From time to time I have mentioned Wyoming Catholic College, which trains students in a modified form of the Trivium and Quadrivium, and makes sure they know their Latin, have the TLM, and how to take care of a horse.
I’ve been there. Impressive place with a great vision.
They learn how to learn, how to think and make distinctions. They also learn how to articulate what they know.
WCC now has a video about the college which you will enjoy. It is about 7 minutes long.
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Thanks for the video. Inspiring.
In a similar vein is anyone aware of Catholic elementary/middle/high schools which teach using the Trivium/quadrivium method. One of my children was educated in a Protestant oriented school here in Boise that used that curriculum and she got an excellent education. Do similar programs exist for Catholics? My parish is contemplating starting an elementary school and I would like to suggest a Catholic oriented version of this, after all we invented it.
Thanks for any input.
This place is absolutely amazing. I hope they succeed, and stay open, so starting in 10 years when my oldest is 18 my kids can start applying here. It’s curriculum is rock solid. Just speaking for myself, but for my kids I would love to see them choose Aquinas in California and/or Wyoming Catholic. Christendom down in Virginia impresses me also.
@Theodore: How about a Catholic (and therefore authentic) Montesori, complete with her work on religious education? (Her book on the Mass from before the council is OUTSTANDING)
beautiful, beautiful, and yet again beautiful! A worthy cause for a Christmas donation. And yes, randomcatholic, Christendom College in VA is TRULY one of the finest educational institutions existing….already made my Christmas donation there :)
This is splendid! Makes me want to go back to college! Maybe my grandchildren . . . .
. . . btw, those are very nice looking horses, particularly the iron-gray (perhaps an App?) and the tall chestnut. Handsome and good movers.
Maybe I’m rather world-weary in my middle years and a wee bit cynical, but….
How can a small school like this really change our world for the better? It’s small, and way out in the ‘boonies’.
And I’m surprised that there are no ‘diversity’ proponents yelling and screaming, ‘This is an all-white school! No black or Hispanics to be seen! What, no ‘quotas’?”
And you got to be really smart, have a lot of money for tuition and a ‘leader wanna-be’ to go to there–no ‘dummies’, low-income kids or quiet, retired types are welcome….
(you can tell by this that I didn’t like school in my younger years)
irishgirl,
As the mother of a quiet, retired type (she takes after her father), I can tell you that this sort of school — small, challenging — is perfect for that sort of kid. She went to a small Presbyterian college (she took a biology degree) and she loved it. Sort of place where if you aren’t in class your prof calls to make sure you’re o.k. . . . .
Now as for the money . . . it looks like a lot, but this is a bargain.
irishgirl-
You’re as grumpy as me – I’m one civics class short of high school graduation and this looks heavenly and yet….
I dearly love my EF Oratory but, like this college, it sometimes seems more a greenhouse growing orchids than a ‘field of wheat and tares’.
If History has taught us anything irishgirl it is that one man with a great vision can change the world.
Been small is actually a strength, if it was huge they would not be able to maintain the same cohesiveness and community spirit.
And the students do not stay out in the boonies just like Christ did not stay out in the desert. Been out in the “desert” of Wyoming away from all the distractions of a place like New York for example is another strength of this place.
Anglican, classed with the inklings- about which I have doubts -, D.L. Sayers, made a proposal in 47 for revival of the trivium, the idea has been kicking about since, I believe some homeschoolers have used it,but this is the first institution I’ve heard of.I ve tried suggesting it in one or two places. That trendies hate it is not an automatic reason for Catholics to embrace it, but…..
“The Lost Tools of Learning” was first presented by Miss Sayers at Oxford in 1947.
I hope an internet address, it’s in several places on the web , won’t throw the combox:
http://www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html
I must respond to irishgirl –
The way these schools (Wyoming Catholic College, Christendom, Thomas Aquinas, FUS, etc.) “change” the world is they prepare young men and women with a true Catholic education and a Catholic world view. “Catholicism is in the air they breathe.” These students will graduate and be influential in revitalizing many once-Catholic colleges and universities, parishes, dioceses, etc. as professors, teachers, catechists, priests, sisters, parents etc. They are already beginning to make an impact and this will grow and grow and grow.
