How the Classical Trivium Helps Students Master Their Work

How the Classical Trivium Helps Students Master Their Work by Justyna Braun at Aleteia. One of the most effective approaches to clarifying the content and purpose of study derives from the classical trivium: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric…Countless publications dwell on strategies for instructing students in reading and math, science and language arts, classroom behavior and good citizenship. Professional development courses train teachers in new methodologies. Students practice test taking, note taking, narrating, annotating, mapping, diagraming, executive functioning, and stress management. For all its usefulness, overemphasis on skills often obscures fundamental questions about what to study and why. Read

Liberal Arts and Fine Arts: Understanding the Trivium, Quadrivium, and the Place of Music in Catholic Education – with Mark Langley by Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka at The Lion & Ox. Having worked in Catholic classical education for decades, Mark Langley knows the place of music in Catholic education, and has built schools in which every student is enabled to learn and sing chant and polyphonic works from the Church’s sacred music treasury. Listen to our discussion about where music figures into the educational structure, and some problems in the modern conception of the nature of music that prevent Catholic education from giving music its proper due. Listen

New Writing Program Transforms Student Experience by Andrea Vargas at Holy Spirit Preparatory School. As schools nationwide grapple with the challenge of preparing students for a world increasingly dominated by AI and digital tools, Holy Spirit Preparatory School’s success with the IEW program offers an inspiring model. It underscores the enduring importance of strong, independent writing skills, ensuring students can articulate their thoughts clearly and persuasively in any context. Read

How Catholic Seminaries Can Serve the Creative Explosion in US Catholic Education by Charles C. Camosy at Religion News Service. Some faithful lay people have begun an effort to renew Catholic schools. Rooted in church teaching and seeing the faith as permeating all aspects of human life and learning, these new projects include independent schools such as the Chesterton Academies, homeschooling initiatives such as Regina Caeli, and the transformation of existing parochial schools, such as at St. Jerome in Washington, D.C. Other organizations, such as the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, are supporting these efforts, proposing to “reclaim the Church’s classical tradition of liberal education.” The rapid growth of these efforts is evidence of a deep desire U.S. Catholics have to preserve their faith, live it out and pass it on to their children. Read

Reading Done Right by Mark Bauerlein at First Things. Listen to the latest installment of an ongoing interview series with First Things contributing editor Mark Bauerlein. Daniel Buck joins in to discuss his new report, Think Again: Should Elementary Schools Teach Reading Comprehension?  Listen

Catholic Liberal Arts College in California Has Nation’s ‘Most Conservative’ Students by Kate Quiñones at Catholic News Agency. Thomas Aquinas College has been ranked by the Princeton Review as having the most conservative collegiate student body in the country. The Princeton Review selects 390 top colleges each year and then ranks them according to different categories based on student responses to surveys. Read

Summit Brings National Catholic Leaders to Campus to Address Civics Education Crisis by Benedictine College. The Summit on Civics in Catholic Education met at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, this summer to address a crisis. Princeton’s Robert P. George, classical education proponent Jeremy Tate, and teacher Rich Moss were keynotes at the event, designed to help Catholic schools lead the charge to Transform Culture in America by sharing the importance of America’s founding principles. Read

Throwback Thursday

Beauty Matters, Aesthetic Education Matters by Robert Mixa at Word on Fire on September 28, 2021. Aesthetic education matters. Noble art cultivates noble souls. Until recently, most civilizations have understood this, encouraging educators to introduce the youth to art, beauty, and good taste. This is what is known as an “aesthetic education.” But how many educators do this today? When taste has been reduced to mere preference—wherein the distinction between superior or inferior taste is meaningless and even offensive—criticism of taste is considered off-limits. This view has gained hold not only in popular culture but even in the schools, threatening the very purpose of education. And while it’s important to be reticent about being too critical and a snob, education—and the soul—depends on the cultivation of an aesthetic sensibility that can identify what constitutes “good” art. Read