Her Best Citizens
If the postliberal academic can articulate this vision of faith, truth, and freedom rightly understood, then we will be able to give the Republic her best citizens.
When founding The Catholic University of America in 1887, Pope Leo XIII declared the purpose of the new institution was “to give the Republic her best citizens.”
Conservatives in America are confused about education. Some believe it is worthless, particularly in terms of the liberal arts, others are horrified by the censorship and lack of “free speech” on many college campuses. While these concerns may be of some merit, they are ultimately misguided by liberalized conceptions of education. The postliberal vision, however, seeks to find real solutions to an academia unable to comprehend its freedom, plagued by relativism and a commitment against the truth, and falling standards in every corner. Beyond all of these platitudes, however, is a more fundamental question: If American education is so irrevocably broken, how do we fix it, especially from the viewpoint of young academics and undergraduates studying in the United States?
Pope Leo noted the importance of instilling faith and morals in the youth, saying: “the future condition of the State depends upon the early training of its children.” Thus, a “postliberal education” begins, ironically, with a revival of the “liberal” arts. Liberal, here, should not be construed with the ideology of liberalism, but rather with activity that befits a free man. A classical understanding of education, beginning with the Greeks and transcending its way through medieval Europe, was geared to the formation of the human soul, whereby man would not only learn how to gain power over his impulses (true freedom), but learn how to be a good and proper citizen. Liberalism has complicated this vision. Liberal, and the word liberty, are now conceived as “what one wants,” rather than “what one ought.” This particularly impacted liberal education, especially as liberal education itself disappears and students are no longer (at any level) instructed in the fundamentals of learning and faith. Instead, they are set out on their own, supposedly “free” to make up their own minds and their own choices in regards to what they study, and ultimately, what they believe.
This “freedom” has also led to the breakdown of traditional academic structures. The right-liberal often praises “academic freedom,” “value neutrality,” and most especially “thinking for oneself,” with the belief in an absolute human reason. However, these are merely the same old justifications for relativism and indifferentism, which Pope Bl. Pius IX sought to stop in his Quanta Cura and Syllabus of Errors. The downfall of education stems from the triumph of the reason of the individual over ordering one’s reason to God’s will. Liberalism has claimed that this neutrality ultimately promotes the belief that only the best ideas succeed. However, as children are inundated with sexual and racial instruction, anyone can see this is not the case – education must teach truth, not falsehood. Even if it was possible to be neutral, why would that be a good thing? By relieving restraints on education, by focusing on “finding” the truth rather than telling it, liberal education has fallen by the wayside. Much like Pope Saint John Paul II discussed in his Catholic educators address, the postliberal believes both in the moral order and the duty to instruct students in the truth. This, in particular, must come through an instruction in the Catholic faith, whereby students will learn not only the fullness of Truth, Christ Himself, but also how to apply his love and teaching to their own lives. If education is about fortifying the soul, it must be oriented towards God’s goodness and seeking His graces.
Most importantly, some broad strokes should be provided that may aid in this postliberal vision of education, especially as academic standards are falling at all institutional levels. At The Catholic University of America, first-year students belong to “Learning Communities.” While things like this are features at similar academic institutions, Catholic University is one of the last few left dedicated to a preeminent liberal education. Students at Catholic University engage in a rigorous learning process, including in English and grammar, classical and modern philosophy, theology, and then go on to complete a fifteen class liberal arts curriculum. This should serve as a model and standard to academic institutions across the country. This is particularly interesting in comparison to American University’s “AU Experience,” or “AUx” courses, which blend “personal exploration of social identity formation with a multidisciplinary approach to race” and “seeks to create a space for dialogue and learning about race, social identity, and structures of power and oppression.”
Furthermore, political leaders should emphasize the importance of liberal education, fund it, and divert students away from exclusively believing they must earn a “STEM” degree. This particularly since majors such as mathematics, which once oriented students towards the Divine Logos, now lead students to the altar of liberalism through a scientific conception of the world. Hence, a liberal education is more practical and more important than anything else because it shapes the individual’s worldview and teaches them how to work and live in virtue, justice, and dignity, contributing to the common good of the whole community. This is not to neglect the study of “science,” but to order it to its proper place. How do you build beautiful buildings without architects that understand the mathematics of construction? However, these architects also need to have a foundation in the liberal arts to understand that what they build brings beauty and meaning to our lives and why that matters.
Educational institutions of all levels, including universities, should also take it upon themselves not to do away not with standardized testing itself, but change what is being tested. Instead of being beholden to The College Board, figures like Jeremy Wayne Tate, Chief Executive Officer of the Classical Learning Test, have put forth a new model of standardized testing. The Classical Learning Test focuses on what really matters: “verbal reasoning, grammar and writing, and quantitative reasoning” – the real foundations of our civilization. The test has since been funded by the state of Florida for eleventh graders, an important first step to what should be the goal of a nation-wide, federally supported implementation of the exam.
That being said, the most significant change will also come from within the universities themselves. As liberalism dominates university bureaucracies, even schools dedicated to liberal education suffer from an unwillingness to fully embrace a comprehensive liberal education, particularly when the matter of postliberalism is concerned. Universities became degraded because they caved to every complaint of the students they were actually trying to teach and acted like the student body came to campus educated and ready to make the changes to the campus and curriculum with their whining, instead of the other way around. However, there is hope for a more virtuous student body to take shape and stand up, using what education they do have for good. With university administrations now in lock-step with liberalism, it now seems that the only force for change is internal – from the student body.
It is commonplace to see conservative students, many with the potential for Catholic or postliberal leanings, speaking out against their universities in authentic, articulate terms. This is not to mention that the only criticisms of liberalism at Catholic University come from the student body and only one member of the university faculty. Thus, postliberal and conservative students (and faculty) from across the country should continue to prudently challenge their universities in and out of the classroom for an education that is rightfully theirs to experience.
In 1950, Father Hunter Guthrie, S.J., president of Georgetown University, delivered a commencement address entitled “The Sacred Fetish of Academic Freedom,” which encapsulates best what the postliberal revival of education will look like:
If the United States is to continue in the western tradition which made it great, it behooves those of our citizens interested in the present and future of this nation to search out and support the educational institutions which are striving to maintain that tradition. A tradition which was grounded on freedom limited by a belief in God, by faith in the omnipotence of truth and the benevolence of justice. In a word, a tradition that freedom springs from truth, but truth is rarely freedom’s offspring.
If the postliberal academic can articulate this vision of faith, truth, and freedom rightly understood, then we will be able to give the Republic her best citizens.