Out in the “boonies”? Maybe so, but they won’t all stay there. They will obey Christ’s Great Commission to go out to the whole world. (And in a few years, I predict that Lander WY will be a Catholic mecca based upon the graduates that do stay.)
Diversity? Well, I’m sure they do not discourage ANY ONE from attending. I hope they don’t have quotas, except for maybe faithful Catholics. There are only about 130 students – total. And by the way, they sure aren’t all the same. There’s probably more “diversity” than you know.
“And you got to be really smart, have a lot of money for tuition and a ‘leader wanna-be’ to go to there …” – Well the answer to that is NO, NO, and NO.
“Really smart…”? No. I have a daughter at WCC and I wouldn’t classify her as “really” smart. She has her struggles, as do many of the students – especially this week with finals! But you know what? The struggle is good. They are challenged!
“Have a lot of money for tuition…”? No, to that, too. We have a daughter at Christendom and our daughter at WCC. And you know what? We, as a family, really struggle, too. We are definitely NOT wealthy. They work, we work and we all pray and somehow get it done. Real, faithful Catholic education is important to us. It has been one of the best things we have been able to do for them and our family. It’s more priorities than money. These schools are amazing at making it happen, if a child really wants it.
“A leader wanna-be…” No, again. She like a lot of the students were somewhat intimidated by the challenge. But she has faith, guts and determination.
WCC and Christendom have been fantastic experiences for both our daughters and for us the parents. There are no better places, anywhere, than the small but growing number of real Catholic colleges that are available. They will change the culture – or at least offer a growing alternative to the culture of death that is so pervasive.
It’s a wonderful video.
My friend’s son graduated from there and is discerning the priesthood now.
In response to Peco:
Boy, I guess my arguments really got torn apart, huh?
I never married, so consequently no kids. There were no such colleges as the ones you mentioned when I was in school-I grew up in the ‘big bad Sixties and Seventies’. And I wasn’t much of a student, though I graduated from high school on time. I went to a local business school for stenographic studies, but that was to get my mother off my back (I was thinking of the convent at the time).
I’m sure that, in time, the graduates of these newer Catholic colleges will probably ‘make a difference’, but certainly not in my lifetime.
It would be nice if a WCC graduate got elected as President of the United States, but not in my lifetime.
And BTW, I was asking in a rhetorical manner about ‘quotas’. Not my own words….I guess I’m not very good in making myself clear….it’s what happens when you get ‘old’.
Irishgirl, please take a look at this: http://www.christendom.edu/alumni/profiles.php
That is what Wyoming Catholic can be like in the near-future and certainly in your lifetime. Already there is one graduated class that is probably doing amazing things.
Liz,
I went on the list….but I sure didn’t see a political science graduate among them.
They’re doing everything else BUT running for political office.
Like I said: maybe there will a TRUE Catholic President of the United States from one of these good Catholic colleges….it just won’t be in my lifetime….
digdigby-Exactly!
I guess we’re both a couple of ‘grumps’!
I’m depressed because things are so bad now. There’s constant prattling talk about ‘changing the culture’ and ‘using your gifts and talents’….gag…. I get so tired of hearing that!
I’m also depressed because I feel so old-I’m in my mid-fifties. I have never known what God wants of me for my life. I’m like a small boat being tossed in a stormy sea. No one ‘with skin on’ reall understands, or listens for that matter!
These students from WCC have their whole lives ahead of them. I’m from the generation that screwed everything up morals-wise. It’s going to take a lot of years for their generation to try and turn things around.
Oops-should read ‘really’….another instance of ‘reading before posting’.
(big sigh)
@Theodore
Trivium School in Massachusetts is, as its name implies, one school that teaches according to the trivium method (I should know since I’m a grad.) Another is The Lyceum in Cleveland, Ohio.
