Education conveys knowledge, it is true. Yet, we must be wary lest we come to think that knowledge is a commodity that we seek to gain and then employ for our purposes. That it is a means to get what we want. Education is, in this way of thinking, solely for employment.
In the classical western philosophical perspective, knowledge is valuable in itself because it is a culmination of the very end for which humans exist. As the Baltimore Catechism reminds us, God made us “to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.” God is to be known. God’s world is there to be known. We are for knowing, for relishing the truth. We are all made to be philosopher-scientists in whatever degree we are able.
But we do not exist for knowledge alone. We are also for love and service. Hence, no educational program is complete without an Education in Virtue. An education in the habits of choice, ordered to the good that we may be happy and cooperate in our approach to God.
At Saint Ann, virtue is not an isolated academic subject, nor something we touch upon as an aside in religion classes. Its study is not a discourse on mere academic achievement, tolerance for anything, and merely playing nice. Virtue is a part of the quest for God and happiness lived out day-to-day in the way of life of a community focused on following Christ. It is the corporate attempt to craft lives of beauty, honor, meaning, happiness, and true charity. The program we use is called “Disciple of Christ: Education in Virtue.” Read more about it here.
But, as the title indicates, mere virtue is not enough. For we cannot reach God with our own abilities. It is not that man is inherently evil, but that he is limited by his nature and fallen. As Genesis reminds us, man is good and made in the image of God, but he needs God to be fully himself. God reaches out to man through Christ and the Holy Spirit to provide grace, his very self, to mankind. The activity of virtue and perfecting grace is to make us one with God in charity.
At Saint Ann, we live in reliance on grace given through the sacraments of His Church, which we regularly receive. We live in reliance on grace given through prayer, the preaching of the Word, and the living Traditions of the Faith. The school is a short walk away from the parish church at Annunciation of the Lord.
At Saint Ann Catholic School, we seek an education complete, for we seek to know, to love, and to serve God in preparation to be with Him in eternity. This is the education for which we and our children were intended.