In grade school, we had the nuns (in habit). Average class size was over 60 children. No teacher’s assistants. ALL the kids learned. If they had ADD or ADHD or hyper or brats, they all learned and passed and the nuns did not get paid. How on earth did they do it??!!
My mom used to say all nuns performed miracles; they routinely turned pennies into dimes.
My mom used to say all nuns performed miracles; they routinely turned pennies into dimes.
My mom used to say all nuns performed miracles; they routinely turned pennies into dimes.
Average class size was over 60 children.
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Ah, you must be an old fogey like me; my experience began around 1953. Yes, how did they ever do it? Fine women dedicated to the Lord and His work.
The sisters who taught us were the Franciscans of Glenriddle, Pennsylvania. In a wave of nostalgia, about 5 years ago, I wondered how the order was doing and looked them up online. Boy, was I sorry that I had done so, as they are now a bunch of leftists who look like angry lesbians. There was all sorts of anti-war drivel on their site but not a single reference to pro-life causes. I sent a polite email in which I explained my history with the good sisters and expressed my dismay at the philosophical state they are now in, but I never received a reply.
Sr. Carmelita and Sr. Leonita must be rolling in their graves.
Seems we are all from the same generation and retain similar memories. Like you, our classes were 60+ and we all learned, despite any disabilities. I was taught by the Dominicans for the first 3 years and the Sisters of Charity of Halifax for the next 5 years. In HS, we had the Sisters of St. Joseph.
How did they do it? As you recall, families attended Sunday mass. The more lucrative parishes built schools and invited a religious community of sisters to teach. The sisters resided in a convent. Hence, the cost of educating the children was absorbed mostly by the parish and partially by tuition. The sisters taught from love because that was their chosen mission. The sisters and priests probably came from large catholic families (see the photo above). Back then, there was no shortage of priests or religious.
Today, parishes can no longer afford to financially support a school so it is left up to the diocese. Catholic families have shrunk in size with fewer choosing to enter religious life. In order to keep a school open, it is necessary to hire lay teachers = salaries + benefits = higher tuitions. As tuition rates increase, fewer families can afford the cost of catholic school.
Personally, I consider myself blessed to have had the experience of a catholic school education, delivered in a consistent manner by religious sisters who taught, not for money, but for love of Christ. As Bigg Red noted, many of those communities have now embraced liberation theology and independence from the convent and a habit. They leave the teaching to the laity and pursue political ventures. The Sisters of St. Joseph have a community house just up the block from where I live. To financially sustain their shrinking population, they have brought in consultants and built fairly expensive retirement housing for seniors. Many of the sisters rent apartments and no longer live in community. None of them don a habit anymore.