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A New Kind of Catholic School?

Could the 'classical' model save failing parochial schools?
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A reader writes:

The story about your friends pulling their kids out of Catholic school hit particularly close to home as my wife and I have reached a breaking point with our parish school. Our seven year old daughter has had nearly the identical experience as your friends’ 10 year old. We are very orthodox, but it seems
like most of the school families are cultural comformists, or as a previous commenter indicated more MTD than Catholic. I know most of these kids are being exposed to the full range of bile which our popular culture spews. Our 7 year old daughter has not yet made her first communion, but already she has had a male classmate give a note telling her, “I like your ass,” and has overheard a male classmate telling the girls in the class that he played naked with a girl in his neighborhood. This is concerning enough although I would guess this 7 year old boy doesn’t understand what he’s saying.

More disturbing is the garbage that has come home from the school library where ostensibly there should be some adult oversight as to what the kids can take out or
what should be in a Catholic school library to begin with. We’ve not seen anything like the book you mentioned in your earlier post, but we’ve seen books that glorify all manner of disrespectful behavior, bathroom humor, bullying, mocking people including teachers for weight, hairstyle, dress, etc. Our children are no longer allowed to check books out of the school library because we simply cannot trust the staff to provide appropriate guidance.

There is another factor at work with many Catholic
Schools that has not been mentioned and that is the simple fact that so many of them, ours included, are struggling just to survive. They’re struggling to survive because so many Catholic parents, the vast majority at our middle class suburban parish, send their kids to public schools. Our school is so desperate to increase enrollment that they water down the faith to attract anyone who might be looking for an alternative to public schools of uneven quality. We just had our annual Catholic Schools week open house this weekend, and my wife overheard perhaps the very best and most devout teachers on the faculty, someone who is extremely active in the parish and whom we know to be very committed to her faith tell a prospective, non-Catholic parent that while the school is Catholic it’s not, “overly Catholic.” I cannot tell you how dispiriting this is especially since I’m far from certain that the principal and other teachers are as devout as this teacher.

We are fortunate that in our area there is a private, non parochial Catholic school, recognized by the archdiocese, but not part of the deeply bureaucratic archdiocesan system. This school was founded about 15 years ago by a group of well-to-do Catholics who were not satisfied with the orthodoxy of the local parochial schools. We’ve been doing our due diligence on this school, but all the evidence indicates that it is exactly what we’re looking for. When I first started researching it, I was quickly struck by the impression that it’s the Benedict Option in practice. And it’s more academically rigorous as well. It costs quite a bit more, but it will be more than worth it if it’s what it appears to be. Even so, I know that in our culture, the cost of my children’s innocence and their souls is eternal vigilance.

I was talking not long ago with a friend and reader of this blog who was telling me about the Catholic school system in his very Catholic hometown. It is a lot like the reader above describes his daughter’s school, and my friend said that there are a fair number of Catholic parents who would love to take their kids out of the diocesan system and put them into a Catholic school that took the faith seriously. But there are none.

My friend has what I think is a great idea, following on the example of St. Jerome’s in Hyattsville, Md., profiled in the Washington Post Why not take one of the failing Catholic schools in the local diocesan system and remake it as a “classical” school? Protestants are way ahead on the classical model, and Catholics have a lot to learn from them — and from fellow Catholics like the folks at St. Jerome’s. From the WaPo piece:

“Classical” education aims to include instruction on the virtues and a love of truth, goodness and beauty in ordinary lesson plans. Students learn the arts, sciences and literature starting with classical Greek and Roman sources. Wisdom and input from ancient church fathers, Renaissance theologians and even Mozart — whose music is sometimes piped into the classrooms to help students concentrate better — is worked in.

On the hallway walls outside Clayton’s classroom are student posters on the theme “What is goodness?,” “rules for knights and ladies of the Round Table,” drawings of Egyptian pyramids, directions to “follow Jesus’ teachings” and “be respectful toward others,” and other exhortations to live a noble life.

“The classical vision is about introducing our students to the true, the good, the beautiful,” Principal Mary Pat Donoghue points out. “So what’s on our walls are classical works of art. You won’t see Snoopy here.”

Classical theory divides childhood development into three stages known as the trivium: grammar, logic and rhetoric. During the “grammar” years (kindergarten through fourth grade), children soak up knowledge. They memorize, absorb facts, learn the rules of phonics and spelling, recite poetry, and study plants, animals, basic math and other topics. Moral lessons are included.

And:

“We defined what we meant by ‘classical’ in very Catholic terms,” says Michael Hanby, a committee member and a professor at the John Paul II Institute at Catholic University. “It was not just a method but an incorporation into the whole treasure of Christian wisdom, which includes that of Christian cultures. Our students would get a coherent understanding of history, literature, art, philosophy — the traditions to what Catholics in the West are heirs.”

It could be kind of a “magnet school” for Catholic parents who want something richer and deeper for their children than the “Catholic lite” approach that frustrates many parents. And it need not be outside of the diocesan system.

What’s not to like? Tell me, Catholic readers, especially you Catholic school teachers.

 

 

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