Catholic
Education
Christ spent his
life teaching. He entrusted his mission to his followers urging
them to “go and teach.” Teaching is essential to the message of
Christ. Catholic schools are a structured way to present the
message of Christ. These schools attempt to produce other
generations that will know and experience how much God loves and
cares for them.
Catholics view God
and creation as good. Educators in Catholic schools assist new
generations in exploring God’s creation. They strive for
excellence in human skills and learning to help their students
become more fully human. These educators realize that human
learning can open persons to greater religious sensibility.
Thus, they teach in order to educate, that is, to help others
ultimately to find God in all things and to be attentive to
God’s continuing revelation.
Catholic education
has a vision and a set of values. Its vision is that of Jesus
Christ calling each one individually and corporately to be a
community of faith, to restore all things in Christ, and to
bring Christian values to all subjects, activities, and persons
in the school. The values that flow from this vision are those
of Jesus Christ. In particular, they include community, faith,
hope, reconciliation, courage, service, justice, and love.
…explore
alternatives to the assumptions of the culture,
Ask questions as to what makes life meaningful…
Catholic education
is also a freeing process. It aims to provide insight on how to
live and a context for this living. Thus, educators in Catholic
schools explore alternatives to the assumptions of the culture,
ask questions as to what makes life meaningful, look at choices
in decisions to be made, and deal with issues for living in a
pluralistic society. Catholic schools are free to explore these
dimensions and to enable students to integrate faith, life, and
culture.
The goals of
education are idealistic and manifold. The real test of a
school is what students carry away with them, remember of their
experience, and put into daily practice. The Catholic Bishops
of the United States in their pastoral message on Catholic
education, To Teach as Jesus Did, described three
highlights that they hoped students in Catholic schools would
embody as a result of a Catholic education. These salient
characteristics, which transcend academic excellence, are
MESSAGE, SERVICE, COMMUNITY. The message is that Jesus
Christ which is particularly, though not only, proclaimed
through the school’s religious education opportunities,
sacramental life, liturgical celebrations, and retreats. The
service is the program of assisting in the community and
reflecting on the experience. The community is the
atmosphere of trust, respect, caring, and charity which permeate
the school and reflect a belief in transcendence.
Many studies have
been made on the impact of Catholic schools. In one study,
James S. Coleman found that Catholic high school students score
higher in academic tests, attend college twenty to thirty
percent more, succeed in college at a greater rate, have a lower
drop-out rate in high school, and have stricter course
requirements. Critics would attribute these achievements to
greater parental wealth and interest in education, the
strictness of discipline, or the selectivity of students in
Catholic school.
However, Coleman’s
examination compared students of comparable backgrounds. He
concluded the greater achievement to the condition that parents
back up the authority of Catholic schools. Parents will trust a
Catholic school because it is connected to a church that shares
their values; and they communicate this trust to their
children. They become involved in the school. When the parents
get together, they are able to draw on a great deal of support
from one another. They become part of a community of adults who
know and care about one another. This important asset of
Catholic schools Coleman calls “social capital.” This asset is
enhanced by a consensus on goals, objectives, and priorities
which leads to essential agreement, cooperation, achievements,
administrators and teachers in Catholic schools can minister so
that they exist in their particular school.