To my knowledge there has only ever been one president who had a BA in Political Science and that is the current president.
Leonius,
Before I read your post, I was about to respond to Irishgirl that a political science major — an inside-the-beltway wannabee — is the last thing I’d prefer to see as president. You have not changed my mind.
Great and inspiring promotional video -it is wonderful to see these young women and men interact freely, study together and embark with great conviction, morals and smarts into life.
What is not to like Irishgirl?
I think you are way to hard on yourself and your generation.
In my view it is a grave mistake to pretend that one generation is all bad and imoral and a waste.
Take the generation of our Popes German parents for example – they celebrated perfect Mass in Latin pre Vatican II – yet as a generation they did screw up royally – and yes plenty of German/ Spanish/Italian Catholics front and center.
Take Professor Ratzingers generation – he and his fellow leading theologians and clergy were instrumental to guide the Church in the Direction of Vatican II – yet would you say that generation was a waste? I do not think that way at all. As humans we make mistakes – we learn we adjust and make more mistakes – to pretend that that will ever change is in my view unrealistic.
Go to any time in the Church History and one can find plenty to like AND plenty to dislike –
I am affraid we have to continue on this path – generation after generation.
God does not condemn an entire generation.
I don’t think that the politicians are ever going to change the culture. They are not the answer.
The kids at these real Catholic schools are really encouraging. I’m in my 60s and I’ve seen how screwed-up a generation can be (mine). But let me tell you – these kids from places like WCC and Christendom are special. My daughter from WCC brought a bunch home with her and I’m impressed! We need to promote these schools.
The kids from WCC and TAC and Christendom may well be special, but they are an extremely self-selected (and tiny) group. No doubt they were special before they ever set foot on campus, because their parents took seriously the job as primary educator, and the kids have embraced those teachings. Not many high school seniors would be willing even to consider a school smaller than their high school that so restricts their personal freedom and offers so few courses of study. Actually, I’m more impressed with the kids who attend more typical universities without fear of being contaminated by the culture, and who emerge with both their faith and morals intact. There are a lot of those special kids out there too. (In fact, I’ll bet that many of the WCC kids would thrive in larger and less sheltered settings because of their previous strong formation). In addition to promoting these little schools, we should also be creating and improving middle and high schools that would better prepare students to deal with the real world.
I’ve not learned how to cite others’ comments, but I think the remarks about “lots of money” and “sheltered environment” are off the mark. What the higher (than tax-sponsored schools) tuition really means is that the parents and students at WCC (and similar schools) are paying a fuller share of the cost of the college education. An education at a public college is no less costly in resources, it’s just that the student (and his/her parents) get to have the tuition partially paid by non-voluntary contributions from their neighbors. WCC, like most other public and private schools, offers various means of financial assistance.
As for a sheltered environment, is it really sheltered or is it just ardently Catholic? Isn’t that the environment that we’re all hoping the world would be? Many today want nothing to do with a truly Catholic life, believing it to be boring and restrictive of personal freedom. The actual ‘restricters’ of true personal freedom are the professors and administrators trying to lead our children into the slavery of sin. What I don’t understand is why I should financially support such professors when the rest of the world offers/promotes all these evil temptations for free already.
Interesting comments.
As a class of ’93 TAC grad, I have to disagree with ndmom about a “self-selected” group….
I’d seen 3 of my siblings go off to a Catholic college and lose their faith (the fourth – younger than me – did too…) – in part, because we were brought up in a terrible parish during the 70’s-80’s awful catechesis, so in spite of the fact that they were in TEC and Campus Youth Ministry and Bible Studies in high school, their not-so-impressive or faithful Catholic college proved to be a death knell for their Faith.
