St Benedict School in Mt Torrens reject screens and have students embrace Ancient Greek philosophy
A new Adelaide school has banned digital devices and returned to teaching methods from ancient Greece, with students claiming they're more engaged than ever.
At St Benedict School, students have no access to digital devices and learn from the wisdom of Ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle.
It is part of the classical liberal education movement in schools which teaches children about the philosophical underpinnings of western societies, history and literature.
St Benedict School principal Fernando Farrugia will be among speakers at a national conference promoting classical liberal teaching, organised by education author and commentator Dr Kevin Donnelly in Adelaide on Friday.
St Benedict, in Mt Torrens, was established at the start of 2024 by members of the Catholic Church of the Holy Name and had since grown to about 50 students from reception to year 5.
“We don’t want to prepare the students just for the next test, we want to prepare them for life,” Mr Farrugia said.
Students still learn the Australian Curriculum including subjects such as maths and English, but teaching also consists of skills such as handwriting and classrooms are free of computers.
“A lot of people say ‘well why are you drawing on things that are old fashioned?’ but I say actually it’s timeless,” Mr Farrugia said.
“What we’re doing is not rejecting the modern world, we believe we’re grounding the students in things that last so they can thrive even more in today’s world.”
Without computers, Mr Farrugia believes students and teachers can develop “a consistent relationship without a screen in the middle”.
St Benedict year 5 students Penny, Amba and Lucy, all 11, believe in the benefits of the classical approach.
“I like how everyone is engaged in learning and conversations and most of this is due to the screen free environment,” Penny said.
“It is also a very positive environment that I didn’t get in my old school because everyone was on iPads, but here at St Benedict everyone talks openly.”
Her classmate Amba sees the benefit in the school “teaching us how to live a virtuous life by practising being obedient and showing humility, perseverance and discipline”.
Lucy enjoys the “deep conversations about things that not every school can have”.
Dr Donnelly hopes the conference, in its fourth year, will highlight a “quite important movement to help young people have a far better chance in an increasingly difficult world”.
“It’s about an education that is … about beauty and wisdom and truth,” he said.
“It’s an education which is intellectually rigorous, morally grounded and emotionally and spiritually enriching.”
He argued in recent years, “education in the west has lost its way”.
“It has been very much focused on either the utilitarian view – getting ready for work or further study and competencies like working in teams, being creative or about changing society,” Dr Donnelly said.
“The problem is that teachers instead of being subject experts, they’re told that they’re facilitators and guides by the side and their role is not to teach the subject, their role is to encourage student agency.”
In a classical education, he said, teachers are subject experts and “their role is to introduce students to this body of knowledge of understanding and skills that are essential”.
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Originally published as St Benedict School in Mt Torrens reject screens and have students embrace Ancient Greek philosophy
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