Why do Catholic schools exist? What’s really the difference between a public school and a Catholic school? Is a Catholic school simply a public school with an added course called Religion? Is a Catholic school’s purpose to be a haven from the world, an island where no bad things come?
According to the Declaration on Christian Education, a document of the Second Vatican Council, a Catholic school has three functions:
No less than other schools does the Catholic school pursue cultural goals and the human formation of youth. But its proper function is to create for the school community a special atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity, to help youth grow according to the new creatures they were made through baptism as they develop their own personalities, and finally to order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and man is illumined by faith. So indeed the Catholic school, while it is open, as it must be, to the situation of the contemporary world, leads its students to promote efficaciously the good of the earthly city and also prepares them for service in the spread of the Kingdom of God, so that by leading an exemplary apostolic life they become, as it were, a saving leaven in the human community. (Gravissimum Educationis, 8)
Looking at our own Catholic schools–whether as a pastor, administrator, or teacher–how do they measure up? Are they functioning as intended? Looking closer at each of the following points may help us reflect on those questions.
1. “To create for the school community a special atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity”:
- Is my school’s atmosphere “special”–that is, uniquely enlivened by the freedom and charity of the Gospel?
- How much autonomy do the students have? Are they free to pursue their individual gifts and God-given talents?
- Charity: “a divinely infused habit, inclining the human will to cherish God for his own sake above all things, and man for the sake of God” (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1910). How does my school foster the virtue of charity?
2. “To help youth grow according to the new creatures they were made through baptism as they develop their own personalities”:
- We are called to help our students grow not as the “old creatures” they were before their baptism, but as “new creatures.” How should our approach be different than if we were teaching the unbaptized?
- What do baptized young people need in order to grow in their new life in Christ?
- Am I helping students to develop their own personalities, or am I unintentionally squelching their individuality?
3. “To order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and man is illumined by faith”:
- How does the world look different when “illumined by faith”?
- Catholic schools are called to look at “the whole of human culture” through the lens of faith. How does that lens affect our lesson plans and subject area objectives?
- In areas like science, social studies, mathematics, language arts, and music, does the content and organization of my school’s curriculum look very different than a public school? If so, how? If not, why not?
Those three items and nine points are more complex than I’d be able to deal with in any practical way.
Having attended and having sent my kids to Catholic schools, I would say that the Catholic school’s job is to educate children toward a Catholic worldview.
This is not so different from saying our public schools should educate children toward an American worldview.
“In areas like science, social studies, mathematics, language arts, and music, does the content and organization of my school’s curriculum look very different than a public school? If so, how? If not, why not?”
Well, every textbook need not be “Catholic,” but the content of every class should reflect the Catholic sensibility. When I attended my parish school in Louisiana, excepting our religion books we received textbooks from the state, just like the public school kids. That was just fine; I don’t believe those state books lessened the Catholicity of my education, although I expect that many textbooks today would be unsuitable, and not just for catholics.
I once again find myself agreeing with Christian. In as much as I believe that the most essential and important task of Catholic schools today is to teach young people how to “think Catholic.” In other words to develop a Catholic world view, hermeneutic if you will, or perhaps more simply put–a Catholic Imagination. This is what I think its meant by your third point Nick, a worldview illuminated by faith.
“a Catholic Imagination”
Exactly. I wasn’t aware how much I had one until I began to interact with lots of adult converts. I envy them their dramatic faith journey, but am thankful for my own lifelong Catholic worldview.
Thanks for the great input, guys!
“Catholic Imagination” is what enabled Tolkien to create The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Though not explicitly Catholic, they could not have been created without his Catholic world view.
However, if we limit Catholic education to instilling a world view, don’t we neglect the important task of aiding students to grow into the people God created them to be?
Students in Catholic schools should certainly be immersed in a Catholic world view (point #1), and they should learn how our faith affects the way we see the world (point #3); but ultimately each student is a gift of God to the world and deserves to become the fullness of who God created him or her to be (point #2). That, to me, is just as important as–and actually inseparable from–developing a Catholic world view.
“That, to me, is just as important as–and actually inseparable from–developing a Catholic world view”
Yes, and I expect a cetain amount of flux here depending on how Catholic the school family is. I’d anticipate more specific Catholicity in a school with a 100% Catholic student body than one that was, say, 50% Catholic.
Couldn’t agree more Nick. Instilling a worldview is only part of what our schools should be about. We must help to form the total student.
Interesting discussion. I too believe that a Catholic worldview is important, but this leads me to the quesiton of “how do we define a Catholic worldview??” As a Catholic educator (I teach middle school religion) it seems to me that part of this worldview includes showing the students that they are a gift of God. This to me is what should define the difference between Catholic and public schools and this, to me, is what should differentiate how history, science, math, language arts, etc. are taught in a Catholic school.
Once again though, this comes down to what exactly is meant by a Catholic worldview. I am keenly sensitive to this subject since on a daily basis I see instructors berating students and not showing them that they respect them as one of God’s children. Perhaps my expectations are just too high, or are they??
MOS
This is the central question that should drive the future of Catholic education. Too often it seems that the question is “what do we need to do to make sure our Catholic school stays afloat?” With the answer being something like “provide a really good education in an environment that is not decidedly hostile to Catholicism.” Which, frankly, is what a lot of parents are looking for. The problem them becomes the continued compromises made out of fear that a focus on Catholic identity will be the downfall of he school.
Um, not to be too apocalyptic.
