Friday Feature: St. Patrick School
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
It seemed fitting to highlight St. Patrick School today, but there are nearly 100 American schools named after the 5th century bishop who is the patron saint of Ireland. After a little digging, I found St. Patrick School in Carleton, Michigan, which stood out for having moved to a classical education model this year.
The transition started several years ago, shortly after Carl Lenze became principal. The school, which has been in the rural community for 147 years, was struggling with enrollment. Officials in the archdiocese suggested they consider adopting a classical school model. “I was really excited about it because my wife homeschooled our children and the classical school program is very similar to what you do in homeschooling,” says Carl.
St. Patrick School worked with the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education to make the transition to the classical model. The institute was founded in 1999 with the mission of renewing Catholic schools. There are currently more than 200 schools affiliated with the institute. St. Patrick is the second school in the archidiocese to adopt a classical curriculum after St. John Paul II Classical Catholic School last year.
When COVID-19 hit, it slowed the transition down, but they continued to work towards it. “We introduced it to the teaching staff and asked them to do some research on it. They were excited about it,” Carl explains. Before publicly announcing it, school leaders quietly put feelers out to some families and had similar responses. “Everyone we talked to was excited about doing it.”
School leaders spent two years in deep research, exploring what the change would be, how it would impact the school in terms of books and materials, and how it would change day‐to‐day life. Once they had official approval from the archdiocese to implement the change, the school announced it to the community and asked for feedback, “They were overwhelmingly supportive of it,” Carl recalls. “We didn’t lose any students; in fact, we increased our numbers. Last year, we had 96 students, and we’re at 122 this year. At our open house, 14 new families registered for next year. Word’s out that we’re changing things.”
One of the things Carl loves about the new curriculum is that it’s dynamically Catholic. “Everything we do in every subject is around our Catholic faith. And people are excited about that. When we’re talking about science, we’re looking at science from a Biblical perspective. When we’re looking at literature, we’re choosing literature that shows characters who either are portraying Catholic virtues or through the story the character changes and they learn to live a better live. We’re trying to mold it so all the literature we’re teaching corresponds to the historical time period we’re covering in history class. And we’re working to make sure church history lines up as well.”
The school also re‐vamped the writing curriculum and has seen tremendous improvements in students already. When Carl visits classrooms, he’s amazed at how well even the youngest students are picking up the lingo of grammar and how it works together.
The study of Latin is generally a big part of classical education. This can be a challenge for a small school, but fortunately St. Patrick and St. John Paul II are able to share a Latin teacher. According to Carl, there is research showing the benefits of studying Latin—since so many English words have Latin roots, it helps with English; it helps with college entrance exams; and it helps calibrate the brain to accept information better.
Interest in classical education continues to rise. Stories from schools like St. Patrick in Carleton show how small, rural Catholic (or non‐Catholic) schools can be rejuvenated by adopting this time‐tested approach.