. They promote solidarity, mutual enhancement, and joint responsibility in the educational plan, and, above all, they give an explicit Christian testimony. . How does a Catholic school know whether it is achieving its specific mission? The Catholic philosophy of education has always paid special attention to the quality of interpersonal relations in the school community, especially those between teachers and students. God is at the center of our lives. 7 Important Moral Values Students Should Learn in School. Love should be unconditional. “They see that even a small amount of community service can make a big difference,” Gateau said. Truth. Principals, pastors, school-board members, parents, and bishops share in the serious duty of hiring teachers who meet the standards of doctrine and integrity of life essential to a flourishing Catholic school. Each student selects a group they want to do community service for and volunteers at least 10 hours there. The Incarnation, which emphasizes the bodily coming of God's Son into the world, leaves its seal on every aspect of Christian life. A learning atmosphere that encourages the befriending of students is far removed from the caricature of the remote disciplinarian cherished by the media. Traditional Catholic devotions should also have their place: praying the Rosary, decorating May altars, singing hymns, reading from the Bible, recounting the lives of the saints, and celebrating the Church's liturgical year. It is Catholic because it undertakes to educate the whole child, addressing the requirements of his or her natural and supernatural perfection. ... and a Catholic school is a very good place to do it, for the question about Jesus, and the ancient faith of Catholicism that frames that question, is part of the wallpaper. Christ-centred. T. S. Eliot puts it just right: "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? The five elements that necessarily belong to a school's Catholic identity are the principles proposed by the Holy See that justify the Church's heavy investment in schooling. Students and their parents make the choice of attending a Catholic school, and by doing so, imply a commitment to Catholic values. Education is not a commodity, even if Catholic schools equip their graduates with enviable skills. They have done this by challenging modern … As we have seen, the Catholic school would betray its purpose if it failed to found itself on the person of Christ and his teaching: "It derives all the energy necessary for its educational work from him.". To be sure, "education in the faith is a part of the finality of a Catholic school." It is he who must judge whether the children in the Catholic schools in his diocese are receiving the fullness of the Church's faith in their catechetical and religious formation. The Holy See shares the solicitude of the American bishops about employing teachers with a clear understanding of and commitment to Catholic education. The Most Reverend J. Michael Miller, CSB, was born in Ottawa, Canada, on July 9, 1946. It provides clear teaching on the “Gospel Values” which (emerging form the Beatitiudes) should be promoted throughout their currculum in every Catholic school. (The Catholic School, 35) This is done in a community imbued with high expectations emphasizing personal responsibility and the dignity of each person with Christ as the model. Dirty water is very bad for our bay’s aquatic creatures.”. Such an impoverished vision of education is not Catholic. This includes an adequate physical plant and adequate equipment. This holistic approach provides an educational foundation for life to the full, meaning the full development of the person – … A second principle that derives from communicating a Catholic worldview to children is the notion that they should learn to transform culture in light of the gospel. St. Mary students can expect academic excellence, healthy social relationships, a supportive environment and an emphasis on Catholic values. Therefore they should express physically and visibly the external signs of Catholic culture through images, symbols, icons, and other objects of traditional devotion. The bishop must see to it that the education in his schools is based on the principles of Catholic doctrine. At the end of the year, children create a public service announcement encouraging others to do service for those groups as well. God calls the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Baltimore to be a welcoming, worshipping community of faith, hope, and love. Even though consecrated men and women are now few in the schools, the witness of their collaboration with the laity enriches the ecclesial value of educational communities. In the words of a recent Vatican document: Consecrated persons are thus leaven that is able to create relations of increasingly deep communion that are themselves educational. A chapel, classroom crucifixes and statues, liturgical celebrations, and other sacramental reminders of Catholic life, including good art that is not explicitly religious in its subject matter, should be evident. The sacramental vitality of the Catholic faith is expressed in these and similar acts of religion that belong to everyday ecclesial life and should be evident in every school. be the object of your special attention as shepherds of the People of God." Consequently the Holy See's documents pay a great deal of attention to the vocation of teachers and their participation in the Church's evangelizing mission. In particular, pastors should set in place "specific programs of formation" that will enable the laity to take on responsibilities for teaching in Catholic