Teachers hear call to change as Catholic schools near 2000

Workshops attended by the 900 educators in attendance focused on the new state learning standards, which encourage integrated teaching and thematic learning.

"Our whole purpose was to make [the convention] curriculum-oriented," said Cathleen Carney, assistant superintendent for instructional services for the diocesan Catholic School Office. "The bottom line is that nationally we're all being asked to change the way we do things. Children need to become critical thinkers."

Changes ahead

"Change isn't easy, but it's the only thing that is certain," Ms. Carney said. "Our schools and our students will do well with the new standards."

In addition to hearing about the changes in curricula, the educators learned about the changes Catholic schools will face as they enter the next millennium.

Transformation

The first act began in 1840 as Catholic immigrants of many different ethnic backgrounds poured into the United States, which at the time, she said, was highly anti-Catholic.

In order to help them hold onto their faith, U.S. bishops mandated that every parish have a school. The task of the schools was to keep the children Catholic through teaching the catechism and to provide enough of an education to allow them to get a job.

Act two

During this period, 6.8 million people were educated in Catholic schools. The country, Sister Clare said, also enacted its first voucher system: the GI bill, which allowed those who fought in World War II the opportunity to attend the college of their choice, including Catholic colleges.

The task of the second act was to provide an excellent education that would allow the students to work their way up through the social and economic ranks and to be good Americans.

"We made the schools highly academic, and proved you could be a Catholic and be a good American at the same time," she said.

Act three

"The most dramatic change is the shift from religious to laity" teaching and staffing the schools, she said. "The Catholic school system is being placed in the hands of the laity. The entire system and its future is up to you."

The task of this new act is preserving Catholic identity. Of Catholic schools, she said, "They won't last the next century without the sacred. All of the money in the world won't save Catholic education. The only thing that will save it is staying true to our roots. We have to be very careful that we maintain our mission. We educate the soul."

While public education looks at children as consumers of the commodity of education, she said, Catholic schools look at children as creatures of God and provide an education so that children can go out and change the world.

Excellence

"To educate the intellect is to do a holy thing," she said. "To be academically good is to be Catholic. God is truth. Every discipline that moves us to truth moves us to God.

"You have a tougher act than acts one or two," she told the teachers. "Look at the task God is putting on your shoulders. I think the task is so tremendous that God knew only the laity could pull it off."

(10-29-98) [[In-content Ad]]