Editor’s Note: The Cardinal Newman Society is releasing several articles marking the 50th anniversary of the devastating Land O’Lakes Statement, in which several Catholic university leaders declared Catholic universities independent from “authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself”. In considering the future of Catholic education, it’s impossible to ignore the past. “How did we get here?” is a question essential to determining how many American Catholic colleges and universities can overcome their conformity to secular norms for curriculum, campus life, governance, and academic freedom. Ultimately, these articles serve as hope that the mistakes of the past can be corrected and that God will bless the renaissance of faithful Catholic education in the United States that is underway.
So much about an answer depends on the way one poses the question. In the old story about the two monks who liked to smoke, for instance, it is easy to see why the one who asked if he could pray while smoking received permission, but the one who asked if he could smoke while praying had his request denied.
There is all the difference in the world between asking whether academic freedom is an indispensable condition for intellectual inquiry or is itself the goal. It is surely a crucial condition for real intellectual progress, for we do not know all the answers to our questions. Even figuring out how best to formulate the questions can be a difficult task. The promotion of such freedom is a necessary feature of university life. This is as true of a Catholic institution as of any other. But to think of academic freedom as somehow more than a necessary condition for intellectual progress is to mistake the means for the end. Academic freedom cannot be rightly understood as a permission to advocate for policies that are intrinsically immoral or as an artistic license for the exhibition of what is obscene, for these are not part of the goal. Academic freedom, properly understood, is a sphere for genuine scholarly debate about the truth of things.
Robust and lax views of academic freedom
The effort to take a Catholic view on academic freedom is not to postulate that there is some distinct species of the genus (“Catholic academic freedom”). Quite the contrary—my suggestion is that a Catholic view on academic freedom provides a model of what academic freedom rightly understood ought to look like anywhere. We should not presume that what passes for academic freedom in the secular sphere is the true model, and that the Catholic view is some quaint, parochial version that unfairly permits special reservations or exclusions. A better understanding of academic freedom makes it possible to see how lax versions of it can obscure a proper understanding of the relation between truth and freedom.
In the academy today there is a tendency to envision academic freedom as utterly unrestricted and to criticize any position that might order freedom to the service of any other interest. But such a highly abstract view of academic freedom risks treating what is important as a condition for scholarly inquiry as if it were independent of higher goals such as academic instruction of students, or docility to inconvenient truths, or service to a particular community that a religiously affiliated university was founded to provide. Freedom in the academy, as anywhere else, ought to be understood in service of something higher. To put it very simply, freedom is not just a matter of freedom from but of freedom for.
The idea of a university
What is essential to the very idea of a university is an interlocking triad of functions: scientific and scholarly research, academic teaching, and a creative cultural life intended to be bear fruit for the larger society and for the body that sponsors the institution. The kind of intellectual formation that students may rightly expect to find at the university level will be more likely to occur when their instructors are personally engaged in research, so that what teachers impart is a personal sense of the quest and not just a set of pre-packaged results. The demands of teaching help keep researchers alert to the meaning of the indefatigable work their disciplines require. By teaching they are regularly challenged to relate their discoveries and frustrations to the whole of knowledge, for their students are studying other things and want to understand connections between the subjects under study, even if full achievement of the unity of all knowledge may remain out of reach.
What the faculty should hope to develop in university students is a love of the quest for truth as well as the skills and disciplines needed to join in that quest. The goal of university education is the development not only of the mind but of the whole person. There ought to be concern to make new discoveries, to impart what is knowable in a given discipline, and to contribute to the development of maturity in body and mind, heart and spirit. To treat academic freedom as if it were some privileged sphere for the expression of personal beliefs in a way that is unrelated to other—and sometimes higher—ends is to sacrifice certain essential concerns of the university to a mere abstraction.
As an institution within a culture, the university receives benefits that it could not obtain on its own. In turn it owes significant debts to that culture. The service that a university needs to render includes education of a new generation in useful disciplines and moral formation of persons with a sense of the common good, the discovery of approaches and solutions to genuine problems, and the transmission of wisdom, knowledge, and traditions important to the community. Seeing academic freedom in the context of these important relationships makes for a better sense of its true nature. From this expectation of mutual benefits come both the reason for the sacrifices needed to sustain universities and the need for those who are granted the freedom of a university to benefit the community precisely by contributing to all the missions of a university.
The relation of truth and freedom
One might well argue that the relationship of the university to the society is “dialectical,” like the very relationship between truth and freedom. Freedom is a condition for the possibility of truth, and truth is the goal of freedom. To assert that a relation is dialectical is to say that the terms stand in a kind of complementary relation to one another—here it is a relation between an enabling condition and the proper use of that condition. Grasping this dialectical relationship allows us to distinguish authentic forms of freedom from inauthentic forms. However much of a little world of its own the university tends to be, the university is not its own end, but an indispensable means for the progress of research and the transmission of knowledge and wisdom. Understood in light of the specific goals of any institution of higher learning, the freedom typical of university life can be seen to take authentic and inauthentic forms.
Negatively, academic freedom involves an absence of external compulsion. Granted the need to respect such practical concerns as the financial, universities need to resist utilitarian and ideological pressures, such as a quest to give intellectual respectability to positions that are not respectable or to provide sophisticated propaganda for partisan projects. Positively, academic freedom has to be a “freedom for truth,” that is, a condition suitable for enabling scientific and scholarly progress and for subjecting reasons and arguments to the most compelling scrutiny we can devise.
In more practical terms, a university marked by a true sense of academic freedom ought to be hostile to political correctness in any form. There should be a willingness to engage frankly and deeply even the positions with which a sponsoring institution most profoundly disagrees. Coming to an authentic understanding of the best reasons in the arsenal of one’s opponent is, after all, a hallmark of intellectual respectability and a better route for making sure of the validity of one’s own position than precluding the discussion of those points. On this point, Catholics have the testimony of none other than Pope Benedict XVI in his address of April 2008, when he urged that the idea of Catholic higher education is not only compatible with academic freedom in the genuine sense of the term but that ensuring appropriate instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice is crucial to advancing academic freedom and to honoring the institution’s mission:
In regard to faculty members at Catholic colleges and universities, I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom. In virtue of this freedom you are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you. Yet… any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university’s identity and mission…. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual…. Teachers and administrators, whether in universities or schools, have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church’s Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution’s life, both inside and outside the classroom.1
In his address Pope Benedict reinforces the notion that Catholic-sponsored institutions would fail in their duty if they did not provide adequate instruction in the religious tradition that supports the school.2 While an overly abstract understanding of academic freedom is only likely to bring confusion, academic freedom in its proper sense gives precisely the venue needed for the search for truth, wherever the evidence may lead.
Personal commitments and the university’s mission
In practice, I believe that there needs to be toleration for those who do not share a sponsoring institution’s outlook, but on the understanding that the specific mission goals of such a university may never be sidelined; rather, it must be given accurate presentation in any academic forum.3 This position does mean that we ought to resist the demand that every possible outlook be represented at a university; unless a given point of view produces scholars of the first rank, it has no claim to the status expected of a university faculty. Some will urge that it is not permissible to investigate a prospective member of the university’s beliefs, but only the person’s professional attainment and intellectual standing. But this also seems excessively abstract. In the effort to enhance the quest for intellectual progress and the teaching mission of a university, there has to be concern not just with the learning typical of a recognized discipline but also with the sort of truths that are associated with a person’s philosophy, that is, the insights that are not accessible by the relatively impersonal sort of thinking that is typical of training in a discipline but also those that require personal commitment. These are important concerns about the meaning of human existence, about the natural law that is beyond all jurisprudence, and about the reality of God, however ineffable and mysterious, and they will enter into the life of those who live and work at a university.
University faculty like to think of themselves as independent-minded. In many respects they are, for their training has generated habits of disciplined analysis. But in addition to learning in any area there is often a curious blindness to how little one knows outside the area of one’s discipline. The penchant of any professor to be a know-it-all can easily lead to the temptation to use one’s post as a bully pulpit for what is no more than an opinion. In our own day, the liberal biases of many graduate and professional schools can dull the awareness that this temptation specially afflicts the chattering classes.
The responsibility to use freedom for pursuing and presenting the truth
In this regard there is an immediate and direct implication of the relation between freedom and responsibility. Members of a university faculty should truly have the freedom to pursue truth according to the methods germane to their disciplines and should be free from interference by those outside the discipline. But it is also important to remember that in their use of this freedom they ought to remain true to the methods of their discipline that qualify them for the privilege of this freedom and that presenting themselves as authorities beyond the areas of their expertise risks misusing that freedom.4
Of special interest to Catholic universities, of course, is the academic freedom of theologians and the proper use of this privilege.5 In this sphere there is need to bear in mind not only the standard considerations about methodology proper to any discipline, but also the specific grounding in the truth of divine revelation and the teachings of the Church for the areas of knowledge that are particularly the concern of theology. The teaching of Catholic theology in a Church-sponsored institution requires an acceptance of the truth of revelation and the teachings of the Church.
In addition to the moral responsibility that individual faculty members must shoulder in this area, there is also a responsibility on the administration of a Catholic university.6 Such a university must have a staunch commitment both to protect the proper freedom of theologians for their research and to insist that the members of the theology faculty present the teachings of the Church faithfully. The obligation here involves ensuring that the university honor its commitments to its sponsoring tradition and safeguarding the principle that one not exceed the areas of one’s professional expertise in teaching, particularly in areas of special sensitivity.
Consider, for example, the problems that can arise in courses on moral theology and ethics, an area where there can be strong personal convictions by faculty members but also an area where the Church has clear teachings. These courses might be courses in general ethics or one of the various specializations (medical ethics, business ethics, professional ethics, etc.). The need to have faculty members teaching within the area of their expertise will require that the university provide teachers suitably trained in Catholic moral theology and disposed to teach such courses in ethics in a way that is consistent with the university’s Catholic identity by being faithful to Catholic doctrine.
Faculty members who are not Catholic theologians or not willing to do this should identify themselves in such a way that will prevent confusion about this matter. Likewise, the obligation not to teach beyond one’s area of expertise should preclude faculty members in other departments who are not trained in ethics or moral theology from teaching or promoting varieties of ethics that are inconsistent with the university’s Catholic identity. To say this is in no way to put into doubt that such individuals may well have personal convictions on matters of ethics; in fact, it would be highly appropriate and advisable to organize suitable forums for the discussion of these matters in interdisciplinary circles. But it is not appropriate to have individuals who have never formally studied ethics offering courses identified as courses in ethics or moral values within the course offerings of their various disciplines. For instructors who have not themselves formally studied ethics or moral theology to be offering such courses would be cases of teaching outside the area of their professional expertise and thus to go beyond the privileges accorded to academic freedom properly understood.
Privilege, obligation, and right
When discussing academic freedom, we would do well to speak in terms of “privilege and “obligation.” Academic freedom is a privilege, not a right. The language of right should probably be reserved to “the pursuit of truth.” Individuals are privileged to come to a university for the purpose of seeking truth, both to participate in its discovery and to play a role in its dissemination. But the human right to pursue truth unconditionally and for its own sake is what governs the privilege and grounds the obligation of those exercising this right to make proper use of it. Getting this relationship right requires keeping sharp one’s intellectual conscience and exerting conscious and honest control over one’s creative impulses, especially by staying alert to the consequences, immediate and far-reaching, for one’s ideas.
There can be failures to observe these proprieties. One might consider, for instance, the sad history of the German universities in the period leading up to the Second World War.7 Despite the courageous resistance of some of its members, a university can collapse under the attack of a dictator. We need to acknowledge a special responsibility for such a collapse that lies at the feet of those university professors who care too little about the interaction between academic life and its social and political environment. The rationalizations and justifications used for the programs of forcible sterilization and the murder of the mentally ill seem to be recurring in our debates on abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, and euthanasia. The price of freedom is always vigilance and a readiness for sacrifice: in no walk of life may one take one’s post for granted and allow oneself not to see what one prefers not to see.
The dialectical tension between truth and freedom is one that academics sometimes do not like to hear about. Although a non-negotiable aspect of the life of a university, academic freedom is not an independent absolute but an absolute that stands in a dialectical relation to truth. Karl Jaspers put the point clearly when writing of those German universities:
Academic freedom can survive only if the scholars invoking it remain aware of its meaning. It does not mean the right to say what one pleases. Truth is much too difficult and great a task that it should be mistaken for the passionate exchange of half-truths spoken in the heat of the moment. It exists only where scholarly ends and a commitment to truth are involved. Practical objectives, educational bias, or political propaganda have no right to invoke academic freedom.8
Academic freedom does not refer to the political concept of freedom of speech, let alone to the liberty of pure license in thought, but to the liberty that is the condition for the possibility of truth. In turn, the truth toward which academic work is ordered as its goal justifies the freedom provided at a university and protected by our understanding of a university’s privileges. Academic freedom exempts a faculty member from certain kinds of external constraints so as to enable that person better to honor the obligations of a scholar to intellectual thoroughness, method, and system.
The correlative safeguards for the proper use of that freedom will presumably have to be moral rather than legal. This is often the case with other kinds of authority, for the highest administrators of legal justice are near the summit of law and generally have no higher authority watching over them. We depend upon justice being in the heart of the judge as much as upon the checks and balances of power that are so crucial to our system of government, and yet are ever subject to corruption. The frustrations of academic life (e.g., when one simply has no success in the lab, at the clinic, or in one’s research) point out clearly enough that freedom may be the condition for truth, but it is not a guarantee that one will automatically achieve truth merely by hard work or persistence.
In my judgment, the dialectical relation between truth and freedom constitutes a central aspect of academic freedom. That all of a university’s branches of learning work with hypotheses of only relative validity and do not describe the whole of reality itself but only particular aspects in no way alters or denies the goal of truth that belongs to the idea of the university. There remains a need for the guidance in our endeavors that the idea of the unity of knowledge provides. Only the goal of truth pursued in responsible freedom, guided by a sense of the oneness of reality, can sustain our search to know all the particulars as a way of getting at that basic oneness and wholeness. The result of a commitment to this idea will be not just the protection of academic freedom but the maturation of an increasingly authentic idea of freedom in the individual and the community of the university.
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Perspectives-in-Cathlic-Ed-Web-Header-845-x-321-px-01.png13383521Father Joseph W. Koterskihttps://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/CNS-logo-2C-450-tag2.pngFather Joseph W. Koterski2017-07-20 19:32:002020-05-26 14:01:13Taking a Catholic View on Academic Freedom
Editor’s Note: This guest commentary by University of Notre Dame Law Professor Gerard V. Bradley was originally published on November 15, 2016, at Public Discourse, an online publication of the Witherspoon Institute, and is reprinted here with permission.
Pyrotechnics about unsecured e-mails, groping, pay-to-play, and multiple personality disorders suffocated what was—early in the 2016 election cycle—an essential discussion about the most far-reaching reform of K-12 schooling in our country’s history. “Common Core” is the latest, and by far the most comprehensive, plan for national educational standards. Developed by a select group of consultants and bankrolled by the Gates Foundation, Common Core was aggressively promoted by the Obama administration beginning in 2010. Within eighteen months, forty-six states adopted it, 90 percent of them egged on by a chance to snag federal dollars in the form of “Race to the Top” funds.
Gerard V. Bradley
President-elect Donald Trump regularly denounced Common Core on the primary campaign trail, beginning with his speech to CPAC in 2015. This also gave him an opportunity to browbeat Jeb Bush, a fervent early supporter of this educational overhaul. Hillary Clinton’s criticism of Common Core was limited to lamenting its “poor implementation”; about the revision’s basic soundness and desirability, she expressed no doubt. Had she prevailed last Tuesday, Common Core would have been safe in the hands of Clinton constituencies who brought it to life, especially the public education establishment and the business oligarchs who want shovel-ready workers. The grassroots rebellion against Common Core (which “paused” its implementation in 2013 or triggered reassessment of it in a few states) would have been squeezed from the top down. Those rebels must refocus President Trump’s attention upon Common Core and persuade him to ignite a national movement to roll it back.
The stated objective of Common Core is to produce “college- and career-ready” high school graduates. Yet even its proponents concede that it only prepares students for community-college level work. In truth, Common Core is a dramatic reduction of the nature and purpose of education to mere workforce preparation.
Common Core adopts a bottom-line, pragmatic approach to education. The heart of its philosophy is, as far as we can see, that it is a waste of resources to “over-educate” people. The basic goal of K-12 schools is to provide everyone with a modest skill set; after that, people can specialize in college – if they end up there. Truck-drivers do not need to know Huck Finn. Physicians have no use for the humanities. Only those destined to major in literature need to worry about Ulysses. …
Perhaps a truck-driver needs no acquaintance with Paradise Lostto do his or her day’s work. But everyone is better off knowing Shakespeare and Euclidian geometry, and everyone is capable of it. Everyone bears the responsibility of growing in wisdom and grace and in deliberating with fellow-citizens about how we should all live together. A sound education helps each of us to do so.
One silver lining that could be expected in this gray cloud is a renaissance for Catholic schools. The overwhelming majority of Catholic children attend public schools, there being “educated” according to Common Core’s secularized workforce prescription. Catholic parents who are informed about Common Core could be expected to seize the moment and switch their kids to one of the Church’s thousands of elementary or high schools.
For the contrast between a sound Catholic education and Common Core could scarcely be sharper. That difference was illumined by us, the 132 scholars—Catholics all—who addressed our letter (which was subsequently made public) to each of America’s bishops:
Common Core is innocent of America’s Catholic schools’ rich tradition of helping to form children’s hearts and minds. In that tradition, education brings children to the Word of God. It provides students with a sound foundation of knowledge and sharpens their faculties of reason. It nurtures the child’s natural openness to truth and beauty, his moral goodness, and his longing for the infinite and happiness. It equips students to understand the laws of nature and to recognize the face of God in their fellow man. Education in this tradition forms men and women capable of discerning and pursuing their path in life and who stand ready to defend truth, their church, their families, and their country.
The case for the incompatibility of Common Core with a Catholic education has now been extended, and completed, with the release of “After the Fall: Catholic Education Beyond the Common Core.” A joint publication of the Pioneer Institute and the American Principles Project, this white paper is authored by Anthony Esolen, Dan Guernsey, Jane Robbins, and Kevin Ryan. They observe that at
the heart of Common Core agenda is a century-old dream of Progressive educators to redirect education’s mission away from engaging the young in the best of human thought and focusing instead on preparation for “real life.” While a reasonable but quite secondary goal, workforce-development is dwarfed by Catholic schools’ transcendent goals of human excellence, spiritual transformation, and preparation for the “next life” as well.
