I disagree with the premise that it takes a village to raise a child – especially in this day and age. The village may have its opinions but at the end of the day, I need to be sure I am raising a child of God.
NOTE: If you’re in the Atlanta area, St. John Neumann Church, Wednesday Sept, 5th, 6:30 – 8:00 pm; I’m addressing the youth and parents on the topic of self confidence, self esteem and self presentation – entitled “Becoming Irresistible”.
Marisa – your two main points around 1) the biblical fact that “Parents are responsible for their children’s education (spiritual and academic) in total” and 2) we as Parents are accountable to our children to model the behavior we expect of them …are right on, and I applaud you for calling this out as what I found to be the main points of your column. I know you live out both of these precepts in the raising of your daughter, and as a parent myself of five children in today’s challenging world, rife with the God of Secularism pushing to replace Christianity and my role as a parent, I know how important this responsibility truly is.
However, I do take issue with some of the subtlety of the tone and insinuation of the commentary on Catholic and Public schools – it certainly may not have been intentional, but it struck a chord with me, and I wanted to make sure I am defending what I believe to be the truth.
It is my personal belief from firsthand experience that outside of parents choosing to take full tactical responsibility for their children’s education (in modern terms, commonly referred to as Homeschooling) – that a Catholic School or University – when it is truly operating in truth to the Catholic Faith (and in accordance with Ex Corde Ecclesiae), and academically capable of serving each child, is truly the best educational experience for our children vs. any government run public school. I think it is important to call out the reality of this. It is my belief that when you said “you are rather pleased with the (public) system she is in” what you meant was that you were pleased with how you as a parent managed your responsibility to comprehensively educate her given the circumstances and how it has turned out” because I know at the core what our government run public school systems are all about and that is certainly not what is best for our children when we take a look at the facts and are honest about them.
The Catholic Educational System was the first, true founded “public elementary and secondary educational model” or “education for the masses” as well as the first collegiate system. The same applies for the first hospitals. Both of these systems were founded by the Catholic Faith and run by priests and nuns, and fully supported by the Catholic community in total, from a time, talent, and treasure standpoint, so they could be affordable for all. Now hundreds of years later, they are in peril, especially our Catholic Hospitals. And why are they in peril? They are in peril because we as modern day Catholics have fallen prey to the evils of secularism and have allowed them to fall into peril by convincing ourselves that academic “freedom” and eliteness should be separate from and take priority over being integrated with the truth of Christianity. This is why universities like Notre Dame and Georgetown are NO LONGER Catholic Universities but rather universities that are full-fledged secular institutions of higher learning with a former “Catholic TRADITION.” (Actually they are worse than that because they push a false Catholicism). Our schools and hospitals are also in peril because of the decisions of many bishops, priests, and nuns to partner with the government and allow what is taught in some of Catholic schools and universities and performed in our Catholic hospitals towards to gravitate to “acceptance of secularism” over the truth and the guidelines of Ex Corde Ecclesiae. We as Catholics, all Catholics, have stood by and allowed this madness to happen and have nobody to blame but ourselves. We have allowed ourselves to be convinced that our Catholic Schools and Universities should operate more like their secular counterparts and hence in today’s world we now seem to have just what we asked for – only a handful of TRUE Catholic universities and colleges (the other day I met someone who graduated from a Catholic University but had NO IDEA it was Catholic and the history of the Saint it was named after – Drexel !!!) . We have also allowed some of our Cardinals and Bishops to sell out on Catholicism by refusing to teach the truth of how Catholics are to form our conscience when electing public officials (our Bishops have been not only silent on this but have wrongly positioned Faithful Citizenship and Social Justice over The Catholic Voting Guide) and this sellout gave us JFKm, Obama, and the Healthcare Mandate that has threatened the very core of our faith.
