In Arkansas, more than half of those who graduate high school and go on to college – that is, the best and brightest – must take remedial courses in college.
The children/young adults that completed their homeschooling this year are going on to higher education. Just from our small group of about ten families with 80 children our graduates are going to Saint Vincent’s, Duquesne, Indiana and others. Each of the young people that applied were accepted at their first choice of school and were granted scholarships on their academic records.The schools that they applied to did not even require them to take placement tests.
We have been told they are better socialized to interact with people of all ages from young to old. They tend to have better study habits and don’t "party hardy’.And may God inspire our bishops to support Catholic schools and expand them, so more children can have the advantage of a quality education.
That’s part of my vision – we should develop internet-delivered, computer-aided instruction. In our schools, teachers would be certified on the system (we would have courses for them) and there would be courses for parents who home school.
This is Libertarianism, and I know more than a few people who advocate for this style of govt.If you use any service, business, entertainment form and on and on you have benefited from the public or private educational systems. There would be no medical personal or other professionals that provide you with the necessities of life if they were not educated enough to go on to higher education. So live with it.
The cost of social services would go way up. The poor would get poorer and the rich would be the majority of those to achieve anything.
I am not defending the system. We don’t use it since we home school. But not everyone can afford to stay at home and not everyone is capable of teaching their children (I believe that most are but not all).
Social responsibility comes with a cost. Our costs might be toooo hight at this moment but nothing is free.
In PA:As I have said many times, I am perfectly willing to pay for the education of someone eles’s children. What torques my jaws is when I pay for it, and they don’t get it.
In this Sunday’s edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, there was an editorial bemoaning a proposal to reduce the number of school districts in the state from about 300 to about 75.
Now, the purpose of this proposal is to cut overhead and direct the savings to the classroom. But the letter writer was bemoaning the fact that the excess administrators and bureaucrats would be laid off.
And here I thought the purpose of the schools was to educate the children, not to employ bureaucrats.
That’s partially right…hospitals are funded by the public, by insurance companies, and the need is more of a commodity, than anything. Often times, hospitals are part of a network within insurance companies, so this also makes access to them more feasible…not necessarily that the bishop or public deem it more valuable than say a Catholic school. But, that the need for hospitals seems to be more relevant, for lack of a better word, than perhaps people viewing Catholic schools.
While it is true that costs have risen, I believe it is a matter of will. People in the pews just don’t desire or have the will to fund the schools. The tuition model for K-8 is destined for failure.
Certainly having lay teachers is part of it. But I don’t think that’s all of it. So many Catholic schools try to follow the public school pattern, with the result that they try to buy a lot of frills instead of trying to teach basics. Also, bureaucracies tend to grow in Catholic schools just as they do in public schools. Our parish school is now in financial trouble, and the ever-increasing non-teacher costs are the cause. But no one seems to see it. Try to tell anyone that, and they just can’t imagine having a school without all sorts of administrators and computerized “learning programs”, because that’s what the public schools have.
Parents also get sucked in by the technology, physical plant and swimming pool phenonemon.
My kids have always attended public schools, and I ‘homeschool’ them on the RCC, and so does my husband. I believe that teaching children begins in the home, regarding the faith. While the school can be seen as a valued supplement, I don’t feel that it’s the school’s job to help my children get to heaven–it’s my husband’s and mine. I have always given to the schools wherever we have lived, as part of our tithe, but the tuition rates for highschools here in Florida, where I live, are like around $12-16k per child…that’s a bit much. Just my thoughts, but I don’t fully agree that sending one’s child to Catholic school, makes that child grow up to be a ‘better Catholic.’ I didn’t attend, and I’m quite devout, now, in my 30’s–and so are quite a few of my friends who never attended. On the other hand, there are quite a few I know who attended Catholic school, and left the faith–so I don’t believe it will guarantee a child to grow up being devout. I am living proof that one doesn’t need a Catholic school formal education to live a devout life.
That’s a very interesting perspective on it, too.
When discussing Catholic schools, I always remember the Letter to Arsacius. The author, Julian the Apostate, was a Roman emperor ca 350 AD, who tried to convert the entire empire to a sort of reformed paganism.
And goes on to explain why:
And now the religion of the impious Galileans does not prosper, because we have abandoned our greatest social justice program – our Catholic schools, and have come to regard Catholic schools merely as schools for Catholics, when millions of children in inner cities are trapped in schools that are no better than jails.
I’m not following how opening up Catholic schools to everyone, would resolve the crisis of them closing? Maybe I’m totally lost on what your point was here vern…please help me to understand a bit better. I agree with your sentiment, but I don’t know how you’d implement something like you suggest.
First of all, let our bishops accept responsibility for the Catholic School System.
Nicely done vern! I applaud these ideas. I am wondering why no one has thought of these???
It makes such perfect sense, it’s scary.