I told my parents I didn’t want to go to college. My father made a last ditch effort and took me to a “college night” at my awful “Catholic” high school – not in any way a feeder school for anything devout or genuinely Catholic. (Incense pots, liturgical dancers, “Our Parent” not “Father”, etc…) Just so happened that a TAC rep was at the college night. I found out later that it was the first time their rep had ever attended a college night. I went to their table because they actually had books on it. I was intrigued. It said in their materials that there was such a thing as Truth and that it was knowable. I had NEVER heard that before. I did not know truth could be real. I told my Dad – I want to go to college now! This one is it! I was buzzed by the proposed curriculum. My Dad said said “Where is Ojai????” and followed it up with “Are the credits transferrable????”
I only applied there and was accepted – and 4 years later, when I graduated, my initially skeptical Father said “You received the best education. I wish I had known about this before and that all your siblings had gone here….” I married the man I met there 6 days after I graduated and we have 6 kids now. 3 of my 41 classmates became Priests – one is now the Superior General of the FSSP. If you want to see what else our alumni are doing, just go here: http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/meet-our-alumni
I really hope they get off the ground and grow exponentially! I thought about TAC as an option before settling on a different, also very small, liberal arts college. And now it’s all fun, all the time in grad school.
Was anyone else thinking of the Lord of the Rings while watching this? The dramatic scenery, horseback riding, and sweeping orchestral soundtrack really helped conjure that image to my mind. I think I saw Gimli sitting behind one of the riders…
Thank you DavidinWA and avecrux.
You have expressed so much better than I could exactly what I was thinking. I have often heard those specious comments about “sheltered environment”, etc. I always scratch my head and think – “You just don’t get it.”
And, avecrux, it sounds like you grew up in my parish/diocese. I also understand having siblings who were led astray at nominal catholic colleges Thank God for TAC!
This whole subject is of intense interest to me. I sometimes get too passionate about this and end up offending someone. I am just so thankful for the rise of authentic Catholic colleges.
I’m glad that was helpful, Peco.
One of the things I found from studying at TAC was that I was subsequently able to understand Pope Benedict when he spoke of a “hermeneutic of continuity” or “faith”. To approach Revelation in this way takes humility. Some academics today exhibit pride through their “hermeneutic of rupture” or “skepticism”. They think they are smarter than the Church and use their podium – literally – as a bully pulpit. Young students are treated as naive, unsophisticated and non-scholarly for having Faith – and they do not have the tools to combat the intellectual “sophistication” of their professors. Meanwhile, amongst their peers or dorm-mates, they are considered Polyannaish for having morals. There are exceptions at any college, of course – but it is not coincidental that the college years remain the #1 time where Catholics cease practicing…
irishgirl, maybe you’d find it refreshing to visit one of these schools. I can’t speak for WCC, but TAC welcomes visitors for any reason. Who knows, maybe you’d find yourself tempted to enroll. When I was at TAC there were always a few students who were outside the conventional “18-22 year old” box. I often wish in some ways that I had grown up first and /then/ gone to TAC — I would have taken a lot more advantage of the spiritual and intellectual opportunities the school offered if I hadn’t been distracted by the usual things that distract kids in college (even at those small Catholic schools!).
ndmom, St. Benedict and his monks were “an extremely self-selected (and tiny) group” yet they managed to save Western civilization after the collapse of the Roman Empire and the invasion of the barbarians. In fact, the Apostles were “an extremely self-selected (and tiny) group” and …..
I look upon good education like good farming. If you keep planting seed in depleted soils, you are going to get produce without much nutritional value. If your plants don’t have adequate sunshine and water and protection from harsh weather, you are going to get stunted growth, even crop failure. On the other hand, if you plant seeds in rich soils, protect your plants until they are hardened off, then your harvest will be great. These colleges follow the small, organic model of farming, not the agri-business model.
Katherine,
I agree with the farming analogy. The difference is that our kids were ready to leave the greenhouse at age 18, after being protected and sheltered by their parents and formed by some great secondary schools. So far, they have thrived amongst the barbarians at a Catholic university. It’s great that WCC exists for those who prefer that approach, but it’s a mistake to suggest that these kind of schools are essential for the future of Catholicism.
