April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
Teacher training topic of lecture
At the lecture, Rev. Timothy Scully, CSC, vice president of the University of Notre Dame, will explain the university's "ACE" program, which he founded to send Notre Dame graduates to work in needy Catholic schools all over the U.S.
Through a transcript of his talk, The Evangelist "interviewed" Father Scully on the future of Catholic schools and his hopes for the ACE program.
Q. What are your feelings on Catholic schools?
Father Scully:
Catholic schools are one of the great American success stories. Today, America's Catholic schools educate over 2.5 million children and are in a position to play an even more strategic civic function: providing quality education for minority and disadvantaged young Americans and for a new wave of immigrants.Q. What kind of struggles do Catholic schools face in continuing their mission?
Father Scully:
Individual parochial school systems operate in chronic isolation, without networks of coordination to provide innovation in teacher training and curriculum reform. What is desperately needed is a coherent and systematic effort to sustain and enliven Catholic education on a national level.Q. What is the ACE program?
Father Scully:
The Alliance for Catholic Education, or ACE, this year will recruit, train and send 140 extraordinarily talented young Catholic graduates to serve as leaven in over 80 needy Catholic schools in 26 different communities, stretching across nine of our country's poorest states. Last year, ACE officially became the largest employee of graduating Notre Dame students.Q. How does the program work?
Father Scully:
Our young teachers spend two summers on Notre Dame's campus, in an intensive boot camp, learning to become the best Catholic school teachers they can become. They then are sent, at the end of every summer, to over 25 school communities to serve as teachers and live in community for the academic year. The second summer, they return to Notre Dame's campus to pick up where they left off. After the second year of teaching, they receive a Master of Education.Q. Why do you feel ACE is an answer to saving Catholic schools?
Father Scully:
Our nation must train over one million new teachers in the next decade, just to meet the demands of our classrooms. What kind of training will they have? Will they see teaching as a job or a vocation; a task or a holy sacrament? Wouldn't America be poorer if there were no choice but to send our children to state-run schools? Wouldn't it be a shame if our children did not have an opportunity to study and learn in a school that unapologetically placed faith and reason in unbridled pursuit of truth?(The Hesburgh lecture will be given on March 19 at 7 p.m. in the Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary at The College of Saint Rose, Albany. Admission is free. For information, call 454-5105.)
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