The Blessing of a True, Catholic Liberal Education – Part V

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: Below is part 5 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 more memorizing and little thinking.


  • 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.

In part 3 of this article,3 after having seen what true education is, we examined the question who should perfect his intellect?

In part 4 of this article,4 having seen that modern universities do not provide a true education, we consider whether there is ever any reason for men or women to attend them.

However, even though women and girls should pursue a True Catholic Liberal Education – just as men and boys should, too – what is the best environment in which women and girls should do this? Below, in Part 5, we will consider this question.


The Blessing of a True, Catholic Liberal Education

Part 5

What Would Be the Best Environment in which Women Could Pursue a True Catholic Liberal Education?

We saw above that men and women should strive to obtain a formal Catholic Liberal Education, if possible, which would be a strong beginning of their duty and high calling to perfect their intellects throughout their lives. Ideally, this true education should be obtained at the beginning of adulthood as the beginning of a lifelong adult pursuit of the truth (especially the truths of our Faith).

Although women should obtain the treasure of this education, too, (as we saw above), it is better for them to do so at an all-women’s college when this is possible, instead of a mixed “co-educational” institution.

Here is how Pope Pius XI taught this truth:

False also and harmful to Christian education is the so-called method of “coeducation”.5

There are five reasons why it is better to separately educate the sexes. These five reasons (below) show that separate education (when possible) is advantageous for both sexes, although these advantages are even greater for women and girls, compared to men and boys. These reasons reflect Church teaching, the Natural Law, and Common Sense:

1. For a Man to Compete Against Ladies is Not Gentlemanly

God made men wiser, more aggressive, and clearer and more abstract in their thinking. A true gentleman would not want to compete with ladies in the classroom and it would not be a fair competition. This is similar to how it would not be fair or decent to have men and women compete against each other in a foot race.

Thus, it is only common sense and decency that women should have their own classrooms and schools. Women and girls should have their own feminine academic environment in which to develop their minds and pursue the truth.


2. Co-Education Sends the Wrong Message by Inherently Tending to Posture Women as Men’s Competitors

Further, it is better that women and men not be educated together because it sends the wrong message, i.e., it symbolizes the wrong thing for them to be class competitors. God did not make women to be man’s competitor but to be man’s helpmate and companion in the great work of raising a family.6


3. Co-Education is a Distraction from Academic Pursuits

God made men and women to be naturally attracted toward one another. This attraction is ordered toward marriage and raising a family. This is good and appropriate but must be limited to the correct occasions for this because this attraction is an obstacle to a focus on the intellectual life.

Just as women must cover their heads in church not only as a sign of submission,7 but also to assist in avoiding their becoming a distraction during prayer which can result from their beauty, because her hair is a woman’s glory8 and women are the more beautiful sex.

Similarly, in an academic environment – which should be devoted to the truth and the life of the intellect – mixing the sexes is a distraction which impedes that intellectual life.

Here is one way that Pope Pius XI taught this important truth of the Catholic Faith and the Natural Law:


Co-education … is founded upon [the heresy of] naturalism and the denial of original sin [as well as] upon a deplorable confusion of ideas that mistakes a leveling promiscuity and equality for the legitimate association of the sexes.9


4. Men and Women Learn Somewhat Differently and so the Teaching Methods Should Be Somewhat Different


Both men and women are rational but, to some extent, do not think the same way. God made men wiser, more aggressive, clearer in their reasoning and more abstract in their thinking. Women are more emotional – they are more inclined to bring personality and feeling into their reasoning. Thus, teaching methods for men and women should be adapted to their differences in the way they learn, through educating men and women separately.


Here is one way that Pope Pius XI describes how these differences show the benefit of using differences in teaching methods for the two sexes:


[T]here is not in nature itself, which fashions the two quite different in organism [viz., men and women], in temperament, in abilities, anything to suggest that there can be or ought to be promiscuity [viz., inappropriate mingling], and much less equality, in the training of the two sexes.10



5. The Catholic Church Shows the Better Way of Providing College-Level Education for Women by Founding so many Women’s Colleges

The practice of the Holy Catholic Church shows that it is better for women (and men) to be educated in separate schools and universities, where possible.

There are countless examples of women’s colleges, showing not only the Catholic Church’s commitment to perfecting women’s minds, but also the commitment to do it the better way, in separate institutions of learning.