In a compact but rich Preface to “After the Fall,” former ambassadors to the Holy See Raymond Flynn and Mary Ann Glendon write that the “basic goal of Common Core is not genuine education, but rather the training and production of workers for an economic machine.” By contrast, Catholic schools have traditionally provided “a classical liberal-arts education” that seeks to “impart moral lessons and deep truths about the human condition.” Glendon and Flynn observe that religion and the integrated humanist education that Catholic educators have long offered have “never been more needed than they are in this era of popular entertainment culture, opioid epidemics, street-gang violence, wide achievement gaps, and explosive racial tensions.” Just so.
It is no wonder, then, that John Doerfler, Catholic Bishop of Marquette, Michigan, recently announced his rejection of Common Core, saying that adopting it would not “benefit the mission, Catholic identity or academic excellence of our schools.” Just so.
Bishop Doerfler is, however, in the minority. His rejection of Common Core is the exception, not the rule. In fact, most Catholic dioceses and archdioceses—approximately 100 (including New York and Los Angeles)—have adopted Common Core. This means that the vast majority of our nation’s Catholic schoolchildren will be taught from Common Core, whether they are enrolled in public or private Catholic schools.
“After the Fall” tells some of this sad tale. The de facto voice of Catholic education in America is the National Catholic Educational Association, to which about 85 percent of America’s 6500 Catholic schools belong. By May 2012, the NCEA was encouraging Catholic schools to embrace Common Core, gushing a bit later that it contained “high quality academic standards,” which would “in no way compromise the Catholic identity or educational program of a Catholic school.” Catholic school systems rushed to buy in. More recently and after much negative feedback, the NCEA has backed off its embrace of Common Core and has begun to provide some helpful resources and tools for teachers who have no choice but to teach within its strictures. But the damage of hasty adoption was done.
What could explain the mad rush? Anecdotal feedback to the Catholic scholars’ letter (which I not only signed but organized) strongly suggests that, in spite of so many enthusiastic public statements, Catholic educators recognized effortlessly that Common Core was deeply flawed. It is doubtful that any serious Catholic educator would have recommended adopting it, or anything like it, were it not for real or perceived pressure from public authorities and teachers’ organizations to do so. Their view seems to have been: Common Core is not good for a Catholic school, but it is not so bad that it needs to be rejected, at least where the local political and economic powers-that-be want us to go along with it. These Catholic educators thought that they could “work with” Common Core.
“After the Fall” carefully states and cogently refutes the pragmatic reasons offered by these Catholic educators for adopting Common Core. The study also shows—conclusively, in my judgment—that these educators’ pragmatic approach is ill-conceived in a deeper, more important, way: Common Core is so philosophically at odds with a sound Catholic education that an acceptable modus vivendi is unavailable. Trying to pour Common Core into such venerable wineskins will burst them.
I would add the further criticism that these educators’ accommodationism is shortsighted. It is ultimately a recipe for the demise of Catholic schools. Already a great many dedicated Catholic parents have withdrawn their children from Catholic schools due to low academic standards and substandard Catholic character. These parents homeschool or send their children to a burgeoning number of new “classical Christian” schools, which are almost always outside the control of the local Catholic educational establishment. Other dedicated parents send their children to decent public schools where they are available, reckoning that the avowedly secular atmosphere there at least portends no confusion about the content of the Catholic faith. Adopting Common Core will surely accelerate this exodus, a hemorrhage of precisely those students who should form a Catholic school’s backbone.
Left behind in many Catholic schools, especially but not only in Rust Belt cities, are non-Catholic students happy to escape under-performing public schools, as well as Catholics who are in it for sports, college prep, or an ambiance of social justice service projects. These are all good things, and a good Catholic school should have them if it can. But they are secondary features of a sound Catholic education, not essential ones. A perfectly good Catholic grade school might have no sports and no service projects, and a solid Catholic high school might enroll only a few students with serious college aspirations.
The important point is that the appetite (if you will) for an integral Catholic education is already perilously suppressed in a vast swath of this country’s Catholic schools. Students in them tolerate the distinctly Catholic quality of the education they are getting. But it is not a big reason for their attendance, and for some it is not a reason at all. Its decline would not deprive them of anything they came to a Catholic school to get. The decision of so many Catholic administrators and teachers to embrace Common Core probably reflects their recognition of exactly this unfortunate situation. They would give the students pretty much the education they want.
These schools are already far down the path of transition from providing a truly Catholic education (as it is so aptly described in “After the Fall”) to being more like a religiously inspired, affordable private alternative to dysfunctional public schools. The appeal of this denouement is undeniable: urban “Catholic” schools might be the best route up and out of the ghetto for thousands of non-Catholic children who deserve that opportunity. But this encouraging effect is and must be just that: a welcome side-benefit of providing a genuine Catholic education.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence is now in charge of the Trump transition. That is a good omen; as Indiana governor Pence heeded the grassroots rebellion against Common Core—led, as a matter of fact, by two very able moms (Erin Tuttle and Heather Crossin)—and orchestrated a significant modification of the curriculum. He should now be encouraged to recommend to Donald Trump the appointment of an Education Secretary who will release the pressure from Washington, and instead encourage the states to explore alternatives to Common Core.
For those interested in genuine Catholic education, the politics is local. School parents and others with the best interests of students at heart will have to seek, and insist politely, on receiving straight answers from principals and administrators about whether, and to what extent, Common Core is in their schools. In places such as Marquette, Michigan, officials from the bishop on down should be thanked for their stand against it. In the hundred or so jurisdictions where Common Core (or something practically indistinguishable from it) is in place, respectful but firm corrective action is needed, including the organization of parents who want more than workforce prep for their Catholic school children. The sponsors of “After the Fall”—American Principles Project and Pioneer Institute—have the resources and the experts to help.
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Perspectives-in-Cathlic-Ed-Web-Header-845-x-321-px-01.png13383521Gerard V. Bradleyhttps://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/CNS-logo-2C-450-tag2.pngGerard V. Bradley2016-12-01 19:35:142020-05-26 14:14:19Gerard V. Bradley: Common Core Catastrophe
After the Fall was published by the Pioneer Institute in collaboration with American Principles Project in October 2016. The Cardinal Newman Society praised the report for its “devastating critique” of Common Core’s use in Catholic schools.
The Cardinal Newman Society’s Dr. Dan Guernsey, director of K-12 education programs, and his co-authors of After the Fall, Dr. Anthony Esolen, Jane Robbins and Dr. Kevin Ryan, show why Catholic school leaders should move above and beyond the flawed Common Core standards by embracing truly Catholic standards of excellence in education, such as the Newman Society’s new Catholic Curriculum Standards.
Below are eight bad reasons for adopting Common Core in Catholic schools that are debunked in After the Fall:
Bad Reason #1: “Catholic schools need to adopt the Common Core standards because they are high-quality standards that will keep test scores high and enable Catholic schools to compete with public schools.”
Debunked: “Catholic schools have been outperforming public schools by double-digit margins for the last 20 years on federal National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading and math tests (often referred to as “the nation’s report card”). Catholic-school college preparation is outstanding, with over 99 percent of students graduating from high school and 84 percent going on to four-year colleges (almost double the public-school rate). … These statistics establish that in adopting the Common Core, Catholic schools were attempting to fix what was not broken. …
“Five years into the Common Core experiment, the [test score] data is at best mixed, and in fact NAEP scores are dropping, although causation is not yet clear.”
Bad Reason #2: “Catholic schools need to adopt the Common Core standards because some states require Catholic-school students to take state tests aligned to them.”
Debunked: Only six states “require that Catholic-school students at some point take state-administered tests … but wholescale adoption of the Common Core standards is not necessary or advisable, especially as the state tests themselves are in flux.
“Roughly 90 percent of states either leave Catholic schools entirely alone on testing issues or only require them to take a nationally normed test … of their own choice. There are a number of non-Common Core options for schools to choose from … Catholic schools should be wary of simply choosing Common Core-based tests because they are perceived as being more current or valid. State testing related to the Common Core is still uncertain and controversial.”
Bad Reason #3: “Catholic schools need to adopt the Common Core standards because they will influence college-entrance exams.”
Debunked: Commenting on the two major college entrance exams, the ACT and the SAT, “ACT is not beholden to the Common Core,” and “If the SAT were to swerve too deeply into the Common Core, hampering its perceived ability to evaluate all students across the nation, ACT will gain millions of more customers from non-Common Core schools.”
Further, “About a thousand colleges and universities, including more than 125 featured in U.S. News and World Report rankings, no longer require SAT or ACT scores at all.”
Bad Reason #4: “Catholic schools need to adopt the Common Core standards because most teachers will be trained under the new standards, and most teacher in-services for ongoing development will occur in a Common Core world.”
Debunked: “While this argument seems plausible on the surface, it is also true that for years, when states had different standards, it was never thought that a teacher trained in Michigan under its specific curricular standards would therefore be unqualified to teach in Florida under its different particular curricular standards. A professional educator with strong core teaching skills can easily adapt to a set of curriculum standards. It simply was never an issue before. …
“Competent educators can move skillfully through any set of standards. To a professional educator, there is nothing sacrosanct, magical, or deeply mysterious about a particular set of standards.”
Bad Reason #5: “Catholic schools need to adopt the Common Core standards because most textbooks and materials will reference them.”
Debunked: “Most textbooks have always covered a broad set of standards. Teachers in individual states would adapt the use of those texts to ensure that they meet their own state standards. In fact, even though there is a related effort to nationalize science standards, there technically are no Common Core science standards today. Each state has its own history standards, yet that does not prevent states from using the same textbooks to teach to their individual standards. This dynamic has not changed. Catholic educators can still follow their own standards and not be lost in interacting with any textbooks, Common Core-based or not.”
Bad Reason #6: “Catholic schools can adopt the Common Core standards because criticism of them is just ‘political,’ not educational.”
Debunked: “To say that [critics’] legitimate concerns about academic rigor and Catholic identity are ‘political as opposed to educational’ is dismissive and ignores their legitimate educational concerns. Even the many concerns of a political nature that plague the Common Core, specifically about the proper role of government in citizens’ lives, are legitimate and should not be simply dismissed. Catholics are citizens and have the responsibility to ensure the political order operates for the common good. …
“Few activities are more ‘political’ than forming other people’s children. It is the responsibility and duty of politics to inform this process. Political concerns, even though they are not the focus of this report, cannot simply be brushed away.”
Bad Reason #7: “Catholic schools can adopt the Common Core standards since schools can simply ‘infuse’ Catholicism into the existing standards.”
Debunked: “Most Catholics would agree it is a good and important thing for Catholic schools to infuse their curriculum with Catholic subject matter as appropriate. … However, a fundamental concern remains: The Common Core standards are not enough to guide the complete intellectual formation in a Catholic school. The attempt to ‘work within’ the Common Core by infusing Catholic content (or, as the superintendent of schools in one archdiocese said, to use the Common Core but ‘sprinkle Catholicism on top’) is inadequate — ultimately much more is needed to retain a genuine Catholic education.”
Bad Reason #8: “Catholic schools can adopt the Common Core standards since standards are not a curriculum and therefore do not really affect what, when, and how Catholic schools teach.”
Debunked: “Especially in Catholic education, mission should drive standards; standards should drive curriculum. Both standards and curriculum serve the mission. If mission drives standards, then to the degree the Catholic schools’ educational mission is similar to public schools’ (e.g., in teaching basic math skills to second-graders), there can be some sharing of standards (if there is proof of their effectiveness). However, to the degree that elements of the Catholic mission are broader than the public schools’, different or additional standards are required. …
“The Common Core is clear that it seeks to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to prepare students for college and career. If there is any other purpose to education, the Common Core does not recognize it. The mission of a Catholic school, though, is much broader.”
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/8-Bad-Reasons-for-Common-Core-730x350-1.jpg350730Adam Cassandrahttps://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/CNS-logo-2C-450-tag2.pngAdam Cassandra2016-11-08 18:51:002020-05-26 14:15:19Eight Bad Reasons for Adopting Common Core in Catholic Schools
Editor’s Note: The following essay appears in Appendix A of The Cardinal Newman Society’s Catholic Curriculum Standards.9
The world, in all its diversity, is eager to be guided towards the great values of mankind, truth, good and beauty; now more than ever…Teaching means to accompany young people in their search for truth and beauty, for what is right and good. — Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion, 2014 10
We want our students to maximize their human potential and to both be good and do good in authentic freedom. In order to do this, our students need to be able to know how to wisely and fully apprehend and interrogate all aspects of reality from a solid Christian intellectual tradition. This intellectual tradition involves not just teaching facts and skills, but is also essentially focused on seeking to know the value and nature of things and in appreciating the value of knowledge for its own sake.
One method of assisting students to keep focus on these aspects of Catholic intellectual inquiry is to use the lenses of truth, goodness, and beauty to evaluate a subject under consideration. These three elements are often understood as being among the transcendentals. Transcendentals are the timeless and universal attributes of being.11 They are the properties of all beings. They reflect the divine origin of all things and the unity of all truth and reality in God. These elements are among the deepest realities. They help unite men across time and culture and are often a delight to explore and discuss, because they are substantive to our very nature.
The transcendentals of truth, beauty, and goodness are closely intertwined. Dubay (1999) observed that, “Truth beauty and goodness have their being together, by truth we are put in touch with reality which we find is good for us and beautiful to behold. In our knowing, loving and delighting the gift of reality appears to us as something infinitely and in-exhaustively valuable and fascinating.”12 In seeking to discuss one, the others are naturally and organically brought into the conversation.
The following simple definitions and essential questions are provided as a general framework to help facilitate a discussion on any topic in any subject. The goal is not to generate easy questions for easy answers, but to generate foundational questions for deep inquiry into the value and nature of things, to instill a sense of the intrinsic value of knowledge, and to elicit a sense of wonder.
Beauty
Beauty can help evoke wonder and delight, which are foundations of a life of wisdom and inquiry.13 Beauty involves apprehending unity, harmony, proportion, wholeness, and radiance.14 It often manifests itself in simplicity and purity, especially in math and science.15 Often beauty has a type of pre-rational (striking) force upon the soul, for instance when one witnesses a spectacular sunset or the face of one’s beloved. Beauty can be understood as a type of inner radiance or shine coming from a thing that is well-ordered to its state of being or is true to its nature or form.16
Beauty pleases not only the eye or ear, but also the intellect in a celebration of the integrity of our body and soul. It can be seen as a sign of God’s goodness, benevolence and graciousness, of both His presence and His transcendence in the world.17 It can serve as re-enchantment with the cosmos and all reality18 and assist in moving our students to a rich and deep contemplative beholding of the real.19
Some essential questions related to beauty:
Is “X” beautiful? How so? Why not?
Which of these (i.e., poems, experiments, proofs, theories, people, functions, concepts) is more beautiful and why? Why might others have thought this beautiful?
How does this person/thing attract? Is this person using their God-given gifts to attract in a way that pleases God and draws others closer to God? What can happen when beauty is not used for the glory of God?
What is delightful, wondrous about this person/thing?
How does this shine? Radiate?
How is faithfulness to form or nature powerfully evident here?
What does this reveal about the nature of what is seen?
Where is there unity and wholeness here?
Where is there proportion and harmony here?
How does this reveal God’s graciousness, presence, and transcendence?
What does my response to this reveal about me?
Is this also Good? Is this also True?
Goodness
When we explore issues of goodness with our students, we are fundamentally asking them to consider questions of how well someone or something fulfills its purpose. Goodness is understood as the perfection of being. A thing is good to the degree that it enacts and perfects those powers, activities, and capacities appropriate to its nature and purpose. A good pair of scissors cuts, a good eye has 20/20 vision, and so forth. We have to know a thing’s purpose, nature, or form to engage in an authentic discussion of “The Good.” When we get to questions of what is a good law, a good government, a good father, or a good man, the discussion quickly grows richer, deeper, and more complex.
As Catholic educators, our goal is to help our students to become good persons. Among those qualities we deem good are wisdom, faithfulness, and virtue. Virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good.20 We are free to the extent that with the help of others, we have maximized these goods, these proper powers and perfections as man.21 Such efforts raise fundamental questions of what it means to be human and our relationships with each other, the created world, and God.
God, through reason and revelation, has not left us blind on these issues, nor has He left us up to our own subjective devices. It is a fundamental responsibility of the Catholic school to teach and pass on this Catholic culture, this Catholic worldview, this cultural patrimony, these insights, and these very fundamental truths about the good and what constitutes the good life.22 Particularly, in this and all our efforts as Catholic educators, we build our foundation of the good on Jesus Christ, who is the perfect man, and who fully reveals man to himself.23
Some essential questions related to goodness:
What is this thing’s purpose/end? What do we know from our senses and reason? From nature and natural law? What do we know from revelation?
What is this thing’s nature? What do we know from our senses and reason? From nature and natural law? What do we know from revelation?
What perfections are proper to this thing in light of its purpose?
To what degree does the particular instance we are considering possess or lack these perfections?
What, if anything, would make this better?
What would make this worse?
How well does this work? Is “X” a good “Y”? What makes “X” a good “Y”? (e.g., Is Odysseus a good husband? Is the liver we are diagnosing a good liver? Is the theory of relativity a good theory? Is Picasso a good artist?)
How does this measure up in terms of a Catholic worldview and values?
How does this measure up in terms of Catholic morality and virtue?
How does this measure up to God’s plan or expectations of it as revealed in Christ?
Is this also beautiful? Is this also true?
Truth
A simple definition for truth is the mind being in accord with reality.24 We seek always to place our students and ourselves in proper relationship with the truth. Nothing we do can ever be opposed to the truth, that is, opposed to reality which has its being in God. Catholics hold that when our senses are in good condition and functioning properly under normal circumstances, and when our reason is functioning honestly and clearly, we can come to know reality and have the ability to make true judgments about reality. Through study, reflection, experimentation, argument and discussion, we believe that an object under discussion may manifest itself in its various relations, either directly or indirectly, to the mind.25
We believe that Man tends by nature toward the truth. Even though due to our fallen nature we may sometimes seek to ignore or obfuscate the truth, we are nonetheless obliged to honor and bear witness to it in its fullness. We are bound to adhere to the truth once we come to know it and direct our whole life in accordance with the demands of truth.26 As Catholics, we believe that reason, revelation, and science will never be in ultimate conflict, as the same God created them all.27 We oppose scientism which without evidence makes the metaphysical claim that only what can be measured and subject to physical science can be true. We oppose relativism, not only because its central dictum “there is no truth” is self-contradicting, but also because in removing objective truths from any analysis, this also removes the possibility of gauging human progress, destroys the basis for human dignity, and disables the ability to make important moral distinctions such as the desirability of tolerance28 and wisdom of pursuing truth, beauty, and goodness as opposed to their opposites of error, ugliness, and sin.
