[ventana]

This No Child Left Behind is not going to help Catholic Schools. It's just going to put more government in the mix. In New York State we have a Regents-required diploma. This has resulted in each school, including the Catholic Schools, teaching to the test. That means everybody who is a freshman is going to read Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, for instance, since writing about it in the "regents" manner is what is going to be needed to score well on the Regents test. And every school, including the private ones, want to boast high scores. Thus, interesting Literature and History curriculums which deviate from the standard Regents curriculum will not be pursued. And, thus, the control of what our children know begins. I can speak to this because I have a daughter in the local Public High School who was going to start in the Catholic High School. The books and curriculums were near identical and for the same reason: to teach to the Regents test. Also, I have a son who went to a Catholic High School in New Jersey (he commuted) and they had the freedom of a much better curriculum because there were no similar state Regents standards. All the No Child Left behind policy will adhere to is a mandated curriculum which will require a teaching to the test. And that curriculaum can be anything the government thinks is best for your child: usually the same old tired socialist twentieth century clap trap. I am now considering homeschooling in the Great Books methodology, lost even in the best of private schools, sadly. V's wife.

[ventana]

And, believe me, it's not like the Catholic Schools are offering theologically sound curriculums either. With the exception of a few diocese which offer orthodox Catechetics like the Faith and Life series, most are feel-good offerings with plenty of ambiguous sexuality discussions mixed in. A true understanding of Chastity is rarely embraced. V's wife.

[Aquinasfan]

I am now considering homeschooling in the Great Books methodology, lost even in the best of private schools, sadly.

That's why we're homeschooling. Catholic schooling is better than gov't schooling, but it's still schooling. And schooling is largely antithetical to true education, because education requires a certain amount of freedom in pursuit of truth.

Catholic schooling was necessitated by the establishment of government (i.e., Protestant) schools in the mid-1800s and the advent of compulsory attendance laws shortly thereafter, laws meant to force the children of (Irish) Catholic immigrants into the Protestant schools. Catholics had no alternative at the time but to establish their own school system.

Following the establishment of the Catholic school system, most states adopted Blaine Amendments to their constitutions which outlawed tax funds going to "private (i.e., Catholic) schools." The system continues to this day.

But prior to the historically unprecedented establishment of compulsory government schooling, Catholics were largely unschooled (not necessarily uneducated). Classical Catholic education included religious studies, of course, but centered around the study of logic, rhetoric, and grammar. The purpose of this kind of education was to train children to think clearly and to aid them in pursuing the truth.

It's no accident that these central aspects of classical Catholic education were stripped from government schools altogether. Public schooling, which traces its origins to 19th century Germany (i.e., kindergarten), was designed with the following criteria in mind.

The Prussian mind, which carried the day, held a clear idea of what centralized schooling should deliver: 1) Obedient soldiers to the army;2 2) Obedient workers for mines, factories, and farms; 3) Well-subordinated civil servants, trained in their function; 4) Well-subordinated clerks for industry; 5) Citizens who thought alike on most issues; 6) National uniformity in thought, word, and deed.

Unfortunately, Catholic schools have adopted the methodology of socialized schooling while maintaining only to a very limited degree the hallmarks of a true Catholic education. Tragically, classical Catholic education has been coopted. This may have been what Bishop Sheen meant when he said that, "I'd prefer a Catholic child to attend a public school and have to fight for his faith than for him to attend a Catholic school and lose his faith."

[Catholicguy]

excellent points. Jesus is Lord of History and He isn't permitted in the Govt indoctrination camps (schools) and few Catholic Schools teach history with Him at the center.

The best education you can give your kids is to tell them yourself about Jesus and His Church which mediates His Salvific Grace through the Sacramental System He established.

All the rest is, relatively, inconsequential - eschatologically speaking