VIII. A Catholic classical liberal education is what I used to teach my children.
Catholic = fully in accord with Magisterium of the Church
Liberal education = a fundamental approach to learning taking into account natural law which informs about the human person. Latin & Greek having a pride of place.
Fundamental = concepts and tasks that are essential to learning.
Baltimore Catechism, systematic, liberal approach to learning. Fundamentals, build, then articulate, systematic & concrete.
Modern education hodgepodge, areas covered but no cohesive approaches
Greeks broad view, them microcosm which is us
Start navel gazing, us see where we fit, study some history, then expand to world
Makes the student narcissist, looks to himself first then to the wise elders.
Familiar is easy, no effort, presented to child the whole, then break the pieces
Liberal instruction preferred to HS put things in the right order.
Natural law, anthropological view of man, catholic driver for the view
Modern Man view of person & truth different than the Church’s understanding
Conflict classical structure build foundation
Ex/ Spend a lot of time learning alphabet, form the letters correctly, know their various phonetic sounds, hold pencil correctly rather than memorize a whole word
It does not matter if they can recognize a whole word if the child does not understand the individual components of the word.
Don’t be concerned with creating an entire curriculum. You could find a lot of gaps. Tragically modern schooling a lot of access to information, tidbits of knowledge, like beads in a box.
We want a systematic, analogy beads in a box vs a rosary
One is a mess and a jumble, I could go through he effort to use them for prayer
Rosary is functional, systematic, cross hangs down tells me this is the start, goes around in a circle
Forms of education, foundations laid rather than tick off boxes of information.
Ex/ my child knows all of the state capitols, monkey trip
Rather
Why is capitol of California named Sacramento? Why did NY choose to put Albany where it is?
Why is Milwaukee not the capitol instead of Madison since it is bigger? And why did Wisconsin chose Madison as the capitol name? These are questions of interest.
Ex/ Akron in Summit County acro polis Highland Square summa high highest place in city
Follow logic, not scatter shot, names mean what they signify
Education good connective tissue
Contra nominalism, catholic philosophy, world view, true to human person
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