Some essential questions related to truth:
Is it true?
Is our mind/concept in accord with reality?
Are we looking at this clearly and with our senses and reason properly attuned?
Is the thinking rational and logical?
Is the information and reasoning clear and precise?
Is the approach fair and balanced?
How does this square with what we know from revelation? If there is a disconnect, where further shall we explore?
On what intellectual, moral, or intuitive principle are we basing this?
Can the knowledge or situation under consideration be integrated with or expanded by the knowledge from another academic discipline?
Now that we know this particular truth about a thing, what other questions does that raise? What more do we want to know?
Is this also beautiful? Is this also good?
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/Catholic-Curriculum-Standards.png4381022Dr. Dan Guernseyhttps://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/CNS-logo-2C-450-tag2.pngDr. Dan Guernsey2016-10-17 19:17:002020-05-19 14:13:04Educating to Truth, Beauty and Goodness
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Catholic Education released a document in 2014 to guide Catholic schools in their approach to educational standards. It had been longstanding practice in Catholic education to rely heavily upon state standards for public schools, but this became increasingly controversial when many states shifted to the Common Core State Standards. The Committee advised:
Catholic schools must consider standards that support the mission and purpose of the school as a Catholic institution. Attempts to compartmentalize the religious and the secular in Catholic schools reflect a relativistic perspective by suggesting that faith is merely a private matter and does not have a significant bearing on how reality as a whole should be understood. Such attempts are at odds with the integral approach to education that is a hallmark of Catholic schools. Standards that support an appropriate integration should be encouraged.
Such standards are critical to Catholic education. The Church and the Catholic intellectual tradition it inspired have thought deeply and explicitly about these things for centuries; the challenge is to place them into a contemporary K-12 standards format without losing these deep spiritual and philosophical insights. Standards reflecting the Catholic intellectual tradition might then form the foundation of a school’s measures of success, or they might complement a school’s carefully selected academic standards that are already in use.
The scope and nature of this project entails research and inquiry into two areas: “What does the Church expect of its schools?” and “What sort of academic standards in each discipline might guide a school’s curriculum toward this end?” The Cardinal Newman Society undertook the first inquiry with its Principles of Catholic Identity in Education project. The second inquiry resulted in these Catholic Curriculum Standards.
Research from the first inquiry resulted in the synthesis of key Church teachings into five principles of Catholic identity. They are:
Inspired by Divine Mission,
Models Christian Communion and Identity,
Encounters Christ in Prayer, Scripture, and Sacrament,
Integrally Forms the Human Person, and
Imparts a Christian View for Humanity.
Principles 1, 4, and 5 most directly guide the scope and of the Catholic Curriculum Standards.
The Catholic Curriculum Standards take into account guidance from Church documents which emphasize that Catholic education:
Involves the integral formation of the whole person, body, mind, and spirit, in light of his or her ultimate end and the good of society.
Seeks to know and understand objective reality, including transcendent Truth, which is knowable by reason and faith and finds its origin, unity, and end in God.
Promotes human virtues and the dignity of the human person, as created in the image and likeness of God and modeled on the person of Jesus Christ.
Encourages a synthesis of faith, life, and culture.
Develops a Catholic worldview and enables a deeper incorporation of the student into the heart of the Catholic Church.
This framework guides the second part of the inquiry, “What sort of academic standards might serve to guide a school’s curriculum toward this end?”
The initial development of the standards was influenced by multiple sources, including Church documents, scholarly works related to Catholic education and the Catholic intellectual tradition, and books articulating the nature of liberal arts and classical education. The standards also reflect the educational philosophies of several faithful Catholic colleges in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College.
A series of meetings, focus groups, and contacts with academic subject area experts helped further refine the scope and nature of each discipline’s Catholic tradition and the complete standards; these experts represent Aquinas College (Nashville), Ave Maria University, Catholic University of America, Christendom College, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Thomas Aquinas College, Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, University of St. Thomas (Houston), and others. Cardinal Newman Society authors then structured the standards into conventional standards-based language and format. Further input and review was provided by national standards expert, Dr. Sandra Stotsky, who oversaw the writing of the highly regarded Massachusetts academic standards and was a final validation team member by the developers of the Common Core before resigning in disagreement. Finally, the standards were reviewed by superintendents, teachers, and curriculum experts in three Catholic dioceses for clarity, applicability, and structure.
Each academic discipline’s standards are broadly grouped into two sets focusing on grades K-6 and 7-12, with general, intellectual, and dispositional standards for each academic discipline. The general standards are tied to the five critical elements listed above. Intellectual standards are cognitive standards and are primarily content and performance based. The dispositional standards involve the formation of character, beliefs, attitudes, values, interpersonal skills. Each standard is given a unique identifier for ease of location within the document and identification in teacher lesson plans. The following are examples of standards for English language arts, math, science, and history:
CS
ELA.712(English Language Arts 7-12)
GS3
Analyze works of fiction and non-fiction to uncover authentic Truth.
CS
H.K6(History K-6)
IS11
Identify the motivating values that have informed particular societies and how they correlate with Catholic teaching.
CS
S.K6(Scientific Topics K-6)
IS8
Explain how science properly limits its focus to “how” things physically exist and is not designed to answer issues of meaning, the value of things, or the mysteries of the human person.
CS
M.K6(Math K-6)
DS2
Respond to the beauty, harmony, proportion, radiance, and wholeness present in mathematics.
In addition to the standards, the document contains a number of appendices to assist implementation. To help orient instructional efforts, the document provides guidance on educating to truth, beauty, and goodness. The appendices also contain best practice information, a recommended reading list for Catholic schools, and a brief discussion on the assessment of dispositional standards.
The Catholic Curriculum Standards are intended primarily as a general resource for Catholic school curriculum developers, superintendents, and others familiar with creating curriculum and standards. However, anyone with an interest in Catholic education may find them useful. Those who interact with the standards are encouraged to select some or all of the standards that they believe might solidify and enhance the Catholic identity of their curriculum and integrate them into their larger educational efforts.
The mission and goals of Catholic education are significantly different from the college and career goals that guide public schools. Because the mission of a school should guide its choice of standards, the unique and broader mission of Catholic education requires additional and foundational standards that include specific Catholic modes of intellectual reasoning as well as accompanying dispositions.
A discussion of standards in use in a Catholic school should therefore begin with a discussion of the mission of Catholic education. There is no shortage of guidance from the Church on this topic. Building on insights from Vatican II’s Gravissimum Educationis (1965), these documents echo the fact that Catholic education has a primarily evangelical mission. It is to foster in students an awareness of the God-given gift of faith and to nurture their development into mature adults who will bear witness to the Mystical Body of Christ; respect the dignity of the human person; lead virtuous, prayerful, apostolic lives; serve the common good; and build the Kingdom of God.29
Through Catholic education, students encounter God’s transforming love and truth.30 With Jesus as its foundation,31 Catholic education integrally forms all aspects of students’ physical, moral, spiritual, and intellectual development, teaching them responsibility and the right use of freedom and preparing them to fulfill God’s calling in this world so as to attain the eternal kingdom in the next.32
To guide students toward this goal, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) created the Curriculum Framework33 for high school religion classes. But the mission of Catholic education is not limited to religion classes, nor is it separate from the intellectual formation of the students.
Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman observed that because of the divine origin and the destiny of all reality:
All branches of knowledge are connected together, because the subject-matter of knowledge is intimately united in itself, as being the acts and the work of the Creator. Hence it is that the Sciences, into which our knowledge may be said to be cast, have multiplied bearings one on another, and an internal sympathy, and admit, or rather demand, comparison and adjustment. They complete, correct, [and] balance each other.34
This is a critical addition to the academic approach common in secular schools. Like these schools, Catholic educators lead students to know and appreciate reality using the best and most appropriate methods for the subject at hand and delve deeply into each specific academic discipline on its own terms, but Catholic education is also specifically and distinctly open to transcendent truths and an objective reality which surpasses and integrates the disciplines.
When illumined by the light of faith, all knowledge becomes living, conscious, and active.35 Because students have access to reason, revelation, and the guidance of the Catholic Church, Catholic education is uniquely positioned to offer guidance on issues of values and morality as well as to provide life-giving and definitive answers related to questions of human purpose, human dignity, and human flourishing. These questions arise quite naturally in academic practice and inquiry.
The Catholic educational project, to bring human wisdom into an encounter with divine wisdom,36 cultivates in students not only the intellectual but also the creative and aesthetic faculties of the human person. It develops the ability to make correct use of judgment, promotes a sense of values, encourages just attitudes and prudent behavior, introduces a cultural heritage, and prepares students to take on the responsibilities to serve society and the Church.37 It prepares students to work for the evangelization of culture and the common good.38 In the light of faith, Catholic education critically and systematically transmits the civic and religious cultural patrimony handed down from previous generations, especially that which makes a person more human.39 Both educator and student participate in a dialogue with culture and pursue the integration of culture with faith and faith with living.40
In Catholic education, there is no separation between learning and formation. The atmosphere is characterized by discovery and awareness that enkindles a love for truth, a desire to know the universe as God’s creation, and an awakening of a critical sense of examination which impels the mind to learn with order and precision.41 Catholic education, imbued with the light of faith, instills a sense of responsibility and encourages strength and perseverance in the quest for knowledge.42 Catholic intellectual efforts and formation are significantly more rich and profound given this broader understanding of reality, access to transcendent truths, support from a cultural heritage, and the efficacy of God’s grace poured forth from the Sacraments and guided by the Holy Spirit. Catholic academic standards must take all this and more into account, and, drawing from guidance in Church documents, should ensure these key components are addressed. Therefore,
Catholic education:
1. Involves the integral formation of the whole person, body, mind, and spirit, in light of his or her ultimate end and the good of society.43 2. Seeks to know and understand objective reality, including transcendent Truth, which is knowable by reason and faith and finds its origin, unity, and end in God. 3. Promotes human virtues and the dignity of the human person, as created in the image and likeness of God and modeled on the person of Jesus Christ.44 4. Encourages a synthesis of faith, life, and culture.45 5. Develops a Catholic worldview and enables a deeper incorporation of the student into the heart of the Catholic Church.46
Operational Guidance
This resource guide is not a complete set of standards for any particular subject, but it is designed to complement a broader set of primarily content driven academic standards. Not all of the standards in this guide need be implemented.
There are many other possible articulations of standards that might address the intellectual and dispositional needs of Catholic education.47 The intent here is to start a conversation and invite further consideration as Catholic educators develop their own standards and curriculum guides based on their unique mission, which extends to the formation of their students in a rich Catholic intellectual heritage.
These standards reflect insights gathered from Church documents on education; books and articles on Catholic education, liberal arts education, and classical education; the educational philosophies of Catholic colleges in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College; and the Cardinal Newman Society’s Principles of Catholic Identity in Education. A list of contributors and consultants is available in the Appendix. Reference tables at the end of the document link most standards with books, articles, or websites for further exploration of the topic.
The standards include the following designations:
GS = General Standards that articulate the above five premises.
IS = Intellectual Standards that articulate cognitive learning standards grouped by content for ease of use.
WS = Writing Standards involve formation of proper and logical thinking.
DS = Dispositional Standards involve the formation of character, beliefs, attitudes, and values, or other non-cognitive standards.
They are grouped into two sets, grades K-6 and 7-12, with general, intellectual, and affective dispositions for most subjects. Users are encouraged to select some or all of the standards that they believe might solidify and enhance the Catholic identity of their curriculum. This guide is intended primarily as a general resource for Catholic school curriculum developers, superintendents, and others familiar with creating standards and curriculum. Additional resources are available on the Cardinal Newman Society’s K-12 Catholic Curriculum Standards website at www.newmansociety.org.
Literature and the arts are also, in their own way, of great importance to the life of the Church. They strive to make known the proper nature of man, his problems and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world. They have much to do with revealing man’s place in history and in the world; with illustrating the miseries and joys, the needs and strengths of man and with foreshadowing a better life for him. Thus they are able to elevate human life, expressed in multifold forms according to various times and regions.
Analyze literature that reflects the transmission of a Catholic culture and worldview.
CS
ELA.K6
GS2
Analyze works of fiction and non-fiction to uncover authentic Truth.
CS
ELA.K6
GS3
Analyze carefully chosen selections to uncover the proper nature of man, his problems, and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world.
CS
ELA.K6
GS4
Share how literature can contribute to strengthening one’s moral character.
Intellectual Standards
CS
ELA.K6
IS1
Demonstrate how literature is used to develop a religious, moral, and social sense.
CS
ELA.K6
IS2
Articulate how spiritual knowledge and enduring truths are represented and communicated through fairy tales, fables, myths, parables, and stories.
CS
ELA.K6
IS3
Recognize Christian and Western symbols and symbolism.
CS
ELA.K6
IS4
Explain how Christian and Western symbols and symbolism communicate the battle between good and evil and make reality visible.
CS
ELA.K6
IS5
Recite poems of substance that inform the human soul and encourage a striving for virtue and goodness.
CS
ELA.K6
IS6
Identify examples of noble characteristics in stories of virtuous heroes and heroines.
CS
ELA.K6
IS7
Identify the causes underlying why people do the things they do.
CS
ELA.K6
IS8
Identify how literature develops the faculty of personal judgment.
CS
ELA.K6
IS9
Analyze how literature assists in the ability to make judgments about what is true and what is false and to make choices based on these judgments.
CS
ELA.K6
IS10
Analyze literature to identify, interpret, and assimilate the cultural patrimony handed down from previous generations.
CS
ELA.K6
IS11
Summarize how literature can reflect the historical and sociological culture of the time period in which it was written to help us better understand ourselves and other cultures and times.
CS
ELA.K6
IS12
Use imagination to create dialogue between the readers and the characters in a story.
CS
ELA.K6
IS13
Determine how literature cultivates the human intellectual faculties of contemplation, intuition, and creativity.
CS
ELA.K6
IS14
Analyze the author’s reasoning and discover the author’s intent.
Writing Standards
CS
ELA.K6
WS1
Use language as a bridge for communication with one’s fellow man for the betterment of all involved.
CS
ELA.K6
WS2
Write in various ways to naturally order thoughts, align them with truth, and accurately express intent, knowledge, and feelings.
CS
ELA.K6
WS3
Use grammar as a means of signifying concepts and the relationship to reason.
Dispositional Standards
CS
ELA.K6
DS1
Accept and value how literature aids one to live harmoniously with others.
CS
ELA.K6
DS2
Accept and value how literature can assist in interpreting and evaluating all things in a truly Christian spirit.
CS
ELA.K6
DS3
Share how literature cultivates the aesthetic faculties within the human person.
CS
ELA.K6
DS4
Share beautifully told and well-crafted works, especially those with elements of unity, harmony, and radiance of form.
CS
ELA.K6
DS5
Share how literature ignites the creative imagination in healthy ways.
CS
ELA.K6
DS6
Share how literature assists in identifying, interpreting, and assimilating the cultural patrimony handed down from previous generations.
CS
ELA.K6
DS7
Delight and wonder through the reading of creative, sound, and healthy stories, poems, and plays.
CS
ELA.K6
DS8
Recognize literary characters possessing virtue and begin to exhibit these virtuous behaviors, values, and attitudes.
CS
ELA.K6
DS9
Share how the beauty and cadence of poetry impacts human sensibilities and forms the soul.
Literature and the arts are also, in their own way, of great importance to the life of the Church. They strive to make known the proper nature of man, his problems and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world. They have much to do with revealing man’s place in history and in the world; with illustrating the miseries and joys, the needs and strengths of man and with foreshadowing a better life for him. Thus they are able to elevate human life, expressed in multifold forms according to various times and regions.
Analyze literature that reflects the transmission of a Catholic culture and worldview.
CS
ELA.712
GS2
Analyze works of fiction and non-fiction to uncover authentic Truth.
CS
ELA.712
GS3
Analyze carefully chosen selections to uncover the proper nature of man, his problems, and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world.
CS
ELA.712
GS4
Share how literature can contribute to strengthening one’s moral character.
Intellectual Standards
CS
ELA.712
IS1
Identify how literature interprets the human condition, human behaviors, and human actions in its redeemed and unredeemed state.
CS
ELA.712
IS2
Describe how the rich spiritual knowledge communicated through fairy tales, fables, myths, parables, and other stories is a reflection on the truth and development of a moral imagination and the mystery, danger, and wonder of human experience.
CS
ELA.712
IS3
Describe the importance of thinking with images informed by classic Christian and Western symbols and archetypes, including their important role in understanding the battle between good and evil and their role in making visible realities that are complex, invisible, and spiritual.
CS
ELA.712
IS4
Explain from a Catholic perspective how literature addresses critical questions related to man, such as: How ought men live in community with each other? What are an individual’s rights, duties, freedoms, and restraints? What are a society’s? What is the relationship between man and God? Between man and the physical world? What is the nature of human dignity and the human spirit? What is love? What is the good life?
CS
ELA.712
IS5
Describe how poets and writers use language to convey truths that are universal and transcendent.
CS
ELA.712
IS6
Analyze critical values presented in literature and the degree to which they are in accord or discord with Catholic norms.
CS
ELA.712
IS7
Use imagination to create dialogue between the reader and fictional characters by entering into the lives of the characters and uncovering deeper meanings, inferences, and relationships between the characters, nature, and God.
CS
ELA.712
IS8
Explain how literature assists in transcending the limited horizon of human reality.
CS
ELA.712
IS9
Evaluate complex literary selections for all that is implied in the concept of “person”50 as defined from a Catholic perspective.
CS
ELA.712
IS10
Analyze how literature helps identify, interpret, and assimilate the cultural patrimony handed down from previous generations.
CS
ELA.712
IS11
Summarize how literature can reflect the historical and sociological culture of the time period in which it was written and help better understand ourselves and other cultures and times.
CS
ELA.712
IS12
Demonstrate cultural literacy and familiarity with the great works and authors of the world and in particular the Western canon.
CS
ELA.712
IS13
Explain how the powerful role of poetic knowledge, the moral imagination, connotative language, and artistic creativity explore difficult and unwieldy elements of the human condition, which is not always explainable with technical linguistic analysis or scientific rationalism.