schools. John 1:9). This conviction about the nature of truth is too important for Catholics to be confused about. How do they describe such an anthropological vision? A fourth distinctive characteristic of Catholic schools is that the "spirit of Catholicism" should permeate the entire curriculum. Christ is the Teacher in Catholic schools. It is the challenge of fully understanding the educational enterprise, of properly evaluating its content, and of transmitting the full truth concerning the human person, created in God's image and called to life in Christ through the Holy Spirit. When we are at our best as a school community, we reflect the Holy Trinity, Who is a community of love. Archbishop Miller is a specialist on the papacy and modern papal teaching, he has published seven books and more than 100 articles, scholarly, popular and journalistic. Indeed, "it depends chiefly on them whether the Catholic school achieves its purpose." In the measure in which subjects are taught by someone who knowingly and without restraint seeks the truth, they are to that extent Christian. Christ is not an afterthought or an add-on to Catholic educational philosophy; he is the center and fulcrum of the entire enterprise, the light enlightening every boy and girl who comes into a Catholic school (cf. It is Catholic because it provides an education in the intellectual and moral virtues. The same can be said about a failure to give clear witness to the Church's teaching on the sanctity of marriage and the inviolability of human life. Central to the Catholic school is its mission of holiness, of saint-making. A Catholic Education The Catholic schools of the Diocese of Sioux Falls have a longstanding and well-deserved reputation for academic excellence. They aspire to teach love for wisdom, habituating each student "to desire learning so much that he or she will delight in becoming a self-learner. If a Catholic school is to deliver on its promise to provide students with an integral education, it must foster love for wisdom and truth, and must integrate faith, culture, and life. What is human and visible can bear the divine. We are giving our students in schools (Catholic, and Protestant, and public) "values frameworks" that have the effect of frustrating shared purposes instead of developing them. raising awareness of current affairs with the children at an age appropriate level; . An integral education aims to develop gradually every capability of every student: his or her intellectual, physical, psychological, moral, and religious capacities. As "experts in communion" because of their experience in community life, religious foster those "human and spiritual bonds that promote the mutual exchange of gifts" with all others involved in the school. The Catholic school is committed to the development of the whole person since in Christ, the Perfect Person, all human values find their fulfillment and unity. Let us now look at each of the marks that give a school a Catholic identity. It would serve society well if the following seven moral values were taught to students in schools. This, however, is not the real meaning of love. Catholic schools have been entrusted with an "awesome responsibility" to teach Gospel values that can help students to recognize, reject and work against racism and other forms of discrimination, Washington Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory told Catholic educators Oct. 20. Because of the gospel's guiding role in a Catholic school, one might be tempted to think that the school's distinctiveness lies only in the quality of its religious instruction, catechesis, and pastoral activities. At St. Mary School in Annapolis, eighth-graders learn the value of giving back by participating in a “Faith in Action” project. The Catholic Review is the official publication of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. ", Intrinsically related to the search for wisdom is another idea frequently repeated in Vatican teaching: the confidence that the human mind, however limited its powers, can come to a knowledge of truth. “It’s a lot of hard work. If Catholic educators, parents, and others who dedicate themselves to this apostolate fail to keep in mind a high supernatural vision, all their talk about Catholic schools will be no more than "a gong booming or a cymbal clashing" (1 Cor. With them lies the primary responsibility for creating a Christian school climate, as individuals and as a community. Prayer and Worship in a Catholic school is concerned with giving glory, honour, praise and thanks to God. . For example, if teachers and administrators demonstrate the individualistic and competitive ethic that now marks so much public education, they will fail to inspire students with the values of solidarity and community, even if they praise those values verbally. Teachers, administrators, bishops, parents, and school-board members would all take part in the review. This is how the Church evangelizes. The Ten Commandments also form a basis for a spiritually healthy society and are included in … They too could engage in quality assurance – that is, assurance of their Catholic identity. They foster the proper friendship between them, since "an authentic formative process can only be initiated through a personal relationship.". Posted on: 6th September 2013 | Author: Nicholas King SJ. Catholic schools, then, safeguard the priority of the person, both student and teacher. Watch Archbishop Lori celebrate Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Advent. It is not a question of convenience, but a partnership based on faith. Unconditional Love and Kindness. Below are two documents on the topic of Catholic and British values which schools may find useful. Emphasis on the supernatural destiny of students brings with it a profound appreciation of the need to perfect children in all their dimensions as images of God (cf. As well as fostering a Catholic worldview across the curriculum, even in so-called secular subjects, "if students in Catholic schools are to gain a genuine experience of the Church, the example of teachers and others responsible for their formation is crucial: the witness of adults in the school community is a vital part of the school's identity.". Such a partnership is directed not just toward dealing with academic problems but also toward planning and evaluating the effectiveness of the school's mission. “I don’t think we had one problem the entire semester with any child.”