Catholic World News News Feature

Home of the Brave January 09, 2002

By Joseph E. Barrett

School bells are ringing in cyberspace. In the ears of some enthusiasts, the peal of those bells seems to awaken something in America’ cultural memory: an echo of the Liberty Bell. Despite the cold cynicism which threatens to suffocate the soul of higher education, the Christian heritage of the schools is stirring again.

Despite the predictions of many skeptics, the rise of schools based on the Internet has not generated much antagonism from the more traditional schools. In fact, the more resourceful and adaptable leaders of the American educational establishment have already begun sending out peace signals to the invaders from the Internet. Canny college deans and high-school principals are even beginning to negotiate terms for a service which, they recognize, could extend their own course offerings.

The unique aspect of the new, high-tech approach to learning is that it includes everyone. Mom, Dad, and the kids all can sit down and learn at the feet of some of the finest teachers on the planet. Whatever a student's domestic or financial status, on-line academies are bringing the glittering prizes of education and certification within reach, offering diplomas and degrees right up though the university level. Even long established educational foundations, from expensive Ivy League Colleges to small state campuses, are awakening to the fact that the Internet gives their faculty an important new outlet, offering an infinitely expandable resource at the click of a mouse.

In fact, the burgeoning phenomenon of education through the Internet is being widely hailed as a revolutionary development of historic proportions. But the "space professors" have come among us so silently and swiftly that media faculties in the United States and Europe are still struggling to define and label their offerings. Still, there cannot be many educators who have not already experienced the first frisson of change; and astute professors in every academic field are diligently learning more about this new frontier.

Some Internet resources offer new options on the educational marketplace, or provide needed resources for home-schooling families. But a few ambitious projects have gone much further. As former Fordham University professor William Marra has observed, the latest development in the new educational revolution--a phenomenon which he calls "distance education"--poses a real alternative to traditional schools. "It shrinks the distance between the few real teachers and a large population of serious students who can profit by and heartily welcome genuine wisdom: about God, man, good and evil, and beauty," he explains.

But what is the nature of Internet scholarship, and who are the people behind it?

IT STARTED ON THE CHURCH STEPS

What follows is the story of just one of the new Internet-based institutions, the Institute for the Study of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. That Institute was formed by a small group of audacious souls--Catholics and evangelical Protestants--who yearned to provide youngsters in the United States and Canada with an outstanding education, free from the bigotries and distortions they found so prevalent in public schools today. Together they launched their school--or rather, their schools. Scholars Online Academy (SOLA) and Regina Coeli Academy (RCA) together flesh out a "tandem-campus" concept which is sensitive to denominational differences.

Just a few weeks ago, the faculty of SOLA and RCA received a letter from Bishop Alfred Hughes of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, encouraging them in their work. Among the many commendations they have received, that letter was an especially heart-warming sign, since, as they tell the story of their school, "It all on the steps of St Agnes Church down in Baton Rouge..."

As Linda Robinson, a dynamic humanities teacher and writer, left the church after Mass one Sunday morning a bit more than one year ago, she remarked to a fellow paishioner, Allen Taylor, that she had installed a modem in her home computer and was wondering if local children might be interested in on-line Latin classes. "I'm thinking of teaching them via their home computers," she told him.

Taylor, an industrial scientist with a post-university background in teaching, nearly exploded. "You are going to do what?" he asked.

"He reacted as if he had won the Louisiana lottery, Robinson recalls. "Allen belies the slow-talking Southern stereotype. He began a rapid-fire interrogation, answering most of his own questions and then asking ten more for each one I answered... "

Gradually, Linda Robinson pieced together the reasons for her neighbor’s excitement. Taylor and his brother-in-law, Dave Manley, had been scheming and dreaming for years of a school that would be capable of cutting loose from the morass of Enlightenment atheism that plagues American education. It had seemed impossible for them to begin work on the project because Manley, an Air Force officer who had worked on designs for the Space Shuttle, had never been stationed near the Taylor home. But in that instant on the steps of St. Agnes, Taylor perceived the answer he been praying for. New technology had reduced distance to an economical irrelevance.

DREAMS BECOME REALITIES

Allen Taylor later wrote to a friend: "I have always enjoyed teaching young people. As a science teacher, I strive to help the kids to see the wisdom, glory, and love of the Father in his creation. The natural sciences are, I believe, the perfect vehicles for this task."

Linda Robinson, a convert to Catholicism and the mother of three children, saw her own academic achievements (she was working at the time on her PhD) not as a ladder to worldly fame but as the well from which her students might refresh their intellects and acquire the art of building useful lives. Like Taylor she loved the Church; she shared his sorrow at the falsity of so much modern education.

