Is There No Room at the Inn for Catholic Teachers in Catholic Schools Today?
The paradox of the modern age is that Catholic schools are becoming increasingly hostile and oppressive environments for teachers and pupils who identify as faithful Catholics.
Distance Learning Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
It’s been a strange and difficult semester for Catholic schools and colleges. Our institutions offer a unique social, spiritual, and intellectual formation that depends on personal presence, but students have been exiled from our classrooms, chapels, and athletic fields. For Catholic educators who have struggled to build on the strong relationships formed in the first … Read more
Nutcracker Not-So-Sweet
During a recent eighth-grade trip to Chicago, chaperones and students of Notre Dame Academy in Toledo walked out of a performance of The Nutcracker after learning that lead characters would be portrayed in a gay marriage. This was a courageous and bold move—a correct application of Pope Francis’s well-publicized encouragement of young people “to make … Read more
One Word Could Destroy Catholic Education
In three amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court filed last month, the bishops and Catholic educators—together with other major religious groups—urged the Court to uphold the meaning of “sex.” It’s one little word. But if the Court gets it wrong, our religious freedom could be quickly eroded. And while all Catholics and Catholic institutions … Read more
Catholic schools have a right to self-defense
This past June, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis opened a huge can of worms when it asked two Catholic schools within the diocese—Cathedral High School and Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School—not to renew the contracts of two male teachers who had, in flagrant violation of the Church’s teachings, been married in 2017. This should have been a … Read more
How to “Dialogue” Truthfully on Gender Ideology
If the Church invites dialogue about gender ideology and homosexuality, does this signal a possible compromise of Catholic doctrine? This question lies at the heart of the controversy over the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education’s recent document, “Male and Female He Created Them”: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in … Read more
A Tale of Two Jesuit High Schools
News of the conflict between a Jesuit high school and the midwestern archdiocese under which the school operates spread quickly last week through social media. For news outlets hungry for a story, the narrative wrote itself: a teacher at Indianapolis’s Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School had entered into a same-sex union, the Archdiocese demanded said teacher’s … Read more
Catholic Schools Are Right to Use Morality Clauses
Recently, I have noticed an increasing amount of news reports challenging morality clauses in employment contracts for Catholic school teachers. While yet another example of a teacher breaking a morality clause popped up this spring, another one struck my eye in late 2018, a little closer to home. This latter one didn’t only challenge the … Read more
A Catholic School Stands Its Ground
There have been plenty of examples of our secular culture’s antagonism toward Catholic education: from the Covington School-Nick Sandmann debacle, to activism against the admissions policies of Kansas City’s Catholic schools, and to numerous lawsuits by employees fired from Catholic schools for moral indiscretions. The greatest danger in these situations is not the secularist’s desire … Read more
About that Blackface Photo from My Past…
I attended a private high school, a very prominent establishment in my home town, and one that prided itself on academic excellence and athletic accomplishments. It was a very expensive school, and my parents sacrificed a lot to send me there. Since it was and still is one of the best-known schools in the Southwest … Read more
The Pro-Abortion Legacy of a Prestigious Catholic Prep School
In what is becoming yet another scandal for the Catholic Church, Rhode Island’s governor, Gina Raimondo, joined a growing list of Catholic lawmakers embracing a woman’s access to late-term abortion. A graduate of Providence’s Catholic college prep school La Salle Academy, an institution that describes itself as “rich in history and grounded in the tradition of … Read more
The Lazy and Hateful Gray Lady Targets Christian Schools
The other day Dan Levin, a reporter for The New York Times, went trawling online for stories from “survivors” of Christian schools. Word got out, people were appalled, and Levin ended up publishing a miserable and meaningless little piece, in which a couple of tributes from grateful students—see, even in the Sahara you can find an … Read more
Gender Ideologues Threaten Alberta’s Christian Schools
Canada has suffered an unreported revolution. In times past, revolutionaries first seized the radio stations thereby dominating the public narrative. Today, in the Age of Public Administration, they seize the faculties of education. Their “long march” through the Canadian schools has taken fifty years, but today their dominion seems unchallenged. In September, Alberta’s provincial Department … Read more
Education Should Not Be Fearful
At the beginning of the summer, an open letter by the heads of eight private schools in Washington D.C. appeared in the Washington Post and caused waves throughout education circles on the internet. In this letter, these modern-day educators announced that they were taking the supposedly radical step of eliminating Advanced Placement (AP) courses from … Read more
Islamization in the Schools
While jihadists across the globe are busy slitting throats, American school children are taught that jihad is an “inner struggle” and Islam means “peace.” While Muslim rape gangs destroy the lives of teenage girls in England, American teenagers learn that Muhammad was a champion of women’s rights. And although American students are taught all the … Read more
Secular Superficiality Versus the Rootedness of Culture
The other day we Americans were informed by National Public Radio that it was Easter Sunday, when Christians celebrate the fact that Jesus did not have to go to hell or purgatory, but rose straight into heaven. It is like saying that Christopher was named Columbus after the capital of Oklahoma, or that Joan of … Read more
An Alternative to Common Core and College Board Testing
Regardless of whether you are a Catholic educator, a classical educator or both, standardized testing has an influence on what you do. Even if your school never mentions the SATs or ACTs in any classes, your students have to concern themselves with these tests for their collegiate aspirations. While some colleges have adopted test optional … Read more
The Faithlessness of Public Education
In the wake of the dreadful massacre at the high school in Florida, I asked, via social media, what I thought was a question so obvious that everyone was bound to miss it, just as you do not notice the air you breathe. It was simply this. Why is no one surprised that a deranged … Read more
Why Catholic Schools Should Scrap Scholastic Book Fairs
This fall, parents may notice something missing from the piles of paper their children bring home from school each day. Book fair flyers from the Scholastic company, the world’s largest publisher and distributer of children’s books as well as the leading operator of school-based book clubs and fairs in the United States, are no longer … Read more