. Catholic educators are expected to be models for their students by bearing transparent witness to Christ and to the beauty of the gospel. Students have also helped teach communication skills to middle school students and engaged in projects with Archbishop Borders School in Baltimore. Committed to the development of the whole person, they hand on Christian values and a shared Irish culture to the next generation. Catholic schools are an integral part of the Church and are Christ-centred communities based on gospel values. core values of our catholic schools We offer transformative education integrating high-quality academics, with the teaching of Catholic values. 3 in The Holy See's Teaching on Catholic Schools (Atlanta: Sophia Institute Press, 2006): 17-63. The prophetic words of Pope Paul VI ring as true today as they did more than thirty years ago: "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses." When such a policy is ignored, it is inevitable that children will absorb, even if they are not explicitly taught, a soft indifferentism that will sustain neither their practice of the faith nor their ability to imbue society with Christian values. The school strives to build on the foundations of faith started from the home and seeks to provide an environment where beliefs and values of the Catholic faith are taught, explained, developed and nurtured. Since the school is rightly considered an extension of the home, it ought to have "some of the amenities which can create a pleasant and family atmosphere." Oakland Catholic High School is a Christ-centered, college preparatory school for young women of diverse backgrounds. The gospel spirit should be evident in a Christian way of thought and life which permeates all facets of the educational climate. In this gift of self we discover our deepest identity, for we reflect the very life of God and imitate Jesus, Who “did not come to be served but to serve.”-Matthew 20:28a.Indeed, Jesus identifies Himself with our neighbor in need. Complementing the primary role of parents in educating their children, such schools, which should be accessible, affordable, and available to all, build up the community of believers, evangelize the culture, and serve the common good of society. While it is possible for any school to build a strong community, Catholic schools have the advantage of sharing a strong, well-defined set of values—those of the Catholic faith—on which to build their community from the onset. Even though Catholic identity and faith formation play a critical role in our Catholic schools, nearly 15 percent of children who attend our schools are from non-Catholic families. To fulfill their responsibility of speaking about the Father, educators in Catholic schools, with very few exceptions, should be practicing Catholics who are committed to the Church and living her sacramental life. A fourth distinctive characteristic of … They look at outcomes that can be measured, using a wide variety of means, and ask the schools to show that they use the results of their assessment to improve their mission effectiveness. Mass should be celebrated regularly, with the students and teachers participating appropriately. Imbued with a Catholic Worldview throughout its Curriculum. “Talking to other people who have left the school, everybody comes back because this school and Catholic schools in general just seem to have a different feel,” Aquilla said. Should not Catholic schools, precisely insofar as they claim to be specified by their catholicity, do something along the same lines? Archbishop Miller is a member of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses and of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People as well as a consultor to the Congregation for Bishops. Mindful of redemption in Christ, the Catholic school aims to form in its pupils those particular virtues that will enable them to live a new life in Christ and help them to play their part in serving society and the Church. Repeatedly the Holy See's documents emphasize the need for an educational philosophy built on a correct understanding of who the human person is. A final indicator of a school's authentic catholicity is the vital witness of its teachers and administrators. Catholic schools do far more than convey information to passive students. 1. the pressing challenge of clearly identifying the aims of Catholic education, and applying proper methods in Catholic elementary and secondary education. The Catholic Schools Office (CSO) is responsible for the leadership, operation and management of systemic schools which educate more than 19,600 students in 44 primary schools, 12 secondary schools, one K-12 school and one special school in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. 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