Major Manley, too, was a convert. They were all family folk; loving wives and husbands and children. As they began to talk, the network of teaching friends kept growing. Mark Johnson, a bright young academic who knew Linda from graduate school, agreed to teach philosophy and politics.

Linda recalls how their project began to take shape:

Dave Manley and his lovely wife Angie came to see us at Baton Rouge. We prayed together, brainstormed, roughed out a curriculum and an FAQ [computerese for a list of "Frequently Asked Questions" and replies], and sent a flurry of test messages and file attachments back and forth over the Internet. Angie and Al's wife, Mary-Jo, tolerated us gracefully, although they must have thought we had taken leave of our senses.

Because we were all three home schooling our children, we naturally gravitated towards developing a program to support, but not supplant, home-schooling moms and dads.

After a week of discussion, prayer, and giddiness, interspersed with periods of very sober reflection, we decided to create two academies. Regina Coeli would serve Roman Catholic home schoolers, offering a Catholic perspective and requiring Catholic theology classes for graduation. Scholars OnLine Academy would reach out to Protestants and even to non-Christians, concentrating on Christendom's legacy to all of Western Civilization.

The model for the school was simple. Through the Internet, teachers and students could come together from all parts of the country--or, for that matter, the world. Computer files--prepared by instructors and downloaded by students--would substitute for lectures; homework and tests would be handled by electronic mail. At set times, each class would "meet" through an Internet forum, giving both students and teachers an opportunity for the immediate give-and-take of a classroom environment.

Naturally, some aspects of traditional schooling would be lost in the process. Students would have no way of knowing whether their philosophy teacher smoked a pipe, unless he chose to tell them. Neither teacher nor students would know how the other inhabitants of their electronic classroom were dressed, or whether Mozart was playing in the background as they sat in fron of their own computer screens. Still, a teacher could send a sharp message to any student whose attention seemed to be wandering. And the essential benefit of the scheme--the ability to put youngsters into contact with teachers who were experts in their own academic fields--was hard to beat.

Gradually the plans took shape; the obstacles were overcome. By January 1996 the schools were offering a full curriculum of high-school courses. Today RCA offers four full years of English, History (including a senior-year course in Church history), Mathematics (through calculus), Sciences, Classical Languages, Philosophy, and Government. The school also offers an enrichment program for students in the elementary grades, with courses ranging from introductory Latin to the history of the American founding and the lives of the saints.

SHOWS OF SUPPORT

Then some important forces came together in a truly amazing way. The diocesan Director of Education--described by Robinson simply as "a lovely Dominican sister"--brought RCA to the attention of Bishop Hughes; both the bishop and the nun were impressed. Dr. William Marra, a scholar whose name carries instand credibility with thousands of Catholic Americans, immediately discerned the genuine commitment of these teachers, and accepted an invitation to head a board of advisors. "I am pleased to offer what modest talents I have to further this audacious and urgent task of Regina Coeli Academy," he said.

More doors began to swing open. Marra was joined on the new advisory board by Professor Tommy Palfrey, a mathemetician from Xavier University who also founded and directs the Advanced Learning Program to help minority children to climb the educational ladder in New Orleans; attorney G. Allen Kirkpatrick; John Baker, a law professor at Louisiana State University; and William F. Campbell, an economist at the same school. A sparkling and erudite lecture was delivered under SOLA’s auspices by Dr. Michael Platt, whose glittering career was fostered in Harvard and Yale and in Oxford University in England.

Jeff Mirus, director of what was then the Catholic Resource Network, offered the young institution a forum on his computer network, through which the RCA faculty could begin to teach on the Internet. Then Mother Angelica became intrigued. When the Catholic Resource Network became the Internet presence of her Eternal Word Television Network, RCA was part of the package.

"We were stunned," Linda Robinson remembers; "Mother Angelica had taken us under her wing!" Mirus contacted the RCA team to assure them that television’s most famous nun had indeed made a commitment to home schoolers. Finally there came a call from EWTN producers, asking Allen Taylor to appear live and talk about RCA and SOLA on a program scheduled to air on July 17 this year.

BREAKING AN EDUCATIONAL MONOPOLY

Meanwhile the school’s offerings continue to increase. Linda Robinson's "Laid-back Latin" courses were attracting a growing number of Evangelical Christian families. The core faculty was joined by a superb Protestant teacher, Dr. Bruce McMenomy. Soon afterwards Dr. McMenomy's wife Christe arrived to teach chemistry. Scholars Online Academy took aboard its first students, as the boys of the Pride family--the famous home-schooling clan--took on the full curriculum.

