How the Classical Education Movement Is Rescuing a Lost Generation

How the Classical Education Movement Is Rescuing a Lost Generation by Christopher Nadon and Kathleen O’Toole at The American Spectator. Last September, professors at elite American colleges finally began to admit what has been apparent for the last dozen years: Their students cannot read. No, they are not illiterate. But they cannot read books, at least not the kind of dense and nourishing fare that once constituted the curriculum for entering freshmen. Their response to this discovery has been to stop teaching them. Read

Why Male Teachers Left Elementary Schools And Won’t Go Back by Scott Yenor at The Federalist. Men are disappearing from the education landscape in America. In 1970, about 30 percent of America’s elementary teachers were male; by 2021, the number had dipped to 11 percent. Similar or even steeper drops happened at middle and high school levels. The absence of men creates a harmful imbalance in how America’s children are educated. Men, however, did not depart willingly. Read

Why Boys Need Fewer Rules and More Rites of Passage by Alvaro de Vicente at Men in the Making. Every parent and teacher knows that boys need structure—scaffolding, if you will. What is less obvious is that they do not need too much of it. When a boy’s world is filled with too many rules, this can stifle his growth, just as if a tree is over protected it will not grow as strong as it would otherwise. Read

Repetitio Mater Memoriae in Pope Leo XIV’s “Drawing New Maps of Hope” by Abriana Chilelli at The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. “Repetitio Mater Memoriae,” the Latin phrase meaning “repetition is the mother of memory” proves both useful in education methodology and everyday parenting. Just as a mother nurtures her child, repetition nurtures the memory. Ultimately, as educators and as parents, we know that repetition is habit-forming. Read

Philosophy, in Service to Faith by Joseph R. Wood at Cana Academy. There is a longstanding modern claim that the faith and reason are irreconcilable. Everyone is familiar with what we call the denial of faith, atheism. Less familiar perhaps is fideism, the denial of reason. Both denials truncate our capacity to know reality and truth. The wonderful truth is, we can know by reason and faith. Read

What Is Christian Liberal Education? by Joseph Woodard at The Imaginative Conservative. For a thousand years, liberal education shaped the moral imagination of succeeding generations, almost unaware that it was freeing them from the coercive obsessions of their political masters. Young Shakespeare read Plutarch’s Lives, Holinshed’s Chronicles, Cicero’s On Duties, and the Bible, then wrote plays subtly rebuking his patron Queen Elizabeth. Read

The Goodness, Truth, & Beauty of Classical Education featuring Joseph Pearce at Memoria Press. In this Memoria Academy Community Lecture, Professor Joseph Pearce explores the transcendent ideals of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty and their essential place at the heart of classical education. Drawing on philosophy, theology, and literature, he reveals how these eternal realities shape both the soul and the intellect in the pursuit of wisdom. Watch

A Heavenly Imagination with Gracie Jagla by Haley Stewart at Word on Fire. Haley interviews Gracie Jagla. Gracie is a wife, mom of 4, and an award-winning Catholic children’s author. She hosts the Catholic storytime podcast Cuddle Up and she’s written several books including Jesus and the Miracle of the Mass and The Night the Saints Saved Christmas. Her books have a focus on the faith and are often Heaven-centric which is what we’re discussing today as we look forward to All Saints Day tomorrow. How do we help children imagine Heaven? And how can the saints help us? Listen

AI Is Not Your Friend by Jeremy Wayne Tate at The American Mind. Half of Americans are lonely and isolated—and artificial intelligence is stepping into the void. Sam Altman just announced that OpenAI will soon provide erotica for sexually lonely adults. Mark Zuckerberg envisions a future where solitary people enjoy AI friends. According to the Harvard Business Review, the top uses for large language models are therapy and companionship. Read

How AI Is Sparking Questions About the Purpose of Education by Tom Griffin at The Daily Signal. Artificial intelligence and advancing technologies are on the rise. No new news there. However, the type of technology we are seeing and the capabilities it has are ever new. Large language models like ChatGPT, Grok, and DeepSeek are replacing the need for search engines and making life more manageable for countless people around the globe. From aid with email responses to writing cover letters for resumes to one-on-one tutors and brainstorming assistants, these tools are revolutionizing the human experience—for many. Read

Screens Stole Our Focus. These Schools are Fighting Back by Theresa Civantos Barber at Aleteia. Many parents want their kids to go to tech-free schools. In a world where school districts brag about huge technology budgets and give every kindergartener an iPad, many families believe there’s a better way. They want their children to experience a slow-paced, calm, relaxed childhood—like the childhoods so many of us remember. If you’re one of those parents, you might appreciate this list of tech-free elementary schools all over the U.S. Read

Texas Private School Bans Social Media, Sees Students Thrive with Parent Support by Amira Abuzeid at Catholic News Agency. As the harmful effects of smartphone use on children become more well known, one school in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is partnering with parents to enforce a no-social-media policy and witnessing students flourish as a result. Faustina Academy, a K–12 private, independent Catholic school in Irving, Texas, asks parents to formally commit to a school policy of keeping their kids socia-media-free while enrolled. Read

Catholic Schools Fare Better in States with Voucher Programs by Amira Abuzeid at Catholic News Agency. Catholic schools are faring much better in dioceses in which state-funded voucher programs are available for parents to use to pay school tuition, one researcher has found, though enrollment is still declining in most places. John F. Quinn, a historian at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, examined six Catholic dioceses over the last 16 years — three in states with voucher programs and three in states without them — and found that parochial schools are benefiting from vouchers. Read

Featured: Symposium for Priests On the Renewal of Catholic Education at Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. Join the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education for our event designed specifically for priests. This gathering offers inspiration, vision, and practical tools to engage with principals, teachers, and parents to foster vibrant communities of faith and learning. Learn More

Throwback Thursday

Beauty Is Transcendental by Vigen Guroian at Memoria Press on July 29, 2024. Whether beauty be in an object, such as a sculpture, or communicated directly through the emotions in the rhythm of a poem without the intermediary of an object, beauty is a transcendental. It always surprises. Beauty is not just the product of desire or the quality of an emotion. No degree of conditioning or preparation avails it to us. Whether or not we desire beauty, beauty reaches us from a beyond, which persons of belief know to be God. Read