An Integrated Education

There are three sources of temptation to sin: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Yet, the Church has always taught that the life of a Christian is not reducible to resisting temptation. We aren’t called to focus on these three sources of temptation. Rather, we must turn our gaze upward. Our attention must be focused on the goal of Christian life, and not on those things we must avoid. Take whatever precautions helpful to avoid sin, yes. But “love, and do what you want.”1

Two weeks ago, I shared a brief critique of John Dewey, an educational philosopher who had enormous negative impact on American education and who is a major founder of modern, progressive education. Catholic educators, though, must not focus on that which we must avoid. Rather, our eyes should be fixed upon true Catholic education, its sources, its goal, and its fruit.

The first consideration is what humanity has lost, and how we are restored. When God created man, he did so with special graces that brought man’s different powers and inclinations into harmony with one another. Man had special infused knowledge of “all things” according to St. Thomas Aquinas.2 The first man had all the virtues, and was immortal.3 After he sinned, Adam’s intellect was darkened4, his lower appetites became disordered5, and he became subject to death (the dis-integration of body and soul).6

When the Word was made flesh for man’s redemption, Christ came to re-integrate human nature. First, he did so by the perfect integration of the hypostatic union, “and the Word was made flesh…” (John 1:14). Then, as Isaiah the prophet foretold, through his paschal mystery Christ “made us whole” by his Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven.7 A distinctively Catholic curriculum ought to reflect the ideal and the goal: the God-man, himself.

The beginning of integration for our students is wonder. Wonder—marveling at what is—is the beginning of all knowledge.8 In the classical liberal arts, we wonder at the beauty and ordered simplicity of truth in its most distilled forms: for grammar, the sentence; in logic, the syllogism; and the eloquence achievable by rhetoric. We marvel at the beauty of coherent mathematical figures, of musical harmonies, and of the heavenly bodies themselves.

In the physical sciences we marvel at nature itself through close observation, excursions into the real world, and learning about the grand discoveries and advances made by man in these fields.

In history, we marvel at the achievements of humanity, at the virtues and excellences of the great men who came before us, and at the atrocities committed by lesser men. We develop a “historical consciousness” that results in a sympathetic and patriotic view of our forebears.9

In Literature, we marvel at the imaginative worlds created by the great authors of western civilization and the flawed but great personalities put on display in those worlds. Literature has a special way of reintegrating whole persons, as it contributes to the subjection of the passions to the intellect by way of the imagination.

We also marvel at the extraordinary argumentation and linguistic eloquence that great authors have achieved in the realms of poetry, ethics, politics, and theology. We peer with affection and amazement especially at “the marvelous condescension of eternal wisdom” as God reveals himself in Divine Revelation.10 That “eternal wisdom” is the heart of Christ himself.

In order to concretely initiate our students into this wonder-filled, integrated lens by which to view the universe and their place within it, stargazing was a key aspect of John Senior’s program of formation. By standing in silence to gaze at the glory of the cosmos, the great chain of being, the majesty of God’s creation, and man’s place within it is made intuitively clear. As a holistic introduction to wonder—not through a classroom lecture or abstract conceptualization, but rather an incarnate experience—stargazing compels students to lift their souls heavenward, while connecting their earthbound lives to the entire range of divine, cosmic order.

This wonder is the beginning, but no good student or teacher ever leaves this stage. Intellectual maturity proceeds through constant wonder as the motivating principle to connect the disciplines to one another. These connections form integrity in the mind of the student. They grant him a coherent vision of the cosmos, God, and man’s place in between.11

This produces an almost musical harmony in the student between what he knows (the truth), what he does (the good), and what he imitates (the beautiful).

An integrated curriculum seeks to form the whole person. The student learns to create in the fine arts, principally by imitation and contemplation of the great artists in the western and Catholic tradition. He incarnates with his own person the characters and events born out in the great dramas of, for example, William Shakespeare. He offers his body to almighty God in songs of praise to the creator and redeemer.

He trains his body with an eye toward physical excellence, especially in physical education.12 Rigorous physical training teaches students the habit of making one’s body submit to his intellect. Because of the kind of being a human person is, they have emotions and appetites that need to be focused and directed according to reason and the good of their community. Physical formation serves to promote this ordering and gives students the foundational dispositions required for resisting sin, building virtue, and taking Christ into the world through acts of charity and service.

Competitive sports harness the passions of young people and give them a stage upon which to express—with holy confidence and virtue—the gifts that God has given them.13 Using their bodies for higher callings such as teamwork, servant leadership, and striving against opposition for a unified cause, they can live out St. Irenaeus of Lyon’s famous proverb, “the glory of God is man fully alive.”14 Competitive sports, especially through the mentorship of faithful coaching, build within the students a right ordering of themselves with relation to their own bodies, to others (coaches, referees, teammates, and competition), to the world (the field, the court, the ball), and to God (the cause of their victory, and their consolation in honorable loss).

Wonder and an integrated curriculum means also offering students the opportunity for leisure in community. The soul of leisure lies in celebration.15 This is expressed most perfectly in worship, making prayer and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass an essential activity that forms both individuals and the community. It is also expressed in less formal celebrations, like chaste dancing.

Such a comprehensive course of study—and action—forms the whole person. Many schools claim to form the whole child without putting much thought into what that means. My academy forms the whole person by inspiring wonder and integrating every part of the student into a beautiful, coherent harmony. Drawing on the sacrifice of Christ, the student can become “whole.”

This is the goal of Catholic education, it places students in contact with the risen Lord, and offers them a place in his ecclesial body. This is the manifesto for all Catholic education. We aren’t just avoiding political indoctrination or preparing for the practical concern of life. We are making disciples of Christ.