Why Catholic Schools

William McGurn of the New York Post offers his view of what makes Catholic schools so necessary and successful.

Whether it's the 99 percent of Catholic school students who graduate or the fact that a Latino child is 2.5 times more likely to graduate from college if he or she has attended a Catholic high school, Catholic schools are coming through for children in a big way.

The full article by William McGurn can be found in the January 31, 2014 edition of the New York post entitled Catholic Schools' Secret: Love.

 

When I was asked to write a short essay on why Catholic schools are important in 2014, I, like any good educator, decided to cheat.  I asked Notre Dame Catholic School’s 8^th Graders to do it for me.  I told them that a list of reasons was due the next day (“No, you don’t have to write in complete sentences this time (AND ONLY THIS TIME!); yes, it will be a grade…”).

Now, I know our kids.  They are faith-filled, joyful, kind, respectful, energetic, and very bright … but they’re teenagers (AHHHH!).  I didn’t know what to expect, though I figured soccer and basketball might be prominent among their responses.

They weren’t.

 

When I was growing up, parents worried about things like MTV and AOL Instant Messenger.  Those things are ancient history.  Between iPods, iPads, and iPhones, the very nature of identity – of “I” – has changed.  Facebook has co-opted the idea “friend.”  Twitter invites us to “follow.”  We shut out the real world with our headphones and bury ourselves in user-friendly, intuitive interfaces.

Such, at least, is what we “adults” grumble about (“Well, sonny, when I was your age…”).  The Church, however, is doing something quite different.  The Pope Tweets!  Our own Bishop Melczek is on YouTube (if you don’t believe me, Google it)!

But what does this have to do with why Catholic schools are so important today?  Why am I not writing about pre-marital sex and crime and gangs and the economy and terrorism and poverty and empty pews…?  On the other hand, why am I not talking about high standardized test passing rates and college matriculation and rigor and discipline and innovation?

Notre Dame’s 14 year olds (“AHHHH!  Teenagers!  Run!”), given complete freedom to talk about what is important to them, focused on these themes:  Faith, Family, Vocations, Morals, Service, Caring, Gratitude, Learning, Connectedness, and Future.

We don’t give our young people nearly enough credit.  They are more than aware of all the struggles and troubles in the world.  They know that something isn’t right.  They know that there is more out there.  There is a thirst for love and joy and connectedness.  There is an energy and a vibrancy and a vitality.  There is an honest innocence.  There is a yearning for Truth (note the capital “T”).

Our young people are telling us exactly what they need and value, and it happens to be the Gospel.  Today’s youth – the youth with iPhones and headphones and Facebook and Twitter (and maybe even the youth with intentionally messy hair, though I’m not sure about that) – are hungry for the Word of God, for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and for life-giving relationships with one another.

It’s time for us adults to plug-in, log-on, and get connected – or, dare I say, reconnected.  Catholic schools are important in 2014 not because there are troubles all around us.  Catholic schools are important in 2014 because there is hope all around us, and hope does not disappoint.

Benjamin Devin John Potts, Ed.M., is the Principal of Notre Dame Catholic School in the Diocese of Gary, Indiana. He is also a member of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program's eleventh cohort. For more information on the Remick Leadership Program, please click here.

Notre Dame Catholic School is a ministry of the Notre Dame Catholic Community that fosters learning through an unsurpassed faith-based education and prepares young people for extraordinary lives. For more information on Notre Dame Catholic School, please click here. 

Catholic schools make unique contributions within the U.S. educational system—with the help of expertise and engagement from diverse sources. That theme emerged from recent media coverage of educational issues that incorporated voices from the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

Clark Power, Ph.D., director of the Play Like a Champion Today ® program, talked recently about his team’s work with coaches and parents to help make school athletics an important resource for moral formation. He was interviewed in August on “Blessed 2 Play,” a show about sports and spirituality heard nationwide on the EWTN radio network. (Click on the link, then click on the Clark Power audio track.)

Rev. Tom Doyle, C.S.C., an Institute for Educational Initiatives leadership specialist who brings his management skills and zeal for education to Catholic dioceses through the ACE Consulting program, offered a checklist of strategic steps to help Catholic schools flourish. (Click on the link and scroll down to the sidebar in this Aug. 25 feature in Our Sunday Visitor.) The steps spell out important roles for leaders at the diocesan and local level.

Christian Dallavis, Ph.D., who directs the Notre Dame ACE Academies initiative for in-depth partnerships with under-resourced Catholic schools, was quoted in an Aug. 29 article in National Catholic Register. The newspaper examined challenges to Catholic school enrollment posed in some places by the growth in charter schools. Dallavis noted that policy makers can play a role in increasing low-income families’ access to high-quality Catholic education through states’ parental choice programs. Dallavis now serves ACE as senior director of leadership programs.

Stories of hope among Catholic schools are multiplying, and the latest edition of National Catholic Register focuses on St. John the Evangelist School in Tucson, Ariz., to tell one of those stories. This inner-city school serving disadvantaged children in a predominantly Hispanic community has seen its enrollment nearly double in a few years. The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) has been blessed to generate good news for students and parents through the school’s distinctive Notre Dame ACE Academies model.

Reporter Brian Fraga talked with Dr. Christian Dallavis, who has served as director of the Notre Dame ACE Academies initiative since its inception in 2010. St. John the Evangelist is one of five schools—three in the Diocese of Tucson and two in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Fla.—where ACE’s unique model of whole-school transformation has been implemented, engaging local school communities, dioceses, and resources from Notre Dame in a multi-faceted partnership.

Besides enrollment gains, student academic progress has jumped sharply, recent statistics show. The Register report on St. John credits “changes in the school’s management structures and philosophy, a greater sense of professionalism, a new understanding of its Catholic identity, a collaboration with the University of Notre Dame, and a tax scholarship-credit program that helps families afford private education.”

Each day during Catholic Schools Week, we will post a reflection on the focus of the day centered around this year's theme, A+ for America. Today's theme: "Catholic Schools are an A+ for our Vocations"

I discovered my vocation to be a priest in Catholic schools.  Surely, the seed was planted by the diocesan priests and IHM sisters who taught me at St. Pius X Grade School in Broomall, PA, and the Augustinians who taught me at Malvern Prep.  But it was while I stood on the other side of the desk, as a teacher, that these seeds took root and blossomed into a religious vocation.  Though the details differ, many could tell a similar story….

Weeks into my first semester of law school, I was slowly but certainly realizing that I was in the wrong place.  Finally, I quit.  I returned home, completely depressed at my life’s “failure.”  Then one day, out of the blue, the phone rang:  one of my friends who taught at the nearby Catholic high school called.  He knew I had been moping around the house.  A teacher was going on maternity leave, and the school was looking for a temporary replacement.  Talk about casting your net into unexpected waters.  My friend persisted:  “The school could use you, and the kids would love you.”  So, a bit intrigued, I took the job.