Good observation. It is hard to teach to an ideal when the customer, the parents, may or may not be concerned with said ideal, since, like it or not, schools are businesses and need customers/parents in order to stay open.
Of course the problem with giving the parents and students a “Catholic lite” evironment is that in the end the Catholic school simply becomes a private school that offers religion as one of its subjects.
I have to admit that I am a product of a public school education so I have little or no knowledge of if an how Catholic education has changed over the last 50 years. Perhaps I am too idealistic and am simply being given a dose of the cold hard reality of Catholic education.
MOS
I was born in 1957 and attended Catholic schools through 11th grade. About 3/4 of my teachers were priests, brothers or habited nuns. I wasn’t explicitly taught a Catholic worldview, but imbibed it simply by swimming in Catholic water. My kids have attended a mix of public and parochial, so I’ve seen the change. Much of the loss of Catholic identity in today’s Catholic schools is due to the decline in vocations. It’s a rare (as in I haven’t seen it yet) lay teacher who can present the faith & culture as well as those religious teachers of my youth. All their life’s energies were devoted to us kids not just as students, but as human beings.
My parish school is run by a teaching order of nuns who comprise about a third of the teachers. No small part of the benefit is just seeing nuns who are dressed as nuns. Kids respond differently to nuns than they do lay men or women. Plus their presence is a real-life advertisement for a religious vocation.
On the other hand, the local highschool is about 95% lay staff; there is a chaplain (the blogger Fr. Longenecker) who also teaches. However, the school consciously makes Catholicism explicit (whereas in my youth it was implicit) through regular Mass, Confession, prolife (e.g., the students turn out en masse for Life Chain), Biblestudy, etc. The overall Catholicity seems to be enough to even attract some homeschoolers.
Given today’s Catholic and economic realities, I think they are being as Catholic as they can.
Christian,
I think you are on to something. Perhaps the biggest difference is the lay staff??
It seems to me that our school is pretty good with the “window dressing” if you will, e.g., Mass, Reconciliation, daily prayer, religion class, etc. What I do not feel though is that the Catholic culture permeates the school environment. The best way I can explain it is like this:
While it is nice to tell my wife that I love her from time to time, it really does not make much difference if I do not show my love in my actions. Thus at the school it is one thing to say we are Catholic, but if the Catholicity (??) does not permeate how we interact, then are we simply a private school that goes to weekly Mass and offers a religion class??
MOS
“our school is pretty good with the “window dressing”
“a private school that goes to weekly Mass and offers a religion class??”
Well-said, that’s exactly the problem with much Catholic education, K thru graduate school.
And I should clarify that the problem isn’t lay teachers, per se, but that when there are few-to-no religious staff, the lay staff has to be more explicitly Catholic than they might need to be otherwise. But then that begs the question: are the lay staff well-catechized enough, alive in faith enough, to provide an adequately-Catholic environment? And of course the same may be asked about the parents. The difference when I was a kid was that the parents didn’t have to do more than send their kids to school; the school could make Catholics out of us with no more parental involvement than that.
The collapse of religious vocations in the 60s has dumped a lot of responsibility on lay Catholics, which they are only very slowly and spottily recognizing.
We lay people have to raise up children with vocations to shoulder these responsibilites, or we have to bear them ourselves.
“…are the lay staff well-catechized enough…”
I think we need more Catholic colleges to offer specific preparation for teaching in Catholic schools. Without a formal program, most lay Catholics will not have the same formation, education and experience as someone who is ordained or part of a religious order. There are many Catholic teachers who work on their own to develop their own faith and theological knowledge, but we do a disservice to our Catholic school students if we do not adequately prepare teachers to work in Catholic schools. Diocesan catechetical certification is an attempt to remedy this, but I don’t think it’s enough. I think we need a Catholic education major or minor, or even a Catholic education institute or center at Catholic universities, something like the proposal in this article or like Notre Dame’s ACE program, or this program at St. Mary’s University College in Alberta.
Being a Catholic teacher or catechist is a vocation that requires special formation beyond education classes. Just as the philosophy of Catholic education is unique, the preparation of Catholic teachers should be unique.
“…dumped a lot of responsibility on lay Catholics…”
I would say rather that the responsibility has always been there, but before the 60s it was more easy to ignore it and let someone else do it; the desire to ignore it still exists, but one thing Catholic schools can and should do is to help with formation of parents so that they can better live out their vocation as the primary educators of their children.
“Diocesan catechetical certification is an attempt to remedy this, but I don’t think it’s enough.”
As a longtime catechist, I promise you it’s not enough. Most of what I’ve attended in the name of catechetical education tends toward group prayer, sharing opinions, stuff like that. What we need more of is lectures where people who don’t know something about catechizing listen to someone who does. This year, e.g., I heard one world-class speaker (Fr Dennis McManus) teach for 3 hours one morning; it was the best.
I also attended a 4 hour workshop: 1 hour general Catholic intro talk, nothing of direct value to a catechist (I mean do I need to travel to hear someone tell me I need a strong interior spiritual life, hunger for the Eucharist, love of Scripture, etc.? Duh. Do you think anyone in this room needs to be told that?); 1 workshop that was not of direct value to a catechist; 1 hour of lunch/sharing that was not of direct value to a catechist; and one dynamite 8th grade public school teacher & catechist who said something valuable every time she opened her mouth.
“the responsibility has always been there, but before the 60s it was more easy to ignore it and let someone else do it”
Oh yes.