If one has followed this blog, one knows that I was a classical education teacher and curriculum advisor, and have much experience in giving talks to boards and parents on liberal education.
The liberal arts were created to help a young person learn how to think.
That the Christian and Catholic schools at all levels did this well for over two centuries in some cases and a century in others, in the States (and colonies) was, in my opinion, part of God's plan for the raising up of leaders who would not only spread the Gospel, but who would incorporate Christianity into the government and culture.
Western Civilization was created by the Catholic Church through Catholic education.
If you are lamenting the lack of leadership in the Church, the lack of leadership training in the schools, which caved into leftist ideologues, who despise elitism and especially religious elitism, is the main reason for this disastrous consequence.
One reason we have a leadership crisis in the clergy, including weak-minded bishops and even cardinals, is this lack of training in the liberal arts-one must learn how to think and use the virtues.
Virtues are connected to learning and formation. This has been totally lost in most Catholic schools and long gone in the public sector.
The Light is gone. Do not kid yourselves, parents. If you send your children to a school which is not teaching the liberal arts, your children will not only not learn how to think, but will become automatons of the culture. That is exactly what tyrants want-unthinking publics.
For more on this discussion and some of the ramifications today, go here to this blog for more...http://www.catholicbandita.com/operation-silence-santorum/