In 2020, enrollment at Saint Theresa School in Trumbull, Connecticut, had dwindled to 167 students in grades K-8. But by 2024, enrollment increased — by 58.68% — to 265 students. The answer to the turnaround is elementary: Saint Theresa’s transitioned to a Catholic classical-education curriculum. 

“It all begins with the Holy Spirit,” Father Brian Gannon, pastor of St. Theresa Church, explained when he began looking for an answer to rebuild the parish school, which originally opened in 1957. Then he learned about the amazing turnaround of Sacred Heart Academy in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from his nephew who was teaching there at the time. In the few years after that K-12 school had changed to a classical Catholic curriculum, its enrollment skyrocketed from less than 100 students to nearly 400 today.

Pointing out that the Church speaks of parents as primary educators, Sacred Heart Academy Headmaster Sean Nolan said that today’s disordered culture needs a Catholic counter. “Our original conviction was that we want to help these families do what they’re trying to do, which is raise their kids to be Catholic, to know and love and serve Jesus Christ. One of the pieces of that puzzle became culture. And one of the essential elements of culture is that there’s a living tradition that you’re handing on.”

“One of the reasons we went classical is because we believe that it, best of all, shared the tradition of the Church in a way that enlivened the culture of the school and enlivened and helped to enliven the culture of the families,” he explained. 

It encompassed a “living tradition for these young people that will enrich their imaginations and enrich their minds so that they can live in our world as Catholics convinced that Jesus matters.”

The direction for Saint Theresa School was apparent. After consultations with Bishop Frank Caggiano of the Diocese of Bridgeport and help from various quarters, including the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education (ICLE) and parents, and staying open during the height of COVID, Saint Theresa’s began the transition to classical education in fall 2020. Then a new principal, Barbara Logsdail, came to take the reins, bringing expertise in classical education for Catholic schools. “Schools that were changing to classical education were really growing in their enrollment, and many times bursting at the seams. With schools that weren’t taking on this new paradigm, their enrollment was shrinking,” she observed.

“A classical education is really a wonderful education for children,” Logsdail told the Register. “But even more important, it is a real, authentically Catholic formation.” That matched exactly the vision Father Gannon had for the school.

Father Gannon emphasized the classical curriculum encompasses truth, beauty and goodness. “It’s about truth, and truth is beautiful. Truth leads us to appreciate the beauty of one another. And goodness, of course, is what life should be directed towards,” bolstered by a sense of wonder.

Students study classical liberal education built on the trivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric from the earliest years, with theology as the base, woven into all subjects for the tried-and-true, centuries-old approach.

By second grade, students are well into reading books, and beginning in third grade, several popular classics are required per grade each year, including The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Hobbit. “They enjoy what they’re reading,” Logsdail said of the young scholars. “The books are exciting, and they’re full of heroes that they can look up to. They’re good, virtuous stories.”

The students begin Latin at a very general basic level in kindergarten. Up until fifth grade, they have Latin one day a week, while such a focus is three days a week in following grades. “They have a very good foundation to learn Latin, to learn Spanish, to learn French,” Logsdail said. “But, more importantly, Latin has always been the language of the Church.”

Students put those language skills into practice at the weekly all-school Friday morning Mass, chanting the Sanctus and Agnus Dei, with most Mass responses and some songs in Latin, too. They pray together in English and Latin. Every morning, they assemble to hear Father Gannon or one of the parish’s other priests give a little talk about the Gospel reading for that day or about what is going on with the liturgical season or a special saint’s feast day. The student body also prays a weekly Rosary together. Every day at noon, they pray the Angelus over the loudspeaker. 

“One of the big things, too, was intensifying the Catholic culture,” Father Gannon said.

“It’s not strange to them that we talk about religion in science or history,” observed Kayla Ciardiello, who teaches fifth-, sixth- and seventh-grade religion and science. “With the way that the Catholic faith is incorporated into everything, you can see that there’s a much deeper understanding of the faith and what’s going on, and it becomes second nature to them. It’s all normal; there’s no separation.”

Her religion classes memorize both English and Latin versions of prayers, while science utilizes many Latin terms. “Going over where everything comes from leads to a deeper understanding … and it helps tie everything in together,” Ciardiello explained.

While grades three through eight have a weekly computer class to learn typing and reinforce math skills, Logsdail said, “We do everything the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper, because the retention we feel is best. Now many studies are showing children learn and retain what they’re learning much greater when they use a pen and paper and write down their work as opposed to typing it.”

By third grade all students are writing in cursive, and “they are so proud of it, and it’s beautiful,” the principal added. 

“It’s a piece of art. It’s their own masterpiece, the way they have their handwriting. Even though we form them all in the same instruction, there’s always a little bit of style that becomes your own in the way you write your letters.”

“Our school is full of joy. The children are very joyful. They’re happy here,” Logsdail observed.

Ciardiello sees the same reaction: “You can see as they come into the school that they’re actually happy to be here. It’s an environment that they like to be in.” She witnessed the cusp of the changeover and reported that the change is evident, as students’ “work ethic is so much better. Their understanding of topics is much better, and the desire to learn and their joy of learning is astronomical.”

Parents, too, are elated. Chris and Stephania Lanzaro have a son, Chase, in third grade and a daughter, Gianna, in kindergarten. 

While searching for the right school, Stephania reported that she chose Saint Theresa’s in their hometown “because of this classical curriculum. It’s very, very different from all the other schools. Saint Theresa’s keeps Christ at the center of everything that they do, which I love.”

She also appreciates the “phonics approach” and “learning Latin. They learn their prayers in both Latin and French in honor of our patroness, St. Thérèse.” She pointed out how students learn math “that makes sense … that they weren’t doing this Common Core math.”

Additionally, she said, “I love the fact that they’re learning classical literature. I don’t have to worry about anybody sneaking any woke and progressive nonsense into the library and my kids stumbling upon them.”

Like others, she is appreciative her children “are learning not just the basics, but they’re learning empathy, and they’re learning how to be good human beings. I can see it in their actions, and I can see it in their interactions with other kids.”

Logsdail explained the school emphasizes the different virtues. 

“We work on patience, on kindness, on magnanimity … it’s all because we have to become the best version of who we are, that God created us to be. And by doing that, we’re able to help our society, our community here at St. Theresa’s as we get older, the bigger community, and hopefully we get to heaven and serve the people here on earth. … And we want to instill a lot of hope in them.”

And as Home-School Association president, Stephania Lanzaro pointed out that “everything we do keeps Christ at the center. We celebrate All Saints’ Day. To make it fun, we have a costume contest, and kids dress up as saints. We have a trick-or-treat type event where every classroom picks a saint. And this year the theme happened to be young saints to remind them that you could be holy at a very, very young age. They decorate their door and their classrooms, and then the kids go classroom to classroom, like trick-or-treating, but instead of getting candy, they got a lesson on the saint and little laminated cards on the saint.”

“We really do concentrate more on things like that throughout the year to really celebrate our Catholic faith,” Logsdail said.

Summing up the classical curriculum, Father Gannon said, “The whole point of acquiring knowledge is our relationship with God and the salvation of souls.

“The deepest root is that my knowledge and my skillset is somehow going to be used for the glory of God. If that’s the case, then we’ll make the world a better place. We’ll have virtuous students — students who make decisions contextualized in what is the good for the soul, whether it’s a decision about a spouse, a decision about a job, a decision about my children. It’s always contextualized in the Catholic faith.”

Joseph Pronechen attends St. Theresa parish.

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