Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Catholic News

Home

Home
Catholic
Religion News
Rural school embraces classical education, Catholic identity

Rural school embraces classical education, Catholic identity

Last updated on: February 4, 2014 at 11:19 am by CNA Daily News

Rural school embraces classical education, Catholic identity 2014-02-04T11:19:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Sterling, Colo., Feb 4, 2014 / 04:19 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Catholic grade school on Colorado's eastern plains is working to adopt a classical curriculum, in the hopes of revitalizing the school community and providing a well-rounded formation for its students.

“We decided we needed to re-explore our Catholic roots in education,” said Joseph Skerjanec, principal of St. Anthony Catholic School in Sterling, Colo.

“We've always distinguished ourselves by our faith, but also academically, we thought this was the best thing: to get back to the Catholic intellectual tradition,” he explained to CNA Jan. 30.

“The purpose of education ultimately is to get to heaven, and we feel this is the best route for us to do that.”

After serving the families of northeastern Colorado for 95 years, St. Anthony's nearly had to close this academic year, but was saved through a successful fundraising campaign.

Skerjanec, together with the faculty and the parish, realized that embracing a classical curriculum might help the school to continue to serve students into the future, by offering “virtue education … and exposing our kids to those people who we need to be modeling our lives after.”

Classical, or liberal arts, education is meant to help students learn how to think, giving them the tools of learning rather than merely teaching them “subjects.” The foundation of classical education is a set of three methods of learning subjects, called the trivium – grammar, logic and rhetoric.

Skerjanec noted that there is a trend of Catholic schools “moving toward classical education … I think you'll find a lot of schools doing this.”

He added that Andrew Seeley, a professor at Thomas Aquinas College in California and director of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, has trained the school's staff in the methods of teaching classically.

“The students themselves love it, and I do too. It's been a wonderful experience, very rejuvenating … in a lot of ways it's not new; it's just rediscovering who we are.”

The principal explained that “we spend a lot of our teachers' meetings exploring writings, documents about it, then talking about how it can be implemented,” and “it's been very good for us.”

“It's slowly being implemented,” he noted. “We decided to start with social studies and literature, because that's where a lot of the 'meat' of classical education exists.”

St. Anthony's was introduced to classical education after the son of parish deacon Ron Michieli returned from a classical college and started leading groups in the community. This inspired Deacon Michieli to share the idea with St. Anthony's pastor and with Skerjanec.

“It just feels right,” Skerjanec reflected. “I spent 15 years in public education, and it just always felt like there was something else, something more; and when I finally realized that getting back to the Catholic intellectual tradition was where it was at, it was like a light bulb going off for me.”

Abbey Daly, a new teacher at the school who received a classical education at Wyoming Catholic College, said she has “discovered the importance of memorization” for her middle school classes at St. Anthony's, where she teaches literature, history, logic, Latin and grammar.

“That's been the most enjoyable thing for me: helping the kids in class memorize poetry, Latin forms, presidents, states,” she told CNA. Memorization is an important part of classical education, particularly for younger students, helping to develop intellectual virtues.

Daly explained the importance of classical education “not as a means of getting ahead in life, but as simply a way of being happy no matter what you do in life – farming, or driving a truck, or being a lawyer, whatever God is calling you to be. Latin, learning history this way, learning philosophy and logic, are helpful no matter what God is calling you to do.”

Skerjanec said the school has been explaining its new classical curriculum to parents and parishioners, and hopes to boost enrollment in future years, especially by reaching out to communities around Sterling.

St. Anthony's is the only Catholic school on Colorado's eastern plains among the three dioceses serving the area. The nearest Catholic school is in Greeley, more than 90 miles away.

“No matter where you live, you should have the opportunity to send your kids to a Catholic school, whether it's in a busy place like the Front Range, or out here on the plains with a rural setting,” the principal said.

St. Anthony's “doesn't turn anyone away,” he noted, adding that this is what makes the school's financial planning so important: “we don't want to turn anyone away. Anyone who wants a Catholic education should get one.”

He called it a “blessing” that “while we see so many Catholic schools closing, we're still here, and our community still supports us.”

To stay open for the 2014-15 academic year, St. Anthony's set a goal of raising $600,000 last year. The school ended up raising $1.1 million.

“It truly solidifies the point that our community supports us,” Skerjanec said. “They think it's important that we're here, and we just need to get the word out to regenerate that support; but we cannot thank our benefactors enough for what they've done for us.”

“People from all over have supported us … we're very, very blessed and very thankful, and very humbled by it.”

Previous Post

February 4, 2014

Education should foster freedom, maturity, priest explains

Next Post

February 4, 2014 Pope's Lenten message highlights poverty of Christ

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Psalm begins, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"

Select your answer to see how you score.

Psalm 139 Psalm 27 Psalm 91 Psalm 14