Here are two of countless examples:

  • The Catholic Church founded 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. This college is near Notre Dame University which was founded as an all-men’s college.


  • Alverno College, a Catholic college in Milwaukee, was founded in 1936 as an all-women’s college. It is near Marquette University which was founded as an all-men’s college.

Notice in these examples that the wisdom of the Church not only caused Her to found countless women’s colleges but also countless men’s colleges, since it is better for men and boys – as well as for women and girls – to be educated in single sex educational institutions.


Conclusion

We see as a matter of Church teaching, of the Natural Law, and of Common Sense that, where possible, women and girls should receive their education in separate classrooms and institutions of learning.


But an Objection Arises to the Idea of Anyone Receiving this Type of Education!

From the considerations we have made so far in this series (on the Value of a True Catholic Liberal Education), shouldn’t we be afraid that this great blessing might make us proud?

We are on earth to save our souls and we know that pride is one of the biggest obstacles to salvation. So, if we receive a True Catholic Liberal Education and this were to result in our damnation, then shouldn’t we avoid this education in order to save our souls?

We will consider this issue in a future article.


To be continued …

5 Divini Illius Magistri, (On Christian Education), Pope Pius XI, 1929, §68.


6 Here is one way St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Catholic Church, explains this truth that woman is not man’s competitor but should be his helpmate in the great work of her life (raising a family):

It was necessary that woman be made, as Scripture says, as a helpmate to the male; not indeed as a helpmate in some other work, as some have said, since in any other work a male can be more conveniently helped by another male than by woman; but as a helper in generation.

Summa, Ia, Q.92, a.1, respondeo.

God willed woman to be man’s helpmate. Sacred Scripture infallibly explains why God created woman, in these words:

[T]he Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let Us make him a help like unto himself.

Genesis, 2:18.

Sacred Scripture infallibly says the same thing in other ways too, e.g.: “[M]an was not created for the woman: but the woman for the man” (1 Corinthians, 11:9), namely, to help him raise a family.

The Summa touches upon these different roles as follows:


Although the father ranks above the mother, the mother has more to do with the offspring than the father has, or we may say that woman was made chiefly in order to be man’s helpmate in relation to the offspring, whereas the man was not made for this purpose.


Summa Suppl., Q.44, a.2 ad 1 (emphasis added).

7 St. Paul teaches infallibly:


But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. … But every woman praying or prophesying with her head not covered, disgraceth her head: for it is all one as if she were shaven. For if a woman be not covered, let her be shorn. But if it be a shame to a woman to be shorn or made bald, let her cover her head. The man indeed ought not to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. For the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Therefore, ought the woman to have a power over her head ….


1 Corinthians, 11:3-10 (emphasis added).


8 “But if a woman nourish her hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering.” 1 Corinthians, 11:15.

9 Divini Illius Magistri, (On Christian Education), Pope Pius XI, §68.


Here is the full quote:


False also and harmful to Christian education is the so-called method of “co-education”. This, too, by many of its supporters, is founded upon [the heresy of] naturalism and the denial of original sin; but by all, upon a deplorable confusion of ideas that mistakes a leveling promiscuity and equality, for the legitimate association of the sexes. The Creator has ordained and disposed perfect union of the sexes only in matrimony, and, with varying degrees of contact, in the family and in society. Besides there is not in nature itself, which fashions the two quite different in organism, in temperament, in abilities, anything to suggest that there can be or ought to be promiscuity, and much less equality, in the training of the two sexes. These, in keeping with the wonderful designs of the Creator, are destined to complement each other in the family and in society, precisely because of their differences, which therefore ought to be maintained and encouraged during their years of formation, with the necessary distinction and corresponding separation, according to age and circumstances. These principles, with due regard to time and place, must, in accordance with Christian prudence, be applied to all schools, particularly in the most delicate and decisive period of formation, that, namely, of adolescence; and in gymnastic exercises and deportment, special care must be had of Christian modesty in young women and girls, which is so gravely impaired by any kind of exhibition in public.”


Divini Illius Magistri, (On Christian Education), Pope Pius XI, §68 (emphasis added; bracketed words added for clarity).


10 Divini Illius Magistri, (On Christian Education), Pope Pius XI, §68 (bracketed comment added for clarity).