Catholic Education

"The Church’s tradition of liberal learning puts Jesus Christ, the Logos, at the center of what teachers teach, and—importantly—how they teach. The recovery of authentic Catholic education reaches far beyond the mere acquisition of skills and fragmented information by helping students develop eyes to see and ears to hear the connectedness and the unity of all knowledge. But richer content alone, without pedagogy that sparks wonder and cultivates contemplation, cannot lead students to fully rejoice in the truth.

Pedagogy comes from the ancient Greek paidagogos, a compound comprised of “paidos” (child) and “agogos” (leader). In order to lead a child to his proper end, a teacher must begin with a clear understanding of what a child is and an equally clear understanding of his rightful destination. “The goal of education is the student himself, to form his mind and his character in such a way that he can live his whole life, so far as possible, in a way that is consistent with the truth about himself as a human being created in the image and likeness of God.”[2] Further, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “the dignity of education lies in fostering the true perfection and happiness of those to be educated.”

The focus, then, is not solely on the facts, skills, or even truths to be imparted. Equally, if not more, important is the development of the child’s God-given capacity to observe, to wonder, to discover, to attend, to listen, to remember, to speculate, to calculate, to communicate, to reason, to contemplate, etc., and especially to love. These are the habits of lifelong learning and growth." Elizabeth Sullivan, To Lead a Child: On Reclaiming a Human Pedagogy

It is therefore as important to make no mistake in education, as it is to make no mistake in the pursuit of the last
end, with which the whole work of education is intimately and necessarily connected. In fact, since education
consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the
sublime end for which he was created, it is clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to
man’s last end, and that in the present order of Providence, since God has revealed Himself to us in the Person of
His Only Begotten Son, who alone is “the way, the truth and the life,” there can be no ideally perfect education
which is not Christian education.

- Divini Illius Magistri
On Christian Education
Pope Pius XI - 1929