Post-secondary education questions: Fundamental principles drawn from Catholicism. The nature of vocation and the content of education.

_{(This post is part of the series on postsecondary education.)}

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There are some really great comments on the original post about post-secondary education.  If you haven't been there yet, check it out and add your two cents.  

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Yesterday and this morning I dug into the Catechism and two other Catholic documents:  Gaudium et Spes (a Vatican II document "On the Church in the Modern World") and Familiaris Consortio (an exhortation by Pope John Paul II "On the Role of the Family in the Modern World").  The Catechism is, of course, a sort of handbook of Catholic doctrine, while the other two are basically practical application of Catholic faith to particularly modern problems.  

I was seeking some guidelines to these questions:

1. What is the nature of the vocation that education must prepare us for?
2. What is the necessary content of education?
3. What are the responsibilities of parents toward their offspring?
4. What are the responsibilities of offspring toward their parents?
5. How do things change when children are emancipated?

I took copious notes all morning, with the intent of assembling my findings into neat bulleted lists.  The point was not, by the way, to find the answers to the question of how parents should support postsecondary education -- just to see if there existed some lines that should not be crossed, or duties that should not be neglected.  (Gaudium et Spes says:  "The Church guards the heritage of God's word and draws from it moral and religious principles without always having at hand the solution to particular problems" [GS33].) 

Without further commentary, let's jump into this.  If it gets too late, I'll hit "publish" and finish another time.  Numbered citations labeled "CCC" come from the paragraph of the same number in the Catechism of the Catholic Church; those labeled GS, from Gaudium et Spes; those labeled FC, from Familiaris Consortio.  I paraphrased quite freely.

What is the vocation that education must prepare us for?

The point of education is to enable the human being to live out his or her vocation, so it's sensible first to ask what this vocation is.

We can think of vocations on several levels.  Our ultimate vocation is to heaven.  "God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise." [CCC1721]  

But there's also the dyad of state-of-life vocations, marriage or celibacy:  "Either vocation is, its in own proper form, an actuation of the most profound truth of man, of his being created in the image of God" [FC11].  Each requires a certain specific preparation.

And the vocations of men and women are different, implying some difference in their respective preparatory educations.  The vocations are equal in rights and dignity.  The documents stress that equality does not mean that women must renounce femininity or imitate the male role, and that femininity can and should be expressed in all activities, not just domestic ones [FC23].

Christians living in the world have a political vocation too [GS75]:  

• to set an example of responsibility and service of the common good;
•  to show the compatibility of authority with freedom, of personal initiative with social solidarity, and of unity's advantages with diversity's fruits;  
• to recognize the legitimacy of different opinions about solutions; 
• and to respect citizens who honestly defend their points of view. 

Vocations of Christian work in the modern world, it seems, include [GS15]:  

• by intellect to surpass the material universe, sharing in the light of the divine mind; 
• to employ human talents, making progress in sciences, technology, and the arts; 
• to observe data, but also to attain to reality itself as knowable, even if obscured; 
• to acquire wisdom that "gently attracts...to a quest and love for what is true and good"; 
• to humanize the discoveries made by man; 
• to assimilate the wisdom of the nations; 
• to contemplate and appreciate the divine plan; 
• to join with other men "in fidelity to conscience" "in the search for truth" and in the solution to human problems
• to care for truth and goodness, and to avoid habitual sin that obscures the light of conscience

More practically, the vocation of all men and women is "to provid[e] the substance of life for themselves and for their families," thereby "performing their activities in a way which appropriately benefits society...unfolding the Creator's work, consulting the advantages of [others], and are contributing by their personal industry to the realization in history of the divine plan." [GS 34]

(If I recall correctly, you could go to Laborem Exercens if you want to read more on human work and perhaps relate this to vocational preparation.)

 To sum up, then, education must prepare the human being to support a family or community; to enter the responsibilities either of marriage or of celibacy; to choose good ways of serving the human community; to participate properly in civic life; to express authentic and unique masculinity or femininity; and to attain heaven.  No small order, that.

 

What is the necessary content of education?

I think I'm particularly interested in teasing apart education within the family and self-education.  That is, the education that parents owe their children, and the education that people have a duty to seek for themselves.  Both are mentioned in the documents, but it isn't always clear where one starts and the other ends -- in some cases the process must be begun by the parents and completed by the grown young person (or even continuing throughout life).  I'll try to distill out the themes as I see them.

