “liberal education.” Many are attracted to its unabashed stance that human beings, however fallible, may grasp some degree of truth not just in scientific disciplines, but also when it comes to aesthetic and especially moral questions. Others are attracted to its cultivation of humility and critical thinking through informed, thoughtful and open-ended discussion, inspired especially by Plato’s Socratic dialogues. And still others are attracted to its emphasis on the human being as a whole, as fundamentally rational and free, with a view to the flourishing of individuals and communities. Liberal education seeks to foster excellence in all its forms. If this sounds like a lot, that’s because it is, but the Western tradition offers an inexhaustible storehouse of wisdom in negotiating the important but difficult dilemmas that confront us as human beings — drawing from Hebrew Scripture, the Greek and Roman authors, and the Jewish and Muslim thinkers who engaged with them, as well as from a profound desire to engage with other traditions wherever they may be found. This tradition also draws great strength from the Gospels, from St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, and from the monastic schools, cathedral schools and universities that have flourished under the Catholic Church.