Father Stephen Torraco, a theologian from Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts and editor of Catholic International magazine, also joined the growing faculty. And Wendy Pierce, a home-schooling mother of five children, undertook the immense task of organizing and maintaining the various sites on the World Wide Web-- both on EWTN and elsewhere-- which constitute the lecture centers of both academies. Mrs. Pierce is the link between families and the system: coach, guide, and confidant.

Behind the professors and teachers, scholars and parents who work at SOLA and RCA, there is a capable staff of technical engineers and specialists who make the on-line teaching possible. As founder and head of the Catholic Resource Network, Jeff Mirus had created what was probably the greatest Internet repository of Church documentsand related archives; now working with EWTN, he is in process of taking this unique service onto the World Wide Web, where anyone can avail himself of such treasures. Day-to-day technical problems might become insurmountable but for the man they call "Professor" Robert Behrens. He, too, like so many of those who make this labor of love progress, is Protestant.

EDUCATING FOR FREEDOM

The central teaching philosophy of Scholars Online Academy and Regina Coeli Academy is perhaps best explained in a short letter written by Linda Robinson--"Magistra," as she is known to colleagues and students alike. A college undergraduate had written to ask, "What will happen to our culture if people continue to dismiss the importance of a liberal arts education?" This is part of Linda Robinson's reply:

Without the intellectual discipline of the liberal arts, human beings become progressively more fragmented in their world view and hence less able to make sense of reality as it presents itself to them. Young people with a fragmented understanding of reality, whether poor or affluent, have a diminished perception of the long-range responsibility that living in a community--either a small local community or a global one--entails.

When students have no vicarious experience of the world through history, philosophy, and literature, then they must face the world with a dangerous naiveté--without the benefit of the human race's accumulated wisdom. Thus they become prey to the tendency to place value on an idea, or an experience, or on a proposition by untried criteria, or by the criterion of self-gratification.

They unfortunately pass their naiveté on to the next generation, and the trend downward accelerates as each generation retains less cultural memory and fewer roots from which wisdom can regenerate itself.

Without the benefit of liberal arts, a student is often convinced he is a free thinker, but has been denied the tools that allow him to think clearly. His "free thinking" is neither free, nor is it even "thinking" but instead mere reaction, often within a highly programmed media milieu. He is programmed and exploited by commercial and political sophistries.

This is not a recipe for a free society!

Another faculty member, Mark Johnson, offers his own concrete perspective on the reasons why "distance education" may fill an important niche in the American educational marketplace. In order to qualify for a faculty position in most conventional schools, he points out, teachers must receive official certification. That certification, in turn, comes only after they have been completed a series of courses in "education," which Johnson regards as thoroughly corrosive. "They are basically an amalgamation of Deweyite philosophy and pop psychology," he says; "and most of the Catholic schools, sadly, in an attempt to keep state and federal funding for such things as books, transportation, and lunches, have caved in to these useless requirements."

With official certification, a teacher who has taken only a few courses in a particular discipline may be considered qualified to teach that subject, Johnson observes, while a scholar who has earned his PhD in the same subject--but failed to obtain official certification--would be pronounced unqualified. "If distance teaching did nothing other than over-ride such nonsense, it would be enough," he argues. "I think that RCA is truly valuable because we are going to contribute to the exposure that our friends in the larger home-school movements have brought to this fraud which is being perpetuated in North American educational institutions."

[AUTHOR ID] Joseph Barrett is a free-lance journalist based in Glasgow, Scotland.

EWTN GOES ON-LINE

What would you do if you wanted to use your skills as a publicist and a computer programmer, at the same time reaching as many Catholics as possible, to continue a life-long mission of evangelization?

To Dr.Jeffrey Mirus, whose previous career stops had seen him serve as a co-founder of Christendom College and president of Trinity Communications, the answer was simple: Start a Catholic bulletin board service, of course.

In 1993 the Catholic Resource Network (CRNET) was formed. With a text-based interface accessible by direct-dial telephone lines, the 1993 system seems incredibly primitive in comparison to today's standards. Yet as the technology improved and standards grew steadily higher, CRNET rose to occasion, all the while churning out more and more orthodox resources for the use of Catholics around the world. In June of 1994, CRNET added a Telnet connection, making the system accessible to Internet users. In October of 1995, the system added a graphical user interface and a site on the World Wide Web.

