Draft of Chapter 2: Why Catholic Academic Integration?
Why Catholic Academic Integration?
This is the first part of Chapter 2 to the sequel of Educating for Eternity: A Teacher’s Companion for Making Every Class Catholic. The second part of Chapter 2 will be published next month. Chapter 1 is available here. The draft Table of Contents can be found here.
In recent years, more and more Catholic schools and dioceses across North America have identified teaching every subject from a Catholic point of view as a priority. This basic idea goes under many names: curriculum permeation, faith integration, Catholic Academic Integration, etc. In his short book, The Holy See’s Teaching on Catholic Schools, Archbishop Michael J. Miller identifies five “essential marks” of authentic Catholic schools and the fourth is “Imbued with a Catholic Worldview Throughout Its Curriculum.”
No matter what name it goes by, this essential feature of an authentically Catholic education is being thought through in a new way. In an increasingly post-Christian society, Catholic school leaders realize that the fundamental presuppositions undergirding education are often in contradiction to a Catholic vision of the human person. And so, it is no longer adequate (if it ever was!) to teach math or science or literature the way they are taught in public schools, and hope that theology class, a handful of liturgies, and maybe a retreat will do enough to transmit the Catholic faith to our students.
Still, there are legitimate questions about the idea that every class in a Catholic school should be taught from a Catholic point of view. Two, in particular, stand out. First, some people wonder if it will lead to uncritically adding Catholic content in a way that feels inauthentic or “tacked-on.” Second, there is the concern that theology might be sticking its nose in where it doesn’t belong.
It is important to admit that Catholic Academic Integration can be done poorly. If students experience a flood of Catholic content that does not feel well-integrated with the curriculum, that distracts more than it illuminates, we can do more harm than good. And if theology starts to substitute for the appropriate methodology of each individual subject, something has indeed gone awry. Doing this well requires thinking through these questions clearly.
But the danger here is not all on one side. Our students – and our teachers! – are not coming to their studies from some neutral baseline onto which a Catholic worldview can be added or not. They are coming into class with a whole set of presuppositions about the world and the human person that necessarily inform their approach to the value and purpose of education. And those presuppositions show up in how we think about the value and purpose of each individual subject.
Even a Catholic school that excels in Archbishop Miller’s other four marks (“Inspired by a Supernatural Vision,” “Founded on a Christian Anthropology,” “Animated by Communion and Community” and “Sustained by Gospel Witness”), but does not imbue its curriculum with a Catholic worldview, can give the impression that the Gospel has nothing to say about the most basic thing we do every day at school, learn about the world.
And if a student never experiences what is distinctive about a Catholic approach to art or science or history or sport, it will be easy for them to imagine that faith does not touch on the things that matter the most. The real business of life, the things that demand most of our time and energy, will be unconsciously understood according to secular models and faith itself will be seen as a kind of elective, something of interest to some people, but not something that addresses the most fundamental questions that come from being human or the matters that concern us in daily life.
Moreover, when the various academic disciplines are understood from a secular point of view, conflict with the faith is inevitable. In the day-to-day life of a school, this is perhaps most obvious in the natural sciences, where a secular worldview has become so dominant that many students simply assume that science and faith are incompatible. But science is far from the only discipline where unexamined presuppositions lead to confusion and conflict.
