Tangent from Solutions to the Shortage of Priests thread.

Should the Church focus more effort and resources on Catholic education?

It seems to me that if the Church made education a priority and made it more affordable for families, would families be more devout and would this lead to more vocations?

Please let me know what you think.

God bless,

-- john placette (jplacette@catholic.org), March 31, 2004

Answers

bump

-- (bump@bump.bump), March 31, 2004.

Affordable Catholic education is sure one of my own issues..My daughter and her husband are now faced with the choice of coming up with $3500/year to send my Grandson to Catholic shool or to the free public school..guess what? He'll be in KINDERGARDEN..1st grade tuition is $5000/year. yikes. I know that when I was a child (when dinosaurs roamed the earth it seems)school parishes were more willing to defray the tuition costs by inviting the families to participate in sort of a barter system..my daughter and SIL tell me that sadly, that's not the case..either you have the tuition money or your child doesn't attend. OUCH. IMHO much could be gained from a concentrated effort to have as many Catholic children in our own education system as possible..especially that of increasing vocations, but also a return to the focus of Catholic UNITY..as in the children attend Catholic school, the family participates in school activities/functions, and ALL worship together as a community..

-- lesley (martchas@hotmail.com), March 31, 2004.

Proper formation, under all kinds, whether formal Catholic education or informal catacheticals or whatever, is essential to the future of vocations. How can you believe what you do not know? How can you be ordained to what you do not believe?

In short, yes good Catholic Education will increase the number of people responding to vocations.

Dano

P.S.: Just to make you all jealous. We have fully funded public Catholic Schools in Alberta (Canada). These are not immune from problems, mind you.

-- Dan Garon (boethius61@yahoo.com), March 31, 2004.

Some parishes offer free Catholic Education to their students because their members give enough money to the church to allow them to offer free education. I think we need more Catholic Education because I think it is important to teach values throughout the curriculum. However if we want to make it more affordable at least one of the following must happens, 1. costs go down, 2. giving goes up. Since salaries are a large part of education costs to cut costs means to cut salaries and in many Catholic schools there isn't much room to go in the downward direction. Therefore we need to give more.

-- James (stinkcat_14@hotmail.com), March 31, 2004.

John,

I'm not really familiar with the Catholic Education system in the US. Are you proposing that the Church provides a separate Catholic Education system for Catholic children? If this is the case, I'm not sure how they could actually fund this venture. Since Catholic parents are tax-payers the same as any other parents, shouldn't they lobby the government to provide Catholic Education for every Catholic child? That's the system here, and it seems to work. The state funds our Catholic schools, with the Church having the right of approving teachers in the schools and in what is taught within those schools. Very few Catholic schools are privately funded. (As an aside, Catholic schools academically out-perform non-Catholic schools and generally have better behaviour and discipline records).

However, all of that being said, I cannot say in all honesty that we have a good level of vocations here. The fact that every Catholic child is provided with Catholic Education as a right doesn't seem to have led to an increase in vocations.

Unfortunatley, the best Catholic schooling in the world won't help if the children aren't also being supported and encouraged in their faith at home. Perhaps that's where the Church could be most effective, providing Adult Education and Formation in the Faith. Giving support to parents who then are in a position to adequately support the work of schools.

Of course the Parish community is also important in our children's education, and any type of religious education has to be holistic, involving school, home and parish. The parish can also work very effectively supporting children and families in their spiritual lives. Children respond well to good example. They like to belong. They have to feel a part of the community that is the parish.

And then, of course, there's prayer. Pray, pray, pray.

God bless

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), March 31, 2004.

Recently, I was saddened to hear that my local parish has to close its school for next year. They worked so hard to keep it going, but they just couldn't get enough students to enroll in order to pay the bills. And the tuition was already rather high, especially considering the lower income levels in this area. So it's a vicious cycle I guess... I was sad to see it go. I think their break-even enrollment for the K-8 was like 70 students, and they only got about 55.

-- Emily (jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), March 31, 2004.

Oh, that does it..LOL..we're moving to the U.K. as soon as we find a nice Catholic family willing to take in a pair of slightly used disabled past-middle aged Americans...(we come with a pension though LOL)

-- lesley (martchas@hotmail.com), March 31, 2004.

I think that I have read that more vocations are coming from homeschooled children. I wish that I could remember where I read this. Using good Catholic books and/or curriculum is a blessing, and Catholic parents receive the necessary graces to teach their children through the sacrament of marriage.

Also, Catholic parents aren't having as many children as they once did. Many priests, brothers, and sisters came from large Catholic families. Pray for vocations.

God bless, vg

-- vg (bluebird21257@yahoo.com), March 31, 2004.

Hey, I just had another revalation.

We have online schools in Alberta, as well. This includes fully funded online Catholic Schools. In fact, one of my best friends is Assistant Principle and religion teacher at one. (he is real solid too).

They have taken international students before. Now, undoubtably you would have to pay (since you don't pay Canadian taxes), but I am positive that it would be cheaper than a full out US private school. Plus, whatever the cost, you would be getting a favorable exchange rate to the US dollar.

Check it out at: www.holyfamilycyberhigh.ca

I don't know about all the legalities, but it is an option for Catholic parents.

Dano

P.S.: My friend has a reputation for offering the toughest high school religion program in northern Alberta.

-- Dan Garon (boethius61@yahoo.com), March 31, 2004.

lesley,

I would advise your daughter to homeschool. We have been doing it for two years throught the Seton Program after about 8 years of public schooling and it was the best thing we've ever done. My kids know more about catholicism than I do, and I would not be surprised if a few become priests or my daughter becomes a nun. I would definitely say education is a key issue here.

-- Brian Crane (brian.crane@cranemills.com), March 31, 2004.

Since my input in the other thread may have kicked this off, I will continue here.

It was not necessity the Catholic education, though that was a strong influence, but the Sisters example and propaganda/push that tempted me to such a vocation. They were the very model of a recruiting Sargent. It was not as much the Catholic education, as the ability to talk to a captive audiance about what was important to them. My own concludsion was that the celebicy issue was going to be too much for me.

In a tangent -- older men who have lost their wives are another good target audiance, even if a small part of the population -- if there was a good way to reach them.

Sean

-- Sean Cleary (seanearlyaug@hotmail.com), April 02, 2004.

Catholic tuitions in the U.S. vary by location. When we were in Southern California, each kid was $2500. Pretty steep for a working Joe, IMO. OTOH, here in the Midwest it's $1200. Both places had multikid discounts though.

Frank

P.S. For those of you NOT in the U.S., sending your kids to Catholic schools means paying twice -- your taxes support the public school you don't use, and your money pays your childrens' tuition at their Catholic school. I'm not saying this is necessarily BAD, as the state IMO shouldn't have to provide an infinite number of school systems, but it's how it is.

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), April 02, 2004.