REGINA: Was it difficult to attract students?
DA: We figured we must be doing something right when everything was going wrong. It helped to be blissfully unaware of the fact that we were walking on water. It’s only when we took our eyes off Christ that we were threatened with sinking. We were blessed to have parents who were willing to be pioneers in the first years. We were never afraid to be small. We found creative ways to save money. We found lots of ways to laugh. The right people kept finding us. We grew slowly and steadily. We had no marketing budget in those early days, but we got some good publicity.
REGINA: How is a Chesterton school fundamentally different from a regular American Catholic school?
DA: Three things set us apart. No, four. Daily Mass, a truly integrated curriculum, four years of philosophy, and an excellent arts program, where all the students learn to sing, act, and paint.
REGINA: Let’s talk about classical education. To quote Chesterton: "Every high civilisation decays by forgetting obvious things." These days education tends to be defined in rather instrumental ways as a means of preparing the youth for the workforce.
Such an approach tends to be quite ideological as well and schools support a worldview that is radically different from the one of our ancestors. Can you tell us how the classical approach, in its philosophy and its methods, differs from the mainstream and what its aims are. How do you answer critics who call this model outdated and out of touch with reality?
DA: It is the modern schools that have lost touch with reality. They have become totally electronic. The students don’t know the reality of the book anymore, much less the reality of creation, and the greatest reality of all: the Eucharist.
REGINA: Hmmm..
DA: As for the Classical approach, the goal is to get students to think for themselves, precisely the opposite of the small narrow worldview that is forced on them in public schools.
REGINA: How so?
DA: Our students have a complete education when they graduate and are often ready to pursue a trade immediately. Some go one to pursue specialized interests in college, but their general education is already in place.
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