Fellowship of Catholic Scholars The Permanent Relevance of Education in the Word

Boethius Institute President Dr. Andrew Seeley was invited to give a talk at the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars The Permanent Relevance of Education in the Word. He will be featured as part of a panel discussion: Panel I: Teaching the Creatures Who Use Words with Amy Richards.

In A History of Education in Antiquity, his classic work on the original classical education, H.I. Marrou emphasizes “its surprising emphasis on the idea of speech – λόγος – its predominantly literary tone. The Word was regarded as the prime instrument of any culture and any civilization, the best means of ensuring contact and communication between men.” This education, which came to be known as the Trivium, was the dominant form of general education into the 19th century. The scientific spirit of the Enlightenment, as expressed by men such as Bacon, Descartes, and Lavoisier brought such education into contempt and eventually drove it out of our schools, replacing it with training in scientific jargon and symbolic expression. 

In his talk, Dr. Seeley will argue for the permanent relevance of the Trivium while indicating the role it is playing and can play in the current renewal of education that has adopted the name, “classical”.