The Balance Between Formation and Information (#51)

Though a solid educational philosophy requires an appropriate balance between formation - or who we become through education - and information - or what we actually learn, it is sometimes tempting to abandon one for the sake of the other. This is a serious mistake! Cardinal Ratzinger explains how this error led to the collapse of religious education in recent years:

“What is our catechesis doing? What is our school system doing at a time when religious instruction is widespread? I think that it was an error not to pass on more content. Our religion instructors rightly repudiated the idea that religious instruction is only information, and they rightly said that it is something else, that it is more, that the point is to learn life itself, that more has to be conveyed. But that led to the attempt to make people like this style of life, while information and content were neglected.” (Cardinal Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth)