Catholic Schools Matter Now More Than Ever
Last week, I read George Packer’s, “When the Culture War Comes for the Kids” and it stopped me dead in my tracks. It was a long and meandering read about the complex and varied challenges facing his family as they navigated the New York City school system.
Critics complained that Packer was out of touch and that his personal story only represented the not at all sympathetic problems of the ultra-rich in Manhattan. But, here’s the thing…they’re wrong.
I know because I’ve been “in the trenches” in American education in a unique way. Over the last ten years, I have taught in public, charter and Catholic schools. I’ve taught in red states and blue states; in big cities and small towns. I’ve taught in places where there was no collective bargaining for educators and in a state with one of the most powerful teaching unions in the country.
I’ve taught children drowning in abject poverty and systemic racism and I’ve taught the children of college professors, doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs. I’ve taught in schools just like the ones Packer described and in schools that many Americans would never send their children to.
All of this varied teaching experience came via several unexpected cross country moves. To be honest, there are times that I wish I didn’t have the range of experience that moving from state to state has afforded me. But, l do. Most days I’m grateful, if for no other reason than I can read a piece like Packer’s and see it through the lens of lived experience and not political expediency.
If you don’t have the time or energy to read the piece, I will attempt to summarize: After initially entering into the hyper-competitive, insanely expensive world of elite, Manhattan private schools, Packer and his wife made the decision to move to public schools in part due to their desire to give their children a school experience that better aligned with their political and moral values. After years of actively supporting their child’s public school and navigating concerns over policy and curriculum, the Packers returned to private schooling.
While the author’s personal experience was interesting, it was the larger narrative that struck me as so significant. Essentially, there is long-brewing tension in American education policy between a cold meritocracy that leaves too many behind (often the most vulnerable) and a new model of public schools as ground zero in a battle to solve the country’s social ills.
The former is obviously wrong, but the later is becoming increasingly disordered, alienating families and asking too much of already burdened teachers. I’m not here to pile on public schools. The public school system in this country is like a giant cargo ship facing trouble from all directions. It’s being battered by a storm, facing mutiny from within and piracy from without. All the while being asked to cross longer distances while at the same time navigating narrower channels. It’s not the ship's fault, we’re just asking too much of it.
But, for families like Packer’s who feel torn between the two models of education, there is an alternative…Catholic Schools.
Of course, there are elite independent Catholic schools that sadly promote a system of extreme meritocracy that should be unacceptable to most educators and parents. But, there are also thousands of small Diocesan Catholic schools all around the country that are building a bridge between the two competing models of schooling described by the author.
These schools demand academic excellence and embrace tradition, while simultaneously promoting a system of schooling that truly educates the whole child. By focusing on not just the intellectual and physical, but also the spiritual formation of children, Catholic schools offer an alternative that secular private schools and public schools do not.
Catholic schools embrace the community-focused and justice-oriented ethic that many parents want in a school. Catholic schools are practicing the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy every day in America. Funerals for veterans, collecting donations for disaster relief, supporting refugees and making “blessing bags” for the homeless are just some of the projects happening right now in Catholic schools.
There are public schools that participate in charity work too, but for Catholic schools, service work is an integral part of the school’s mission. It’s not an afterthought or a surface-level deep attempt to check a politically convenient box.
Catholic schools also serve an increasingly diverse section of the population. Nearly a quarter of all Catholic school students are racial minorities and over 18 percent are non Catholics. In urban dioceses like Chicago and Los Angeles, Catholic school students come from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and life experiences.
Catholic schools are not without their problems. Like all Catholic institutions, they have been swept up in scandal and many are struggling to rebuild trust with families and their communities. Catholic schools are also struggling to stabilize enrollment and build sustainable futures. And no, Catholic schools aren’t immune from changing social norms.
Yet, Catholic schools still offer an education for over 1.78 million students that is neither purely meritocratic nor purely political. Small Catholic schools are working with families to build communities that value tradition and innovation. More than anything, Catholic schools offer a refuge for families, that like Packer’s want for their children an opportunity to be both informed citizens and students.
