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Why Modern Schools Fail, Part II:
Culture
by
William Michael
When we speak of school culture, we must understand
this to mean the overall environment in which student life takes place.
Obviously, there 1,001 elements in culture, but we will focus on the two
core elements of healthy Christian culture: Prayer and Work.
The Divisions of Classical Christian Culture
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St. Joseph has
traditionally been recognized as a model of
fatherhood as both worker and saint. He is the patron saint
of
workmen. |
St. Benedict's
motto was Ora et Labora, which is Latin for "Pray and Work".
These two heads form the two fundamental divisions of classical
Christian culture. At any given point of the day, a Christian is
either working, praying, or a combination of the two. We see this
division in the Sabbath command. This is not to deny the role of leisure,
but true leisure assumes that duty is done--it provides necessary rest
for the worker, not an escape for the sluggard and certainly not an
excuse for the impious.
Of these two, prayer is the
greater. The necessity of prayer places restrictions on the amount
of time available for work. The restrictions on the amount of time
available for work places restrictions on our desires and leisure
activities. The life rightly ordered is characterized by harmony
and peace.
Modern Culture
Modern culture is afraid of the
simplicity of classical Christian culture, This fear is produced
by their philosophical foundations. It cannot bear with such
simplicity. Why?
Remember that modern philosophy
is rooted in the scientific method. When one believes that the
scientific method is the means to truth, one cannot rest until he or she
has seen every sight, heard every noise, smelled every scent, felt every
texture and tasted every taste. After all, how can we be sure we
are happy unless we search out all of the possible sources of happiness
by our own experimentation? Anything less than this would deny the
necessity of scientific proof.
The result of this is a culture
that is restless. Everyone frantically seeks to participate in
every possible activity. Families cannot earn enough money to
supply the constant spending that is required by this life. There
is no time to sleep, no time to read, no time to write, no time to
think, no time to pray...we're too busy. Busy doing what?
Everything. Why? We have to or we might miss something.
This lifestyle is justified in
a number of ways. Most of all is the American obsession with
"variety". To have a healthy diet, one needs a "variety" of foods.
To gain admission to college, one must have a variety of studies and
experiences. There is nothing intrinsically false in this, except
for the fact that we lose all sense of balance and priority, and fear
that we're never varied enough. This seems to require that
we continue buying, changing, trying, remaking, etc.. After all, if a
thing is good, more must be better.
Ultimately there are moral
problems with this lifestyle.
The Causes of Sin & the Good
When we look morally at the
busy modern life, we must look beyond the surface of smiles and
souvenirs to see what is truly going on. When we read Holy
Scripture, we find that there are three sources of sin:
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the lust of the flesh
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the lust of the eyes
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the pride of life
St. Thomas describes each of
these for us in the Summa Theologica. The lust of flesh
consists of the inordinate desire for sensual things: food, drink,
sex, and so on. The lust of the eyes includes the inordinate
desire for spiritual things, or things that do not appeal to the senses:
money, clothing and such. Lastly, the pride of life is the
inordinate desire for excellence.
The key to these definitions is
the word "inordinate". After all, everything mentioned in the list
is good, in and of itself. The evil is in an individual's
inordinate desire for them. The adjective "inordinate" means
"exceeding reasonable limits". That leads us to the question,
"When does one's desire for something exceed reasonable limits?"
The answer to this question is very simple, when we think back to the
article on true Christian philosophy. When our present life and body
receive greater attention and care than our future life and soul, we can
be sure that we are exceeding reasonable limits and have crossed the
boundary and are pursuing the good in an inordinate manner. This
is sin.
Any culture that consists of
such excessive desire is a culture of sin, opposed to true Christian
culture. When we see people exhausting themselves in the pursuit
of anything at the expense of their souls, we are observing an
essentially sinful culture, not an accidentally busy Christianity.
One may say, "We're not doing anything bad. All of the things
we're doing are good!" The problem is that this way of thinking is
contrary to Christian ethics which identifies sin not as the desire for
evil things, but the inordinate desire for good things. After all,
every created thing is intrinsically good.
Restoring Order
Fortunately, restoring order in
Christian culture is not at all complicated. It begins with a
blank schedule. On that blank schedule we write in all of our
spiritual duties. We write in the Christian sacraments and
confession in particular. We write in Sunday Mass (and Sunday
rest), holy days of obligation, days of fasting and abstinence. We
write in prayer: the Rosary, Morning and Evening prayer, and so
on. We write in the works of mercy and any other necessary
practical details of Christian responsibilities. We write in Christian
education. Thus, we provide for the soul before all else.
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The illustration
above demonstrates the trouble with
the busy life. A life of responsible work and prayer
often leaves no room for play. However, times do
come when work is done with time to spare for
leisure. A prayer-less life is the result of a life
devoted to lude et labora (play and work)
rather
than ora et labora (pray and work).
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Secondly, we write into our
schedule the tasks required for our necessary work and provision.
We write in education. We write in the tasks and time for our normal
work. We see that all duties are fulfilled responsibly and given
sufficient time to be done well.
Having done this, we will find
that the schedule is full. Adding anything else (other than
sleeping and eating) will require that items from list one and two be
removed, and that would be harmful to the overall quality of our life.
The Christian, satisfied as St. Paul says with food and clothing, and
desirous of God and God's gift of wisdom is content. In fact, it
is the discontentment with this simplicity that signals inordinate
desire for other things and slowly starves the soul and causes culture
to decline.
Christian School Culture
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Folly
with all her meats and treats
is in the end but poor and weak;
Wisdom with her simple bread
is strong in heart and sound in head.
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When we apply this rule to
Christian School culture, something very unique comes to light.
School no longer resembles the circus or the mall, but resembles the
monastery and the church. The students enjoy a simple and focused
curriculum. Time is given to pious prayer and depth of study.
Students assist with the daily work of the school, bearing their own
burdens and learning to function as a part of a community from which
they benefit and to which they contribute.
In all things, we seek to
fulfill St. Peter's exhortation to "grow in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.".
Having completed our course of
studies in the classical liberal arts and having cultivated a life of
virtue and service to others, we seek God's direction for the future
course of our lives. We do not fret about college admission.
We follow God's will, assured of His provision for our individual
vocations. In the end, we will ask whether a college is worthy of
our students, rather than whether our students are worthy of a certain
college.
Most of all, we will be at
peace, with a life in harmony. As one has justly said, "Duty done
is fireside to the soul."
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William C. Michael, August 2008
mail@classicalliberalarts.com |
