In order to present a
truly Catholic curriculum we must incorporate the Marks of
the Catholic Church: One,
Holy, Catholic,
Apostolic.
(1923 A.D.) "Our fathers, the pioneers and
founders of the Church .. brought with them the conviction
that education must be religious in
character, - not merely veneered, but through and through,
in every department, primary, grammar and academic. They
held that the school where Christian doctrine was taught
daily to their children was more necessary for the
preservation of the Faith here than beautiful and monumental
temples."
(from Letters of a Bishop to His Flock
by Cardinal Mundelein, Archbishop of Chicago)
In a survey conducted by
Catholic
Heritage Curricula, 93% of the homeschooling families
responded that if they were to design their own curriculum,
they would include Catholic materials in subjects other than
religion. In that same survey, 62% of the families preferred
to create their own program rather than using a prepared
curriculum package. So how can we effectively incorporate
Catholic teaching into other school subjects?
I believe that no matter what curriculum a particular homeschooling family or Catholic institution decides to use,
there should be a means to supplement the curriculum with
Catholic teaching and a method to discern the Truth of the
content presented.
The Marks of Catholic Education
One
Studies should be unified (made
One) with curriculum connections - subjects connected to one
another with Catholic elements pulled in and emphasized.
For example, while reading through the Old and New Testament
you can study the History of Egypt, and Greece, and Rome and
pull in studies on Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Catholic Art and
Music. Timelines are are great tool for curriculum
connections.
In most
traditional school settings, various subjects are taught as
unrelated pieces. It was only when I started teaching my
children through homeschooling that I began to realize that
each subject has a connection to another. Being able to
place persons and events on a timeline made those
connections so much more evident. There is no right or wrong
way to start the connections. I learned that Bible History
is related to the foreign languages of Hebrew and Greek,
which is related to Ancient History, which related to
Astronomy, which is related to Mythology and Literature,
which is related to Philosophy, which is related to
Government, which is related to the beginnings of our
Catholic Church, and you can just go on and on. But when you
really think about it, God did create this universe, so why
shouldn’t there be connections across the educational
disciplines: after all everything comes from the Universal
Body of Truth and Knowledge, from Our Creator.
Holy
A curriculum is made Holy by
incorporating the lives of the Saints and other important
Catholics, past and present.
In the Catholic Keys
section of the Marks of Catholic Education, I have complied
a list of patron saints according to school subject areas.
The online paper Daily Catholic compiled a list of the
Top 100 Catholics in the 20th century.
Other simple connections include teaching appropriate
prayers with related subjects, for example when teaching
prepositions have the child learn the Breastplate of St.
Patrick.
Catholic
The definition of Catholic is
"universal." The Catholic Church is has a wealth of
sources for foundations in Truth: included are the Catechism
of the Catholic Church and various other approved documents
of the Church.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is
the best source of universal truth.
In the Catholic Keys section
of the Marks of Catholic Education I have compiled a listing
of references to the Catholic Catechism according to school
subject areas. Use the index in the Catechism to see what
the Catholic Church has to say about Health, Art, etc. In
addition, the Church has a number of approved documents that
can be used to supplement various subjects, for example the
Pope has a beautiful
letter to artists.
Apostolic
Apostolic means "from the Apostles."
A curriculum is made Apostolic by representing the often
neglected but true history from the Catholic perspective.
In your studies, include the Catholics who influenced
science, art, literature, education, and more.
(1926 A.D.) “One of the finest human documents
ever penned was the Constitution of the United States; yet
within only one century and a half we have corrected it
(nineteen) times. Not so with the Apostle’s Creed; after two
thousand years it is still the same, unchanged even as the
Apostles wrote it, believed it, and published it. That is
because it is in origin divine, and has been inspired and
written to last until the end of time. That is because it
contains the rule of faith, yours and mine, and the truths
which we must believe, - all and entire – if we wish to be
saved.” (from Letters of a Bishop to His Flock by
Cardinal Mundelein, Archbishop of Chicago)
Truth does not change. It
may be further defined, but it does not change. Just as the
Truth of the Apostles Creed has been misrepresented and
ignored throughout the ages, much of the Truth of history
has been distorted or totally eliminated from the typical
textbooks. One has to be very diligent, to discern and
present the Truth from a Catholic perspective. For
example, it was fascinating for me to realize that for the
first 1000 years of our history, if Christianity is
mentioned it is of the Catholic Church. Those knights in
shining armor who pledged their allegiance to the Church had
to be Catholic because there was no Protestant church at
that time. Did you know that the first settlement in America
was not Plymouth Rock, but St. Augustine, Florida? Did
you know that Christopher Columbus received a
letter from the Catholic King and Queen?
Furthermore, it adds a whole new
element to a study when one realizes what the Catholics in
history have contributed to fields such as science:
Braille
invented the Braille system for the blind; Cassadorius, a
priest, invented the watch; Coulomb established the laws of
static electricity; De Chauliac, a papal physician, was the
father of modern surgery and hospitals; Eustachius, for whom
the Eustachian tube was named was one of the founders of
modern anatomy; Fallopius, for whom the fallopian tubes were
named was an eminent physiologist; Guttenberg invented
printing, Laennec invented the stethoscope, Mendel, a monk,
established the laws of heredity, which gave the final blow
the the theory of natural selection.
(from My Catholic Faith ©1949/1959)
Note: Ignatius Press is publishing a new series of
Catholic history text books.