CS
ELA.712
IS14
Analyze the author’s reasoning and discover the author’s intent.
CS
ELA.712
IS15
Describe how the gratuitousness of literary and artistic creation reflects the divine prerogative. Explain the role of man as “maker”—as artist, poet, and creator—and how the use of language to create is reflective of our being made in the image and likeness of God.
Writing Standards
CS
ELA.712
WS1
Explain how language can be used as a bridge for communion with others for the betterment of all involved.
CS
ELA.712
WS2
Write in various ways to naturally order thoughts to the truth with an accurate expression of intent, knowledge, and feelings.
CS
ELA.712
WS3
Use grammar as a means of signifying concepts and the relationship to reason.
CS
ELA.712
WS4
Demonstrate the use of effective rhetorical skills in the service and pursuit of truth.
Dispositional Standards
CS
ELA.712
DS1
Share how literature fosters both prudence and sound judgment in the human person.
CS
ELA.712
DS2
Develop empathy, care, and compassion for a character’s crisis or choice in order to transcend oneself, build virtue, and better understand one’s own disposition and humanity.
CS
ELA.712
DS3
Display the virtues and values evident within stories that involve an ideal and take a stand for love, faith, courage, fidelity, truth, beauty, goodness, and all virtues.
CS
ELA.712
DS4
Identify with beautifully told and well-crafted works, especially those with elements of unity, harmony, and radiance of form.
CS
ELA.712
DS5
Share how literature ignites the creative imagination by presenting in rich context amazing lives and situations told by humanity’s best storytellers and most alive intellects.
CS
ELA.712
DS6
Display a sense of the “good” by examining the degree in which characters significantly possess or lack the perfections proper to a) their nature as human persons, b) their proper role in society as understood in their own culture or the world of the text, c) the terms of contemporary culture, and d) the terms of Catholic tradition and moral norms.
CS
ELA.712
DS7
Delight and wonder through the reading of creative, sound, and healthy stories, plays and poems.
History K-6
CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN HISTORY K-651
Teachers should guide the students’ work in such a way that they will be able to discover a religious dimension in the world of human history. As a preliminary, they should be encouraged to develop a taste for historical truth, and therefore to realize the need to look critically at texts and curricula which, at times, are imposed by a government or distorted by the ideology of the author…they will see the development of civilizations, and learn about progress…When they are ready to appreciate it, students can be invited to reflect on the fact that this human struggle takes place within the divine history of universal salvation. At this moment, the religious dimension of history begins to shine forth in all its luminous grandeur.
Demonstrate a general understanding of the “story” of humanity from creation to present through a Catholic concept of the world and man.
CS
H.K6
GS2
Demonstrate an understanding about great figures of history by examining their lives for examples of virtue or vice.
CS
H.K6
GS3
Demonstrate an understanding of the cultural inheritance provided by the Church.
Intellectual Standards
CS
H.K6
IS1
Describe how history begins and ends in God and how history has a religious dimension.
CS
H.K6
IS2
Describe how Jesus, as God incarnate, existed in history just like we do.
CS
H.K6
IS3
Describe how reading history is a way to learn about what God does for humanity.
CS
H.K6
IS4
Explain the history of the Catholic Church and its impact in human events.
CS
H.K6
IS5
Exhibit mastery of essential dates, persons, places, and facts relevant to the Western tradition and the Catholic Church.
CS
H.K6
IS6
Explain how the central themes within the stories of important Catholic figures and saints repeat over time.
CS
H.K6
IS7
Explain how beliefs about God, humanity, and material things affect behavior.
CS
H.K6
IS8
Explain the human condition and the role and dignity of man in God’s plan.
CS
H.K6
IS9
Demonstrate how history helps us predict and plan for future events using prudence and wisdom gleaned from recognizing previous patterns of change, knowledge of past events, and a richer, more significant, view of personal experiences.
CS
H.K6
IS10
Explain how historical events involving critical human experiences, especially those dealing with good and evil, help enlarge perspective and understanding of self and others.
CS
H.K6
IS11
Identify the motivating values that have informed particular societies and how they correlate with Catholic teaching.
CS
H.K6
IS12
Examine how history can assist in the acquisition of values and virtues.
Dispositional Standards
CS
H.K6
DS1
Select and describe beautiful artifacts from different times and cultures
CS
H.K6
DS2
Exhibit an affinity for the common good and shared humanity, not just with those nearby, but also for those who have gone before and those who will come after.
CS
H.K6
DS3
Demonstrate respect and solicitude to individual differences among students in the classroom and school community.
CS
H.K6
DS4
Discriminate between what is positive in the world with what needs to be transformed and what injustices need to be overcome.
CS
H.K6
DS5
Justify the significance and impact of the Catholic Church throughout history.
CS
H.K6
DS6
Develop a habitual vision of greatness.
History 7-12
CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN HISTORY 7-1252
Teachers should guide the students’ work in such a way that they will be able to discover a religious dimension in the world of human history. As a preliminary, they should be encouraged to develop a taste for historical truth, and therefore to realize the need to look critically at texts and curricula which, at times, are imposed by a government or distorted by the ideology of the author…they will see the development of civilizations, and learn about progress…When they are ready to appreciate it, students can be invited to reflect on the fact that this human struggle takes place within the divine history of universal salvation. At this moment, the religious dimension of history begins to shine forth in all its luminous grandeur.
Describe how history begins and ends in God and how history has a religious dimension.
CS
H.712
GS2
Analyze stories of important Catholic figures and saints who through their actions and examples develop or re-awaken that period’s moral sense.
CS
H.712
GS3
Describe the historical impact of the Catholic Church on human events.
CS
H.712
GS4
Explain how religious and moral knowledge are a requisite for understanding human grandeur and the drama of human activity throughout history.
CS
H.712
GS5
Display personal self-worth and dignity as a human being and as part of God’s ultimate plan of creation.
Intellectual Standards
CS
H.712
IS1
Describe how God, Himself, through the incarnation, has “sacramentalized” time and humanity.
CS
H.712
IS2
Analyze how God has revealed Himself throughout time and history, including the things we know best and can easily verify.
CS
H.712
IS3
Analyze how life experiences and life choices create a personal history with eternal consequences.
CS
H.712
IS4
Evaluate how history is not a mere chronicle of human events, but rather a moral and meta-physical drama having supreme worth in the eyes of God.
CS
H.712
IS5
Analyze cultures to show how they give expression to the transcendental aspects of life, including reflection on the mystery of the world and the mystery of humanity.
CS
H.712
IS6
Develop an historical perspective and intellectual framework to properly situate each academic discipline, not only in its own developmental timeline, but also within the larger story of historical, cultural, and intellectual development.
CS
H.712
IS7
Identify, from the Catholic perspective, the motivating values, philosophies, and theologies that have informed particular societies (e.g., Mexico, Canada, early colonies in the U.S.).
CS
H.712
IS8
Demonstrate the ways men and societies change and/or persist over time to better understand the human condition.
CS
H.712
IS9
Evaluate how societies provide a sense of coherence and meaning to human life, shaping and forming human culture and events.
CS
H.712
IS10
Analyze great figures and events in history using the systematic frameworks of Western philosophical tradition and Catholic moral norms and virtue to better understand both those people and events.
CS
H.712
IS11
Compare the actions of peoples according to their historical and cultural norms to the expectations of current Catholic moral norms and virtues.
CS
H.712
IS12
Demonstrate how historical events and patterns of change help predict and plan for future events.
CS
H.712
IS13
Describe how the moral qualities of a citizenry naturally give rise to the nature of the government and influence societal outcomes and destinies.
CS
H.712
IS14
Relate how the development of a broader viewpoint of history and events affects individual experiences and deepens a sense of being and the world.
CS
H.712
IS15
Analyze the thoughts and deeds of great men and women of the past.
CS
H.712
IS16
Analyze and exhibit mastery of essential dates, persons, places, and facts, relevant to the Western tradition and the Catholic Church.
CS
H.712
IS17
Examine texts for historical truths, recognizing bias or distortion by the author and overcoming a relativistic viewpoint.
CS
H.712
IS18
Analyze historical events, especially those involving critical human experiences of good and evil, so as to enlarge understanding of self and others.
CS
H.712
IS19
Distinguish the basic elements of Christian social ethics within historical events.
CS
H.712
IS20
Evaluate how Christian social ethics extend to questions of politics, economy, and social institutions and not just personal moral decision-making.
CS
H.712
IS21
Evaluate the concept of subsidiarity and its role in Catholic social doctrine.
CS
H.712
IS22
Analyze the concept of solidarity and describe its effect on a local, regional, and global level.
CS
H.712
IS23
Compare the right to own private property with the universal distribution of goods and the distribution of goods in a socialist society.
CS
H.712
IS24
Summarize the case for the dignity of work and the rights of workers.
CS
H.712
IS25
Examine the Church’s position on freedom and man’s right to participate in the building up of society and contributing to the common good.
CS
H.712
IS26
Articulate the tension and distinction between religious freedom and social cohesion.
CS
H.712
IS27
Identify the dangers of relativism present in the notion that one culture cannot critique another, and that truth is simply culturally created.
Dispositional Standards
CS
H.712
DS1
Select and describe beautiful artifacts from different times and cultures.
CS
H.712
DS2
Exhibit love for the common good and a shared humanity with those present, those who have gone before, and those who will come after.
CS
H.712
DS3
Evaluate the aesthetics (idea of beauty) of different cultures and times to better appreciate the purpose and power of both cultural and transcendent notions of the beautiful.
CS
H.712
DS4
Share Catholic virtues and values (i.e., prudence and wisdom) gleaned from the study of human history to better evaluate personal behaviors, trends of contemporary society, and prevalent social pressures and norms.
CS
H.712
DS5
Justify how history, as a medium, can assist in recognizing and rejecting contemporary cultural values that threaten human dignity and are contrary to the Gospel message.
CS
H.712
DS6
Demonstrate respect and appreciation for the qualities and characteristics of different cultures in order to pursue peace and understanding, knowledge and truth.
By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws. These man must respect as he recognizes the methods proper to every science and technique…Whoever labors to penetrate the secrets of reality with a humble and steady mind, even though he is unaware of the fact, is nevertheless being led by the hand of God, who holds all things in existence, and gives them their identity.
Exhibit care and concern at all stages of life for each human person as an image and likeness of God.
CS
S.K6
GS2
Describe the unity of faith and reason with confidence that there exists no contradiction between the God of nature and the God of faith.
CS
S.K6
GS3
Value the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Intellectual Standards
CS
S.K6
IS1
Explain what it means to say that God created the world and all matter out of nothing at a certain point in time; how it manifests His wisdom, glory, and purpose; and how He holds everything in existence according to His plan.
CS
S.K6
IS2
Describe the relationships, elements, underlying order, harmony, and meaning in God’s creation.
CS
S.K6
IS3
Explain how creation is an outward sign of God’s love and goodness and, therefore, is “sacramental” in nature.
CS
S.K6
IS4
Give examples of the beauty evident in God’s creation.
CS
S.K6
IS5
Explain the processes of conservation, preservation, overconsumption, and stewardship in relation to caring for that which God has given to sustain and delight us.
CS
S.K6
IS6
Describe God’s relationship with man and nature.
CS
S.K6
IS7
Describe how science and technology should always be at the service of humanity and, ultimately, to God, in harmony with His purposes.
CS
S.K6
IS8
Explain how science properly limits its focus to “how” things physically exist and is not designed to answer issues of meaning, the value of things, or the mysteries of the human person.
CS
S.K6
IS9
Describe how the use of the scientific method to explore and understand nature differs, yet complements, the theological and philosophical questions one asks in order to understand God and His works.
CS
S.K6
IS10
Analyze the false assumption that science can replace faith.
CS
S.K6
IS11
List the basic contributions of significant Catholics to science such as Galileo, Copernicus, Mendel, and others.
Dispositional Standards
CS
S.K6
DS1
Display a sense of wonder and delight about the natural universe and its beauty.
CS
S.K6
DS2
Share concern and care for the environment as a part of God’s creation.
CS
S.K6
DS3
Accept the premise that nature should not be manipulated simply at man’s will or only viewed as a thing to be used, but that man must cooperate with God’s plan for himself and for nature.
CS
S.K6
DS4
Accept that scientific knowledge is a call to serve and not simply a means to gain power, material prosperity, or success.
By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws. These man must respect as he recognizes the methods proper to every science and technique…Whoever labors to penetrate the secrets of reality with a humble and steady mind, even though he is unaware of the fact, is nevertheless being led by the hand of God, who holds all things in existence, and gives them their identity.
Exhibit a primacy of care and concern at all stages of life for each human person as an image and likeness of God.
CS
S.712
GS2
Explain and promote the unity of faith and reason with confidence that there exists no contradiction between the God of nature and the God of the faith.
CS
S.712
GS3
Value the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
CS
S.712
GS4
Share how the beauty and goodness of God is reflected in nature and the study of the natural sciences.
Intellectual Standards
CS
S.712
IS1
Articulate how science properly situates itself within other academic disciplines (e.g., history, theology) for correction and completion in order to recognize the limited material explanation of reality to which it is properly attuned.
CS
S.712
IS2
Demonstrate confidence in human reason and in one’s ability to know the truth about God’s creation and the fundamental intelligibility of the world.
CS
S.712
IS3
Analyze how the pursuit of scientific knowledge, for utilitarian purposes alone or for the misguided manipulation of nature, thwarts the pursuit of authentic Truth and the greater glory of God.
CS
S.712
IS4
Relate how the search for truth, even when it concerns a finite reality of the natural world or of man, is never-ending and always points beyond to something higher than the immediate object of study.
CS
S.712
IS5
Explain the processes of conservation, preservation, overconsumption, and stewardship as it relates to creation and to caring for that which God has given to sustain and delight us.
CS
S.712
IS6
Evaluate the relationship between God, man, and nature, and the proper role in the totality of being and creation.
CS
S.712
IS7
Describe humanity’s natural situation in, and dependence upon, physical reality and how man carries out his role as a cooperator with God in the work of creation.
CS
S.712
IS8
Evaluate the errors present in the belief system of scientific naturalism or scientism.55 (which includes materialism56 and reductionism57), which posits that scientific exploration and explanation is the only valid source of meaning.
CS
S.712
IS9
Distinguish the difference between the use of the scientific method and the use of theological inquiry to know and understand God’s creation and universal truths.
CS
S.712
IS10
Articulate the limitations of science (the scientific method and constraints of the physical world) to know and understand God and transcendent reality.
CS
S.712
IS11
Identify key Catholic scientists such as Copernicus, Mendel, DaVinci, Bacon, Pasteur, Volta, St. Albert the Great, and others and the witness and evidence they supply against the false claim that Catholicism is not compatible with science.
CS
S.712
IS12
Analyze and articulate the Church’s approach to the theory of evolution.
CS
S.712
IS13
Relate how the human soul is specifically created by God for each human being, does not evolve from lesser matter, and is not inherited from our parents.
CS
S.712
IS14
Explain how understanding the physiological properties of a human being does not address the existence of the transcendent spirit of the human person (see Appendix E).
CS
S.712
IS15
Explain the supernatural design hypothesis in terms of the Borde-Vilenkin-Guth Proof, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, entropy, and anthropic coincidences (fine tuning of initial conditions and universal constants) (see Appendix E).
CS
S.712
IS16
Articulate the details of the Galileo affair to counter the assumption that the Church is anti-science.
CS
S.712
IS17
Demonstrate an understanding of the moral issues involving in vitro fertilization, human cloning, human genetic manipulation, and human experimentation and what the Church teaches regarding work in these areas.
Dispositional Standards
CS
S.712
DS1
Display a deep sense of wonder and delight about the natural universe.
CS
S.712
DS2
Share how natural phenomena have more than a utilitarian meaning and purpose and exemplify the handiwork of the Creator.
CS
S.712
DS3
Subscribe to the premise that nature should not be manipulated at will, but should be respected for its natural purpose and end as destined by the creator God.
CS
S.712
DS4
Share concern and care for the environment as part of God’s creation.
CS
S.712
DS5
Adhere to the idea of the simultaneous complexity and simplicity of physical reality.
The school considers human knowledge as a truth to be discovered. In the measure in which subjects are taught by someone who knowingly and without restraint seeks the truth, they are to that extent Christian. Discovery and awareness of truth leads man to the discovery of Truth itself. A teacher who is full of Christian wisdom, well prepared in his own subject, does more than convey the sense of what he is teaching to his pupils. Over and above what he says, he guides his pupils beyond his mere words to the heart of total Truth.
Demonstrate the mental habits of precise, determined, careful, and accurate questioning, inquiry, and reasoning.
CS
M.K6
GS2
Develop lines of inquiry (as developmentally appropriate) to understand why things are true and why they are false.
CS
M.K6
GS3
Recognize the power of the human mind as both a gift from God and a reflection of Him in whose image and likeness we are made.
CS
M.K6
GS4
Survey the truths about mathematical objects that are interesting in their own right and independent of human opinions.
Dispositional Standards
CS
M.K6
DS1
Display a sense of wonder about mathematical relationships as well as confidence in mathematical certitude.
CS
M.K6
DS2
Respond to the beauty, harmony, proportion, radiance, and wholeness present in mathematics.
CS
M.K6
DS3
Show interest in the pursuit of understanding for its own sake.
CS
M.K6
DS4
Exhibit joy at solving difficult mathematical problems and operations.
CS
M.K6
DS5
Show interest in how the mental processes evident within the discipline of mathematics (such as order, perseverance, and logical reasoning) help us with the development of the natural virtues (such as self-discipline and fortitude).
The school considers human knowledge as a truth to be discovered. In the measure in which subjects are taught by someone who knowingly and without restraint seeks the truth, they are to that extent Christian. Discovery and awareness of truth leads man to the discovery of Truth itself. A teacher who is full of Christian wisdom, well prepared in his own subject, does more than convey the sense of what he is teaching to his pupils. Over and above what he says, he guides his pupils beyond his mere words to the heart of total Truth.
Demonstrate the mental habits of precise, determined, careful, and accurate questioning, inquiry, and reasoning in the pursuit of transcendent truths.
CS
M.712
GS2
Develop lines of inquiry to understand why things are true and why they are false.
CS
M.712
GS3
Have faith in the glory and dignity of human reason as both a gift from God and a reflection of Him in whose image and likeness we are made.
CS
M.712
GS4
Explain how mathematics in its reflection of the good, true, and beautiful reveals qualities of being and the presence of God.
