A few days ago, I wrote a short post entitled “How We Can build a New Culture and a New Civilization.” 

The post received positive feedback and I felt compelled to write a follow up to it. I hope that our non-American readers will allow me to briefly address our political situation before returning to a more universal principle – the need for formation in Higher Education.

The current political situation in America has caused alarm for many. We Americans live in a democratic republic and many of us have discovered that we are now in the political minority. The majority favors contraception, abortion, Planned Parenthood, non-traditional marriage, no-fault divorce, homosexuality, pre-marital relations, and the list goes on. We cannot change the culture through well-meaning bumper stickers and giving money to the Republican Party. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, was never our golden ticket out of this mess. Now everybody realizes the futility of that approach. We must be more radical than that. This has been true all along, but now good people are realizing how our political situation has been lost for some time. God has graced us with a vision of how bad it really is.

What do we do about? I made some suggestions here. However, I’d like to offer some more ideas regarding education and share the means by which I’m prayerfully trying to rebuild a civilization from the ashes.

My current strategy for a renewal and revival is to invest my life in traditional Catholic education from the point of view of formation. This year, I’ve been working with the excellent team at Fisher More College in Fort Worth to recreate a traditional curriculum and campus for “the next generation.” Let’s face it, Notre Dame and Georgetown are lost.

Our President at Fisher More College, Michael King, has convincingly demonstrated that we cannot fix the problem by “building a better mousetrap.” Mr. King has insisted that starting over with the “orthodox  version of Notre Dame” is not the way to go. We need to rethink Catholic colleges and higher education altogether. That’s the new project at Fisher More College. It is an accredited four-year Catholic college with the assumption that College is primarily for human formation and not primarily for learning business skills. Although marketable skills is also something we value, it is not the greatest need for College students. Catholic education is only a part of Catholic formation. By not emphasizing formation, we believe, Catholic education has failed in America over the last 40 years.

Here’s the big surprise – your liberal Private Universities and your State Universities have been operating on this formation premise for sometime now. They also believe in human formation – they just don’t believe that humans should be formed to be faithful Catholics!

It’s true. Secular colleges are not concerned with education as much as they are with formation. They are forming young people to believe and behave in a certain way. They are, for the most part, forming 18 to 22 year-olds to be sexually promiscuous, mildly socialistic, slightly to the left, and religiously uninterested. Since 1955 or so, this has been the climate on the American College campus.

You see, formation is precisely what 18-22 year old humans need. Colleges will provided it, whether they claim it or not. But how will they provide it?

At Fisher More College, we are taking formation seriously. The curriculum is systematic. It begins with Logic. If you cannot think rightly, how can you succeed. Every freshman must study Latin. It’s the basis of our Western Civilization. If you remove Latin from the youth, you cut them off literally from the roots of our Western culture. Every Freshman studies traditional Aristotelian Rhetoric. You must think rightly with Logic, but you must be persuasive when you write and speak. That’s why they study Rhetoric.

The 4 year curriculum is heavy on Philosophy and Theology, and Saint Thomas Aquinas holds the privileged place for each class. We believe that the new faithful of the next generation need to know how to pray, do penance, speak clearly, write clearly, and persuade a emerging culture of neo-paganism.

We have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every day (Extraordinary Form – Latin). It’s the most important “class” on campus. For Fisher More College, the Holy Mass is the true school of sanctity and virtue. Rosary daily. Latin prayers daily. Every class begins and ends with prayer in Latin.

Now we are not big. We don’t have a football team. We have a very small student body. By the world’s standards, we are not impressive. In fact, by the world’s standards, our curriculum is backward and primitive. Please take a look at our Core Curriculum.

Yet we need to rebuild a nation and a culture. Consider this one simple fact. For the first time in over 1,000 years, it’s considered normal that Logic is not included in academic formation. Think of it. Logic is not the basis of college study. What then is the basis of the new Western educational system? That’s the problem, right there. 

The Western university system is no longer rooted in Faith (religion) and Truth (right thinking). Our leaders and our electorate now represent this reality. The human formation of American higher education provides the mold for our electorate. We should not be surprised with the results.

What do we do about? We focus again on formation and we become intentional about it. Formation is not simply for college kids. It’s for all of us.

Catholic formation has to do with how you oversee your home, your workplace, your family, and your neighborhood. Do you watch TV? If so, what and why? Have you discussed a television, media, and movie policy with your spouse? Where do you children attend school? How is it forming them? What church do you attend? Why? Is the liturgy forming you to revere God and be grateful for his benefits? Do you allow your children to see and participate in liturgical abuse. How does it affect you and your children? How does your family pray together? What prayers do you use? Rosary? What is the art on your walls? What are the books that you read? What about music? What are your family values?

The political situation reveals that we have to be more radical. We have to go down to the roots. We need to rethink everything. We need to ask our Lord Jesus Christ, “My Lord Jesus, meek and humble of heart, how can I allow Thee to reign more freely over my heart and over my family? Show me, dear Savior.”

Long live Christ the King,
Taylor Marshall

PS: If your interested in Fisher More, here’s what we need:

PPS: If you never studied Logic, read Peter Kreeft’s Socratic Logic. It’s fun and a perfect little crash course.