Teaching Politics in a Catholic Homeschool: Why It Matters More Than Ever
Western Political Thought and Understanding Politics
It is crazy to realize that I have been studying and teaching politics for fifteen years now. In that time, I have had to make politics understandable and interesting for young people.
As Aristotle points out, we are political animals. Some may challenge this idea, saying they do not care about politics. However, history teaches us that this is a luxury afforded only to people during peaceful times. That can all change in the blink of an eye. When terrible things happen in the world, particularly to us and those dear to us, suddenly, everyone cares about the reality of politics. Unfortunately, by that point, it is unlikely that we will suddenly understand what is happening and how to see ourselves through it. This is important because during times of great turmoil, giving the appearance of virtue or vice often benefits the very few at the expense of the very many. Therefore, we need to see the world more clearly so that we, the people, can act as a check on a political system that can run amok.
Further, we need to make sense of things so that we can act appropriately in the world. From a political standpoint, my course, Western Political Thought, accomplishes this by having students commune with the great thinkers of the past in the pursuit of making sense of today.
Appearances Can Be Deceiving
There is an age-old question that has beset politicians for thousands of years: is it better to be good, or to appear good? Now, to our devoutly Roman Catholic sensibilities, the answer to this question is self-evident. However, when examining the history of Western political philosophy, the answer to this question is not as clear for some. For example, men who believed that appearing good was more politically expedient than actually being good killed the father of Western philosophy, Socrates. Our blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, was killed by the religious and political elites of his day, believing that doing so would be politically expedient and good. Even by the time we get to the 16th century, Niccolo Machiavelli argued it is better to appear good rather than to be good.
Machiavelli even developed rules for the use of political violence to achieve what he considered a good end for nation-states. Many consider Machiavelli the father of modern politics. Because of this, it is extremely important for young people to understand that there are those in the world who may seek to pull the wool over their eyes, particularly in our modern world.
Of course, as Catholics, we have the antidote to this. However, it is important to know and articulate in precise language how our nation’s politicians go astray. This is because those who seek to appear one way, while actually being another, are spinning a web of political lies. It will take a web of truth to destroy it, and it helps to speak the right political language to weave it well. In this way, we can hope for citizens and politicians who can understand the importance of being good rather than appearing good.
Nothing New Under the Sun
By studying the past, particularly the classical world, I have come to realize that our ancestors were not really all that different from us modern humans. This is a breath of fresh air. While our world is more technologically advanced today than it was 2,500 years ago, we have not become so advanced that we are not beset by the same fundamental questions that all humans seek answers for.
Some of these questions are: What is the meaning of life, and how can I live well in the world? When one reads the dialogues of Plato and many other works from the classical period, one sees many of the same problems as we do today, and how people tried to fix them. For example, during the Classical period, there were those who believed that something was good if it brought pleasure or limited pain. Oh, if life were only that simple!
Of course, to the Christian, we know this is simply not the case. In fact, we even say that suffering can be and often is redemptive. Therefore, modern Christians today find themselves at odds not only with a modern world that is losing its grip on reality, but also with thinkers from thousands of years ago. This is because there isn’t much new under the sun.
There are those who want to offer convenient solutions to complex problems. However, a wise man understands how complex the world is around him, knows he is inadequate to fix all the world’s problems with a simple solution, and seeks to know the good so that he may act according to its teachings. Yet, no man is an island unto himself. Therefore, he must commune with those great thinkers of the past and attempt to understand them from the standpoint of the Church. By doing this, he can make wise decisions and act honorably in today’s world.
I see this in my Western Political Thought course students. They emerge from the course with the world clearer to them. They know their political history and the awful cost it took to get here. Often, students approach me, thankfully, saying that the world finally makes some sense. Of course, it isn’t me they should be thanking. Students should thank Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and many others whom they encounter in this course. I simply introduce them.
Stewardship
We belong to a great tradition. It would be a shame not to understand it and pass it on to the next generation. Encountering the thought of classical thinkers and those who contributed to it leaves one with a couple of options. First, we could reject it. We could say that each generation is its own. Therefore, we don’t stand to gain anything from “backward” people who lived far in the past.
This is a grave error in my estimation, which brings me to the other option: to get to know it so that we may understand and love it. I believe this shows the proper relationship one ought to have with the world. That relationship being that this world is not our own. It belongs to those who came before us, our ancestors. They broke themselves to hand us something of great value, which is truth, beauty, and goodness in the Western world.
It also belongs to us today. The hope is that we will preserve and defend what we have been handed. We do this not only for our benefit, but for our posterity, or those who will come after we are long gone. We would indeed be shameful and unloving stewards of what we have received if we were to fail in our duty to hand on to the next generation the tools to defend themselves against the evil of political falsehood.
Homeschool Connections offers my course, Western Political Thought, which seeks to enkindle that flame in the next generation. Students learn about the political thought of figures such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and many others, who all contributed to the creation of modern nation-states. The hope is that they will love the world in which they live and the tradition to which they belong, so they will desire to become good stewards of it.
What are your thoughts on this topic? I invite you to join other homeschooling parents and me in the Homeschool Connections Community or our Facebook group.
