Stuck in the 50s

The putting green is not only encountered at local golf courses, but inside the classroom of this Massachusetts school. An after-school club run by the school principal aims to teach the boys “traditional masculine roles” in order to build virtue. https://t.co/vgJnJ3zGX3 pic.twitter.com/TCqZ5QYzXQ

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) April 13, 2023

This Is Not Enough

Evangelization: If We Just Keep Them, We'll Lose Them
by @leodelo2 https://t.co/XUwpVM2yDA

— Church Life Journal (@ChurchLifeND) September 1, 2021

While initiating our young into prayer is vital, it isn't enough, and a church that doesn't respect sex differences deserves to wither away. What men need to provide a physical and moral and psychological foundation for their prayer life is integral masculine formation, not "education" that treats them like defective women who must acquire the virtue of "niceness."

Something to Introduce into Paideia

Educating children: this is the way. pic.twitter.com/05hJg9cNJ4

— Laocoon of Troy (@LaocoonofTroy) August 26, 2021

Massachusetts Republicanism

The four Massachusetts institutions that were "Principal Sources of that Wisdom in Council, and that skill and Bravery in War, which have produced the American Revolution"

1. Towns
2. Churches
3. Schools
4. Militia

John Adams to the Abbé de Mably (1783)https://t.co/p7ImiPpjql pic.twitter.com/4AUfmhOD3z

— Pavlos Papadopoulos (@pleonidasp) June 22, 2021

Proper Paideia for Males

A passage from Baron Von Freytag-Loringhoven's "Deductions from the World War" (1918).

A man who understands the moral dimension of leadership. pic.twitter.com/UtumYvRsUX

— QuintusCurtius (@QuintusCurtius) April 15, 2021

And the Elites Don't Want This

We No Longer Make Boys Into Men (essay by Anthony Esolen) https://t.co/Vuvim2tbbg

— ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) March 28, 2021

East Asian-American Issues

“They’ve given up their youth to become adults before they’re adults,”

“Try Harder”, a phrase I hear my entire life from my family. Hated it, but I find myself saying it to my kids sometimes even if I‘ve promised myself not EVER say that to them. https://t.co/Bn599PejjS

— Wu Fei 吴非 (@wufei) January 30, 2021

A "Transmission Crisis"

Stephen Bullivant on Vatican II

By @CCamosy today on @Crux, Author says New Evangelization must tackle ‘transmission crisis’ https://t.co/xHVwOccpm2

— Crux (@Crux) December 21, 2020

Bullivant attemtps a nuanced view of Vatican II. But he is hampered in his analysis by his adherence to Latin ecclesiology and beliefs concerning primacy. Is mass culture a cause of the "transmission crisis"? Yes. But mass culture is insufficient to explain the fundamental weakness of the institutional churches (Latin and otherwise). Bullivant needs to dig deeper, as he apparently has not seen the studies showing that it is the father who has the most influence in the religious upbringing of his children. Either that, or he is unwilling to affirm the importance of patriarchy and believes he must appear to be egalitarian:

Religious practice in the home and as a family (including bothparents). This is the single biggest predictor of whether a child ends up as religious practicing adult, and there’s a whole social-scientific literature (which I discuss in Mass Exodus) around why. Basically, anything that you do becauseof what you believe, that you wouldn’t do if you didn’t believe, helps to inculcate the importance of those beliefs. Things that take time and effort – even really little things like grace before meals, praying when an ambulance passes – have a large cumulative power and effect.

And while he is aware of the importance of "community," he is probably unaware of what is required to go beyond "socializing" and create an actual community, namely, patriarchy:

Community. Fact is, we’re social beings, and we find it easiest to believe and practice when we hang out with ‘significant other’ who do so too. This is something we used to do very well, but – outside of very special locales, we’re not going back to the kinds of neighborhood parishes, where all or most of one’s neighbors are fellow Catholics. Such places aren’t absolutely impossible – Ave Maria, Florida, would be a thriving example – but they’re not really a scalable strategy. So the trick is to find various ‘hacks.’ No doubt there are things we could learn from both Mormons and megachurches on this score: Both tend to do it better than we do. But really, anything we can do to enable committed Catholics hanging out with other committed Catholics – and such families with other such families – is a plus. Think of it as a mini ‘Benedict Option’ (cf. Rod Dreher’s great book). Until Latins (and others) recognize this fundamental fact of family and political life, they will make no headway in reforming and strengthening their churches.

A Future for Such Schools?

Not when preparation for the future requires relocalization and reintegration of education into one's network or tribe, especially the education of boys and young men.

No Man Left Behind: The Good News from Gregory the Great Academy by Christopher Check

Chavagnes Still Exists

But for how much longer? Is formal schooling the best environment for training a young male into worship? What is the appropriate ritual for initiating a male into adulthood? (Neo-)Confucians would be most sympathetic to the approach taken by Catholic liberal educators. And should such an initiation ritual take place outside the tribe or community to which a young man belongs? Probably not.

Education and Devotion: A School of the Lord’s Service - Guest Article by Ferdi McDermott https://t.co/EBMTkpO5YK pic.twitter.com/1wezG6RHHM

— NLM (@NLMblog) December 3, 2020

NLM: Education and Devotion: A School of the Lord’s Service - Guest Article by Ferdi McDermott