Intellectual Standards
CS
M.712
IS1
Explain the nature of rational discourse and argument and the desirability of precision and deductive certainty which mathematics makes possible and is not possible to the same degree in other disciplines.
CS
M.712
IS2
Demonstrate how sound logical arguments and other processes of mathematics are foundational to its discipline.
CS
M.712
IS3
Recognize how mathematical arguments and processes can be extrapolated to other areas of study, including theology and philosophy.
CS
M.712
IS4
Explain how it is possible to mentally abstract and construct mathematical objects from direct observations of reality and how one’s perception of that reality is important to what one is doing (see Appendix F).
CS
M.712
IS5
Recognize personal bias in inquiry and articulate why inquiry should be undertaken in a fair and independent manner.
CS
M.712
IS6
Evaluate the ongoing nature of mathematical inquiry, its inexhaustibility, and its openness to the infinite.
CS
M.712
IS7
Explain man’s limitations of understanding and uncovering all mathematical knowledge.
CS
M.712
IS8
Explain how fundamental questions of values, common sense, and religious and human truths and experiences are beyond the scope of mathematical inquiry and its syllogisms.
Dispositional Standards
CS
M.712
DS1
Display a sense of wonder about mathematical relationships, especially mathematical certitude which is independent of human opinion.
CS
M.712
DS2
Share with others the beauty, harmony, proportion, radiance, and wholeness present in mathematics.
CS
M.712
DS3
Advocate for the pursuit of understanding for its own sake and the intrinsic value or discovery of the true and the beautiful often at the requirement of great sacrifice, discipline, and effort.
CS
M.712
DS4
Exhibit appreciation for the ongoing nature of mathematical inquiry.
CS
M.712
DS5
Exhibit habits of thinking quantitatively and in an orderly manner, especially through immersion in mathematical observations found within creation.
CS
M.712
DS6
Propose how mathematical objects or proofs (such as the golden mean, the Fibonacci numbers, the musical scale, and geometric proofs) suggest divine origin.
CS
M.712
DS7
Exhibit appreciation for the process of discovering meanings and truths existing within the solution of the problem and not just arriving at an answer.
CS
M.712
DS8
Exhibit humility at knowing that as a human being man can only grasp a portion of the truths of the universe.
CS
M.712
DS9
Advance an understanding of the ability of the human intellect to know and the desire of the will to want to know more.
The world, in all its diversity, is eager to be guided towards the great values of mankind, truth, good and beauty; now more than ever…Teaching means to accompany young people in their search for truth and beauty, for what is right and good.
Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion, 2014 61
We want our students to maximize their human potential and to both be good and do good in authentic freedom. In order to do this, our students need to be able to know how to wisely and fully apprehend and interrogate all aspects of reality from a solid Christian intellectual tradition. This intellectual tradition involves not just teaching facts and skills, but is also essentially focused on seeking to know the value and nature of things and in appreciating the value of knowledge for its own sake.
One method of assisting students to keep focus on these aspects of Catholic intellectual inquiry is to use the lenses of truth, goodness, and beauty to evaluate a subject under consideration. These three elements are often understood as being among the transcendentals. Transcendentals are the timeless and universal attributes of being.62 They are the properties of all beings. They reflect the divine origin of all things and the unity of all truth and reality in God. These elements are among the deepest realities. They help unite men across time and culture and are often a delight to explore and discuss, because they are substantive to our very nature.
The transcendentals of truth, beauty, and goodness are closely intertwined. Dubay (1999) observed that, “Truth, goodness, and beauty have their being together. By truth we are put in touch with reality, which we find is good for us and beautiful to behold. In our knowing, loving, and delighting the gift of reality appears to us as ‘something infinitely and inexhaustibly valuable and fascinating.’”63 In seeking to discuss one, the others are naturally and organically brought into the conversation.
The following simple definitions and essential questions are provided as a general framework to help facilitate a discussion on any topic in any subject. The goal is not to generate easy questions for easy answers, but to generate foundational questions for deep inquiry into the value and nature of things, to instill a sense of the intrinsic value of knowledge, and to elicit a sense of wonder.
Beauty
Beauty can help evoke wonder and delight, which are foundations of a life of wisdom and inquiry.64 Beauty involves apprehending unity, harmony, proportion, wholeness, and radiance.65 It often manifests itself in simplicity and purity, especially in math and science.66 Often beauty has a type of pre-rational (striking) force upon the soul, for instance when one witnesses a spectacular sunset or the face of one’s beloved. Beauty can be understood as a type of inner radiance or shine coming from a thing that is well-ordered to its state of being or is true to its nature or form.67
Beauty pleases not only the eye or ear, but also the intellect in a celebration of the integrity of our body and soul. It can be seen as a sign of God’s goodness, benevolence and graciousness, of both His presence and His transcendence in the world.68 It can serve as re-enchantment with the cosmos and all reality69 and assist in moving our students to a rich and deep contemplative beholding of the real.70
Some essential questions related to beauty:
Is “X” beautiful? How so? Why not?
Which of these (i.e., poems, experiments, proofs, theories, people, functions, concepts) is more beautiful and why? Why might others have thought this beautiful?
How does this person/thing attract? Is this person using their God-given gifts to attract in a way that pleases God and draws others closer to God? What can happen when beauty is not used for the glory of God?
What is delightful, wondrous about this person/thing?
How does this shine? Radiate?
How is faithfulness to form or nature powerfully evident here?
What does this reveal about the nature of what is seen?
Where is there unity and wholeness here?
Where is there proportion and harmony here?
How does this reveal God’s graciousness, presence, and transcendence?
What does my response to this reveal about me?
Is this also Good? Is this also True?
Goodness
When we explore issues of goodness with our students, we are fundamentally asking them to consider questions of how well someone or something fulfills its purpose. Goodness is understood as the perfection of being. A thing is good to the degree that it enacts and perfects those powers, activities, and capacities appropriate to its nature and purpose. A good pair of scissors cuts, a good eye has 20/20 vision, and so forth. We have to know a thing’s purpose, nature, or form to engage in an authentic discussion of “The Good.” When we get to questions of what is a good law, a good government, a good father, or a good man, the discussion quickly grows richer, deeper, and more complex.
As Catholic educators, our goal is to help our students to become good persons. Among those qualities we deem good are wisdom, faithfulness, and virtue. Virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good.71 We are free to the extent that with the help of others, we have maximized these goods, these proper powers and perfections as man.72 Such efforts raise fundamental questions of what it means to be human and our relationships with each other, the created world, and God.
God, through reason and revelation, has not left us blind on these issues, nor has He left us up to our own subjective devices. It is a fundamental responsibility of the Catholic school to teach and pass on this Catholic culture, this Catholic worldview, this cultural patrimony, these insights, and these very fundamental truths about the good and what constitutes the good life.73 Particularly, in this and all our efforts as Catholic educators, we build our foundation of the good on Jesus Christ, who is the perfect man, and who fully reveals man to himself.74
Some essential questions related to goodness:
What is this thing’s purpose/end? What do we know from our senses and reason? From nature and natural law? What do we know from revelation?
What is this thing’s nature? What do we know from our senses and reason? From nature and natural law? What do we know from revelation?
What perfections are proper to this thing in light of its purpose?
To what degree does the particular instance we are considering possess or lack these perfections?
What, if anything, would make this better?
What would make this worse?
How well does this work? Is “X” a good “Y”? What makes “X” a good “Y”? (e.g., Is Odysseus a good husband? Is the liver we are diagnosing a good liver? Is the theory of relativity a good theory? Is Picasso a good artist?)
How does this measure up in terms of a Catholic worldview and values?
How does this measure up in terms of Catholic morality and virtue?
How does this measure up to God’s plan or expectations of it as revealed in Christ?
Is this also beautiful? Is this also true?
Truth
A simple definition for truth is the mind being in accord with reality.75 We seek always to place our students and ourselves in proper relationship with the truth. Nothing we do can ever be opposed to the truth, that is, opposed to reality which has its being in God. Catholics hold that when our senses are in good condition and functioning properly under normal circumstances, and when our reason is functioning honestly and clearly, we can come to know reality and have the ability to make true judgments about reality. Through study, reflection, experimentation, argument and discussion, we believe that an object under discussion may manifest itself in its various relations, either directly or indirectly, to the mind.76
We believe that Man tends by nature toward the truth. Even though due to our fallen nature we may sometimes seek to ignore or obfuscate the truth, we are nonetheless obliged to honor and bear witness to it in its fullness. We are bound to adhere to the truth once we come to know it and direct our whole life in accordance with the demands of truth.77 As Catholics, we believe that reason, revelation, and science will never be in ultimate conflict, as the same God created them all.78 We oppose scientism which without evidence makes the metaphysical claim that only what can be measured and subject to physical science can be true. We oppose relativism, not only because its central dictum “there is no truth” is self-contradicting, but also because in removing objective truths from any analysis, this also removes the possibility of gauging human progress, destroys the basis for human dignity, and disables the ability to make important moral distinctions such as the desirability of tolerance79 and wisdom of pursuing truth, beauty, and goodness as opposed to their opposites of error, ugliness, and sin.
Some essential questions related to truth:
Is it true?
Is our mind/concept in accord with reality?
Are we looking at this clearly and with our senses and reason properly attuned?
Is the thinking rational and logical?
Is the information and reasoning clear and precise?
Is the approach fair and balanced?
How does this square with what we know from revelation? If there is a disconnect, where further shall we explore?
On what intellectual, moral, or intuitive principle are we basing this?
Can the knowledge or situation under consideration be integrated with or expanded by the knowledge from another academic discipline?
Now that we know this particular truth about a thing, what other questions does that raise? What more do we want to know?
Is this also beautiful? Is this also good?
Appendix B
Assessing Non-Cognitive Standards
In the Catholic school’s educational project there is no separation between time for learning and time for formation, between acquiring notions and growing in wisdom. The various school subjects do not present only knowledge to be attained, but also values to be acquired and truths to be discovered.
The virtues, values, truths, and wisdom, which are never separated from instruction in Catholic schools, must not be forgotten or minimized because they are not easily measurable. Our efforts at complete human formation often find us situated into matters of the heart and spirit which do not easily lend themselves to traditional quantitative assessment.80 We need not worry about this or apologize for it. We must also avoid the common trap of assuming that only that which can be quantifiably assessed should be taught or only that which is quantifiable is assessable. As Catholic educators, we know many of life’s most important things are invisible to the eye and do not lend themselves to the scientist’s tools of measurement. This does not prevent us from teaching the things that matter most.
Values, beliefs, attitudes, interpersonal skills, and virtues have always been taught, for the most part implicitly, in Catholic schools. It is important to be explicit about all that is implicit in our instructional efforts and their nature so that we do not lose touch with them or allow them to be sidelined by a culture of constant assessment. We must plan for the un-planned and never hesitate to grab a teachable moment, even though it deviates from a lesson plan or state standard. Formal lesson plans with objectives stating “Students will internalize aspects of our Catholic cultural heritage” or “Students will value the sacraments as outward signs of God’s inner grace” are not typically required or appropriate. These affective81 dispositions are, for the most part, taught by the example given by others (especially as modeled by the teacher) or developed through classroom discussions and firsthand interactions with materials, problems, and experiences. Growth in such areas is more often “caught than taught,” and rather than planning for them in discreet experiences, the Catholic teacher must be constantly aware of them so as to integrate them naturally whenever possible and without immediate concern for concrete assessment.
This area of highly personal affective behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs touches close to the heart of the individual, and because of this schools have traditionally shied away from placing numerical values on whether students do or do not possess particular affective qualities. While we are seeing more attempts at this type of measurement in public schools, sometimes measurement of these beliefs, values, and attitudes is not absolutely necessary. Sometimes framing the dispositions as an objective for the classroom teacher so as to provide focus and direction is all that is required. Sometimes it is appropriate to assess the group as a whole, either through observation or an anonymous class survey, in an effort to determine progress on developing dispositions such as: do students “realize a deep sense of wonder and delight about the natural universe,” or do students “recognize and value how literature assists them in interpreting and evaluating all things in a truly Christian spirit”?
Three Methods for Assessing Non-Cognitive Dispositions
When contemplating an assessment, one should always ask: “What is the purpose, use, and measure of this assessment?” “Why is this assessment necessary?” “How will this assessment be used?” and “Is this a proper measure for this type of standard?” These types of questions are always necessary for any assessment, but especially assessments where students’ values and beliefs are the center of attention. When focusing on whether a student possesses a certain attitude, belief, or value, we are entering into an area that is highly personal and might change from day to day. While assessing cognition seems slightly removed from the center of the person, assessing beliefs and values cuts to the heart. It is almost like assessing love. “How much do you love me?” would be the assessment question, but isn’t love in-and-of-itself worthy without measure?
While caution needs to be used when seeking to align assessment to non-cognitive dispositions, it is still possible to design assessments for some of the non-cognitive standards using three primary methods: teacher observations, student-teacher interviews, and student self-reports. Because of the nature of assessing a disposition, it is advisable to use multiple measures to gain a fuller insight into a student’s behaviors and beliefs rather than through the use of only one assessment. Gathering information through the use of multiple types of assessments will result in a better understanding of what the student actually believes and, perhaps, why he or she believes it. Taking multiple measures over a longer period of time can also improve the reliability of the measure and help to confirm or disconfirm the student’s beliefs, values, and attitudes.
Non-cognitive dispositions can be assessed daily through interaction, such as brief or concentrated discussions with and between students, casual teacher observations of student traits or behaviors, or as articulated statements of belief made by the student during classroom exercises. These observations can be gathered informally through an anecdotal running record. Teachers might also record more formal notations of student beliefs, values, and attitudes through the development of a more structured rating scale. Either approach relies upon a solid understanding of the disposition in question.
When targeting a specific affective disposition for formal assessment, teachers first need to think deeply about the quality and characteristics evident for that disposition. Working with other teachers to compile a list of both positive and negative behaviors is the first step toward developing a continuum for observation. With this complete, a scale or frequency checklist can be created to provide reliability and guidance when observing students.
For example, a teacher might like to note the developing disposition of how well her students “exhibit a primacy of care and concern for each human person at all stages of life and as images and likenesses of God.” The teacher would first think about what qualities and characteristics are evident in a student who “exhibits a primacy of care and concern for each human person…” and begin to list these characteristics. Consultation with other educational experts about these characteristics helps validate the behaviors or lack thereof. The teacher would next create either a rating scale or frequency checklist as illustrated below using the behaviors as the criteria of measurement.
Rating Scale
Behavior
Never
Rarely
Sometimes
Most of the Time
Almost Always
Helps others in need without being asked
Looks for ways of making life easier for others.
Frequency Checklist
Number of events
Behavior
Helps others in need without being asked.
Looks for ways of making life easier for others.
Most Catholic schoolteachers are familiar with the National Catholic Educational Association’s ACRE exam,82 the Assessment of Children/Youth Religious Education given to students in 5th, 8-9th, and 11-12th grades annually. This exam assesses students’ knowledge as well as beliefs, attitudes, practices, and perceptions about the Catholic faith. This assessment is an example of using a student questionnaire or survey to uncover developing dispositions of faith and is similar to what can be designed to address dispositions in other content areas. Unfortunately, students might not feel comfortable completing these assessments as accurately and honestly as they could if anonymity is not available. Again, this is where multiple measures of assessment are necessary to confirm a developing disposition.
While it is possible to create assessments of dispositions for individual students, it is recommended that whole class assessment be made through teacher observation and that these types of assessments not be used for grading purposes. Assessments of this nature are best used as formative assessments to aid the classroom teacher in a more focused and integral formation of the student in all content areas.
Appendix C
Recommended Reading List for Catholic Schools in the United States
Catholic school students in the United States should be familiar with most of these core works and authors. The recommendations on this list are minimal by design so as to make it possible to introduce students to the “great conversation” of both Western and Catholic culture. These works provide for basic cultural literacy and offer examples of excellent writing and storytelling. Schools will no doubt add significant additional texts to their curricula drawn from the hundreds of excellent works not on this short list.
