The following blog was contributed by Kathy Mears, Interim President/CEO at the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) in Arlington, VA.
A ten-year-old boy sat in his classroom and was asked by his teacher to recite the Ten Commandments. The little boy did not stand as required and did not state the Commandments. He knew the Commandments, but he could not stand and enumerate them for his teacher, because he knew his teacher wanted the Protestant version and he was a Catholic. Thomas Whall endured a beating that day in 1859 at the Eliot School in Boston, a thrashing that left him bloodied and bruised. Thomas fainted as a result of his punishment and over the next few days Catholic students attending public schools walked out of their classrooms in protest of the treatment of Thomas and to rally against the teaching of the Protestant faith in public schools. Over the next few years, Catholics built hundreds of schools across Boston and the United States to ensure that their children received a quality education that included the teaching of the Catholic faith.
The Catholic immigrants who built those schools faced ingrained anti-Catholic prejudice among many in the Protestant majority. The Eliot School teachers were following Massachusetts law when they asked the young Thomas Whall to recite the Ten Commandments. Public schools, steeped in the values and traditions of the majority, were intended to be instruments by which immigrants would be assimilated into the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant norm. The common schools taught young Catholics Protestant translations of the bible. They also questioned the validity of the Catholic Christianity and they placed little value on the native languages and customs of the newcomers. They generally created structures that impeded upward mobility for these immigrant children.
In response to the hostility of the majority, the Church formed schools to share a Catholic way of life, including its rich and varied cultural traditions, with the next generation. The school became an essential component of the parish community, which served all of God’s people, the old and young. Unlike public schools, the Catholic schools respected and taught the languages and customs of the various ethnic groups. Catholic schools not only provided continuity, shelter and support, they also provided the skills needed to be successful in America. Our immigrant ancestors often came to the new world with only the clothes on their backs. Despite their lack of financial resources, the children were taught, and they learned. Since their inception, Catholic schools have lifted more people out of poverty, than any other private institution.
Immigrant children continue to fill our schools. Today they are more likely to come from Central or South America, Africa or Asia than Europe, but they still come to learn in schools that teach students to act ethically. Immigrant parents are seeking a place where their children will be loved and nurtured in an environment that challenges them to do their best in their academic studies. They want their children to be encouraged to do well and to do good. They also want them to learn about their faith and how to live a life that has Jesus at its center. Catholic schools continue to be places of hope, places where children are encouraged to embrace their heritage, language and customs, a place where they can feel safe and know the love of God.
Parents who are not Catholic also enroll their children in our schools. They appreciate that self-discipline is taught, and that the environment is one where children are encouraged to develop their talents and skills. It is because of the relationships that are developed in our schools between students, teachers and families that our schools excel in developing our students into responsible citizens, citizens who serve. As more than one parent has stated, “It’s like a family. I know that the people at the school will take care of my kids.”
None of this could have taken place without women and men in consecrated life, who toiled ceaselessly to educate other people’s children. These dedicated religious joined with families to provide young Catholics with the skills they needed not only to make a living, but to make a life worth living. These religious sisters, brothers and priests, taught children “reading, writing and ‘rithmetic”, as well as the faith. Students learned how to know, love and serve God from these teachers. The contributions of these educators to the success of Catholic schools is without measure.
Though fewer in number today, members of religious communities continue to enliven our schools. Today they work with the laity who have taken up their mantle. Lay men and women who work in our schools are very aware of the commitment that is needed to maintain the level of educational excellence that Catholic schools have always offered and realize that they stand on the shoulders of educators who understand that teaching is an act of love.
Catholic schools continue to be special places where the Church accompanies young people by handing on the faith, by providing outstanding educational opportunities, and by forming exemplary citizens committed to the common good at home and abroad. Catholic schools serve nearly 54 million young people in elementary and secondary schools worldwide, 1.7 million of them in the United States.
The Church engages in education because of its evangelizing ministry to bring children to Jesus, to teach them to know, love and serve God. The Church built and supports Catholic schools to build the kingdom of God. The Church also believes that it is her responsibility to support parents. In Gravissimum Educationis, the Church calls parents “the primary and principle” educators of their children. It is through Catholic schools that the Church more fully supports families in caring for their children and in teaching them the Catholic faith.
Catholic schools are not only places of evangelization, but they are also places of educational excellence and engagement. The Church’s ability to assist students in reaching their potential, in growing the seeds of talent planted in us by our Creator, is of paramount importance. It is through the Catholic schools’ evangelization efforts and quest for excellence that the Church engages in the true ministry of Catholic education. Academic excellence is a requirement of Catholic education. It is not a secondary principle. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Catholic school students outperform other students in both reading and math. Catholic school students are more likely to attend college and the contributions of Catholic school graduates to science, medicine, technology, literature and art are too many to enumerate. From an academic standpoint, Catholic education is critically important to our Church and nation.
According to a Pew study, students who attend Catholic schools are more likely to vote and to volunteer. They are more likely to graduate from high school and continue their education. Catholic schools create engaged citizens, people who give back to their community, people who understand their obligation to know, love and serve God by knowing, loving and serving others. Catholic education works because of the weaving of our faith into every aspect of the day. It works because our faith provides the foundation for our desire to seek truth, beauty and goodness in our lessons and in the way, we approach life.
During these turbulent times, Catholic educators are more than proving their worth. They are engaging with their students. They are working to create challenging lessons that will continue the learning that began in our classrooms last fall. Most importantly, they are reminding their students that they are still there, still willing to teach them and to enjoy life’s best moments and most difficult of times with them. Our teachers are showing our students how important they are to their school and Church communities. They are teaching them to turn to God in times of difficulty and times of joy, to find their hope in Jesus.
Catholic schools are living the evangelization mission of the Church. They are making a difference. They are worthy of our stewardship.
