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4 Persectives on How Mass Enrollment in Catholic Schools Can Save this Country
1. The Catholic school enrollment of the Archdiocese of Boston is close to 30% of the public school enrollment. The central administration numbers are only .05% of Catholic vs. Public schools. Public schools sure looks top heavy with regard to administrative costs. Granted, Catholic schools do not have departments of special education, vocational, and free lunches and breakfasts, nor the extensive transportation costs. They just focus their education on its children through a curriculum of God, family and country with as minimal a cost as possible. They focus on teacher commitment along with student achievement without the bureaucratic nature of its system. Catholic schools are both faith based and community oriented with a considerably higher level of achievement among its students with a higher level of high school completion and enrollment into college. In addition, students from lower income families achieve at a higher level than their public school counter parts. Graduates tend to vote at a higher rate, earn higher salaries, and are more committed to community service as adults. Catholic schools work and at a cost much below public schools.
2. Not only do Catholic schools work, they work better in urban areas and inner city urban communities than their counter part public schools. The classroom discipline is better, the expectations are higher and the results follow. Parents are encouraged to get involved and their children receive a moral education besides higher level academics. There are many non Catholics enrolled in Catholic schools, yet moral education is the first thing inculcated, not Catholicism itself.
As Bill Donahue points out in Common Sense Catholicism: How to Resolve Our Cultural Crisis [2019], Catholic schools excel in educational success through what is referred to as impulse control. That means character development and keeping impulses in check. This is accomplished through challenging work, a lot of homework, self discipline and the 10 commandments. God permeates the curriculum, unheard of in public schools. Being answerable to God brings on self restraint in an individual. Religion positively influences behavior in children. So, to paraphrase Pope Benedict XVI, it is a rounded education for the whole person.
3. Faculty and administrative support for its students is a primary determinant of student success in Catholic schools. With many inner city children coming from broken families, this support is the key to success in that families are recognized as the number one variable for academic accomplishment. And family support is the ultimate factor for student success in any school system. Compare a Catholic high school to a public high school in structure, class size and support. In a public high school of 2000, 3000 or 4000 students, a child will attend school for four years and never once speak to an adult. He or she is lost in a sea of anonymity forced to cling to available support groups, cliques, gangs, crime, deviancy of all kinds. Who knows what devices might be available for such children. Probably the most pressing problem in America is the relation of its teenagers to adults. It is almost non-existent for many, and a healthier connection to society is lost.
Catholic high schools on the other hand, are rarely above 1000 - 1200 and generally in the hundreds. Class sizes are smaller, standards maintained and with it moral education. No one is lost.
In sum, Catholic school enrollment results in higher graduation rates, and higher percentages of college admittance through curriculum and preparation. They have lower student teacher ratios, a strong sense of community and above all, learning moral values for Catholics and non Catholics alike.
4. A former Catholic high school teacher myself, the most recent example of my experience with Catholic schools is our twice yearly Knights of Columbus visits to Hope Rural School in Indiantown, FL. To this author, this small Catholic school, PK3 - 5 lives up to its name in giving hope to 140 children and to a nation of 330 million. How’s that? You have to meet the kids. Hope Rural School provides a Catholic education that nurtures the Gospel values of mercy, justice and love. And that is just what you see when you arrive. A student population of such gentility, respect and love just gushes out toward visitors. It is the molding of Catholic character engendered to each from its curriculum and staff. Indiantown is a community of immigrant farm workers from Haiti, Mexico and Guatemala who have called this area home for decades. Holy Cross Catholic Church, Indiantown’s only Catholic church is adjacent to the school campus and serves the community of just below 7,000. Demographics indicate a city of approximately 16% white, 12% black and 70% Hispanic. The school population is predominantly children of migrant farm workers with one student identifying himself as white and American. Speaking with the children is a joy. They speak of their tribulations through both the desert areas and rainy areas of Mexico to get here. They speak of the animals at night and fear they engender upon the migrants. They speak of the bandits at night and the fear further engendered. They speak of the illnesses endured throughout their ordeal. They speak of the hope they all had to get to America and for their families to make a better life for themselves. They speak clearly about it because the major portion of the curriculum is the training of English writing, reading and speaking skills along with American history and culture. They are America’s future. Success abounds over the past 40 years with graduates becoming, nurses, teacher, lawyers. If America is to return sanity and morality is through the education of our youth as witnessed in Catholic schools such as Hope Rural School and the 7,500 Catholic elementary and high schools through out the country. America is going through a period of what is called a ‘collective mental derangement’. Push for state run school choice voucher systems in America to save us from this Marxist madness and allow parents to enroll their children in Catholic schools. Join this mass movement.
Source:
Baglino, Michael J. 2023. From Gramsci to Freud: 7 Anti Christian Philosophers Who Ruined America. New York: LT Publishing.
Dr. Michael J. Baglino, Ed. D. is a retired college professor, most recently an adjunct prof. in behavioral science at Palm Beach State College, Florida. He is a graduate of both Winona State University, MN and Florida International University, Miami. Michael is also a retired entertainer [singer/actor], performing primarily as a Frank Sinatra tribute artist under the name ‘Michael Matone’. A parishioner of St. Therese de Lisieux Catholic Church in Wellington, FL, Michael serves as a lector, EM, and 4th degree Knights of Columbus. He is a professional member of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. The Baglino family, wife, children and grandchildren all live in South Florida.
He is the author of 5 books, most notably ‘From Gramsci to Freud’ and ‘The Dr. B. Reader on the Ologies’. In his books, Dr. Baglino presents a series of articles and vignettes on religion, psychology, politics and culture. He shows us that God is with us in our daily lives interweaving trials, travels, and decisions with Catholicism. Definitely not without humor, Michael presents a down to earth and Catholic perspective to so many of our contemporary issues. See www.michaelbaglino.com/speaker.