The "most basic element" of parental education is parental love.  The task of education fulfills parental love, completing and perfecting the service of that love to life.  "All concrete educational activity," in fact, gets its inspiration and guidance from parental love, and be enriched by love's "kindness, constancy, goodness, service, disinterestedness, and self-sacrifice." [FC36]

 Education must put "subjects" in proper perspective:  "We must learn that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in fame or power, in any science, technology, or art, but in God alone, the source of every good" [CCC1723]   Education must "oppose the mentality which considers the human being not as a person but as a thing, as an object of trade, at the service of selfish interest and mere pleasure" [FC24].  In the family atmosphere of love, "children learn the correct order of things" [GS61].  "Parents should teach their children to subordinate the material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones" [CCC2223].  Training must include "the correct attitude of freedom with regard to material goods... that man is more precious for what he is than for what he has" [FC37]

Education must integrate the person into solidarity and communal responsibilities.  The family is a community, an initiation into life in society, "a complex of interpersonal relationships... through which each human person is introduced into the human family and into... the Church."  [CCC2207, 2224; FC15] "The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor" [CCC2208].  Education must develop "a sense of true justice, which ... leads to respect for the personal dignity" of persons, and "a sense of true love, understood as sincere solicitude and disinterested service" [FC37].

Education must pass along human culture, but teach how to discriminate between good and bad influences.  In the family atmosphere of love, the developing adolescents learn "proper forms of human culture" [GS61].  "Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies" [CCC2224].

Education in the home must teach virtue.  This "requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery--the preconditions of all true freedom" [CCC2223]

Parents must teach their children to pray and worship and to make use of the sacraments. "Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith" [CCC2226].  Parents must pray with their children, read the word of God to them, and introduce them through Christian initiation into the Body of Christ [FC39].  They have the responsibility of introducing children to personal dialogue with God, and should teach children to know God, to worship, and to love their neighbor [FC60].  Parents announce the Gospel to their children [FC2].

Education is the development of the right use of reason and the right use of freedom [CCC2228]; conscience, a judgment of reason [CCC1778], enables one to assume responsibility for the acts performed [CCC1781].  Thus parents must begin the formation of the child's conscience:  The education of the conscience "from the earliest years" "awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the interior law" [CCC1784].   But the development of conscience is a lifelong process.  The person must be "sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience," so the person has to have cultivated a skill of interiority:  reflection, self-examination, introspection [CCC1779]  A formed conscience "enjoins" the person "to do good and to avoid evil"; "judges particular choices, approving...good and denouncing...evil"; "bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to" God; "welcomes the commandments" [CCC1777].

Education prepares for vocation.  "Children should be so educated that as adults they can follow their vocation... with a mature sense of responsibility and can choose their state of life; if they marry, they can thereby establish their family in favorable moral, social, and economic conditions" [GS52]  "The family must educate the children for life in such a  way that each one may fully perform his or her role according to the vocation received from God" [FC53].  Education helps to discern vocation [FC2].  Education must help the person understand "the meaning of work in the Christian life... the fundamental bond betweeen work and the family." Work is originally in the home and originally to the purpose of rearing children, and that has not changed.  Education must "make it clear that all people, in every area, are working with equal rights and responsibilities," and eliminate at the root "discrimination between the different types of work and professions" [FC23].  "Clear recognition must be given to the value of [young women's] maternal and family role, by comparison with all other public roles and all other professions" and to the principle that "these roles and professions should be harmoniously combined" [FC23].

Education should include sexuality education in the context of self-giving:  a clear and delicate education, aimed "firmly at a training... that is truly and fully personal; for sexuality is an enrichment of the whole person...and it manifests its inmost meaning in leading the person to the gift of self in love" [FC37].  Every effort must be made to render knowledge about licit means of family planning accessible ...to all young adults before marriage, through clear, timely, and serious instruction and education given by married couples, doctors, and experts.  Knowledge must then lead to education in self-control; hence the absolute necessity for permanent education in the virtue of chastity.  Chastity signifies spiritual energy capable of defending love from the perils of selfishness and aggressiveness, and able to advance it towards its full realization. [FC33]  "Special attention and care" must be given to "education in virginity or celibacy as the supreme form of that self-giving" [FC37].  Education must include "a knowledge of and respect for the moral norms" for "responsible personal growth in human sexuality."  

Education also includes remote and proximate preparation for marriage and basic home economics:  "Remote preparation begins in early childhood, in training which leads children to discover themselves as being endowed with a rich and complex psychology and with a particular personality with its own strengths and weaknesses... when esteem for all authentic human values is instilled... for the control and right use of one's inclinations, for th manner of regarding and meeting people of the opposite sex..., also necessary is solid spiritual and catechetical formation that will show that marriage is a true vocation and mission, without excluding the possibility... of priestly or religious life."  Proximate preparation "involves a more specific preparation for the sacraments... [and] a preparation for life as a couple... This preparation will present marriage as an interpersonal relationship of a man and a woman that has to be continually developed...." It includes the nature of "conjugal sexuality and responsible parenthood, with the essential medical and biological knowledge connected with it."  "It will also acquaint those cocerned with correct methods for the education of children, and will assist them in gainig the basic requisites for well-ordered family life, such as stable work, sufficient financial resources, sensible administration, notions of housekeeping" [FC66]

Part of education is in the proper use of leisure.  Leisure is properly used "to relax, to fortify the health of soul and body through spontaneous study and activity, through tourism which refines man's character and enriches him with understanding of others, through sports activity which helps to preserve equilibrium of spirit even in the community, and to establish fraternal relations among men of all conditions, nations, and races"  [GS61]

