N.b. the liberal arts education, trivium, and quadrivium are experiencing a bit of a (modernized) revival, especially in Catholic circles (some examples [0]). E

N.b. the liberal arts education, trivium, and quadrivium are experiencing a bit of a (modernized) revival, especially in Catholic circles (some examples [0]). Education traditionally was concerned with the formation of human beings as free, rational beings. (The word "liberal" in "liberal arts" refers to freedom, in the authentic sense, and it is contrasted with the "servile arts"). In this sense, modern education isn't education. It's job training. I'm not quite sure what this Catherine project is proposing. What you don't want is just some random selection of topics with no regard for unifying principles, intrinsic importance, or the fundamental concerns of human existence. Even the so-called Great Books[1] curricula, themselves often plagued by a bias toward anglocentrism, have been known to degenerate into "selected topics" with no unifying principle. In so-called classical education, everything that is taught is taught in a cohesive fashion, at least ideally. Modern education is Kafkaesque in this regard: things happen, you're told to do some things here, learn some things there, but there is no cogent overarching whole into which everything fits. The goal isn't to educate as much as it is to equip students with an assortment of skills thought to be economically valuable here and now. Of course, being able to provide economic value is important, but that is secondary to becoming properly formed. A technically savvy savage is still a savage, but even here, his savvy is bound to be superficial. Ironically, someone who is properly formed in a real education is more deeply equipped and free to provide economic value. All education systems presuppose some vision of man. The modern education's view of man, as an economic actor and a cog in a machine, is a bleak, stunted view of the human person and ultimately one that is dehumanizing. [0] https://catholicliberaleducation.org/ https://catholicliberaleducation.org/ [1] https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2017/09/great-books-enemies-wisdom-frederick-wilhelmsen.html https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2017/09/great-books-e...