I think the Holy Father did indicate that these schools are essential for the future of Catholicism when he wrote Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
Ben Dunlap-I’m ‘too old’ for college (57), and I’m not ‘student material’ for any school, much less a place like TAC or WCC. Too ‘intellectual’ for me-I’d feel out of place with all the ‘young’uns’.
I hated school as a child and as an adolescent, and when I graduated from the local business school in 1973 (I went there to get my mother off my back), I vowed that I would never set foot inside a classroom EVER again!
And besides, I’m too ‘poor’ to even attempt to travel cross-country for a visit. These places always seem to be located away from the Northeast, anyway. My part of the country is too liberal-minded to support, much less allow the building of, a true Catholic college.
Irish Girl, I’d like to respond to your statements about WCC. I have two boys who are juniors and a daughter who will be a freshman next year.
Irish girl said- “And you got to be really smart, have a lot of money for tuition and a ‘leader wanna-be’ to go to there–no ‘dummies’, low-income kids or quiet, retired types are welcome….”
1. The truth is you do not have to be “really smart”. One of my children scored quite low on the SAT. He was accepted based on his grades, his extra-curricular activities, and his entrance essay. He works very hard and maintains passing grades.
2. Our income, most of our 25 years of marriage has been below American Poverty level. We personally feel what the government in America considers poverty is a joke. Most years we qualify for food stamps, although we don’t apply for them as know we can continue to feed our children just fine without government assistance. We also find a way to pay for a small part of our children’s WCC tuition each year. WCC has need based scholarships available. There would be no way for our children to attend without these scholarships. I also happen to know one girl who is attending there who has definitely been living at what I’d call a “real” poverty level for years. WCC is her chance to make it out of that poverty.
3. All of my children are quiet and retiring. It’s interesting to note that one of the other more studious students at WCC requested to be moved into my son’s dorm as it has the reputation for being the quietist. So there must be other students who are quiet types there too.
Irish girl said-“And I’m surprised that there are no ‘diversity’ proponents yelling and screaming, ‘This is an all-white school! No black or Hispanics to be seen! What, no ‘quotas’?”
4. Yes the college is currently predominantly white; however there are Asian, Hispanic, and other minorities attending there. The school does not discriminate based on race or religion.
Irish girl said-“How can a small school like this really change our world for the better? It’s small, and way out in the ‘boonies’.”
5. Currently two of the graduates are working as missionaries in Africa. I know of at least three students there thinking of the priesthood. One of the non-Catholic staff members just came into the Church. A student claiming to be an atheist came into the Church the end of his freshman year. This college and these students are changing the world one person at a time. They aren’t only changing the world; they are helping to change eternal destinies.
And I am sure glad it is out in the boonies as we have finally able to get at least a few of our children out of the ghetto. I hope to send the rest of my children to WCC after they graduate high school. Hopefully their education at WCC will keep them from ever having to live again in the neighborhood environment they have grown up in. I’m afraid we may have freaked out a few of the WCC students who were visiting during Spring Break last year when there was a drug bust in the house behind us and the police asked permission to put a K9 unit in our backyard. (Did someone make a comment about sheltered children?)
The graduating class of 2003 at TAC included a gentleman in his sixties who, if memory serves, already had an engineering degree from his younger days. I think he found the standard young-un shenanigans on campus occasionally tiresome, of course…
One thing that’s particularly striking about these little schools — and which, I think, is part of the reason that older students can thrive there — is that they tend not to “do school” the conventional way. At TAC, for example, it’s all small classes, structured as discussions of original works — no textbooks or lectures, for the most part. I’m not sure that any of the other schools are quite so radical about curriculum but I think there are at least similar elements at all of them. I hated my first 13 years of school as well, for the most part, but would do TAC over again in a heartbeat. Not to say that I wasn’t ready to be done when graduation came around.
Oh, and as far as I can tell from the Newman Guide’s list, the geographic distribution of faithful Catholic colleges seems pretty even.
ndmom, the principal conviction of many of these newer tiny Catholic colleges is that something has been going quite askew in mainstream education for a long time — at least a hundred years — and that Catholic higher education in the US has not been an exception. This is a question of academics first of all.