Throughout that period, as the technical capacity of the system grew with each passing year, CRNET also continued to increase its wealth of resources, adding new organizations to its on-line information centers. Catholic Answers stepped up to head the Apologetics section; the St. Joseph Foundation took over the Canon Law center, and Father William Most headed up a forum on divine revelation. Also included in the list of 21 forums were: Catholics United for the Faith, with Msgr. Michael Wrenn answering questions on doctrine and catechetics; Christopher Mirus and Father Robert Skeris handling iturgy and sacred music; and the Institute on Religious Life hosting a forum on clergy and religious life.

CRNET also amassed numerous a library of over 8,000 files, covering scores of subjects of interest to Catholic users, including Church documents such as the papal encyclicals, Vatican II documents, and writings by the fathers of the Church. The network also provided facilities for confidential spiritual counseling, a question-and-answer service, and its own daily news service--provided by both the Vatican Information Service and Catholic World News.

In January of 1996, CRNET merged with the Eternal Word Television Network, creating EWTN Online Services. As a result all services, which once were available to subscribers for a modest fee, are now free. Through EWTN's world-wide advertising clout, the network has been made known to a much larger number of Catholics in the United States and elsewhere. As the director of EWTN On-line Services, Mirus has worked to improve the develop new graphics for the EWTN site on the World Wide Web (which can be reached by Web browsers at http://www.ewtn.com), and make all the resources readily available through the Internet.

The first phase of development for ETWN’s Web site is already complete; the libraries of files once available through CRNET are now accessible through the World Wide Web. By developing a simple but effective computerized search engine, Mirus has made it possible for Internet visitors to scan through the entire library of Church documents, sorting through information by seeking a key word. In a matter of weeks he hopes to have activated the same search engine to handle EWTN news bulletins, so that Web browsers will be able to call up all of the news reports on a single individual simply by entering his name.

[SIDEBAR #2]

HOME SCHOOLERS TELL THEIR STORY

Mary Jo Taylor explains how the day begins for her family:

We look on the calendar to see if it is a saint's feast day. If so, we read about the saint and if we happen to have a statue of him-- and we are getting quite a collection-- we bring it out and put it on the kitchen shelf to be venerated that day. Next, we have religion, we always have it first. I love teaching it and the kids like it, too

Yes, people do scratch their heads and wonder when we tell them about our life as a home-schooling family. But I must keep reminding myself that in the end when all is said and done, it is I who must stand before God and render an accounting of myself.

Wendy Pierce, explains her involvement:

We wanted not only to avoid the negative influences of unguided secular philosophies but also to provide an enriching curriculum, where the study of classical material would be under the direction of God-fearing teachers dedicated to the development of both the minds and souls of our children as they grew towards maturity.

Our energies and in certain areas our knowledge were limited, and we began searching for alternative assistance... We sought out teachers who would emphasise social and personal responsibility. We also wished to be able to monitor teaching from sources outside our home, and to become actively involved in our children's' classes. We also wished to be allowed easy access to teachers should the need arise.

We joined ISLAS on-line classes and after our first few Latin classes, we knew this was what we had been searching for. Our son loved the interaction with his on-line classmates and we were thrilled by the quality of the course and the expertise of our teacher, "Magistra" Robinson. She promptly answered questions--after class, if time permitted, or through e-mail. As we progressed we soon caught the excitement of "on-line" schooling and witnessed it spill over to the younger ones as they began "listening in" to the lessons. That dispelled a fear that outside instructors would somehow cause our family unity to dissipate. The opposite was the case. The entire family decided to learn Latin!

As to discipline, we have been privileged to witness how any problems arising with the children have been resolved by the faculty and staff. Every effort is made through e-mail or online private chats to help the students through difficulties or personality conflicts. We watched one teacher, in the kindest possible way, hold the line and tolerate nothing but the most respectful behaviour from one student. Academic excellence is expected from everybody, as is proper, respectful behaviour to faculty and staff. And parents are involved when it matters. ISLAS took nothing from us and put everything we ever needed in our own hands.

Paul Lamb, 17, is an on-line student:

There are two main reasons why I like home schooling. The first is that a lot more work can be done in a shorter amount of time. Second, home schooling is a great way to make friends with other Catholic students who share many of the same interests, while avoiding the near occasions of sin from negative peer pressure.

The Internet has been useful to me for several reasons. First, any kind of information can be accessed from it; problems can be posted for other experienced persons to read; and it is a fun way to make a friend. It also has been useful in my computer programming hobby.