Classical Education

Notably, several of the great defenses of natural reason — such as Aristotle’s Ethics and Euclid’s Elements — were written before the time of Christ, demonstrating that we can learn richly from the “noble pagans.” Christianity, however, adds to pagan antiquity important truths concerning the centrality of revelation and grace. A full Classical education, then, integrates faith and reason, Athens and Jerusalem. It upholds the unity of creation while simultaneously encouraging students to utilize different methods and disciplines to study the whole.

A Classical curriculum centers on the study of the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric), the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy), the great books, and the broad scope of the humanities. These arts are liberal (deriving from the Latin word liber, free) because they not only liberate the mind from arbitrary convention and “the mob,” but also elevate and ennoble our human faculties. These arts bring us closer to wisdom. They also require us to be surrounded by teachers and colleagues of good will and character, whose lives mirror the truths they espouse.

Elementary, high school, and college level approaches to Classical education are bound to differ. Aesop needs to be taught before Jane Austen, as a recent book’s title suggests. Yet, it is important to remember that all true education is directed to genuine happiness and to beatitude with God.

In this video, Dr. Joseph Wysocki, Provost of Belmont Abbey College, engages in a conversation with Elisabeth Sullivan of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education and Andrea Lipinski of the CiRCE Institute about the perennial importance of Classical education and its current revival, especially in the United States.