Classical Education and the Catholic School

I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about classical education. Our oldest daughter is set to start kindergarten in the fall, and the rationale behind the trajectory of our modern educational system—what we teach our children, how, and when—suddenly seems much more relevant to me. My foray into teaching 8th grade this past year (a new level for our high school) has also piqued my interest in the purpose of the lower grades—how, for example, the structure of elementary and middle school points toward high school, college, and adulthood. My wife went to a classical high school, so I was already somewhat familiar with its basic principles.

The Inferno and Incarnational Art (LMM #1)

To kick off my series on “Literature for the Modern Mind,” I’ll start with the one who started it all—Dante Alighieri. Really, I should address his whole Commedia here, but since I’ve taught the Inferno for the past three years in my senior class, and (I’m ashamed to admit!) I haven’t yet read the Purgatorio and Paradiso (both this summer, I hope!) I’ll stick to the first of the three-part journey.

Giraldi Article in Dappled Things (and some links)

The "Candlemas 2016" edition of the Catholic literary journal Dappled Things features an article I wrote on the novelist William Giraldi and his relationship to the Catholic literary tradition. The article is a loose response to Giraldi's own essay on being called a "Catholic novelist," which ran in the New Republic last summer. Some relevant links are below.

Thanks to Dappled Things, and please check out their journal. They do great work in nourishing those of us who read, think, and write about the intersection of art and faith.

Further reading:
Giraldi's essay "Confessions of a Catholic Novelist"

D. G. Myers' essay at Books and Culture on the "Catholic novelists" Giraldi and Christopher Beha

My initial thoughts on Giraldi's Hold the Dark

Some of my thoughts on the relationship between narrative and the spiritual journey

I hope to have the first installment of my series of posts on "Literature for the Modern Mind" up soon. Stay tuned!

Weekend Reads and Thoughts: Feb 26

It's been a while since I've posted any links, and I've had some saved for some time now, so here they are to peruse at your leisure:

Do Teens Read Seriously Anymore?
by David Denby, The New Yorker

This article seems to be largely taken from material in David Denby's new book, Lit Up, in which the New Yorker critic spends time in high school English classrooms to figure out if, and how, students can be taught to appreciate great literature in the age of smartphones. From what I gather from the article, Denby sees rays of light in the interactions great teachers have with students, but is a realist when it comes to just how much good this can do in an age when students are transfixed by their constantly flickering screens.

Over the course of the next month I'll be reviewing Denby's book for a Catholic publication, and I'll post the link here when the review runs.

Smartphone Era Politics
by Roger Cohen, The New York Times

While we're on depressing subjects, here's a lament for the loss of readers, and real community, in the twittering age. I don't know if what's more disheartening--the world Cohen describes, or the fact that this kind of lament has become so routine, proof that this distracted isolation has permanently lodged itself in us like a cancer that we tolerate because we are too busy to be bothered with seeking medical care.

Teacher, Heal Thyself
by Ray Schroth, S.J., America Magazine

Fr. Schroth has been with America for over 60 years, teaching for much of that time, and has compiled some excellent bits of wisdom here from his experience. His piece exemplifies, I think, a truly Catholic approach to education--practical, rooted in personal encounter, and steeped in great literature.

Literature for the Modern Mind: An Introduction

One of my major motivations for starting this blog, a year and a half ago, was my desire to sort things out for myself as a teacher of literature in a Catholic school. After several years of teaching, I had come to understand that the modern high school student is starved in many areas that should be of concern to Catholic educators.

Maclean on Teaching

As I mentioned in my previous post, Norman Maclean, for most of his career, was not a fiction writer but a professor at the University of Chicago. He was a good one, too, winning the university's Quantrell Award for Teaching Excellence twice, once in the beginning of his career (1941), and once toward the end (1973).

On Norman Maclean

In spent the better part the 2000s in Western Montana, first working at a summer camp in the Seeley-Swan Valley, and then at graduate school in Missoula. I wasn't long in the area before people started urging me to read Norman Maclean. I had never heard of him before, but soon realized that he was a laureate of sorts for Montanans in general, and thanks to A River Runs Through It, for Montana fly fishermen in particular.

Eros and the Modern Student

In my recent post “The Endless Practice,” I wrote a fable of sorts involving a young boy who wants nothing else but to learn how to play baseball after seeing a professional game. Soon, though, he loses his enthusiasm after joining a baseball league in which he plays no games but simply practices the isolated skills, over and over again, that the sport involves. I hope the message wasn’t too obscure. In order for an educational experience to succeed, it must nurture desire.

Why Silicon Valley and Literature are Opposites: Kingsnorth, Birkerts, and the "Technium"

Some nuggets on technology and literature as school starts up again:

Crawford Article at Aleteia

Yesterday Aleteia ran an article I wrote on Matthew Crawford. I've written about Crawford at greater length on this blog, here and here. In the article I try to make the case that Crawford's emphasis on getting outside of our heads in order to be genuinely human is really a Catholic one too. Thanks to Aleteia for publishing it, and Merry Christmas to all!