Via our “gravitation” towards acceptance of secularism over the truth, our public schools have now become a place where several of the Ten Commandments are violated everyday – no formal prayer takes place (#1), where much money is wasted (#7), are run covertly by teacher unions (#8), and where there is an environment that certainly does not promote modesty (#6) and in some cases many of our academic subjects are infused with liberal ideologies very contrary to the Christian faith (#8). The only thing worse than a public school is a Catholic School where it professes to be a Catholic School but is not true to the faith nor operating in accordance with Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
How SAD we have allowed our Catholic Educational System and Hospitals to but put into a situation where instead of proliferating, they are declining, and in the case of hospitals, they are being forced to close or transfer ownership to secular healthcare organizations because of their beliefs and because of a president we as a Catholic majority put into office (and many of our bishops congratulated !!!). We have allowed the revolution of the 60’s and modern day secularism to devalue the call of priesthood and sisterhood, hence the continued decline of vocations in our Catholic Schools and Hospitals; we have become a society that instead of attempting to live a biblical life by striving to give 10% (or more if possible) of our income to the Church and its missions (i.e., Catholic Education), we only give 1% or 2% (this is a fact) and have allowed our Catholic Schools to fall into financial peril – while buying bigger homes and driving luxury cars that we don’t need and paying property taxes to support public school systems that work against our faith. We vote for liberal politicians who want to take away the freedom to practice Christianity or moderate politicians who are too spineless to stand up and fight for what is right, like pro-life and school choice legislation. When evaluating what schools our children attend, we have fallen prey to selecting them first based on the prestige of the name or place the secular evaluation of academic quality over the evaluation of whether or not the school integrates the spiritual truth into the academics. Many of us are even proud to send our child to a government run public school over a true Catholic School because we prioritize letting our children go to school with their friends or because it offers a certain AP class that the Catholic school does not or some other academic material “nonsense” that we if we REALLY WANTED TO, we could find a way to deal with and address.
The reality is, the more we “accept” this environment of secularism – by sending our children to government run public schools when good Catholic options exist – by supporting public universities and their foundations and endowments while at the sametime refusing to tithe 10% to our Catholic Faith to include supporting our Catholic Schools, and while donating NOTHING to public university Catholic Neuman Centers – the more we are contributing to our children’s downfall and abdicating our role as parents of our children . When we do this, I feel strongly that we are FAILING THEM.
I am the product of Catholic Schools as our my five children and although myself and my children have briefly attended secular institutions for certain parts of our academic education, I am fighting daily via my time, talent, and financial treasure to FIRST ensure the preservation and growth of our K-12 Catholic Schools, Collegiate Catholic Centers, and Hospitals not only in my community but around the world, to ensure the truth is known – that the evil God of Secularism is secondary to the true God and we must rise up and do all we can to eradicate it and prioritize our role both as parents and Catholics – and restore our Catholic Schools and Universities to full truth – and stop supporting the secular madness of our day.
While I realize attending a Catholic school or university is not a logistical reality for many people, at the same time, when we have good Catholic Educational options available to us, we must stop giving “credence” to our liberal government and public institutions over our faith based on secular academic or material evaluation or we will continue the downward spiral we are currently on as American Catholics. We also must stop bashing our Catholic Schools and Hospitals and fully accept the responsibility of our role as Catholic Parents and fix them where needed vs. simply deferring to the governmental option. Look where that got us with Obama ! Vatican II MANDATES the role of parents in partnership with clergy, administrators, and teachers in Catholic Education – if we do not take this on then we have NOBODY to blame but ourselves.
God Bless and Save Us !
Thank you Vince for your very thoughtful commentary. All noted. To your point, Catholic school is often looked at as a “luxury” and “social advantage” for those who can afford it. In this case, parents who send their kids to GOOD Catholic schools but do not encourage Catholic/Christian principles in their behavior are doing the rest of us parents an injustice because we now have to “explain” the disparity to our questioning kids.
