Alumnus Makes Lasting Impact Through Educating Future Generations
“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” ~ G. K. Chesterton
“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” ~ G. K. Chesterton
Alumnus Makes Lasting Impact Through Educating Future Generations
Benedictine Media and Culture • Emma R.C. Lyons
Benedictine’s profile of Coley O’Connor offers a compelling portrait of education as a vocation that shapes generations. Through mentorship, rigorous formation, and hands-on teaching, O’Connor found his calling as a classical educator devoted to the full formation of his students. This story captures the heart of educational renewal: teachers formed in wisdom and purpose who help young people grow not only in knowledge, but in humanity.
In this episode of Forged, Chris Hall reflects on the formative power of the “common arts”—the ordinary skills and embodied practices that introduce us to the givenness of the world and manifest our humanity. Drawing on stories from the classroom and the farm, Hall argues that formation and education flourish when intellectual study is joined to hands-on craft, inviting students into apprenticeship, real responsibility, and attentiveness to the natural world. He also addresses the cultural divide between academic learning and vocational skill, urging a recovery of an older vision in which the liberal arts, practical arts, and fine arts enrich one another for the sake of a fully embodied, fully aware human life of discipline, delight, craft, and calling.
We have a problem with reading in the 21st century. When we discuss reading as a society, we are not merely talking about a pastime disappearing such as kids no longer collecting baseball cards or playing marbles, we are talking about the loss of access to the treasures of wisdom from our shared tradition. We are—without fully understanding the ins and outs of the reality—lamenting the loss of reading as a loss of virtue in our culture.
In this episode, Lynette Hull invites us into a conversation about art, faith, and the quiet transformation that can happen when the two meet. With warmth and wisdom, she reflects on creativity as a spiritual practice and on the ways beauty can draw us deeper into meaning and connection. It’s a thoughtful and inspiring exchange that will leave you curious to see the world, and perhaps your own creative life, a little differently.