Ozick, O'Connor, and What Literature is For

I loved my time in graduate school, but eventually grew weary, as many have, with the political, deconstructionist theory that dominates the academy. As fascinating as Derrida and Foucault and company are at first encounter, they didn't satisfy me in the end because they failed at tending my literary flame, so to speak.

The Endless Practice: A Fable of Modern Education

Imagine this: One summer you take your grade-school son to a professional baseball game, and he takes it all in—the sights, sounds, smells of the ballpark. He watches the game intently, standing on his seat when those in front of him rise to see a close play at the plate, trying to make sense of this new, fascinating world called baseball.

Ripatrazone on Writers Who Run

I've linked to Nick Ripatrazone's work before. He's a jack-of-all-trades: a high school teacher, father to young children, fiction writer, and compiler of an interview series with Catholic authors, among other things. In other words, he's my much-more-accomplished doppelganger: he inhabits many of the worlds that I dabble in, and has quickly become one of the preeminent voices at the intersection of faith and fiction.

If our interests and roles couldn't overlap more, I've just discovered that Nick, like me, is a runner. I ran distance in high school and college before settling into an off-again, on-again training schedule. Check out his most recent essay in The Atlantic, "Why Writers Run." Nick's own webpage is here.

My own blogging has been sparse of late, as some additional duties at school have kept me busier than normal. I hope to have a real post up soon!

Article at Aleteia

Aleteia, a Catholic news and spirituality site, is running my piece "Another Reason to Curl Up with a Good Book," which is a shortened version of my post on narratives earlier this month. Thanks to them!

For a more literary spin on the idea of narratives and Christian love, see my thoughts on poet Christian Wiman's spiritual memoir here.

Crawford, Consumerism, and Catholicism: On The World Beyond Your Head



After much anticipation I finally got through Matthew Crawford’s most recent book, The World Beyond Your Head. Earlier this year I posted about an extract I had read from the book in the form of an article in The New Atlantis.

The Need for Narrative

A few days ago I was deep in the usual end-of-quarter mire of essays and tests. The first such occasion for feverish grading during the school year brings the sourest batch of stress and despair. At least at the end of the second quarter there is a milestone—halfway!—and mid-year exams signal a leaving-behind, a moving-on to new material. At the end of the third quarter, well, the snow is melting and we see the homestretch, so there is hope beyond the mountain of dried wood pulp. And of course the end of the year brings with it liberation, and grading is almost a joy. But the teacher who assigned too much at the end of the first quarter (and who doesn’t?) knows a darkness that he would not wish on his worst enemy. There’s no sweetness that accompanies the heave-ho of grading then, for with three quarters to go, where is the relief?

Attention and the Unplugged Classroom

In my recent article in America I talked about what Catholic schools are facing as they seek to keep themselves grounded in the teaching example of Christ while best utilizing the technology of our times. Though I tried to focus my article in the reality of the classroom (as opposed to politics and boards-of-education) I purposefully didn’t make practical suggestions as to specific guidelines that Catholic schools should adopt concerning the student use of things like iPads, tablets, smartphones, and laptops.

Writing the College Essay

In a bit of a departure from my recent subject matter here,  I wanted to say a few words about something neither specifically Catholic nor involving the reading of literature, and that is: essay writing.

Marilynne Robinson's Religious Imagination, Part 3: Lila

My posts on Marilynne Robinson’s spiritual vision have focused, primarily, on the relationship of human love and divine love in her stories. In other words, I’ve been interested in how nature interacts with grace in the lives of the Ames and Boughton families. More so than Gilead and Home, Lila deals directly with the differences between the natural and supernatural, between the ebb and flow of the physical world and the formulas of organized religion.

Article in America

The Jesuit magazine America has gone live with their fall education issue, which includes my article on the goals of a Catholic education with regard to the use of technology. It's an article that emerged from my series of posts, earlier this year, on the topic (here, here, and here). Thanks to them for publishing it, and I hope it will generate conversations about how to approach the issue, about how Catholic schools can stand out.

The article does stake out some first principles in terms of using tech in a Catholic school, but I did not really get into practical steps or lay out how exactly, while not ignoring the benefits of personal technology, Catholic classrooms can keep personal relationships at the center of their activities. Understandably, this will differ from grade to grade and school to school... I would love to hear some suggestions and experiences from everyone out there.

Marilynne Robinson's Religious Imagination, Part 2: Home

At the end of my post on Gilead, I wondered if Marilynne Robinson, in focusing on the human aspects of divine love in her fiction—tenderness, compassion, etc.—somehow diminishes grace by equating it with human emotion or feeling. The second book in her trilogy, Home, told from the perspective of Glory, the daughter of Rev. Boughton and sister of the prodigal son Jack, draws us closer to an answer.