Marisa – I understand many people may look at Catholic Education as a luxury or social advantage but I think if we look beyond the superficiality of that thought I firmly believe affordability gets used as an unfair excuse more than it should be. I think the four main reasons that many (but not all) Catholic Schools are not affordable nor readily available is because 1) we as Catholics have devalued the importance of vocations vs. secular careers and endeavors, 2) we have failed as ENTIRE CATHOLIC COMMUNITIES to selflessly practice the biblical principles of tithing that ensures our Catholic School System is financially stable and affordable 3) We have mindlessly voted for politicians that promote government schools over all other options and support the proliferation of that bureaucracy vs. school choice, and 4) many Clergy have prioritized other Missions (many of them Socialistic) over supporting daily Catholic Education and they themselves have contributed to the unaffordability issue by deprioritizing the education of our children in Catholic schools and universities vs. more cost effective but greatly watered down CCD/PSR programs and non-existent support of college Neuman Centers. I bet very few Catholics in the Atlanta Archdiocese know how poorly supported our Catholic Neuman Centers truly are – did you know that a few Catholic Centers on GA College Campuses receive NO financial support from the Atlanta Archdiocese ??? This is beyond comprehensible!!! This is perhaps the biggest battleground for our children’s minds, yet our Bishops and Clergy would rather poor thousands of $ into duplicit programs within the Diocese and socialistic endeavors like CCHD, to name just one of many. This is why I personally do not support many of the Catholic Church’s “highly promoted” donation programs and instead donate that money to Catholic K-12 and Neuman Centers. Before we bash our Catholic Schools on affordability, have we first looked at ourselves and done a proper examination of our efforts? Have we prayed for vocations, including for our own children, or have we selflishly encouraged our children to take on other more secularly prestigious careers? Have we tithed at 10% (or more) …and have we given our excess to fund Catholic Education? Have we voted for liberal politicians who work to deny voucher and school choice programs to Catholic Schools, even though the tax money belongs to us? Have we challenged our Bishops and Clergy to focus the appropriate resources on Catholic education? Have we as parents resisted the temptation to prioritize alleged “elite academic offerings” in public education that are nothing more than paper tigers infused with a secular view vs. a true spiritually integrated classical education for our children via the Catholic School System? Have we prayed about having the opportunity and God providing it in his own way ?
With all that being said, we live in an imperfect world and in any Catholic School, good or bad, it is a microcosm of society – it runs the gamet from families who practice the faith fully to those who do anything but. I have been there before as a student and am there now as a parent . My parents sent me to a GOOD Catholic School primarily for the quality of the academic education vs. the public schools. To be honest, the Catholic Christian environment was secondary to that from their standpoint. My parents are good people but that was a fact. However, the richness and truth of the Catholic Faith that I learned was impressed upon me indeliably during my high school years and that would have NEVER happened to me if I attended a public school. I am one of the Lord’s most unworthy servants but every year of my life I grow more deeply in my Catholic Faith and I know that is because of what was instilled in me from Kindergarten through 12th grade in the Catholic Schools. I am forever grateful for that experience even though it came to me for what many would call the “wrong reason.” Parents who send their children to good Catholic Schools but behave and enforce behavior contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Schools do the biggest disservice to their own children, not to me as a parent. But even in those situations, I would rather see those children in good Catholic Schools because they’ll have a better chance of noting their parents faulty behavior than they ever would in a public school – I’ve been there myself, I am a product of that, and that was my experience. And I am fine with having to explain this to my children – what a great opportunity to be the best Catholic parents we can be to accept our responsibility as the primary educators of our children – who wouldn’t want that ??? I love it and am embracing it every opportunity I get !!! I am VERY grateful that I have the ability to send my children to GREAT Catholic Schools but at the same time I recognize there is more to be done to make this a reality for every parent and child that wants the same experience. I can’t wave a magic wand like I would love to do, but I can do all the things I mentioned above and be a role model for others to do the same. The fact remains, our Catholic Educational System is the prized jewel of our faith and must continue to be supported as a priority. The Catholic Faith is the last hope we have. Look at who was able to be the first to defeat Obamacare – it was not our Bishops and the Official Hierarchy of the Church – it was four Catholic Businessman in Colorado. Our Catholic Bishops’ lawsuit only went part of the way – it was only filed to protect the Church. The Businessmen’s lawsuit went all the way. We are all apostles and the problems of our world and our faith are ours to fix as Catholics and parents, and nobody else’s.
God Bless!
P.S. – The State of Georgia is a very school choice friendly state and the recent Tax Credit Scholarship (enacted in 2008) has made many Catholic Schools in GA affordable for anyone who wants to come. This may not be as widely known as it should be but it is a wonderful reality, and I am working hard to ensure all Catholics know about this and can have the option to send their tax dollars to the Catholic Schools instead of sending them to the government. It has helped get hundreds of kids in our schools who otherwise would not have the opportunity.
