Catholic Candle note: Below is part 3 of the article concerning the best type of education, which is a Catholic Liberal Education. Do not confuse this education with many university programs called “liberal arts” but which are full of fluff, falsehood, and aimless so-called “cultural enrichment” courses and “humanities”.

A liberal education also does not refer to liberalism, nor is a true liberal education an indoctrination into that error of liberalism or political correctness. In fact, a true Catholic Liberal Education is the best antidote to the errors of liberalism.

Previously, in part 1 of this article,¹ we examined the problems we see in modern education.

• Modern colleges do not improve the quality of their students’ minds and their thinking ability much or at all.

  
  

• Most “education” is merely job training, fluff courses, and/or leftist indoctrination.

  
  

• The students are taught to sound like someone in their field but they do little thinking and more memorizing.

  
  

• Grade “inflation” and degree “inflation” is rampant. Grades and academic degrees do not mean much anymore.

In part 2 of this article,² we examined, in general, what education is. We considered the human soul and the perfection of its highest faculty (power) – the intellect – which is immaterial. We saw that our intellects are perfected through knowing eternal, unchangeable truths and their causes.

Because we saw the importance of perfecting the intellect, we could naturally ask who should perfect his intellect? In part 3 of this article (below), we consider that question.

Who Should Perfect His Intellect?

Because we have seen the importance of perfecting our intellects, the question naturally arises, then, who should obtain this genuine and best education? The answer is: everyone who has an intellect, … or more precisely, whoever has the use of reason. And he should do this according to his abilities. The reason for this answer is that:

• God created the human intellect and made it the highest faculty in all humans.

  
  

• God intends that we use the gifts He gives, especially the higher gifts, so therefore God expects humans to especially perfect their intellects.

  
  

• All intellects are perfected by knowing eternal, universal truth, which is the good of the intellect.

  
  

• Therefore, God intends that all humans perfect their intellects by learning such eternal, universal truth.³

Women and Girls, as well as Men and Boys, Should Perfect Their Intellects.

Some people fail to understand this crucial principle about how we should lead our life and what should be our principal concerns and goals of life. They hold the false conclusion that possession of universal truth is only for the elite few.

Bishop Richard N. Williamson greatly erred in this way when he said the following:

True universities are for ideas, ideas are not for true girls, and so universities are not for true girls.⁴

He said ideas are not for girls. How wrong he was!

• God created the human intellect and made it the highest faculty in women and girls (as well as in men and boys).

  
  

• God intends that women and girls use the gifts He gives, especially the higher gifts, so God expects women and girls to especially perfect their intellects, more than the other faculties of their souls.

  
  

• All intellects are perfected by knowing eternal, universal truth, which is the good of the intellect.

  
  

• Therefore, God intends that women and girls must perfect their intellects with eternal, universal truth.

Further, we see Bishop Williamson’s position is wrong for these five reasons:

1. His (false) position opposes the practice of the Catholic Church which has founded so many women’s colleges, e.g., St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana. This Catholic women’s college was founded before 1920 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, with the help of Fr. Edward Sorin (the founder of Notre Dame) and the priests of the Congregation of the Holy Cross.

   
   

2. God made a man and his wife to be the closest of friends.⁵ But a man and his wife could not possibly be best friends if her mind was devoid of truth: she would not understand or appreciate him and there would be nothing in her mind for him to appreciate. This would frustrate them both and prevent true friendship, leaving only a practical familiarity on a low, non-spiritual level.

   
   

3. In fact, women and girls naturally all do seek the truth on high matters. It would be impossible for them not to do so. As St. Thomas and Aristotle teach and as our experience proves, all persons “by nature desire to know”.⁶ That is, all persons philosophize⁷ even if it is often not called that. In other words, they consider and conclude about many important issues and topics in the natural and supernatural order.

   Just as when a patch of land is cleared of vegetation, it will not remain without plants. If that land is not planted with good crops, it will become infested with weeds. Likewise, with the human intellect. If the “garden” of the intellect is not cultivated and filled with great truths (i.e. the “good crops”), then the intellect will be infested with the “weeds” of noxious errors.

   Just as land will be filled with good crops or with weeds, likewise, the human intellect will be filled either way – with great truth or “poisonous” errors. Thus, the intellects of women and girls should be perfected by learning great truths.

4. In light of this reason (immediately above): since the mind will not stay empty, then for the sake of the spousal friendships that God intends, the wife’s mind must be filled with important truths (as her husband’s mind should be also) and should not be allowed to fill with “weeds” since her mind being filled with errors is a greater obstacle to spousal friendship than even would be the mind of the hypothetical wife (in the second bullet point above) who has no ideas at all.

5. The woman/wife is an important educator of the children – especially in today’s world – and she cannot do this while her mind is an “empty box” (or is full of errors).

Plainly, Bishop Williamson erred greatly! Thus, we see that the truth must fill and perfect the minds of women and girls (as well as men and boys). They must all perfect their intellects according to their ability, by learning universal, eternal truth, especially about the highest things.

Let Us Consider Another Aspect of Bishop Williamson’s False Position: Are Modern Universities REALLY “True Universities”?

Notice another error embodied in the position of Bishop Williamson, viz., he has the false belief that universities are now really places for high learning (as the best of them used to be). He writes about whether girls should attend “true universities”?⁸

But, as better-informed persons know, universities nowadays are largely dens of errors, iniquity, and political correctness. In contrast, Bishop Williamson refers to these places as if they were places of truth and true higher education. When a student is as uninformed on this as Bishop Williamson indicates that he is, then such a student would expect high learning there. He would then be caught off-guard and be all-the-more unprepared for the onslaught of the devils’ attacks there, seeking to corrupt any good which is possessed by the student at the time when he enrolls at the university.

To the extent that universities are dens of error and leftist indoctrination, universities are not for anyone – even men. By contrast, perfecting one’s mind with a true Catholic Liberal Education in the highest truths, is for everybody according to his ability.

This true Catholic Liberal Education is for women, each according to her abilities, because it makes a woman wise in important ways. But as experience shows us, and as St. Thomas teaches, “the discretion of reason predominates” in man more than in woman. Summa, Ia, Q.92, a.1, ad 2. Therefore, because a man is even more logical than a woman, a true Catholic Liberal Education perfects his intellect even more than it does hers.

Although men and women are both rational, men think more abstractly. Women are more emotional – (they are more inclined to bring personality and feeling into their reasoning). Thus, men are able to advance further in the two types of wisdom provided in a Catholic Liberal Education:

1. One kind of wisdom is good apart from the practical life we live. This type of wisdom is to know the highest truths about God (as well as other high truths) because they perfect the intellect and because they are so magnificent and worth knowing in themselves; and

2. The second kind of wisdom is practical and is directed toward living more fully the good life according to our rational nature, e.g., the moral sciences of ethics and politics (in the true sense which will be discussed in a later part of this article).

Summa, Ia, Q.45., a.1, Respondeo; & Summa, Ia, Q.45., a.3, Respondeo.

Both types of wisdom perfect the intellect, so men and women should pursue both. (We will treat this topic more fully in a later part of this article.)

Whereas this Catholic Liberal Education greatly benefits both men and women, it helps man even more to grow in wisdom than it does a woman and increases his fitness to be her head and the head of their family, as God intended.

A Question Arises

Since modern universities do not provide a true education, is there ever any reason for men or women to attend them? In the next part of this article, we will examine that question.

To be continued …