integralism in education

Irish Jesuit Province

Integralism in EducationAuthor(s): Thomas CallaghanSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 67, No. 790 (Apr., 1939), pp. 237-241Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20514517 .

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237

Integralism in Education

By THOMAS CALLAGHAN.

pIt)OIMINENT educationalists have in recent years frequently signalised the need for integralism in education.' It may, therefore, be of some interest to indicate in outline the

theory of liberal education set forth by Augustine, whose unique position in the history of Christian thought as wvell as his prac tical experience as a teacher lend weight to his views on this

matter. It may further be not altogether not unprofitable to endeavour to apply general principles inhering in his doctrine to modern curricula.

The seven liberal arts (grammar, logie, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music) are, according to Augustine, the creation of Reason. It was she who first of all led men to give things names, by which one might hold communication with his fellows. Words were then resolved into sounds, compound and simple, and these represented by letters, so that communication

may be held with the absent. Number followed to introduce order into the multitude of things and ideas. These three-read

ing, writing, counting-are the domain of grammar, which also includes along with them historv and mythology as they are com

mitted to writing. Having evolved and ordered grammar, Reason next proceeded to the discovery of logic, which teaches how to learn, how to teach. Men being, hovever, slow to learn, she found necessary also the invention of rhetoric " fuill of sweets

which she scatters to the crowd, that it may deign to be led uinto that which is for its good ". Thus wvas completed the first stage

i Cf. W. Muench of Munich, 1904.



238 THE IRISH MONTHLY

in the traditional system of education in Europe, and which, as

it wfas composed of three subjects, came to be called the "

Trivium ". It is a logical unit complete in itself, and in refer ence to the pupil it satisfies by means of its reasoned sequence.

No fault can be found in a system which first of all teaches the essential elements of all learning, reading, wvriting and counting, follows these under the heading of logic, by the necessary rudi

ments of thinking, completing the whole by training in the exposition of thought, rhetoric.

Thence without further delay, Reason wished to betake herself

to contemplation, and to behold that Beauty which she can her

self see without intermediatory of mortal eyes. Being, however, held back by the senses, she turned her attention to them, and

first of all to that of hearing. Here she noticed that sounds, if they are to please, must be arranged according to a fixed plan as regards tone and time. Thus was born the art of poetry, which has to do with sound and number and hence is handed over to

grammarians. Finally, in this the fourth step in her ascent, she noted that everything, whether song, music or dance, was ordered by number, which she recognised to be eternal. Turning thence to the sense of sight, she noticed that it is beauty in the

world which attracts her, in beauty form, in form proportion,

and in proportion number. Thus was discovered the art of geometry with regard to the earth, and, with regard to the heavens, astronomy. These four sciences form the second stage in the ascent of Reason to the contemplation of the eternal, and in the progress of the scholar towards the end proposed to him, a pleasing parallel. They form also, along with the preliminary arts, a complete unity. But the ancients, and with them

Augustine, not satisfied with the measure of unity already attained, proceeded yet further. Having shewn that the twNro sides to a liberal education are united by the dependence of litera



INTEGRALISM IN EDUCATION 239

ture, the aim of the one, on number the object of the other, which rules not only poetry but also rhetoric,2 he now proceeds to cement together the whole structure by means of a further

science, the science of sciences, Philosophy. This is nothing more than the knowledge of the One. It has two branches, one

of which treats of the soul, the other of God, " one, to know

ourselves, the other, to know our Maker; one renders us worthy of happiness, the other makes us happy ".

With regard to man, the impression of unity imposed on the scholar's mind by his previous training is further underlined by observation of the very working of Reason itself, which proceeds by means of analysis and synthesis. Of these the latter is con

cerned to add that which may complete unity, the former with rejecting what is unessential to it. A further consideration of the nature of creation, mineral, vegetable and animal, and of the various social relationships, shows that all things depend on unity for their existence and perfection.

Turning from the work of Reason to Reason itself, man finds that it is a power of a being of truer unity than any of the objects

which it has considered without itself, that this being possesses two spiritual faculties, will and intellect, the object of the latter being truth, and that Truth is God Himself, Eternal, Immutable, Necessary, " the One Beginning, Who, through Him Who is his Equal in the same nature, by the richness of his Goodness,

throuigh Which the One and One from One proceeding are joined in the greatest Love, has made all things so ever " (de Musica vi,

56). Thus does the classical curriculum reach its term in the contemplation of Absoluite Being, Absolute Unity (because to exist is to be one . . . de mor. manich.) from whom everything, which in any way is one, receives its oneness.

Fuirther, in those days not only the student's studies but aIlso

2 Cf. Cursus. L. Laurand. Louvain, 1914.



240 THE IRISH MONTHL Y

the world he lived in bore the impress of unity (in theory at any rate). The Roman Empire, as a whole, while owning fealty to

Casar in temporal affairs, acknowledged the supremacy of Peter in spiritual matters. The citizen of these twin cities believed in the Ptolemaic universe, in which, corresponding to the elements learnt at the primarv school, were the fotur elements of earth, water, air and fire, through which was ascent to the seven

planets, as to the liberal arts through primary studies, thence on to the three heavens, stellar, crystalline, empirean, as in Philo sophy through Physic and Metaphvsic, Ethic, to Theologyv. Tro-day the student lives in a very different wvorld. The catas trophic collapse of the Ptolemaic system, the disruption of

Christendom, the failure of the Holy Roman Empire under the influence of nationalism, the destruction of the spacious mental

habitations of the Middle Ages, stand between him and the old order.

Does there still remain in the school curriculum, despite its divergence from that of antiquity, both in matter and in the order in which matter is taken, sufficient resemblance to allow of the integralism of St. Augustine (and of St. Thomas) being applied to it? At first sight this would appear very doubtful. The contrast could scarcely be greater; on the one hand, one subject, Latin (with later subsidiary Greek), with a set order of treatment, on the other many subjects, languages, mathemiatics, physics and chemistry, history and geography, to which may be added music and drawing.

If, however, the ancient division of subjects into language and mathematical studies is adopted it will be found that it can be applied to modemn curricula. LanguLages, history and geography form the literary group, while on the mathematical side are science, music and drawing, as well as mathematics proper. The educational value of the former is in their literature, poetry and



INTEGRALISM IN EDUC"ATION 241

great prose, the masterpieces of which depend not only for their existence but also for their perfection on the principle of unity. From these then could be indicated, according to the mind of Augustine, the fact that all things bear the stamp of unity. In history and science is sought the truth, fromn which occasion might be taken to point out that nothing but what is true satisfies the intellect. In music we have an art which depends on number, as is indicated by the utilitv of the metronome and in many other

ways besides. In drawing (where it is reasonable to prefer design to freehand for school work) we meet with the principles of

measurement and division, and in painting with colour which. like pitch in music, depends on number. In mathematics we

treat of what is bv nature constant and eternal. In all we find an image of that Truth which alone is One and eternally Itself.

The principles inherent in the teaching of Augustine are, therefore, sufficiently permanent to admit of their being applied to present-day needs. Do they not spring from a sentiment

which is eternal in human nature and which Linnaeus from the cold North shares with him who, long ago in troubled Palestine, struck with the beauty of this passing xvorld, exclaimed:

Qiui haec pulchra fecit, ipse pulchrior " ?

BOOKS.

Augustine, de Ordine, II. Eyre, History of European Civilisation. Gilson, Introduction a l'etude de St. Augustine. Svoboda, L'esthtetique de St. Augustine et ses Sources.

Verkade, 0. S. B., In Quest of Beauty.



integralism in education

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