Grades K-4 Recommended Literature
Critical Bible Stories
Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes
Aesop’s Fables
Adapted Greek and Roman myths
Selected fairy tales from Grimm
Selected fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen
Folk tales
Other stories that reflect classical Western archetypes, teach morality, and/or emphasize fantasy and creativity
Extensive age-appropriate poetry
Grades 5-8 Recommended Literature
A Christmas Carol (Dickens)
A Wrinkle in Time (L’Engle)
Adam of the Road (Gray)
Amos Fortune, Free Man (Yates)
Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery)
Around the World in Eighty Days (Verne)
Beowulf: A New Telling (Nye)
Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad (Lee)
Charlotte’s Web (White)
Cyrano de Bergerac (Rostand)
Death Comes for the Archbishop (Cather)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson)
I, Juan de Pareja (de Trevino)
If All the Swords in England (Willard)
Johnny Tremain (Forbes)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Verne)
King Arthur and His Knights (Green)
Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Irving)
Little House in the Big Woods (Wilder)
Little Women (Alcott)
My Antonia (Cather)
My Side of the Mountain (George)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Douglass)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Verne)
Our Town (Wilder)
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry (Taylor)
Sarah Plain and Tall (Wilder)
Swallows and Amazons (Ransome)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (Green)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Doyle)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain)
The Bronze Bow (Speare)
The Call of the Wild (London)
The Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis)
The Crucible (Miller)
The Hobbit (Tolkien)
The Innocence of Father Brown [or others] (Chesterton)
The Jungle Book (Kipling)
The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
The Pearl (Steinbeck)
The Railway Children (Nesbit)
The Red Badge of Courage (Crane)
The Red Keep (French)
The Song at the Scaffold (Von le Fort)
The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow (French)
The Swiss Family Robinson (Wyss)
The Trumpeter of Krakow (Kelly)
The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of the Odyssey (Lee)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Speare)
The Yearling (Rawlings)
Treasure Island (Stevenson)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe)
Wind in the Willows (Grahame)
Grades 9-12 Recommended Historical Documents (original or in translation)
Apology, Dialogues, Republic [excerpts] (Plato)
Democracy in America [selections] (de Tocqueville)
Funeral Oration (Pericles)
Gettysburg Address (Lincoln)
Harvard Commencement Address and/or Nobel Lecture (Solzhenitsyn)
Histories [selections] (Herodotus)
I Have a Dream (King)
Magna Carta
Poetics, Ethics [excerpts] (Aristotle)
Rights of Man (Paine)
“Self-Reliance” (Emerson)
Slave narratives (Douglass, Jacobs)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Franklin)
The Communist Manifesto (Marx)
The Federalist [selections] (Hamilton, et. al)
The Prince (Machiavelli)
The Rule of St. Benedict (Benedict of Nursia)
The Social Contract (Rousseau)
Treatise on Law and excerpts from other works (Aquinas)
United States Constitution
United States Declaration of Independence
Grades 9-12 Recommended Literary Works
A Man for All Seasons (Bolt)
A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Great Expectations (Dickens)
Aeneid [excerpts] (Virgil)
Andromache or Medea (Euripides)
Animal Farm and/or 1984 (Orwell)
Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus (Sophocles)
Beowulf (trans. Tolkien)
Billy Budd, Bartleby the Scrivener, and other short stories (Melville)
Brideshead Revisited (Waugh)
Brothers Karamazov or Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)
Canterbury Tales [excerpts] (Chaucer)
Doctor Faustus (Marlow)
Frankenstein (Shelley)
Hamlet, Macbeth, and if possible King Lear and others (Shakespeare)
Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
Jane Eyre (Bronte)
Le Morte D’Arthur (Malory)
Metamorphoses [excerpts] (Ovid)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich or The Gulag Archipelago [abridged] (Solzhenitsyn)
Oresteia (Aeschylus)
Paradise Lost [excerpts] (Milton)
Pride and Prejudice (Austen)
Short stories (Poe)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (anonymous)
The Betrothed (Manzoni)
The Divine Comedy [excerpts] (Dante)
The Epic of Gilgamesh (anonymous)
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
The Heart of Darkness (Conrad)
The Iliad [excerpts] (Homer)
The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton)
The Odyssey [excerpts or full] (Homer)
The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)
The Song of Roland (anonymous)
Recommended Catholic authors: Georges Bernanos, G.K. Chesterton, Shusaku Endo, Graham Greene, Victor Hugo, Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Sigrid Undset, Evelyn Waugh
Recommended poets: Matthew Arnold, W. H. Auden, Hilaire Belloc, William Blake, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Lord Byron, G.K. Chesterton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Richard Crashaw, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, A. E. Housman, John Keats, Joyce Kilmer, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Andrew Marvell, Alexander Pope, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Siegfried Sassoon, William Shakespeare, Percy Shelley, Robert Southwell, Edmund Spenser, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, Francis Thompson, William Wordsworth, William Butler Yeats
Recommended Spiritual Classics
Bible
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Confessions [excerpts] (St. Augustine of Hippo)
Desert Fathers [excerpts]
Documents of Vatican II [selections]
Humanae Vitae
Introduction to the Devout Life [excerpts] (St. Francis de Sales)
Mere Christianity, Screwtape Letters, or The Abolition of Man (Lewis)
Summa Theologica [excerpts] (St. Thomas Aquinas)
The Imitation of Christ [excerpts] (Thomas a Kempis)
The Story of a Soul (St. Therese of Liseux)
Veritatis Splendor
Best Practice Suggestions for English Language Arts in Catholic Schools, Grades K-6
Choose a majority of readings from the Good Books List found in the appendix of The Death of Christian Culture (see Senior, J. in English Language Arts K-6 Resources) or recommended classics.
Avoid an overemphasis on informational texts. Great books engage higher order thinking skills and enhance student personal development, creativity, and engagement.
Especially with younger children, beware of stories of darkness, despair, or the occult or that confuse archetypes. Beware of stories that pursue a cultural agenda at odds with a Catholic understanding of human dignity, marriage, or sexuality.
Use multiple literary approaches beyond “close reading,” such as moral analysis, to examine a text. Do more with the text than clinically dissect and disaggregate it. Link it with life, context, and transcendent meaning.
Move into authentic “chapter books” and grade level adaptations of classics when possible. Avoid anthologies and readers. Tailor questions and assignments to the real-world experiences and natural questions of the readers in the class.
Situate the study of literature within an interdisciplinary approach so that the theology, history, philosophy, beliefs, and practices of the time develop the “story” and inform the discussion of historical events.
Develop a separate grammar course that begins to focus students on the structure of English writing and speaking in the 4th
Include the study of a foreign language, taught in a systematic (not conversational) style to help with English grammar and logic of thinking.
Integrate writing exercises and instruction with reading of sound literature written by expert craftsmen and women. Use imitation of author structure, tone, and craft to develop writing style.
Best Practice Suggestions for English Language Arts in Catholic Schools, Grades 7-12
Introduce students to the great conversations of humanity—especially as those conversations are advanced in literary classics. Choose a majority of readings from the Great Books or recommended classics. Avoid simply selecting currently popular, scandalous, or titillating texts in the hopes of getting the students to read. Authentic engagement and lasting human and intellectual development can arise from authentic and impassioned study of the things that matter most from the greatest minds who have walked the earth.
Read the greatest works by the greatest authors with an appropriate degree of humility and almost reverence, acknowledging that the great minds and artists have something to teach us, so as to grow in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.
Avoid an overemphasis on informational texts. Great Books better engage higher order thinking skills and enhance student personal development, creativity, and engagement.
Whenever possible use a seminar format to discuss literature. Avoid canned materials, questions, or text units.
Use multiple literary approaches beyond “close reading” to examine a text, such as moral analysis, or analyzing the text as an expression of the author’s philosophical and theological beliefs. Do more with the text than clinically dissect and disaggregate it. Link it with life, context, and transcendent meaning.
Situate the study of literature within an interdisciplinary approach so that the theology, history, philosophy, beliefs, and practices of the time develop the “story” and inform the discussion of historical events.
Writing is thinking. Exploring great literature on weighty transcendent topics invites rich opportunity for writing assignments: reflective, creative, and analytical. Take advantage of this opportunity.
Good writing comes from good reading and good example. Use the beauty and skill evident in the works of the best writers to model and teach effective writing skills.
English Language Arts Resources, Grades K-6
Donohue, D., & Guernsey, D. (2015). Disconnect between Common Core’s literary approach and Catholic education’s pursuit oftruth. Retrieved from http://www.newmansociety.org/Portals/0/Common%20Core/Disconnect%20between%20Common%20Core’s%20Literary%20Approach%20and%20Catholic%20Education’s%20Pursuit%20of%20Truth.pdf
Markey, S. (2014). The moral imagination: The heart and soul’s best guide achieving the goals of a Catholic education through the good, true, and beautiful in literature. Retrieved from http://www.archkck.org/file/schools_doc_file/curriculum/lang.arts/updated-july-2014/ The-Moral-Imagination-K-8.pdf
McKenzie, J. (2007). Reading the Saints: Lists of Catholic books for children plus book collecting tips for the home and school library. Bessemer, MI: Biblio Resource Publications, Inc. This book categorizes by geographical location stories about saints.
Senior, J. (2008). The death of Christian culture. Norfolk, VA: IHS Press.
English Language Arts Resources, Grades 7-12
How to Teach a Socratic Seminar. National Paideia Center. See http://www.paideia.org/about-paideia/socratic-seminar/
Ignatius Press Critical Editions. Classical texts with curriculum suggestions, study guides, commentary and helpful resources. See http://www.ignatius.com /promotions/ignatiuscriticaleditions/
Pearce, J. How to Read Shakespeare (or Anyone Else). See https://s3.amazonaws.com/cardinalnewmansociety/wp-content/uploads/HowTo-Read- Joseph-Pearce.pdf
Socratic Teaching: Stimulating Life-long Learning. See http://www.catholicliberaleducation.org/beyond-the-test-newsletter/socratic-teaching-stimulating-life-long-learning
English Language Arts K-12 Curriculum
Stotsky, S. (2013). An English language arts curriculum framework for American public schools: A model. See http://alscw.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2013_ELA_Curriculum_Framework.pdf for an example of a solid secular English language arts curriculum.
Appendix D
History Resources
Best Practice Suggestions for History in Catholic Schools, Grades K-6
Use an interdisciplinary approach – History, Literature, Theology.
Emphasize the sociological and cultural process and achievements, including moral values, over a series of disjointed events.
Use historical fiction to complement and elaborate on the stories of history.
Combine selections from historical texts discussing external developments surrounding Christendom with texts that study Christianity itself and its expressions of human thought, life, and institutions throughout the ages.
Consider dividing history into four or six successive time periods based on distinctive movements of culture. For instance: Ancient History – 5000 BC to 400 AD; Medieval/Early Renaissance 400 AD – 1600 AD; Late Renaissance/Early Modern 1600 AD – 1850 AD; Modern Times. Another option: 1. Patristic Christianity, from the first to the beginning of the fourth century; 2. Patristic Christianity, from the fourth to the sixth centuries; 3. The Formation of Western Christendom, from the sixth to the eleventh centuries; 4. Medieval Christendom, from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries; 5. Divided Christendom, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries; 6. Secularized Christendom, from the eighteenth century to today.
Best Practice Suggestions for History in Catholic Schools, Grades 7-12
Use an interdisciplinary approach – History, Literature, Theology.
Whenever possible use primary texts (or translations) in historical inquiry.
Whenever possible incorporate Socratic discussions into history.
Emphasize the sociological and cultural process and achievements, including moral values, over a series of disjointed events.
History – Resources
Catholic Textbook Project: From sea to shining sea, All ye lands, Light to the nations Part I & II, Lands of hope and promise. (Teacher manuals and student workbooks).
Weidenkopf, S. (2009). Epic: A journey through Church history. Contains DVDs, CDs, Student Workbook, and Time-line.
Appendix E
Science Resources
Best Practice Suggestions for Science in Catholic Schools
Present scientific concepts from a superordinate (whole view) perspective before breaking them down into subordinate concepts. This approach (whole to part) can manifest itself in the alignment of courses of study (general biology in younger grades to micro-biology in high school) to the organization and presentation of curricular materials (superordinate concepts first then parallel and underlying concepts).
Incorporate nature notebooks for observation to facilitate opportunities of wonder and awe (K-6).
Formation of set groups of teachers at workshops designed to address scientific issues of human and cosmic origin from philosophical and theological perspectives (i.e., religion and science teachers, religion and math teachers, and religion and literature teachers). These groupings are to facilitate dialogue and build an inter-disciplinary culture within the school. This will allow theology teachers to address scientific topics from a theological perspective as they are concurrently being taught in the science classroom.
Avoid interjection of theological doctrine into scientific inquiry in older grades. Consider incorporating a course designed specifically for the discussion of topics of faith and reason.
Supplement all science textbooks with biographies of Catholic scientists, such as Copernicus, Mendel, Bacon, St. Albert the Great, and so forth.
Consider using an apologetic approach based on facts and evidence (7-12) (Magis Center materials).
Science Resources
Baglow, C. (2012). Faith, science, and reason: Theology on the cutting edge. Midwest Theological Forum, Woodridge: IL.
Designed as a senior-level high school theology course to integrate faith and science. Contains twelve chapters with supplementary reading, study guide (vocabulary, study questions, and practical exercises) and endnotes. Beautiful artwork enhances the scientific content on the sleek pages of this textbook yet coffee table-styled volume.
Sample from Christopher Baglow’s book:
“What do we have to believe before we can hope to become scientists? We must believe that the world is in some sense good, so that it is worthy of careful study. We must believe that his order is open to the human mind, for otherwise there would be no point in trying to find it. We must believe that this order is not a necessary order that could be found out by pure thought like the truths of mathematics, but is rather a contingent or dependent order that can only be found by making experiments. …the development of science depends on moral convictions such as the obligation freely to share any knowledge that is gained.” (pp. 19-21)
John Paul II. (June 1988). Letter to Rev. George Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory. Retrieved fromhttp://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19880601_padre-coyne.html
John Paul II. (October 22, 1996). Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: On evolution. Retrieved from http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp961022.htm
Laracy, J. (May-June 2010). Priestly contributions to modern science: The case of Monseignor Georges Lemaitre. Faith Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.faith.org.uk/article/may-june-2010-priestly-contributions-to-modern-sciencethe-case-of-monseignor-georges-lemaitre
Magis Center. www.magiscenter.org
Pius XII. (August, 1950). Humani Generis. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html
Spitzer, R. (2010). New proofs for the existence of God: Contributions of contemporary physics and philosophy. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, MI.
Spitzer, R. (2015). The soul’s upward yearning. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, MI. Of particular interest might be Chapter 5 on the science behind the transcendent soul and Appendix One on a contemporary view of evidence for an Intelligent Creator.
Spitzer, R. and LeBlanc, C. The reason series. Video series, student workbook and teacher resource manual. This series is designed for high school students (9-12) in either science or religion classes. It is designed with an apologetic approach in mind as recommended by the USCCB’s 2008 Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for Young People of High School Age, with an alignment to the Framework in the teacher’s manual. The series includes 5 sequential video modules progressing students through the questions of: Can science disprove God? Is there any evidence for a creator in the universe? Is the universe random and meaningless? Does the bible conflict with science? Does the bible conflict with evolution? Student objectives, summarized points, review questions, and quizzes are included for each chapter. Teacher manual has answers to quizzes, but not discussion questions.
Spitzer, R. and Noggle, M. From Nothing to cosmos. (2015). This interactive workbook links text content to online resources through both QR codes and web URLs. Topics include: What science can and cannot do, The Big Bang Theory and the modern universe, The Borde-Vilenkin-Guth proof for a beginning of ANY universe or multiverse, The evidence for a beginning from entropy, Evidence of supernatural design from fine-tuning of universal constants, A response to atheist’s objections (particularly, Richard Dawkins), A metaphysical proof of God, Evidence of a transphysical soul from near death experiences, Evidence of a transcendent soul from our five transcendental desires, and Atheism, the bible, science, and evolution and aliens. Chapter review and summary questions are included for each chapter.
Appendix F
Mathematics Resources
Best Practice Suggestions for Mathematics in Catholic Schools, Grades K-6
Ensure developmental appropriate mathematics instruction in younger grades. Beware of mathematical programs that push abstract operations too quickly into younger minds.
Ensure a positive approach to mathematical inquiry by maximizing student success and confidence in early mathematical experiences and incorporating opportunities for joy, wonder, and excitement in the study of mathematics.
Best Practice Suggestions for Mathematics in Catholic Schools, Grades 7-12
Consider an interdisciplinary, liberal arts approach to mathematics, especially in high school.
Professional development in philosophy, especially philosophers who have greatly impacted the Catholic western tradition.
Abstractions of the Human Mind
What one abstracts from reality is basic but fundamental, though what is constructed out of the abstraction is much more important in the study of mathematics. For example, one can take in at a glance a small number of apples, say 5 or 6, but not as many as 100 or 1,000. Mathematics teaches us how to construct these numbers in our mind from the simpler concepts immediately abstracted from reality.
Mathematics Resources
Ashley, B. The arts of learning and communication: A handbook of the liberal arts. http://www.amazon.com/Arts-Learning-Communication-Handbook-Liberal/dp/1606089315/ref=la_B001HD41Q8_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452700470&sr=1-7
Ashley, B. The way toward wisdom: An interdisciplinary and intercultural introduction to metaphysics. http://www.amazon.com/Way-toward-Wisdom-Interdisciplinary-Intercultural/dp/0268020353/ref=la_B001HD41Q8_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452700831
Appendix G
Consultants and Contributors
Joseph Almeida, Ph.D. – Franciscan University of Steubenville: Chair of Department of Classics, Director of Great Books Honors Program, Director of Legal Studies Program, Professor of Classics and Legal Studies
Dominic Aquila, D. Litt. et Phil. – University of St. Thomas, Tex.: Provost, Vice President for Academic Affairs
Christopher Baglow, Ph.D. – Notre Dame Seminary: Director of Masters Program, Professor of Dogmatic Theology
Anthony Esolen, Ph.D. – Providence College: Professor of English
Joseph Pearce – Aquinas College, Tenn.: Director of the Aquinas Center for Faith and Culture, Writer in Residence; St. Austin Review: Editor; Ignatius Critical Editions: Series Editor; Catholic Courses: Executive Director
Chad Pecknold, Ph.D. – Catholic University of America: Associate Professor of Systematic Theology
Andrew Seeley, Ph.D. – Thomas Aquinas College: Tutor; The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education: Executive Director
Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J. –Magis Center: President; Gonzaga University: retired President
Sandra Stotsky, Ph.D. – University of Arkansas: Professor Emerita
Ryan Topping, D.Phil. – Thomas More College of Liberal Arts: Fellow
Gregory Townsend, Ph.D. – Christendom College: Vice President of Academic Affairs, Associate Professor Mathematics and Natural Science
Michael Van Hecke, M.Ed. – Catholic Textbook Project: President; The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education: President; St. Augustine Academy: Headmaster
Susan Waldstein, S.T.D. – Ave Maria University: Adjunct Professor of Theology, Research Fellow at Stein Center for Social Research
Christopher Zehnder, M.A.– Catholic Textbook Project: General Editor
Reviewing Dioceses:
Mark Salisbury, Superintendent, Diocese of Marquette, Michigan
Michael Juhas, Superintendent, Diocese of Pensacola, Florida
References
Aristotle, & Ross, W. D. (1981). Aristotle’s metaphysic. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
Aquinas, T. (1952). Questiones disputatae de veritate: Questions 1-9. Translated by Robert Mulligan, S.J., Henry Regnery Company.
Aquinas, T. (1912). The summa theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas. London, England: Burns Oates & Washbourne.
Baglow, C. (2012). Faith, science, and reason: Theology on the cutting edge. Woodridge, IL: Midwest Theological Forum.
Beckwith, F., & Koukl, G. (1998). Relativism: Feet firmly planted in midair. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Caldecott, S. (2009). Beauty for truth’s sake: The re-enchantment of education. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.
Catechetical Office of the Holy See (1935). Provido sane consilio. Retrieved from https://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CATTEACH.HTM
Catholic Church (1994). Catechism of the Catholic Church. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications.
Clayton, D. (2015). The way of beauty: Liturgy, education, and inspiration for family, school, and college. Kettering, OH: Angelico Press.
Congregation for Catholic Education (2015). Educating today and tomorrow: A renewing passion. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20140407_educare-oggi-e-domani_en.html
Congregation for Catholic Education (2013). Educating to intercultural dialogue in Catholic schools: Living in harmony for a civilization of love. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20131028_dialogo-interculturale_en.html
Congregation for Catholic Education (2007). Educating together in Catholic schools: A shared mission between consecrated persons and the lay faithful. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20070908_educare-insieme_en.html
Congregation for Catholic Education (1998). The religious dimension of education in a Catholic school. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19880407_catholic-school_en.html
Congregation for Catholic Education (1997). The Catholic school on the threshold of the third millennium. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_27041998_school2000_en.html
Congregation for Catholic Education (1982). Lay Catholics in schools: Witnesses to faith. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19821015_lay-catholics_en.html
Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. (Eds.) (1960). Christian faith and the liberal arts. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House.
