Beauty and Truth in Education and Evangelization The Stay-at-Homeschooling Mom Podcast

How important is cultivating beauty in your homeschool? Ginny and Mary Ellen speak with Joseph Pearce about the true, the good, and the beautiful and how it affects our homeschool, worship, and very selves. 

There are few as qualified as Joseph to speak on the topic. He is a man of many hats, including bestselling author, EWTN host, and Director of Book Publishing at the Augustine Institute. His website www.jpearce.co is replete with his work and thoughts and emphasizes the subject of today’s podcast. He is also a homeschooling Dad.



Beauty and Truth in Education and Evangelization

Beauty is Key

Be careful - We separate goodness, truth, and beauty at our peril. 

Because - the three are inseparable, transcendental, and will lead us to God.  

Beauty is in the thing beheld, not in the eye of the beholder.

Culture has turned away from the good, the true, and the beautiful and now serves power. This path leads to despair. To distract ourselves from the despair, we turn to noise. 

Contrast that with the soul in love with Christ and in His grace who craves silence. 



Popular culture and the secular school system have turned away from Objective Truth and embraced Relativism. In this cult of Relativism:


There is no virtue.
Sin is banished from the vocabulary. 
Goodness, Truth, and Beauty are replaced by Viciousness, Lies, and Ugliness.

However, a significant and growing minority are on fire for the faith and know what they are on fire for. Homeschoolers – like the monks of the Middle Ages have the means to preserve the culture of the Good, True, and Beautiful.



Advice to Homeschoolers 

Finding (and Teaching) the Good, the True, and the Beautiful

Good - The key is to know that a good program:


Choose a good curriculum provider such as Seton Home Study School. 
The curriculum should study the Catechism.
Teaches Catholicism.
Focused on the learning of the good.

True – Truth is found through studying philosophy. Philosophy is simply using reason to understand truth, and its study will become more significant in high school. 

An example of an excellent high school Philosophy text, and the text instrumental in Joseph’s path to conversion, is Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine by Archbishop Michael Sheehan. 

Part 1 – Apologetics: Rational Proofs for the existence of God

Part 2 – Catholic Doctrine: How those rational proofs play out in the teachings of the Church.



True or False

Modern culture preaches two extremes. 

Materialism - there’s nothing but matter. 

Subjective Reality – all reality is in the mind. 

To counter these false notions, we must surround our children with the truth of God The world is charged with the grandeur of God as articulated by Gerard Manley Hopkins in his poem, “God’s Grandeur”.

This truth must be taught through reason and rational processes. 



Summary

The Good is an education in virtue.

The True is engagement with philosophy using wisdom to engage with the truth. 

Beauty needs space and silence. Unplug from gadgets and distractions.



Our takeaway:


The flexibility of homeschooling provides the opportunity to see, hear, and do beauty. We must make time and space to participate in creation. Use the talents God has given us.
Listen to music - make music by learning to play an instrument.
Read great literature - write great lit or at least work at it.
See great art, make art. Paint, bake, garden – use your talents.



Beauty speaks profoundly and, like prayer, evangelizes by lifting the heart and mind.



Links:

Please visit our sponsor: Benedictine College

Joseph Pearce’s website: www.jpearce.co

Referenced in this episode:

Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine by Archbishop Michael Sheehan

Gerard Manley Hopkins “God’s Grandeur”