Marisa, thank you for expressing my whole Catholic/public school experience. I have 4 kids. Oldest K-12 years of Catholic schools; next K-4 Catholic and 5-12 public; next K Catholic 1-now sophomore year public and the youngest k- through now 8th grade. I live in Maryland and we have one of the best if not the best public school system in the US. We have exceptional Catholic schools and poor Catholic schools. We have topnotch magnet programs in public schools and failing schools. It isn’t a one size fits all. I am lucky and in a very good county public school system which has values programs as part of its everyday curriculum. It enforces dress code which the Catholic schools do not- girls skirts are always hiked up way too short. Our policies of dress code extend to the parents on campus not just the kids, not on the Catholic schools’ campuses. Public school kids must turn T-shirts inside out if it has inappropriate symbols or statements, porn, alcohol, violence, weapons, racists or sexist comments anything inciting bad behavior or disrespectful attitudes. I can’t say that for our parish youth group with the short shorts and the tank tops, our girls would have to put a gym uniform on and most of the kids in youth group are the Catholic school kids. My sons won’t attend because of how the girls dress.
We have a textbook program for Catholics provided by the State so our Catholic schools have and use the exact same texts books we use, minus the religious education books. To have an AP course you must follow the guidelines of the State or you don’t get AP credit. The Catholic highs have the same curriculum as the public high for AP courses. Music and art courses are much more available and much better in public schools. My daughter just graduated as the top band student in her school winning the Sousa award for leadership/skill and was the director of the freshman symphonic band and the field marshal of the marching band as well as the music librarian. No where could she received a music education in the Catholic school system here that could even begin to rival the education she received. She took all AP music theory during high school and scored 4.0. She lived with diversity in religious cultures from Muslims to born again Christians to Mormons and pagan Wiccans. They had to agree to disagree and respect one another and they did. They had many interesting discussions and they shared their religious ceremonies with one another- bah-mitzvah, Confirmation, and several others. This is the world that our children ultimately inherit when they are on their own. She is prepared.
My oldest son had a more sheltered environment in Catholic schools and more intolerant judgmental education. They came out believing they were better than public school students. They all were accepted to prestigious colleges because of the superior Catholic education- well that is if they all went through remedial studies because they scored so poorly on the entrance exams, even at the local community college. Many of the students from the local prestigious high couldn’t place high enough in LA/writing and mathematics at the community college either. They were told how poor our public schools were but his little sister had to help him with algebra because we start algebra in 7th grade so all kids are proficient in it by their 1st year high. Academics are important but not always the most important things in a school. My daughter passed all entrance exams for colleges community and otherwise but she wasn’t offered the same opportunities just because catholic was not in her school’s name.
Morality is taught in a different way in public schools. It is respect and responsibility. They expect the families to import their standards into the respect and responsible curriculum and yes we have some families that don’t fit the Christian mold but most of the families in our area are conservative church going people so our schools reflect that. A lot of opting out of health class takes place. Bullying is a federal program made to indoctrinate our kids into accepting homosexuality but Scripture is God’s book and it says no to homosexuality, opting out, so it is not a big deal. We, as in parents, circumvent what is inappropriate in the curriculum. I did the same for my son in Catholic school, family life that was too explicit for children. They use the same flawed text as public schools so if you aren’t reading the text and watching for mistakes or misinformation your kids are getting it in Catholic school too.
According to so many I should put my kids in Catholic schools just because they are Catholic and that is just plain nonsense. My kids have learned to be evangelists and my daughter has brought a whole family into the Catholic Church while being a Catholic in a public school. I do believe that follows the last command our Lord gave us “Go and make disciples of all Nations.” If for no other reason we need good Catholic families in these schools. Catholic school changed my son in a very subtle way, an unchristian and unloving way because of all the unchristian atmosphere, an elitist atmosphere, public schools steal from us and they are trash kind of attitude. Any bad his younger siblings pick up is because they are in public school. I have to ask him did anyone in school do what they are doing… well then maybe it is just kids learning to grow up.
I had hopes for Catholic education but coming out of that system was a God send because my daughter has found music as a special part of who God created her to be. She became a leader in our parish too and was proud to tell them she is a public school student not from the local catholic school system and people are amazed. I am a catechist so she knows her faith well, as my sons do. My younger sons are thriving in public school. It is what is good for my children… and that is what it is all about, my children. I will not keep my kids in a process that has failed so many children when I have an alternative. You will go after public school parents who are Catholic but you don’t go after contracepting Catholic school parents. We are doing nothing wrong and in fact Fulton Sheen said this on his TV show Life is Worth Living:
“I tell my relatives and best friends, ‘If you want your
children to fight for their faith, send them to public school. If you want them
to lose their faith, send them to Catholic school.’”