Dubay, T. (1999). The evidential power of beauty: Science and theology meet. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.
Esolen, A. (2013, November). Common core’s substandard writing standards. Crisis Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/common-cores-substandard-writing-standards
Francis, Pope (2015). Laudato Si. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
Halpin, P. (1909). Christian pedagogy or the instruction and moral training of youth. New York, NY: J.F. Wagner.
Hancock, C. (2005). Recovering a Catholic philosophy of elementary education. Mount Pocono, PA: Newman House Press.
Hardon, J. (1980). Modern Catholic dictionary. New York, NY: Image Books.
Hart, D. (2003). The beauty of the infinite: The aesthetics of Christian truth. Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmann’s Publishing.
Hicks, D. (1999). Norms and nobility: A treatise on education. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
John Paul II (1998). Fides et ratio. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html
John Paul II (1996). Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: On evolution, 1996. Retrieved from https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP961022.HTM
John Paul II (1993). Veritatis splendor. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis-splendor.html
John Paul II (1988). Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory. Retrieved from https://w2.vatican.va /content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19880601_padre-coyne.html
Jordan, E. (1934). Catholicism in education. New York, NY: Benzinger Brothers.
Kirk, R. (1981). The moral imagination. Literature and Belief, 1, 37-49. Retrieved from http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/detail/the-moral-imagination/
Laracy, J. (2010, January). Priestly contributions to modern science: The case of Monseignor Georges Lemaitre. Retrieved from http://www.faith.org.uk/article/may-june-2010-priestly-contributions-to-modern-sciencethe-case-of-monseignor-georges-lemaitre
Leo XIII (1985). Spectata fides. Retrieved from. http://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_27111885_spectata-fides.html
Mannoia, V.J. (2000). Christian liberal arts: An education that goes beyond. Oxford, England: Rowman and Littlefield Co.
Moore, T. (2013). The story-killers: A common-sense case against the Common Core. Self-published.
Newman, J. (1873). The idea of a university: Defined and illustrated. London, England: Pickering.
O’Brien, M. (1998). A landscape with dragons. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.
Pieper, J. (1998). Leisure, the basis of culture. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press.
Piderit, J. and Morey, M. (Eds.) (2012). Teaching the tradition: Catholic themes in academic disciplines. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Pius XI (1929). Divini illius magistri, Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_31121929_divini-illius-magistri.html
Redden, J. & Ryan, F. (1942). A Catholic philosophy of education. Milwaukee, WI: The Bruce Publishing Company.
Saward, J. (1997). The beauty of holiness and the holiness of beauty: Art sanctity and the truth of Catholicism. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.
Simmons, T. (2002). Climbing parnassus. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books.
Spitzer, R. (2010). New proofs for the existence of God. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Spitzer, R. (2011). Ten universal principles: A brief philosophy of the life issues. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.
Spitzer, R. (2015). The soul’s upward yearning. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.
Spitzer, R. & LeBlanc, C. (n.d.). The reason series: What science says about God. Garden Grove, CA: Magis Publications.
Spitzer, R. & Noggle, M. (2015). From nothing to cosmos: The workbook+. Garden Grove, CA: Magis Publications.
The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Schools (1997). The Catholic school. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19770319_catholic-school_en.html
Taylor, J. (1998). Poetic knowledge: The recovery of education. Albany, NY: The State University of New York Press.
Topping, R. (2015). Renewing the mind: A reader in the philosophy of Catholic education. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Press.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) (n.d.). Seven themes of Catholic social teaching. Retrieved from http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) (1972). To teach as Jesus did. Washington, D.C.: USCCB.
Vatican II (1965). Gravissimum educationis:Declaration on Christian education. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_gravissimum-educationis_en.html
Vatican II (1965). Gaudium et spes: Pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html
Reference Tables for Standards
CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN ENGLISH/LANUGAGE ARTS K-6
General Standards
CS
ELA.K6
GS1
The Catholic School, 37; O’Donnell, A. (2012). Poetry and Catholic themes. In J. Piderit & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic Themes in academic disciplines. (pp. 126).
CS
ELA.K6
GS2
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 57.
CS
ELA.K6
GS3
Senior, J. (1983). The restoration of Christian culture. In R. Topping (Ed.), Renewing the mind: A reader in the philosophy of Catholic education, (pp. 313, 320).
CS
ELA.K6
GS4
The Catholic School, 12.
Intellectual Standards
CS
ELA.K6
IS1
Gaudium et Spes, 59.
CS
ELA.K6
IS2
O’Brien, M. p.41-42. See also Reed and Redden p.94
CS
ELA.K6
IS3
O’Brien, M. p.41-42
CS
ELA.K6
IS4
O’Brien, M. p. 41-42
CS
ELA.K6
IS7
Moore, T. p. 50.
CS
ELA.K6
IS8
Gaudium et Spes, 59; Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS
ELA.K6
IS9
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58.
CS
ELA.K6
IS10
Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS
ELA.K6
IS12
Kirk, R. (1981). The moral imagination. Literature and Belief, Vol. 1, 37–49.
CS
ELA.K6
IS13
Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12;Gaudium et Spes, 59.
Writing Standards
CS
ELA.K6
WS1
Halpin, P.A., p. 83
CS
ELA.K6
WS2
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 49.
CS
ELA.K6
WS3
Thomas Aquinas College http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/course-descriptions#logic-tutorial
Dispositional Standards
CS
ELA.K6
AD1
Gaudium et Spes, 62; Ave Maria University, https://www.avemaria.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Academic-Catalogue-2014-2015_091020141.pdf p.144
CS
ELA.K6
AD2
Ibid.
CS
ELA.K6
AD3
Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS
ELA.K6
AD4
Dubay, T. p.12; Franciscan University Steubenville Academic Catalog. http://www.franciscan.edu/undergraduate-catalog/ p.180
CS
ELA.K6
AD5
Hicks, D. p. 35-38
CS
ELA.K6
AD6
Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS
ELA.K6
AD7
Taylor, J. p.4; Halpin, P.A., & Wagner, J. p.
CS
ELA.K6
AD8
The Catholic School, 36 & 12; Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 156-157
CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN ENGLISH/LANUGAGE ARTS 7-12
General Standards
CS
ELA.712
GS1
The Catholic School, 37. See also O’Donnell, A. (2012). Poetry and Catholic themes. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines. p.126.
CS
ELA.712
GS2
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 57.
CS
ELA.712
GS3
The Catholic School, 12.
CS
ELA.712
GS4
Gaudium et Spes, 62.
Intellectual Standards
CS
ELA.712
IS1
Moore, T., p. 91. See also Redden and Ryan p. 94-95; University of St. Thomas More http://www.thomasmorecollege.edu/academics/true-enlargement-of-mind/; Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 157- 160;
CS
ELA.712
IS2
O’Brien, M. p.41-42. See also Reed and Redden p.94.
CS
ELA.712
IS3
O’Brien, M., p.12-13.
CS
ELA.712
IS4
Ave Maria University, https://www.avemaria.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Academic-Catalogue-2014-2015_091020141.pdf p.144
CS
ELA.712
IS5
O’Donnell, A. (2012). Poetry and Catholic themes. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines.p.112. The
CS
ELA.712
IS7
Kirk, Russell “The Moral imagination.” in Literature and Belief Vol. 1 (1981), 37–49.
CS
ELA.712
IS8
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 51.
CS
ELA.712
IS9
Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 55.
CS
ELA.712
IS10
Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS
ELA.712
IS12
University of Dallas http://udallas.edu/offices/registrar/_documents/bulletin-2014-2015-final-singles.pdf pp. 146-148, see also John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, 3.
CS
ELA.712
IS13
Taylor, J. p.22.
CS
ELA.712
IS15
O’Donnell, A. (2012). Poetry and Catholic themes. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the Tradition. Catholic Themes in Academic Disciplines. p. 112, 125.
Writing Standards
CS
ELA.712
WS1
Halpin, P.A., p. 83..
CS
ELA.712
WS2
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 49.
CS
ELA.712
WS3
Thomas Aquinas College http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/course-descriptions#logic-tutorial
CS
ELA.712
WS4
Esolen, A. (November, 2013).
Dispositional Standards
CS
ELA.712
AD1
Moore, T. p. 91. See also Redden and Ryan p. 94-95.
CS
ELA.712
AD2
Hicks, D., p. 35; Simmons, T. p. 145; Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W., p. 156-157.
CS
ELA.712
AD3
Hicks, D., p. 35; Simmons, T., p. 145.
CS
ELA.712
AD4
Dubay, T., p.12; Franciscan University Steubenville Academic Catalog. p.180 http://www.franciscan.edu/undergraduate-catalog/
CS
ELA.712
AD5
Hicks, D. p. 35-38.
CS
ELA.712
AD6
Redden, J. & Ryan, F., p. 92-95.
CS
ELA.712
AD7
Taylor, J., p.4; Halpin, P.A., and Wagner, J., p. 127.
CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN HISTORY K-6
General Standards
CS
H.K6
GS1
The Catholic School, 8.
CS
H.K6
GS2
Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W., p. 181.
CS
H.K6
GS3
Dawson, p. 301
Intellectual Standards
CS
H.K6
IS1
Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W., p. 12; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58.
CS
H.K6
IS2
www.magiscenter.com
CS
H.K6
IS3
Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 11-12.
CS
H.K6
IS4
Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy https://www.seatofwisdom.ca/academics/departments/history/
CS
H.K6
IS5
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 57.
CS
H.K6
IS8
Ave Maria University Academic Catalog p. 134.
CS
H.K6
IS9
University of Dallas Academic Bulletin. p. 159 http://udallas.edu/offices/registrar/_documents/bulletin-2014-2015-final-singles.pdf; Simmons, T., p. 20-21.
CS
H.K6
IS10
Hicks, D., p.23; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 59.
CS
H.K6
IS11
Simmons, T., p. 14; Christendom College Academic Principles. http://www.christendom.edu/academics/education-principles-overview/
CS
H.K6
IS12
The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 14.
Dispositional Standards
CS
H.K6
AD1
Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 8.
CS
H.K6
AD2
Simmons, T., p. 209-210.
CS
H.K6
AD3
Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS
H.K6
AD4
Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful, 46.
CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN HISTORY INSTRUCTION 7-12
General Standards
CS
H.712
GS1
Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 12; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58.
CS
H.712
GS2
Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, 93.
CS
H.712
GS3
Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy https://www.seatofwisdom.ca/academics/departments/history/
CS
H.712
GS4
Hicks, D., p.23; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58.
CS
H.712
GS5
Ave Maria University Academic Catalog p. 134. https://www.avemaria.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Academic-Catalogue-2014-2015_091020141.pdf
Intellectual Standards
CS
H.712
IS1
Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 180.
CS
H.712
IS2
Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 11- 12.
CS
H.712
IS3
Hancock, C., p. 41; Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 20; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 59; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 88.
CS
H.712
IS4
Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 180.
CS
H.712
IS5
Educating to Intercultural Dialogue in Catholic Schools: Living in Harmony for a Civilization of Love, 30.
CS
H.712
IS6
Dawson, C. (2010). Crisis in Western education (2010). In R. Topping’s (Ed.), Renewing the mind: A reader in the philosophy of Catholic education. (p. 301).
CS
H.712
IS7
The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 14.
CS
H.712
IS8
Ave Maria University Academic Catalog p. 134.
CS
H.712
IS9
Simmons, T., p. 20; Christendom College Academic Principles http://www.christendom.edu/academics/education-principles-overview/
CS
H.712
IS10
Mannoia, V., p. 84; Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 181; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58.
CS
H.712
IS12
University of Dallas Academic Bulletin. P. 159 http://udallas.edu/offices/registrar/_documents/bulletin-2014-2015-final-singles.pdf
CS
H.712
IS13
Simmons, T., p. 142.
CS
H.712
IS14
Simmons, T., p. 31.
CS
H.712
IS15
Thomas Aquinas College Why We Study http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study
CS
H.712
IS16
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 57.
CS
H.712
IS17
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58; Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission, 46.
CS
H.712
IS18
Hicks, D., p.23; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 59.
CS
H.712
IS20
Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 3.
CS
H.712
IS21-25
USCCB. Seven themes of Catholic social teaching. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm
CS
H.712
IS26
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 51, 108, 89.
CS
H.712
IS27
Beckwirth, F. & Koukl, G. (1998). Relativism: Feet firmly planted in mid-air. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group. How relativism presents a false understanding of cultural diversity and fails to distinguish how some cultures, like individuals, have discovered more knowledge and truth than others.
Dispositional Standards
CS
H.712
AD1
Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 8.
CS
H.712
AD2
Simmons, T., p. 209-210..
CS
H.712
AD3
Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p.10..
CS
H.712
AD4
Simmons, T., p. 20-21.
CS
H.712
AD5
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 52.
CS
H.712
AD6
Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS Related to Science Topics K-6
General Standards
CS
S.K6
GS1
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 56, 57.
CS
S.K6
GS2
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 54; Baglow, C., p. 66.
Intellectual Standards
CS
S.K6
IS1
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 54; Baglow, C., p. 65
CS
S.K6
IS2
Baglow, C. Chapter 3; See Hodgson, P. Theology and modern physics, pp. 21-24 in Baglow, C. p. 58.
CS
S.K6
IS4
Hodgson, P. Theology and modern physics, pp. 21-24 in Baglow, C., p. 58.
CS
S.K6
IS6
CCC, 337-344; Baglow, Chapter 1.
CS
S.K6
IS7
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 54.
CS
S.K6
IS8
Gaudium et Spes, 57; Baglow, C. p. 8-9.
CS
S.K6
IS9
Baglow, C., p. 8-10.
CS
S.K6
IS10
Gaudium et Spes, 57.
Dispositional Standards
CS
S.K6
AD1
Wyoming Catholic Academic Vision p. 21. http://www.wyomingcatholiccollege.com/data/files/gallery/AcademicDownloadsFileGallery/WCCVision1.pdf
CS
S.K6
AD2
John Paul II. (1988). Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory.
CS
S.K6
AD4
John Paul II. (1988). Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory
CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS Related to Science Topics 7-12
General Standards
CS
S.712
GS1
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 56, 57.
CS
S.712
GS2
John Paul II. Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory.
Intellectual Standards
CS
S.712
IS1
Baglow, Chapter 5; John Paul II, (1988). Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory.
CS
S.712
IS2
Ave Maria University Academic Catalog p. 80. https://www.avemaria.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Academic-Catalogue-2014-2015_091020141.pdf
CS
S.712
IS3
Jordan, E., p. 34, 55.
CS
S.712
IS4
Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 106.
CS
S.712
IS6
The Catholic School, 56.
CS
S.712
IS7
Pope Francis, Laudato si, 117.
CS
S.712
IS8
Baglow, C., Chapters 1-2; Spitzer, R. The soul’s upward yearning, p.130 & Appendix One; John Paul II, (1988). Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory; John Paul II, (1996). Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: on Evolution.
CS
S.712
IS9
Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 88; Baglow, C., p. 24-26.
CS
S.712
IS10
Ibid.
CS
S.712
IS11
Baglow, C., pp. 68-73; See http://www.faith.org.uk/article/may-june-2010-priestly-contributions-to-modern-sciencethe-case-of-monseignor-georges-lemaitre
CS
S.712
IS12
Putz, O. Evolutionary biology in a Catholic framework, In Piderit, J., & Morey, M. (2012). Teaching the tradition, p. 307 – 329.
CS
S.712
IS15
Spitzer, R., The soul’s upward yearning. Appendix One; Spitzer, R. (2010). New proofs for the existence of God; Spitzer, R. & LeBlanc, C., The Reason Series: What science says about God. Student Workbook, pp.41-51; Spitzer, R. & Noggle, M. From nothing to cosmos: The workbook+, pp. 68-71
Dispositional Standards
CS
S.712
AD1
Wyoming Catholic Academic Vision p. 21. http://www.wyomingcatholiccollege.com/data/files/gallery/AcademicDownloadsFileGallery/WCCVision1.pdf
CS
S.712
AD2
John Paul II, Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory.
CS
S.712
AD3
Francis, Pope. Laudato Si, 84-86, 117.
CS
S.712
AD4
USCCB. Seven themes of Catholic social teaching. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm
CS
S.712
AD5
Spitzer, R., The soul’s upward yearning. Appendix One, conclusion.
CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN MATHEMATICS K-6
General Standards
CS
M.K6
GS1
Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academicdisciplines (p.248).
CS
M.K6
GS3
Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics; Christendom College http://www.christendom.edu/2014/11/11/christendom-college-launches-mathematics-major/
Dispositional Standards
CS
M.K6
AD1
Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics; Clayton, D. Chpt. 5-7.
Christendom College, Why mathematics in the liberal arts tradition matters. http://www.christendom.edu/2015/08/20/why-mathematics-in-the-liberal-arts-tradition-matters/
CS
M.K6
AD2
Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics; Clayton, D. pp. 65-66.
CS
M.K6
AD 3-4
Christendom College, Why mathematics in the liberal arts tradition matters. http://www.christendom.edu/2015/08/20/why-mathematics-in-the-liberal-arts-tradition-matters/
CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN MATHEMATICS 7-12
General Standards
CS
M.712
GS1
Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academicdisciplines (p.248).
CS
M.712
GS3
Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics
CS
M.712
GS4
Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academicdisciplines (p.233-234).
Intellectual Standards
CS
M.712
IS1
Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academicdisciplines (p.240).
CS
M.712
IS2
Ave Maria University Academic Catalogue, p. 150.
CS
M.712
IS3
Ibid.
CS
M.712
IS4
Clayton, D. pp.97-98.
CS
M.712
IS5
Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academicdisciplines (p.245).
CS
M.712
IS6
Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academicdisciplines (p.241); Clayton, D. pp. 168-170.
CS
M.712
IS8
Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academicdisciplines (p.242).
Dispositional Standards
CS
M.712
AD1
Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academicdisciplines (p.241).
CS
M.712
AD2
Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academicsisciplines (p.248).
CS
M.712
AD3
Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics; Clayton D. Chapter 5.
CS
M.712
AD4
Christendom College http://www.christendom.edu/news/2014/11-11-math.php.
