Snapshot From a Busy Weekend
Last weekend, Martin Saints spread its wings far beyond our home campus in Oreland.
Pictured are Paola Ingalls (10th grade), Shannon Shipp (also 10th), and Emilia Owen (9th), all members of our chamber choir. Music teacher Brett Cuddy drove them to Washington DC and back on Saturday, where they joined elite choirs from schools up and down the east coast to sing at a special Mass, celebrated by a Cardinal, in Washington's cathedral. When this level of student talent is supported by that kind of teacher, all of them going far above and beyond the call of duty, amazing things can happen. (We hope they slept late the next day!)
Meanwhile, back at school, over a long three day weekend, we welcomed visitors. Pictured below are guests from Missouri, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and upstate Pennsylvania. For the second year in a row, the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education hosted its annual high school leaders forum at Martin Saints. Our guests are looking to start their own classical schools, or convert their standard schools to classical, or maybe just curious to learn what all the fuss is about. They came to Martin Saints to see how we do it. Not that we have all the answers, but we were honored to share our stories and challenges, and help spread the revolution.
At multiple times over the weekend, different visitors would say "you have to start a podcast...you have to tell these stories to more people." Two quick examples:
MSC teacher Rose Tomassi talked about stocking our students' memories and imagination with our Frassati Friday visits to farms, or for service in the inner city. She reviewed our craftmanship classes, including woodworking, fiber arts, and cooking. She explained that education needs to engage the heart as well as the mind, otherwise, even the greatest books can be like flat, stale champagne.
In another presentation, Mrs. Jocelyn Jekel, one of our founding faculty members who still advises us on curriculum, presented on how we teach science in a classical context. Again, wonder and cultivating the heart is at the forefront.
With dramatic readings from historic texts, Mrs. Jekel explained that science is not a static body of facts to memorize. Science is about cultivating the habit of careful and loving attention to nature. Science also has a history, with personalities and contingencies (things might have been different if...). There are moral and poetic dimensions to nature's truth.
Teaching to cultivate thinking and wonder requires patience and takes longer than standard science curricula. A lab at Martin Saints is about creative problem solving, not paint-by-numbers. And it's not cramming for an AP test either. But we think, over the long haul, our graduates will be more likely to continue in science and be better equipped for it.
Mere summaries can't do justice to either presentation. The podcast idea is a good one.
What I'm trying to suggest is that this classical education is rigorous - but it's also humane. The bread and butter are the great books themselves. Reading Plato and Dante, Aristotle and Shakespeare, Augustine and Dostoevsky - it does make you smarter. You learn to think clearly, write well, seek truth. But when the heart is cultivated at the same time - the crafts, the nature study, the emphasis on beauty - the whole person blooms and becomes fully alive.
We want to share this education with as many people as possible. Other teachers and school administrators are coming from across the country to see this. What parent wouldn't want this for their son or daughter? Our annual seventh grade visitation day is coming on March 28th. RSVP here. But you're also welcome to schedule a private visit almost anytime. Be in touch here.
