“The goal of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.”
– Plato, The Republic
Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
– St. Paul, Philippians 4:8
Resources About Classical Education
From the earliest times the purpose of education was understood as training children to love excellence, and excellence was understood as that which is True, Good, and Beautiful. For the ancients, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty were complementary ways of articulating the human experience of the world. The Catholic Church both affirms and expands on this ancient understanding of education, teaching that parents are the child’s primary educators and the home the first curriculum. Parents teach their children to love and respect themselves and others, and they nurture their children in the knowledge and worship of God, who is the Origin of all that is True, Good, and Beautiful. From this expanding definition we see that education entails both religious and moral training and the realization that all knowledge is connected to God, who created out of love and who gives humanity the capacity to know Him through his works. Finally, Catholic Classical Education is ultimately evangelistic, because it disposes the mind and heart to Jesus Christ who reveals God in a unique way through His life, death, and resurrection.
What is Classical Education?
Essay by Jonathan Beeson detailing the history of education and what Catholic Classical Education is.
The Holy See’s Teaching on Catholic Schools
Archbishop J. Michael Miller, the man responsible for Catholic education around the world, distilled for his audience the Church’s teachings on Catholic education.
Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of Education
Stratford Caldecott shines a fresh light on the three arts of language, in a marvelous recasting of the Trivium whereby Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric are explored as Remembering, Thinking, and Communicating.
