www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall a pleasant fantasy . . . Orthodox colleges

Here is my pleasant fantasy that, hopefully, will one day come true:

There would be an all-men's Orthodox college (St. Nicholas'), affiliated with an Orthodox monastery on campus (something like currently exists at St. Tikhon's seminary).

And, there would be a corresponding all-women's Orthodox college (St. Catherine's), affiliated with an Orthodox convent on campus.

The curriculum would include a mandatory major in a marketable skill , in addition to whatever else the students would want to study.

Professors would be chosen on their ability to teach as well as to research; class sizes would be low (no more than 30 students per class); and both conventional and unconventional methods of thinking would be developed (i.e., real thinking would be encouraged -- not "teaching for the test").

Politics would be kept out of the classroom.

An ethics code would be required like the honor code at West Point: no lying, cheating or stealing and no toleration of those who do.

Costs would be kept down by (1) excluding the fancy extras like Olympic sized pools and gourmet snack bars, and (2) requiring all students to work on campus in its upkeep and maintenance.

Monks or nuns would teach some of the curriculum, and part of the curriculum would be some basic classes in Orthodox Christianity.

And, yes, chapel would be required.

Just my thoughts. Comments? And: Is this actually being done anywhere?

-- John

Sorry, John,

I can see two reasons why your school wouldn't be "Orthodox"

When teaching U.S. Government and history classes, politics inevitably rears its ugly head.

Besides what happened between Rome and Constantinople was and is still very politically motivated.

We are humans after all and humans are social and political [dare I say, animals]. Unfortunately, sometimes we act worse than the dumb beasts.

Yes, I would like to see more Orthodox colleges here in the USA.

Currently we only have Hellenic College in Brookline, Massachusetts. This college only offers six majors.

I also would love to see an orthodox college in the US. Since I work for a University I would like to see the Classical liberal arts curriculum brought back. There is a definate need for such a thing.
I would also like to see a lot more Orthodox parochial schools.

This really goes against Eastern Orthodox tradition. The role of monastics is the work of prayer not to teach in private schools like the Roman Catholic teaching orders.
Just look back in history to the Orthodox schools in the former Russian Empire and even in the theological academies. The magority of the professors were lay men, not even priests. That is our Orthodox tradition.

Well, can't we start a new tradition? Can't monks both pray and work? And can't some of that work be teaching?

-- John

I was fortunate to have gone to one of the few Orthodox parochial schools around--from the first to the eighth grade. (Ofcourse at the time, we all thought that we were 'unfortunate' to be there)...

While it wasn't perfect, by any standard, (good teachers and administrators are hard to find on the budgets which such schools have, and most were not even Orthodox), alot of trustee politics (what else is new with Greek Orthodox churches-LOL), and while our weekly religious catechism could have been a bit better (I am sure that they are now--these were the first experimental years when our archdiocese did not have age appropriate books available yet), it was comforting to be right next to the spiritual warmth of the church-- and we were in and out of both it and its facilities often, as well as worshipping on feast days--and it was also comforting to be able to see the priest in the halls everyday...

My best friend and I used to get a light smack every now and then from him on the back of our heads with a warm smile and the remark: 'characters' !!! --LOL!

Alice

P.S. Our catechism classes were taught by the Priest, and priests do participate in teaching in schools, as long as it's teaching religion or theology-- atleast in the Greek Orthodox tradition.

Archbishop Demetrios of the GOA used to teach theology at Harvard.



Ofcourse, they do not teach anything else, and monastics under the one monastic order which exists in Orthodoxy, definitely do not teach...

No that is what eastern orthodoxy is about: adhering to our holy traditions. The work of monastics is prayer. I remember someone else writing that the monastics pray for us all, for those who request prayer, for those in need of prayer and for those who cannot prayer. This is too important a "work" for the Church to change. Recently a few books have been translated into English of the correspondence of monastics with their spiritual children. This too is part of their work of prayer. Let us also remember that for generations in Slavic group whole families would go all together on pilgrimage to monasteries and seek in person the prayers and advice of monastics. This is a way of live that should not be destroyed.
God has blessed the laity with many gifts and also the time to go to university and school to become teachers and professors and also the time for professors to continue their research and publish.
This statment is not meant to ignore the role of the minority of monastics who do write and publish.

...and how fortunate we are to have them there to offer prayer for us, individually as faithful with our individual intentions and needs, and collectively as the family of man! Who knows what would have become of us as a world, in our sinfulness, if we did not have monastics praying for God's mercy and our salvation!

Alice

Halia12, I think one thing has been overlooked in this discussion.

Oftentimes parents would send their young children, starting as young as 5 or 6 to the monastery to be taught there by the monastics. Many would stay and become monastics, but others would leave as soon as it was discerned that it was not their vocation.
So, the monasteries were in fact schools.

Today, many hieromonks are teachers at universities and colleges. Some of these hieromonks have come to my parish and have given retreats. The Mothers from St. Barbara's Monastery in Santa Paula often come to give retreats at the nearby parishes. Sometimes they even spend the night at a retreat house where they give a weekend retreat. So, yes, these monastics are educating adults and even children in the faith. However, it is the experienced elders who school us in our faith, not the novices.