I sat down with Father Daniel O’Mullane, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, to discuss how and why he’s built a Catholic school based on the classical education model. Rather than obsessing over college and career preparation, the typical goals of primary and secondary schooling, he approaches education from the ground up, prioritizing the intellectual, social, and spiritual development of children. Fr. O’Mullane believes that time-tested teaching methods—measured in centuries, not decades—and the great works of Western civilization are among the best tools for cultivating students’ sense of meaning and purpose in a culture adrift.