Education in the proper use of media and social communication:  Parents must "train the conscience of their children to express calm and objective judgments which will guide them in the choice or rejection of programs available" [FC76]

 Most of that had to do with the kinds of educational preparation one could receive in the home.  A few notes seemed to be about self-education.  One might assume that education in the home, here, prepares one to prepare oneself:

If the vocation is to a lay profession or to secular politics, education must prepare them to gain expertise in it while retaining perspective.  Laymen should "keep the laws proper to each discipline, and labor to equip themselves with a genuine expertise in their various fields" [GS43] .  Although people's skills and knowledge are becoming more specialized, "it remains each man's duty to retain an understanding of the whole human person in which the values of intellect, will, conscience, and fraternity are preeminent" [GS61].  "Great care must be taken about civic and political formation... Those who are suited or can become suited should prepare themselves for the ... very noble art of politics, and shold seek to practice this art without regard for their own interests or for material advantages" [GS75]

 

More on this topic next time, when I take on the mutual and reciprocal responsibilities of children and parents, and how these change as the children grow into adulthood.  UPDATED:  I continue here.

Comments

[MelanieB]

Many of the points you bring up here support my contentions about the value of the liberal arts education, especially in that last section: "it remains each man's duty to retain an understanding of the whole human person in which the values of intellect, will, conscience, and fraternity are preeminent" [GS61]. "Great care must be taken about civic and political formation... Those who are suited or can become suited should prepare themselves for the ... very noble art of politics, and should seek to practice this art without regard for their own interests or for material advantages" [GS75].

I wonder if it wouldn't be advantageous to consult Blessed John Henry Newman's The Idea of a University.

[bearing]

Melanie: Thank you for the idea to see Newman. I just requested it from the library (and I am aware it's available online, but I still like paper books for thoughtful reading).

I like to think that I managed to retain an understanding of the whole human person through my *private* study and thought and interactions with others, even though there was not an emphasis on it in either of my degree programs. Do we really need to pay hundreds of dollars a credit hour to acquire that kind of an education, or do we just need a library card?

[MelanieB]

I seem to be all over the place in your comment boxes, fragmenting the conversation. I think my comment in the other thread addressed this question, but for the sake of continuity I'll sum up the relevant part here as well.

I think we need to get rid of the hundred of dollars a credit hour model of liberal arts education and find a way of returning to the classical idea of the university, which was quite affordable. But you already touch on my response in what you said: "I managed to retain an understanding of the whole human person through my *private* study and thought and interactions with others". What a classical university provides which a library card cannot is the interactions with others, the community of people who are engaged in the pursuit of the intellectual life.

Perhaps in this day of the internet that virtual community can supplement the library card to a certain extent; but I'm a firm believer in the necessity of face-to-face interactions and real life conversations. I just don't think tapping away in little boxes-- as helpful as it is, obviously!-- is a full substitute for the ideal university experience. But of course what we are seeking is probably not the elusive ideal but some realistic compromise between idealism and pragmatism. As you say, you can get there without a formal course of study. I suppose either course of study has gaps and we fill them as best we can.

[Barb S.]

Just want to say that I am enjoying reading all these posts.

I am currently getting ready for another year of homeschooling. and with it the anxiety as to whether our children are getting the right education.

Thank you for this about "the necessary content of education."

[Alexander Berger]

I definitely think that college is killing religion. I am not making a judgment, just stating a fact. College teaches you to think about things from a modern scientific perspective that is often at odds with christian theology.

My parents home schooled me so I have always questioned the value of traditional education. Most recently I dropped out of college in order to pursue self education. If you are interested, you can see the article I wrote about it here:

http://alexanderberger.me/post/30348350726/self-education-alexander-berger

Great Post!

[Bearing]

I was going to say in posts about economics that it is extremely dangerous to generalize about "going to college" because of the great variety of experiences that are under that umbrella.

Whether "going to college" is worth the cost or not, whether it kills your soul or not, depends very much what you make of it.

I disagree that a scientific perspective and a Christian perspective are at odds. In any case, a university education is not necessary for either.

[MelanieB]

I very much disagree that a scientific perspective and a Christian perspective are necessarily at odds. What are at odds are a Christian perspective and a relativist-materialist perspective, which sadly, is prevalent in much of academia.

However, a solid formation pre-college can do much to inoculate students against relativism and materialism. If students' worldview cannot stand up to testing in a hostile environment, it very often betrays a lack of solid foundation. I do think that by the time you hit college you should be ready to meet the intellectual challenge of being confronted by a multiplicity of worldviews. A faith that can only survive in a greenhouse is not really a robust faith that will weather the storms of life.

[Bearing]

Yeah -- some people could do with a little "hardening-off" of their greenhouse-grown faith.

[Miia Tolonen]

In my place in Finland country education is not been an issue for other things it is always equal,most of the people in part of Helsinki are doing some self studying and for me that is really a good things,i am glad that i read some issue about this one to be honest never heard it yet before.