The rest of it, which is more apparent from a distance — the strict rules about student life, the rich liturgical life, the remote campuses, etc. — that’s all secondary, although usually related.
For those who share the basic educational vision of these schools’ founders, there is really no comparison between one of these schools and a mainstream college or university, because there are few, if any, fundamental principles in common.
I’ll grant that some people go to these small colleges mainly for the secondary reasons, but that’s not why the colleges exist and that’s not what genuinely makes them special.
Ben, I think you are right that these schools have little in common with mainstream universities. And, for that reason, they will remain “niche” schools that can serve only a tiny fraction of the several hundred thousand Catholic students who enroll in college each year. It is a huge mistake — and betrays a lack of hope — to write off as lost the vast majority of the Catholic students who do attend mainstream schools. It would be wonderful if some of the graduates of WCC and TAC decided to create new, authentically Catholic (but NOT diocesan) Catholic middle and high schools offering a similar curriculum. Such schools would produce well-formed students who could hold their own at any “mainstream” university and extend the new evangelization.
food for thought: my siblings graduated from Franciscan and Ave Maria (college and school of law)- I just wasn’t interested in the loans- so I went to a secular state university for Bachelor’s and Master’s and I stayed Catholic.
How? I lived at home and had family obligations. I cantored the 7:30 Mass (!) and stayed for the 9:00 with my family. I was involved in a decent Newman Club. I did some service/volunteer stuff. So, for parents and students with little money or desire to do great books like TAC, there is hope.
Ndmom, there ARE “authentically Catholic (but NOT diocesan) Catholic middle and high schools offering a similar curriculum” in which graduates of these small schools are invovled. As Mr. Schmitt mentioned above, there is the The Trivium in MA and the Lyceum in OH (headmaster, a TAC grad). There is St. Augustine Academy in Ventura, CA (headmaster, a TAC grad) and St. Monica’s in Pasadena, CA (TAC headmaster). If you go to napcis.org (National Association of Catholic Independent Schools) you’ll find many more. Enrollments are small – because the problem most of these schools face is convincing parents that a good Catholic education is more important that playing football or attending the prom at the BIG Catholic high schools.
No one is writing off as lost the vast majority of the Catholic students who do attend mainstream schools – the statistics are that most Catholics who attending mainstream colleges DO loose their faith and stop practicing in their college years. So there is a risk. And I (who have children at TAC and WCC) would rather not take that risk. I have heard too many complaints from students who have attended secular and mainstream Catholic colleges about how distracting the degraded and infantile moral and social life was to their studies (dorm arrangments are itself a nightmare). It almost requires heroic virtue (or a martyr’s spirit) to get make it through unscathed.
“Enrollments are small – because the problem most of these schools face is convincing parents that a good Catholic education is more important that playing football or attending the prom at the BIG Catholic high schools.”
You can say that again. My son attends a very small ecumenical (but mostly Catholic) Christian secondary school. There are only 11 boys in his class — the school is coed but most classes are single-sex — because it is an uphill battle recruiting students. Their parents have exactly the concerns you mention, plus the tuition is higher than the diocesan schools because there is no subsidy. And it IS a sacrifice for many students, especially serious musicians or boys who do not play soccer or basketball, to give up the extracurriculars that can make for a great high school experience. It is terrific that these sorts of secondary schools are popping up all over, and simply unfortunate that so few parents appreciate what they can offer. But, IMO, that is related to the fundamental reason that so many Catholic students “lose” their faith at college — they never had much faith to begin with. It has been my experience that students whose parents lived the faith and made heroic efforts to form their children well have thrived in all sorts of college settings — Christendom, Notre Dame, William and Mary, U of Chicago, UNC, Princeton, UVa. And keep in mind that our children have free will, and some of them seem to NEED to rebel against the faith before returning to embrace it, no matter where they went to school.