So be careful what you are defending. I can’t change what the catholic education system has become but I won’t put money into a failed system no matter who made it fail. As for liberal ideals being taught our bishops are the greatest offenders of the faith in their neglect of the rule of subsidiarity in favor of communist redistribution of wealth, not public school teachers with agendas. Individual Catholics who do not know their faith destroy the Catholic culture in parishes and schools, it is not public schools. Stop blaming parents doing what they deem best for their kids for the decline in a failed system. If I thought a car was a piece of dangerous junk I would not buy it, why would you want me to put money into a schools that will do spiritual damage to my children. I can’t afford elite schools that are the best of the best. Catholic schools have to find Jesus as their heart again and then people will come and be willing to do what must be done but when they are just secular with a religion book thrown in I won’t pay. I wont hurt my kids that way ever again.
This is a novel idea get involved with your local public schools. If they are such cesspools of ignorance and immorality you are obligated as Christians to change them for the sake of the children. Stop the pornographic comprehensive sex education starting in kindergarten before it gets into the schools. Find out what kind of texts they are using. See if they need tutors or reading coaches, and you can change the climate of our public schools. God sees no difference in those public school souls and He wants all of them with Him in eternity. Most Catholics that complain about public schools have never even stepped foot in them and have never paid any attention to what good they do accomplish.
Thank you “public school
catholic” for your presentation of the “public” perspective. I agree that
ultimately we are ALL called to “spread the good news” and kids from the public
system can be witnesses just as well as the kids from Catholic schools. My
premise is that both private and public schools can be good IF you are a good
parent and diligent in raising a child in the image and likeness of Christ.
As evidenced by the spirited and well reasoned comments, this is an excellent choice of topic. As practicing Catholics my family has struggled with this particular issue. First, there is little dispute that the Catholic educational system is the best in the world. No system of learning does more with less. Look no further than the parochial schools in the inner cities abandoned by most Catholics decades ago. In these communities Catholic education provides the only hope for escape for children and families that want to reach their God given potential. On the other hand, it is true that failure to adhere to Church teaching on the part of so called Catholic schools and the failure of Catholic parents to properly instruct their parochial school children causes tremendous damage to the faith. Children are confused by ambiguity. I see this confusion in suburban Atlanta all the time. While recognizing the importance of Catholic schools, it seems clear to me that proper Catholic parenting is the most important aspect of raising faithful Catholic children and young adults. It’s not an either-or issue but parenting is the key.
Vince, Thank you for putting yourself out there, taking a stand and engaging in healthy debate in a civilized manner. This is America’s cherished freedom!
Vince, great discussion and well articulated. In support, I would like to provide proof of how well the system would work if every family would do it’s part. In the Archdiocese of Kansas, elementary education in Catholic Schools is provided without charge since all the families in the parish actively tithe.
Do you mean the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas?
I pray you get this and can respond. I am in a dilemma now with our little ones. We purposely purchased a home where my kids would be in one of the best city schools – I love the idea of neighborhood schools. HOWEVER, I had not anticipated how this election would turn out and now I am petrified of what will be inculcated and woven into the curriculum (formally or informally) regarding the redefinition of “marriage” in our state. As far as I can tell, we are not in a position to send our kids to Catholic schools (and I also hadn’t wanted to for the exact reason you quote by Fulton Sheen and because of the “elitist” mentality that I have also witnessed) but now I feel so torn. Our area is EXTREMELY liberal and we are also not in a position to homeschool. Any thoughts, especially since you are in Maryland, would be very much appreciated. Would you change your mind (will you change your mind) re: public vs. Catholic schools given the current circumstances in our state? Thanks so much!
All Catholic schools aren’t like that. I happen to go to one and the education is very high they teach us more than education but how to live better in life and about God. I am christian and they never force me or others to do catholic things, this is to all of the people who think catholic schools are terrible or OK but not the best. I also came from public to catholic
All Catholic schools aren’t like that. I happen to go to one and the
education is very high they teach us more than education but how to live
better in life and about God. I am christian and they never force me or
others to do catholic things that we don’t believe in, this is to all of the people who think
catholic schools are terrible or OK but not the best. I also came from
public to catholic. It was a hard change for me public schools put you way behind.
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