By Bishop James Conley
On Sept. 3 of last year, on the Feast of St. Gregory the Great, I released a pastoral letter on Catholic education entitled: “The Joy and Wonder of Catholic Education: Developing Authentically Catholic Schools.” I began the pastoral letter with a famous quote from St. Irenaeus, a second century bishop and doctor of the Church. Irenaeus once wrote that: “The glory of God is man fully alive.”
The mission of Catholic education is to help shape and form the student so that he or she might achieve that goal of being “fully alive.” Education is the process of shaping and forming us to fulfill the purpose for which we were made; to know the happiness that comes from living in accord with our dignity and our nature, so that we might live forever in heaven with God.
The Latin verb educare means to “to bring up,” “to train,” or “to mold.” It is one of two Latin roots for the English word “education,” with the other being educere, which means “to lead out,” or “to draw out.” The noble mission of a teacher is to help shape, mold and craft the souls of their students. As I wrote in my pastoral letter last year, education “is the work of drawing out, developing and learning to use our intellects, our memories, our wills, and our imaginations, to the fullest of their potential. Since education is the formation of human hearts, minds and wills for the glory of their Creator, it has always been a priority within Catholicism.”
Catholic education has also been a priority of the Diocese of Lincoln for more than 160 years, ever since the first Catholic school in Nebraska, St. Benedict, was built in Nebraska City in 1861. We have a long and glorious legacy of teachers who have taught in our Catholic schools, beginning first and foremost with the scores of religious sisters upon whose shoulders not only the Lincoln diocesan schools were founded, but the entire Catholic school system in the United States was built by religious sisters.
This past Sunday evening we were able to honor five outstanding diocesan educators at our “Saints & Scholars Dinner.” These five remarkable educators have dedicated their lives to forming hearts and minds in the love of Christ. On Monday we held our annual “Diocesan Teachers’ Institute” at Pius X High School in Lincoln where all 600 of our diocesan teachers and administrators spent the day honing their craft and attending workshops on a variety of topics.
Mr. Jake Tawney, a math teacher from Phoenix and father of eight children, gave the keynote address. His enthusiasm and love for the world of mathematics was remarkable. Tawney reminded all our teachers that they are first and foremost “soul crafters” and have been called by God to share in the work of shaping and forming young hearts and minds for heaven. Regarding his own field, he is convinced that there is something unique in the human soul that can only be satisfied by wondering about mathematics.
In my remarks on Sunday evening at the “Saints & Scholars Dinner,” I highlighted three exiting achievements that have occurred over these past 12 months since the release of my pastoral letter. In July, we hosted the annual conference of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education entitled “Cultivating the Heart,” which drew more than 500 of the top Catholic educators from across the country, representing over 60 diocesan school systems; 180 schools. Five of my brother bishops came for the conference and more than 80 of our own diocesan teachers and administrators attended the national conference.
In August, we launched a new theology curriculum for the freshman year of high school. This is the first of a four-year roll out of new theology curriculum. A theology curriculum review committee was formed in 2021 with representation from all six of our diocesan high schools. The committee met periodically for four years, mapping out a new theology curriculum. The last time something like this was done was in the late 1990s.
The new theology curriculum is historically aligned and integrated with literature, history and other subjects. This approach brings our current classwork to a new and exciting level, where subjects are coordinated to provide engaging and meaningful learning opportunities for our students.
This integrated approach seeks to instill in students the desire to not simply gain knowledge of facts and information, but to understand the “how” and the “why” of what they are studying. Thus, offering a more holistic picture that is designed and sequenced to effect learning, it provides opportunities for teachers to better convey the meaning and purpose for the subject matter, as related to other subjects in a logical framework.
We also inserted a six-week section for the study of logic in the new freshman curriculum. I spoke to several of our priests on Monday who had just finished the logic section with their freshmen. They told me that the material, although difficult, was received well. Albert Einstein once wrote that, “education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.”
Even more significant than the practical application of an aligned curriculum is the renewed focus on seeking answers to the deepest questions of what life means and what it means to be human. This approach ensures a consistent, underlying vision and focus in all our Catholic high schools, a Catholic worldview that is the foundation of every subject. This approach also enables the discussion of ethical and moral issues in the context of real life, allowing students to explore aspects of human behavior and human ideals throughout history, in a fundamental search for truth, goodness and beauty.
The third highlight of the year came last spring when we began to pilot a new learning assessment tool, the “Classic Learning Test” (CLT) in eight of our elementary schools and in one of our high schools. The CLT, not unlike the ACT, SAT or the Iowa Basic Skills Test (TBS), is much more mission-aligned and rooted in the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty.
The CLT was first unveiled 10 years ago and has grown exponentially. Testing students’ ability to understand seminal works that have shaped history and culture, including secular and Christian religious works from ancient, medieval, early modern and late modern periods, assesses their readiness to engage with the Western intellectual tradition that has shaped much of the literature, politics, and philosophy students might study in college. The CLT assesses students’ verbal reasoning, grammar, writing and math skills, much like any of the other assessment tools, but free of any ideology that, unfortunately, has crept in to some of the other testing tools.
In this Jubilee Year of Hope, we have much reason to be hopeful. Let me conclude with the closing lines of my pastoral letter on Catholic education: “In the years to come, we must all continue to discern how to form our children, sustainably and responsibly, in the midst of changing times and changing circumstances. We may be called to try new models or approaches to leadership or funding. We may be called to new kinds of sacrifice. We must seek wisdom from the Lord, generously responding to the movement of the Holy Spirit, and consult and collaborate with one another. Our call is to trust in the Lord, who has made us in His image to know and love Him. May Jesus, the great teacher, form all of us for the freedom of holiness.”
