Catholic Education-How to revive it!

Ah yes, the good old days of nun's cracking hands with rulers , students standing when the nun or priest would enter the room....now flying spit wads, Mrs. Jones is the teacher, and instead of standing when the teacher enters--students fly--out of the room when the bell rings. Where, or rather, why is Catholic Education in shambles? This post will focus on primary and secondary education (K-12). Now there will be generalizations made in this post, so please don't think that I don't know that there are some wonderful Catholic Schools out there...this post is directed at the nominally Catholic schools which, unfortunately seem to be the norm.

First, I'd like to start with an anecdote: My younger brother is a new student at a Catholic High School...I was still on summer break from the University his first days of class so he came home from his first days of class and came to me with his homework questions. I remember he was looking rather troubled over his religion homework so I asked if I could help. Boy did I get more than I bargained for. I took a quick look over the worksheet he was to complete and immediately asked to see his book...my heart sunk...and then started beating wildly as I asked for a highlighter so I could attack his book (I went through it highlighting everything I could find that was wrong or questionable). This book is called "Jesus of History, Christ of Faith" (see the horror for your self) and contained statements like: (not direct quotes)

"We know you may have heard something about Jesus from your pastor, and other things from your parents, but we want you to dispose these assumptions so you can make a truly informed objective opinion about what Jesus means to you and your faith."

"To make a truly objective review of Jesus life, we are going to dispose with the assumptions that the Christian Church has made about Him over 2,000 years and start at the beginning."

"Many Protestant Churches only accept Baptism and the Eucharist as sacraments because they are the only two sacraments that have a biblical basis."

I could go on and on, but in the interest of time...I will not.

Now, I asked to go and talk with his Religion instructor the next day and it was bad. The standard "I'm not here to force faith on the kids of make converts. I'm trying to teach an objective class." The whole time I'm thinking "NO buddy, you are an instructor at a CATHOLIC school--your job is not to be 'objective' as you say, your job is to educate in the light of Faith...period." Unfortunately, charity and tact mandated that I find a different way to put this.

Now I included that anecdote because I think it is indicative of the atmosphere of many Catholic schools today. The problem, in my opinion is a multi-faceted one. First is the problem of why parents send their kids to Catholic schools...it seems that their reasons are not always based mainly on inculcating the Holy Faith in their young ones, rather sending their kids to a "nice, safe, private school." This reasoning has lead more and more Protestants to send their children to Catholic schools, not because they respect Catholic moral teachings, but because in the interest of accommodation and being "non-offensive," Religion is no longer a required course at many Catholic schools....yes, your heard me right, Religion is no longer a required course at many "Catholic" schools. This only adds to the problem of Catholic schools being a preppy-hide out to escape the harshness of the public school system, and not a grounded instruction which forms the next generation of "the faithful."

The second problem is related to the first. The Mass is, at many Catholic schools, is offered infrequently for the students. One must ask why? What could possibly be more important at a Catholic school? I never understood why they didn't compel students to go to daily Mass, now I'm told many schools don't even offered weekly Masses for students--some offer Masses only on "special occasions."

The third problem is the instruction of the Faith. I'm sorry, but, in many cases there is no excuse why the parish priest can't get in and teach the Religion classes--if he is the only priest in a rural area, maybe he could teach a weekly class or bi-weekly class so as to allow him to reach all grade levels. If Father isn't available then get a brother or a nun in there. Having a religious instruct class is wonderful "recruiting" for the religious life.

The fourth and final problem I will focus on for now is that there is little to no standardization in the instruction that a student receives from diocese to diocese. This is what forces the good Catholic publisher's to compete with many of the well funded, pseudo-hippie publishers. I think there will be a revival in Catholic Education in the coming 20 years...and hey, if I'm wrong--there's always home school.

As always I appreciate your email response and questions--not just about this subject--but about anything. Please click the email link on the right to open an email in Outlook. If that dosen't work the email address is josephjcheney@gmail.com

please include in your email whether or not you'd mind me posting parts of your conversation or if you'd like it to remain a private conversation...though I'd never use your name if I did post.