Pedagogy

What a Classical Catholic Education Teaches

The curricular content of a classical Catholic education reflects throughout a Catholic understanding of the child, not as a mind to be equipped to fulfill for themselves and others some particular social function, but rather as a creature of a God who seeks to reveal Himself to the child in the world He created them in.  This orientation begins with the understanding that what we teach has a given nature, an integrated unity in the Good, the True and the Beautiful which instruction must continually reveal.  This nature therefore directly determines pedagogy—how students are taught, and curriculum—what students are taught.   In classical Catholic education the child is not a passive receptor of learning but a participant in ongoing revelation, discovery,  and exploration leading to new connections and experiences of the Good, the True and Beautiful in literature, history, mathematics, science, and the arts.   This participation implies that the child is changed, formed, throughout the process.  New habits of mind are learned, adopted and applied to their ongoing learning.  The perception and appreciation of the unity of knowledge deepens in wonder of the mystery and light that is the world around us.