Dear all, I had the pleasure of delivering the exciting announcement at weekend Masses regarding Saint Paul School's adoption of a liberal arts curriculum with the assistance of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education! The text of my announcement (more or less) follows. Please click the links in the announcement to learn more about the program and have a look at the attached file containing case studies indicating the success of liberal arts education at schools across the country!
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Fr. Szatkowski's Announcement text, with links:
Regarding our school, I’ll be the first to say that we’ve been through some rough times over the past couple of years, and I’ve been faced with having to make many difficult decisions that were necessary to ensure the long-term viability of our school. We are beyond blessed to have the best group of teachers you will find anywhere, many of whom have been here for many, many years. We even have Saint Paul School alumni who now not only teach here but have their own kids in our school. I’m extremely excited to announce something that has already generated a tremendous surge of optimism amongst our teachers, administration, and School Advisory Council, namely the adoption of a full-blown classical liberal arts curriculum for Saint Paul School.
Over the past few months, the school administration and I have been in conversation with an education group called The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, which I’ll henceforth refer to as ICLE. (Please remember the world “liberal” in this sense in not a political term in any way when referring to the liberal arts.) ICLE's mission statement is as follows: "The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education inspires and equips Catholic educators to renew today’s Catholic schools by drawing on the Church’s tradition of education, which frees teachers and students for the joyful pursuit of faith, wisdom, and virtue. The Institute proposes to fulfill its mission by: (1) Reflecting on Church teachings and historical approaches to guide today’s lived experience of education; (2) Recovering and adapting the classical tradition of liberal education as embraced and developed by the Church; (3) Supporting Catholic educators through conferences, teacher development programs, in-service workshops, consultation, and publications; (4) Advancing this vision among schools, colleges, dioceses, and other individuals and institutions involved in Catholic education."
In the coming months, Saint Paul School will work with ICLE in examining ways of adopting a curriculum that will capitalize on the already-present giftedness of our teaching faculty with the goal of beginning an implementation process at the beginning of the new school year in August. We were blessed to have present with us for the all-day teacher in-service the day before classes resumed a couple weeks ago Ms. Colleen Richards, the Director of School Services for ICLE, who presented an overview of what is meant by a liberal arts education, shared success stories from parochial schools around the country, answered our teachers’ questions, and even led an exercise of what a normal in-class discussion would look like according to a liberal arts model using the Gettysburg address as an example. A truly deep, enjoyable conversation ensued. I’d encourage you to ask any of our teachers about their experience that day, as we all enjoyed it quite a bit.
Our teachers had nothing but positive comments during and following Ms. Richard’s presentation. ICLE reports that teachers find greater freedom and joy teaching under a liberal arts model, and the palpable excitement amongst our teachers that day points to just that. Given the quality of our teaching staff, not to mention their impressive combined number of years of teaching experience, this is a much-needed stamp of approval for our moving forward with this vision. I’m particularly excited about this endeavor, as I’m absurdly grateful for my liberal arts background through University of Dallas during my years in college seminary. We’ve already got the ball rolling on partnering with them in this process, too, so having the University of Dallas close by is a tremendous asset to this process.
We strongly encourage you to explore this program through the following links, which will certainly answer many of the questions you understandably have!
- Watch this brief video from ICLE that serves as an overview of Catholic liberal education.
- Read the case studies pertaining to other parochial schools who have adopted a liberal arts curriculum through ICLE to discover how this has helped so many others schools struggling with enrollment again thrive.
- Read this article published in Momentum this past summer.
This is what our school needs, and this will put us in a unique spot in our diocese, as no other parochial school is doing this!
My hope is to also make some substantial, very-much needed repairs and updates to our aging school. One of the bigger ideas I’m toying with is building a new gym on the west end of the school and repurposing the current gym into an auditorium or performing arts center or something along those lines - something any true liberal arts school really needs to have! As you’ve figured out by now, I dream big and have a lot of projects I’d like to accomplish, but, as always, I turn to you for that support. Keep in mind, too, that any major changes we make to the building will necessitate bringing the entire building up to code in terms of ADA compliancy, which will be no small cost. I know at least a few of you might find this school revitalization project attractive and be inclined to help us out, so thanks in advance. I also plan on meeting with the higher-ups of the diocese to see how they might be able to assist us with their undesignated diocesan capital campaign funds.
As always, thank you for your support. It hits me more and more as my time goes on here just how fortunate I am to be the Pastor for such a wonderful community that continues to grow. You are truly a blessing to me. Please pray for Saint Paul School, as we have a bright future ahead of us. Together, we look forward to seeing our students grow in intellectual virtue as we further instill in their hearts and minds a desire to wonder and pursue truth – the Truth, who is Jesus Christ.