What if a young Catholic didn’t have to choose between Aquinas and a toolbox?
In this Chesterton Radio deep dive, we visit two remarkable experiments in Catholic education: the College of St. Joseph the Worker and San Damiano College for the Trades. Both are attempting to reunite things modern education has often pulled apart—intellectual formation and skilled work, prayer and craftsmanship, the liberal arts and the trades.
We explore how these schools work, what students actually study and build, their apprenticeship and financial models, Catholic teaching on the dignity of work, and the important questions surrounding accreditation, credentials, cost, and long-term viability.
Along the way, we look at St. John Paul II’s Laborem Exercens, the example of St. Joseph the Worker, Harmel Academy, and an older Catholic understanding of education in which forming the mind did not require neglecting the hands.
Are these simply a handful of unusual new schools—or the beginnings of something much larger?
Perhaps the future of Catholic education will involve rediscovering something very old: that learning, prayer, craftsmanship, family, community, and useful work belong together.
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