This century hosts one of the first generations—according to the late Arnold Toynbee—that does not deliberately teach morality and ethics to children in school. Caldecott’s book provides a past, present, and future view of the importance of educational foundations. In the process of examining what is relevant in an age when educational and relational flourishing are both welcome and essential, Caldecott opens the door for educators to consider thoughtfully the power and beauty of words as philosophical positions from which to seek truth.

Caldecott, a Catholic educator, divides his book into seven distinct sections. In his first section, he looks at the need for foundations as an act of mission and freedom for the growth of the heart. He then examines the child as person and the teacher as nurturer from the Catholic philosophical roots of the Trivium. This provides a segue into the next three sections of language termed remembering (grammar, mythos and imagining); dialectic (thinking, logos, and knowing the real) and speaking (rhetoric, ethos, community in the real). He enfolds all three into his last two chapters on wisdom and love.

Caldecott’s message centres on the belief that the greatest threat to our civilization is philosophical. Educators today no longer hold fast to classical education as a search for truth, beauty, and wisdom. This wisdom is what he draws on to explore a Catholic philosophy of education. He features this in a simple triangle (15):

From this diagrammatic trinity, Caldecott suggests a curriculum built around storytelling, music, exploration, painting, drawing, dance, drama, and sport.  Through religious education—the form and basic skills of word use—all of these components are intertwined within the goal of achieving a philosophical and moral education.

Rather than reiterate the content of Caldecott’s work (it is best to read it to discover that), I will focus on key aspects of interest to a Christian educator. After examining the work of John Dewey, expounding on the significance of play in fostering imagination, and linking play realistically to life, Caldecott postulates that if we cannot learn to attend and focus through play, it may be impossible to attend and focus in prayer. In this light, the key charge of the teacher is to teach children how to listen and focus so that attention to and in prayer can be lovingly nurtured.

In Caldecott’s view, a philosophy of education starts with the premise that the human person should be educated for relationship, attention, empathy, and imagination.

In our current technology-saturated culture, this is worthy of consideration. We ignore this foundation to our peril, as it is central to relationship with our fellow humans and with God. Christian educators are called to assist the culture in which we find ourselves as an act of social flourishing (Crouch, 2013; Smith, 2009). In a world that is increasingly individualistic, the need for awareness of the ‘other’ in relationship and how one can serve is essential for self-governance and transcendence.

Through words, humans create a sense of place in the world and are able to recount personal stories within it. Of significance in this act is the power of tradition; the story of living across time with a past, present, and future perspective. In order to conserve tradition, memory must be trained to both value and remember it. It is in this sense of intentionally being human, that we connect beauty and truth to life. Caldecott believes that in using memory and finding time to relate to the natural world, understanding can be formed about knowledge of what is true, good, and beautiful rather than acknowledging values that are abstract and at a distance. As G.K. Chesterton has stated, “thanking is the highest form of thought” because it penetrates truth and removes self-seeking to a higher purpose. In considering the dialectic and thought, Caldecott cautions that our ability to think thankfully and coherently cannot be taken for granted. We think to expose error, to see another’s point of view, and to act as though one is not the centre of the world.

Caldecott takes note of two educators, Charlotte Mason and John Holt, noting their attempts to give value to moral areas of learning. Morals and ethics are best communicated via the imagination –through stories, drama, music and emotion– touching us in ways that are embodied. In such an embodied philosophy, understanding the difference between good and evil is what makes people free. Caldecott summarizes these thoughts by saying “you cannot communicate a truth that has not changed you”. The person is the message.

In summary, there is much an educator can take from this small book. Of primary note is the awareness that the power of a philosophy that is verbalized and brought to the surface as a way to live life is what is currently known as a worldview (Greene).  Most educational systems are familiar with the word, as contested as it may be (Belcher and Parr). A worldview provides a spiritual, moral, and ethical lens through which we interact with others in the world as a way of being. Nurture of this philosophy/worldview also means continuing to give value to imagination, story, relationships, creation, and attention to the person, place, context, and culture in life. As a binary opposite to the real world, the virtual world clamours daily for our amusement over our attention in ways that may serve to decrease our imagination, minimize the value of our stories, alter our relational commitments to mere acquaintances, and fragment our areas of time and attention. Can we once again envision and then embody a philosophy of education as a search for truth, beauty, and wisdom? Who will be the next educator to do so? Perhaps these are the greatest questions left unspoken.

Works Cited

• Belcher, E. C., and D. G. Parr. “The Function of Narratives in Institutional Worldview Formation.” Journal of Christian Education (Australian Christian Forum on Education Inc.) 53.3 (2010): 7–17.
• Crouch, Andy. Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013.
• Greene, A. E. Reclaiming the Future of Christian Education: A Transforming Vision. Colorado Springs, CO: ACSI, 1998.
• Smith, James K. A. Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009.