High School Options: The Choice We Face
Let me be clear from the start. I am an advocate of Catholic
education. And yet, as of now, my children might not attend a
Catholic high school. Here’s why.
Reason #1: There is another option in our community that we hope will
assist us more fully in meeting our family’s goals. A local public
charter school has reclaimed the intellectual roots of the Catholic education
of ages past. The school incorporates logic and philosophy into its course of
studies. Students read the early Church
Fathers and ancient Greek thinkers because their writings are of primary
relevance for all times and cultures. Catholics in particular should find them
an important part of a well-rounded education because they provide a foundation
for Catholic theology. I was not blessed with this type of education, and
I want my children to have it.
Reason #2: This charter school aims to weed out modern pop culture
from the daily school environment. I do not want my daughters constantly
assailed by the latest fashion trends, consumer must-haves, and false heroes
consisting of pop music singers, reality TV and movie stars, and professional
athletes of questionable moral character. While the concrete attainment of this
goal is difficult to measure and results will vary depending on each child’s
particular social contacts, at a minimum I want a school that attempts to keep
the baser elements of our culture at bay.
The problem that I will face is that it will break my heart to take our
daughters out of the Catholic surroundings they have known and loved during the
early years of their education. If we decide to enroll our children in
this high school, I will struggle with the lack of all of the elements that
make Catholic education Catholic. There is no prayer and no Catholic art
to remind students of the heroes of our Faith. There is no religious
instruction and no Mass.
There is nothing Catholic about it other than that the level of intellectual
development its students eventually attain will readily lend to their
understanding of Catholic doctrine should they later engage in more rigorous
study of Catholic theology as adults. Without question, the school
teaches about truth, goodness, and beauty, but they can’t mention Truth,
Goodness, and Beauty. They cannot legally make the connection to the
Giver of all Truth.
One mitigating factor that might ease my discomfort is that many members of
the school’s administration and faculty are Catholic, and the school was
founded by Catholics who saw the need in our community for this type of
education and filled it, somewhat courageously. They built a successful
academic alternative from the ground up. I believe that a lot of love and
sacrifice went into its founding. Many Catholic families whom I admire
greatly send their children to this school. These families are prayerful
and exemplify virtue. I have to believe that they carefully considered the
spiritual consequences of moving their children away from a Catholic
environment for 35 hours each week.
The ideal high school for my children would be one in which an academically excellent classical
curriculum is integrated into an authentically Catholic culture with a parent
population that is guided by its own Catholic nature to seek first and foremost
the formation of young Catholic men and women who are strong in conscience and
striving toward holiness. The school would seek to remove the barriers to sanctity thrown
at our young people by the secular culture at large, and the curriculum in its
entirety would reflect Christian virtue. A tall order by any stretch, I
am praying for such a high school option by the time it becomes relevant for
our family. I also pray that the exceedingly talented faculty and
administration members who successfully built the charter
school alternative for our community will share their enthusiasm and energy
with others who may decide to work toward improving the curriculum and
environment of our Catholic schools.
Money and Mission
I know that one factor for both large middle class and lower income Catholic
families is the cost of the diocesan high schools. But there is a diocese
in the United States
in which Catholic schools are tuition-free. Yes, tuition free—and high
quality. After establishing an aggressive diocesan-wide stewardship campaign in 1985, the Diocese of Wichita was able to
offer tuition-free Catholic education to children of active parishioners in all
of its elementary and high schools by 2002. Note the key words:
active
parishioners. In doing so, the diocese has not only ensured Catholic
education across economic lines but has also created schools with an authentic
Catholic identity that fosters more completely the primary goal of Catholic
education: to form Catholic children into faithful Catholic adults who
will know, love, and serve God.
The following quote is from an in-depth look at Catholic education in the
Diocese of Wichita, Chapter 1 of “Who Will Save America’s Urban Catholic
Schools?”
“The big ‘C’
Catholic comes before the little ‘s’ school,” [Diocese of Wichita
Superintendent of Schools Bob Voboril] says. “We are schools that if you come here, you are
going to be formed as disciples of Jesus Christ. It is going to be taught every
day. You are going to be surrounded by it in the environment. Your
teachers are going to be trained that way and you’re going to live it out in
service. We are going to worship daily. We are going to pray daily. And
in the end you are going to be expected to turn into a young person who knows
that the gifts they have are going to be put into the service of the entire
community, not just to enrich themselves,” Voboril says. In many struggling
dioceses, the opposite is more the norm. The schools’ Catholic identity has
been slowly eroded, replaced with focuses on athletics, academics or whatever
other educational avenue the tuition-paying families desire. “These schools
become subject to market forces,” he says. “If you’re going to charge someone
$8,000 or $12,000 in tuition, then you are going to have to listen very
carefully to the people who pay that kind of money.” What frees Wichita of those
pressures is the parish and stewardship model. With the parish providing the
funding and no wealthy donors (or government program) calling the shots, the
schools can retain a strong Catholic focus.
“We are not academically elite prep
schools,” Voboril explains. “We are not schools that cater to athletes. But we
are able to do what we can because parishioners are committed to the notion
that Catholic schools should be available for every active Catholic, not just
those who can pay for it and not just for those who are academically talented.
That changes the nature of the school in a good way. It exists for the
mission for which it was created instead of morphing into something because
that’s all it can afford.” (boldface
mine)
And the mission for which the Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Wichita
were created:
“Together with the family, the parish, and
each other, we will FORM EACH STUDENT INTO A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST who seeks
the Truth, grows to love It, and learns to live It.”
(capitalization theirs)
That’s it. Wow. It’s a simply stated mission, really, but my husband and I
cannot think of a more appropriate one to help us achieve our goals for our
children.
Many in our community have perceived a three-way divide in our diocese on
the issue of education and are greatly troubled by it.
Catholic education is more critical than ever right
now as we and our children face the increasingly dangerous
anti-Catholic disposition of the government and media in our country. I
believe that 54% of Catholics voted for President Obama in 2008 in part because
our own schools for the past 40 years have failed to properly form the
consciences of young Catholics. Catholic education must, first and
foremost, be Catholic, conceived and carried out by Catholics, for
Catholic children.
