The Lion and Ox did not make a mention in this recent article put out by the folks at CNN.

I think it is a pretty good report generally. It is about as good a description as one could expect from a secular standpoint. Especially since the article embraces both evangelical Protestants, Catholic and public charter school varieties of the classical school.

For example,

“Classical schools are less concerned about whether students can handle iPads than if they grasp Plato. They generally aim to cultivate wisdom and virtue through teaching students Latin, exposing them to great books of Western civilization and focusing on appreciation of “truth, goodness and beauty.”

and I thought this was pretty good as well

“Classical schools are committed – to some degree – to the importance of the classical languages,” said Brad Green, co-founder of Augustine School. “Students will take several years of Latin and possibly some Greek as these are the languages of Western Christendom.”

Overall the article portrays classical education in a positive light – good test scores- college acceptances.

The only thing that irked me was this passage,

“Four years ago in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., officials were looking for ways to save St. Jerome, a failing school for students pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.  St. Jerome had to come up with a solution or be one of hundreds of parochial schools across the nation to be closed. Thus, a group of parents, parishioners, scholars and homeschoolers came up with the country’s first-ever Catholic version of the classical curriculum.”

Hello?….Helloooooo?? Salveeeeeeeh???….Hellooooooo????

The Lyceum Founded in 2003

The Lyceum was founded in 2003! (not to mention Trivium School which was founded in 1979!!!)

And over the years I have seen dozens of “future classical school founders” who have since founded schools of their own in various places like …just to name a few….New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arizona, Texas, New Hampshire, Maine, Michigan, Oklahoma and even ….Argentina!

So pleeeeeze… don’t tell me that “four years ago” some group in Washington, D.C. came up with the country’s first ever Catholic version of the classical curriculum.”

That is just not right.

The article should have read,

“It was the year nineteen hundred and seventy-eight when two Catholic visionary educators and their wives met in the sleepy town of Lancaster Massachusetts. In that unlikely place, thirty-five years ago Catholic classical secondary education was revived! …or perhaps even birthed for the first time in this country!”

Not that I care or anything… really doesn’t matter… doesn’t bother me much!

For all I know there might have been another Catholic classical curriculum in this country before 1978. I don’t know of one.

We at the Li0n and Ox, despite our assertion that history is not a science and that it holds a secondary place in a liberal education, do at least have enough respect for the subject to make some effort at correcting the historical record wherever possible!