NDmom, I don’t think you can assume that Catholic students who lose their faith “never had much faith to begin with” (or conversely that kids of weak faith “need” to attend strongly Catholic colleges). There are really so many factors that can be at play, some of it being temperment. I’ve know families who have sent their children to public high school with the idea that their kids should be a light in the darkness or learn how to fight for their faith. It had different results even within the same strongly Catholic family. Some kids are naturally tough, choleric and don’t mind the battle. Others, more sensitive hated fighting and developed negative associations with their faith. Others, sanguine and social, were more easily influenced by peer pressure. Temperment matters, environment matters – as well as upbringing. After parents, I’d say peers and the character of the culture are the two biggest natural influences on children. And at the young adult stage, peers are usually more influential that parents; which is why it’s important to give them a chance to make great Catholic friends.
I have no doubt that it is possible for Catholic kids to keep the Faith in a whole host of different institutions if necessary. And “necessary” can come about in a lot of different ways… I don’t think any student is being “written off” at all – certainly not by me or by anyone whose comments I have read. I wouldn’t maintain that a “Great Books” program is for everyone by any means.
I do find it really troubling, however, when we parents pay a lot of money (or go into a lot of debt) for an “education” at a college where our kids can go “hold their own” for 4 years (or more). Sometimes it is the way it has to be, granted – but if we admit that it most often means a schooling in relativism – and the best a student can do is pretty much research on their own to try to combat their professor – I think it should be avoided if possible.
There are really, really valuable things to learn during college! Things that students simply cannot address during their high school years, and classes that are worth paying for because pearls of wisdom are being offered and the intellect is being formed in a way that is of inestimable value. When I did my grad degree, some of my classes were worth paying for, but some were just awful and totally unworthy of the price tag. (Seriously – paying over six hundred dollars per unit and sitting in a room with grad students watching “The Last Samurai” for 3 classes?) Don’t we want to be taught by people who know more than us and are wise? There are many different faithful Catholic colleges springing up now that offer a variety of majors, and it seems only fair that we should support Catholic schools that have something worthwhile to teach rather than schools that get away with students being educated by defense.
I do believe these small, faithful schools are essential because there will be significant gaps in the knowledge of students who have to rely on their high school education or basically educate themselves in some topics in order to refute their relativist professors.
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Katherine,
I’m wondering what happens to the young people you describe — the sensitive or social ones who were easily influenced by peers — when they leave college and find themselves in the world. How do they maintain their apparently fragile faith when they are surrounded by colleagues, roommates, and neighbors who not only don’t share that faith but may mock it?
I think you are right that peers are important, but, again, my experience has been that kids who WANT to find solid Catholic friends in college will be able to do so at any number of schools. Most of the solid, orthodox priests we know are products of the sorts of universities that many posters here would apparently not risk sending their children to.
An_AmericanMother: The video was shown to the whole WCC student body and faculty the day it came out and it made US want to go to school there!
BTW, those horses that you admired are 2 of the Arabs used in the freshman Riding program (but not restricted to freshmen, fortunately!).
Peco: You speak truly about the alumni. At least half of the first graduating class are now living and working in Lander. Some loved the town so much that they came back, others just want to be near the school, and some have gone to Africa as missionaries, the list goes on.
As for the diversity, there are so many different ways that that can be said about the students at WCC that it would be really hard to talk about.
I agree, “really smart” “have a lot of money” and “leader wanna-be” are definitely not typical titles applied to the students–even among themselves.
As for money, about half of the students are on workstudy, earning part of their tuition on a weekly, even daily, basis.
DavidinWA: Many people do consider WY to be out in the “boonies” and a “sheltered” place. However, the students consider themselves more in an intensely Catholic atmosphere–so much so that it is like a kind of truly orthodox Catholic hothouse–WCC is so Catholic that you can’t help but catch it and pass it on. In that respect alone, it is worth living hundreds of miles away from malls and big arcades and huge movie theaters and Macys and everything else that modern America considers “civilization.”