CS
M.712
AD5
Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic Themes in academicdisciplines (pp.229 – 232). Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics
Pope Leo XIII. (1865). Spectata Fides. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_27111885_spectatafides.html
In these days, and in the present condition of the world, when the tender age of childhood is threatened on every side by so many and such various dangers, hardly anything can be imagined more fitting than the union with literary instruction of sound teaching in faith and morals… For it is in and by these schools that the Catholic faith, our greatest and best inheritance, is preserved whole and entire. In these schools the liberty of parents is respected; and, what is most needed, especially in the prevailing license of opinion and of action, it is by these schools that good citizens are brought up for the State… The wisdom of our forefathers, and the very foundations of the State, are ruined by the destructive error of those who would have children brought up without religious education. You see, therefore Venerable Brethren, with what earnest forethought parents must beware of entrusting their children to schools in which they cannot receive religious teaching. (#4)
Pope Pius XI. (1929). Divini illius magistri. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/ hf_p-xi_enc_31121929_divini-illius-magistri.html
This all-encompassing, seminal encyclical on Catholic education was written by Pope Pius XI. The document elaborates on the mission, focus, circumstances, and final end of Catholic education. He begins by stating, “It is therefore as important to make no mistake in education, as it is to make no mistake in the pursuit of the last end, with which the whole work of education is intimately and necessarily connected. In fact, since education consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created, it is clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man’s last end, and that in the present order of Providence, since God has revealed Himself to us in the Person of His Only Begotten Son, who alone is ‘the way, the truth and the life,’ there can be no ideally perfect education which is not Christian education” (#7). The means of Catholic education includes the permeation of religion throughout all subjects and grades of schooling for “…it is necessary not only that religious instruction be given to the young at certain fixed times, but also that every subject taught, be permeated with Christian piety,” because “if this is wanting, if this sacred atmosphere does not pervade and warm the hearts of masters and scholars alike, little good can be expected from any kind of learning, and considerable harm will often be the consequence” (#80). He allows no excuse for not properly forming the consciences of young people and states this is well within the Church’s maternal supervision. The document discusses the role of parents and the State to provide education to young people.
The Pope condemns new methods of instruction based on naturalism, stating that man is both body and soul, with a fallen nature that can be elevated by God’s grace. He laments the movement by educational institutions away from the foundations of Christianity, stating a Christocentric anthropology of man and his relationship with God should be the center of the educational enterprise.
The Pope acknowledges the important role of teachers: “Perfect schools are the result not so much of good methods as of good teachers, teachers who are thoroughly prepared and well-grounded in the matter they have to teach; who possess the intellectual and moral qualifications required by their important office; who cherish a pure and holy love for the youths confided to them, because they love Jesus Christ and His Church, of which these are the children of predilection; and who have therefore sincerely at heart the true good of family and country” (#88).
Pope Pius XI. (1935). Provido sane consilio. Retrieved from https://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CATTEACH.HTM
This short document was issued by the Catechetical Office of the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to address the urgency that Catholic doctrine be taught in all parishes, schools, and colleges and that those teaching the faith be qualified and attend annual catechetical conventions and other meetings to discuss the best methods of catechetical instruction (#34-35). Also, special “Courses of Lectures on Religion [are to] be offered each year to those who teach Christian doctrine in parochial and public schools, in order that they will increase in the quality and depth of their knowledge” (#37).
Pope Paul VI. (1965). Gravissimum educationis. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vatii_ decl_19651028_gravissimum-educationis_en.html
A declaration of Catholic education issued from the Second Vatican Council. This foundational document of Catholic education situates parents, by their God-given role, as the “primary and principle educators” of their children (#3) and the family as the “first school of the social virtues” (#3). It proclaims education as an inalienable right for all mankind and insists that the state should not usurp the choice of education available to families (#6). The document states that “a true education aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of his ultimate end” (#1). The Church, through her care and concern for her people, enters into the field of education not only to assist primarily in this formation, but also to “pursue cultural goals,” create a community “animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity,” “help youth grow according to the new creatures they were made through baptism,” and “order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation” (#8). Teachers, “who aid parents in fulfilling their duties” of education and formation (#5), are recognized as individuals who must “possess special qualities of mind and heart,” because “beautiful indeed and of great importance” is their vocation (#5). Teachers are to be carefully prepared for their apostolate and continually ready to “renew and adapt” (#5). The document attempts to address all the many forms of Catholic education, including Catholic colleges and universities, advocating for coordination and cooperation among them.
In section 8 we read,
But let teachers recognize that the Catholic school depends upon them almost entirely for the accomplishment of its goals and programs. They should therefore be very carefully prepared so that both in secular and religious knowledge they are equipped with suitable qualifications and also with a pedagogical skill that is in keeping with the findings of the contemporary world. Intimately linked in charity to one another and to their students and endowed with an apostolic spirit, may teachers by their life as much as by their instruction bear witness to Christ, the unique Teacher. Let them work as partners with parents and together with them in every phase of education give due consideration to the difference of sex and the proper ends Divine Providence assigns to each sex in the family and in society. Let them do all they can to stimulate their students to act for themselves and even after graduation to continue to assist them with advice, friendship and by establishing special associations imbued with the true spirit of the Church. The work of these teachers, this sacred synod declares, is in the real sense of the word an apostolate most suited to and necessary for our times and at once a true service offered to society. The Council also reminds Catholic parents of the duty of entrusting their children to Catholic schools wherever and whenever it is possible and of supporting these schools to the best of their ability and of cooperating with them for the education of their children.
National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (1972). To teach as Jesus did. Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference.
This pastoral message was issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (United States) in response to the exhortation of the Second Vatican Council in Gravissimum Educationis. The document begins by stating, “Catholic education is an expression of the mission entrusted by Jesus to the Church He founded,” and “through education the Church seeks to prepare its members to proclaim the Good News and to translate this proclamation into action” (#7). “Christian vocation is a call to transform oneself and society with God’s help” (#7). Three main themes are proposed for Catholic education: message/doctrine (“integration of religious truth and values with life distinguishes the Catholic school from other schools,” #105); community including fellowship, life in Christ, and evangelization (“Building and living community must be prime, explicit goals of the contemporary Catholic School,” #108); and service including the transformation of society (“The experience of Christian community leads naturally to service,” #28). Scant mention is made about the qualities and characteristics of Catholic school teachers, aside from the very important facts that, “If the threefold purpose of Christian education is to be realized, it must be through their commitment to give instruction to their students, to build community among them, and to serve them” (#144) and the “integration of religious truth and values with the rest of life is brought about in the Catholic school… by the presences of teachers who express an integrated approach to learning and living in their private and professional lives” (#104).
National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (1976). Teach them. Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference.
This is a brief follow-up by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (United States) to To Teach as Jesus Did, addressing the present and future state of Catholic education in the United States. Many initiatives are suggested. The document reiterates the themes of Catholic education: “to teach doctrine, to build community, and to serve.” Parent, teacher, administrator, pastor, and community roles in supporting Catholic education are discussed. Especially emphasized is “the new awareness that all members of the faculty, at least by their example, are an integral part of the process of religious education” and a “Teachers’ life style and character are as important as their professional credentials” (p.7). The twofold dimension of Catholic education as enfolding academic instruction with Christian formation is discussed stating, “the integration of religious truth and values with the rest of life” is a responsibility of teachers, because their “daily witness to the meaning of mature faith and Christian living has a profound impact upon the education and formation of their pupils” (p.3).
Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1977). The Catholic school. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_19770319_catholic-school_en.html
Published by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, this document provides a deeper reflection of the Catholic school, especially in the areas of the nature and characteristics which lend to a school identifying itself as “Catholic.” The document begins by stating that the “Catholic school forms part of the saving mission of the Church” (#9), “provides a privileged environment for the complete formation of her members, and …also provides a highly important service to mankind” (#16). The school is considered a “centre of human formation,” and certain qualifiers must be in place or the school cannot be considered a Catholic school (25). The school must be a “place of integral formation” and “must begin from the principle that its educational programme is intentionally directed to the growth of the whole person” (#28). The Catholic school is also a place where “a systematic and critical assimilation of culture” exists (#26), where faith is integrated with culture and life, and where students are not only given the opportunity to excel academically but to live in a “community whose values are communicated through the interpersonal and sincere relationships of its members” (#32), especially the teachers who “in imitation of Christ, the only Teacher, they reveal the Christian message not only by word but also by every gesture of their behavior” (#43). The document states that the Catholic school must help the student “spell out the meaning of his experiences and their truths” (#27) and states that any school which does not do this “hinders the personal development of its pupils” (#27).
A Catholic school is founded on a Christian vision of life, with Christ as “the foundation of the whole educational enterprise” (#34), since He is “the Perfect Man” (#34). Redeemed by Him, “the Catholic school aims at forming in the Christian those particular virtues which will enable him to live a new life in Christ and help him to play faithfully his part in building up the Kingdom of God” (#36). To ensure this distinctive Christological emphasis, the local bishop has the authority to “watch over the orthodoxy of religious instruction and the observance of Christian morals in the Catholic schools,” but “it is the task of the whole educative community to ensure that a distinctive Christian educational environment is maintained in practice” (#73). Parents and especially teachers have the duty and obligation to ensure this distinctive character, especially “By their witness and their behavior” (#78).
Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1982). Lay Catholics in schools: Witnesses to faith. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_ curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19821015_lay-catholics_en.html
This document from the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education begins by stating the importance of all those who work in Catholic schools, “whether as teachers, directors, administrators, or auxiliary staff” (#1). These “will substantially determine whether or not a school realizes its aims and accomplishes it objectives” (#1). With this statement, we see the great importance and impact of even those individuals not directly hired as teachers to the total educational environment experienced by the student on a daily basis. As all people are called to a life of personal holiness, so too are those who work in Catholic schools, since they have a privileged opportunity for giving witness (#33).
The more completely an educator can give concrete witness to the model of the ideal person that is being presented to the students, the more this ideal will be believed and imitated. For it will then be seen as something reasonable and worthy of being lived, something concrete and realizable. It is in this context that the faith witness of the lay teacher becomes especially important. Students should see in their teacher the Christian attitude and behavior that is often so conspicuously absent from the secular atmosphere in which they live. Without this witness, living in such an atmosphere, they may begin to regard Christian behavior as an impossible ideal (#32)
“Lay Catholic teachers should be influenced by a Christian faith vision in the way they teach their course, to the extent that this is consistent with the subject matter” (#49), and should be seekers of the truth, which is found in Truth Himself, Christ. They should be active participants in the school and the surrounding community, so as to act as a conduit of Catholic culture and an evangelizer of the faith. Teachers in Catholic schools possess
professional commitment; support of truth, justice and freedom; openness to the point of view of others, combined with an attitude of service; personal commitment to the students, and fraternal solidarity with everyone; [and] a life that is integrally moral in all its aspects. The lay Catholic who brings all of this to his or her work in a pluralist school83 becomes a living mirror, in whom every individual in the educational community will see reflected an image of one inspired by the Gospel (#52).
Part III discusses the many dimensions of necessary formation for Catholic schoolteachers, and Part IV addresses the types and kinds of ecclesial and institutional support needed and available for lay teachers in Catholic schools whose work in education is part of the specific mission of the Church. That work includes
cultivating in student the intellectual, creative, and aesthetic faculties of the human person; to develop in them the ability to make correct use of their judgement, will, and affectivity; to promote in them a sense of values; to encourage just attitudes and prudent behavior; to introduce them to the cultural patrimony handed down from previous generations; to prepare them for professional life, and to encourage the friendly interchange among students of diverse cultures and backgrounds that will lead to mutual understanding (#12).
Canon Law Society of America. (1983). Code of canon law. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P2N.HTM
Book III, Title III, Canons 793-806 are particular to grade schools operating under an ecclesial authority, independent or private schools using a Catholic faith-based curriculum, and parents.
Can. 795. Education must pay regard to the formation of the whole person, so that all may attain their eternal destiny and at the same time promote the common good of society. Children and young persons are therefore to be cared for in such a way that their physical, moral and intellectual talents may develop in a harmonious manner, so that they may attain a greater sense of responsibility and a right use of freedom, and be formed to take an active part in social life.
Can. 803 §2. Instruction and education in a Catholic school must be based on the principles of Catholic doctrine, and the teachers must be outstanding in true doctrine and uprightness of life.
Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1988). The religious dimension of education in a Catholic school. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc _doc_19880407_catholic-school_en.html
This is the third of a trilogy of documents issued by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education on Catholic education following the promulgation of Gravissimum Educationis in 1965. (The trilogy began with The Catholic School in 1977 and Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith in 1982.) This document offers general guidelines regarding the educational climate of a Catholic school which includes the building up of a school culture animated by faith. Catholic schools should not be seen as institutions, but as communities and extensions of family life, especially for elementary school students. The document discusses the complementary role of harmonious spiritual and academic formation of the students and again focuses upon the school climate to impress upon the reader that
strong determination is needed to do everything possible to eliminate conditions which threaten the health of the school climate. Some examples of potential problems are these: the educational goals are either not defined or are defined badly; those responsible for the school are not sufficiently trained; concern for academic achievement is excessive; relations between teachers and students are cold and impersonal; teachers are antagonistic toward one another; discipline is imposed from on high without any participation or cooperation from the students; relationships with families are formal or even strained, and families are not involved in helping to determine the educational goals; some within the school community are giving a negative witness; individuals are unwilling to work together for the common good; the school is isolated from the local Church; there is no interest in or concern for the problems of society; religious instruction is ‘routine’ (#104).
Discussion regarding the teaching of religion and the importance of catechesis of those receptive to the Christian message of salvation is presented with suggestions for methodology and to look for opportunities of “pre-evangelization: to the development of a religious sense of life” (#108), the “why,” “what,” and “how” of a culture purports a religious and ethical dimension. Frequent reference to Christ and God, the Father, as well as frequent prayer create a culture and climate that is genuinely Catholic.
This document from the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education was written for families, but it is applicable for educators and administrators overseeing courses on human sexuality in Catholic schools. As collaborators with parents in the education of their children, educators need to affirm the Church’s position that parents are the primary educators of their children. Included in this document are several quotes from Familiaris Consortio, one of which is, “Sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents, must always be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centers chosen and controlled by them. In this regard, the Church affirms the law of subsidiarity, which the school is bound to observe when it cooperates in sex education, by entering into the same spirit that animates the parents.” Also, the end of the document is a set of recommendations for all educators working in this area:
Since each child or young person must be able to live his or her own sexuality in conformity with Christian principles, and hence be able to exercise the virtue of chastity, no educator—not even parents—can interfere with this right to chastity (cf. Matthew 18: 4-7) (#118).
It is recommended that respect be given to the right of the child and the young person to be adequately informed by their own parents on moral and sexual questions in a way that complies with his or her desire to be chaste and to be formed in chastity. This right is further qualified by a child’s stage of development, his or her capacity to integrate moral truth with sexual information, and by respect for his or her innocence and tranquility (#119).
It is recommended that respect be given to the right of the child or young person to withdraw from any form of sexual instruction imparted outside the home. Neither the children nor other members of their family should ever be penalized or discriminated against for this decision (#120).
Congregation for the Clergy. (1997). General directory for catechesis. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cclergy/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_17041998_directory-for-catechesis_en.html
The document from the Congregation for the Clergy describes the relationship between religious instruction and catechesis, both of which are evident in Catholic schools. Paragraphs 73-75 explain the proper characteristics of religious instruction in schools. Religious instruction is to be scholastic in nature
with the same systematic demands and the same rigour as other disciplines. It must present the Christian message and the Christian event with the same seriousness and the same depth with which other disciplines present their knowledge. It should not be an accessory alongside of these disciplines, but rather it should engage in a necessary inter-disciplinary dialogue. This dialogue should take place above all at that level at which every discipline forms the personality of students. In this way the presentation of the Christian message influences the way in which the origins of the world, the sense of history, the basis of ethical values, the function of religion in culture, the destiny of man and his relationship with nature, are understood. Through inter-disciplinary dialogue religious instruction in schools underpins, activates, develops and completes the educational activity of the school (#73).
Paragraph 259-260 address religious instruction and catechesis within Catholic schools, recalling the emphasis of the Second Vatican Council’s document Gravissimum Educationis on schools as places for evangelization, human formation, and enculturation into the life of Christ.
Congregation for Catholic Education. (1997). The Catholic school on the threshold of the third millennium. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_27041998_school20 00_ en.html
Written as a “state of the union” for Catholic education at the time before the new millennium, the document from the Congregation for Catholic Education highlights the exiting concerns and challenges of Catholic education, the first and foremost as a crisis of values, especially in the prevalence of moral relativism, subjectivism, and nihilism.84 Society has turned away from the Christian faith as a “reference point” and “source of light for an effective and convincing interpretation of existence” (#1). Stressing the importance of the Catholic school as a place for courageous renewal with its evangelizing mission, pastoral care for the family and society, and shared responsibility for the “social and cultural development of the different communities and people to which it belongs” (#5), Catholic schools are called to impart a “solid Christian formation” (#8), to offer technical and scientific skills, and above all to focus on the “development of the whole man” (#9).
The document briefly but succinctly mentions the cultural identity of the Catholic school.
From the nature of the Catholic school also stems one of the most significant elements of its educational project: the synthesis between culture and faith. Indeed, knowledge set in the context of faith becomes wisdom and life vision. The endeavor to interweave reason and faith, which has become the heart of individual subjects, makes for unity, articulation and coordination, bringing forth within what is learned in school a Christian vision of the world, of life, of culture and of history. In a Catholic school’s educational project there is no separation between time for learning and time for formation, between acquiring notions and growing in wisdom…All of this demands an atmosphere characterized by the search for truth, in which competent, convinced and coherent educators, teachers of learning and of life, may be a reflection, albeit imperfect but still vivid, of the one Teacher. In this perspective, in the Christian educational project all subjects collaborate, each with its own specific content, to the formation of mature personalities. (#14)
Catholic education’s role in service to society and the local community is discussed with the special role of teachers and their role in students development, “for the teacher does not write on inanimate material, but on the very spirits of human beings” (#19).
National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2005). National directory for catechesis. Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
While not a Catholic school document, per se, the directory for catechesis from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops insists on the role of the Catholic school as a center for evangelization and catechesis, stating “its catechetical program is essential to is distinctly Catholic identity and character” (p.231). It includes an important section on the hiring of the Catholic school principal (Section 9a) as well as the role Catholic schoolteachers play as models and witness of the faith as they act to form students in what it means to live life as a Christian.
All teachers in Catholic schools share in the catechetical ministry. ‘All members of the faculty, at least by their example, are an integral part of the process of religious education… Teachers’ life style and character are as important as their professional credentials’. Their daily witness to the meaning of mature faith and Christian living has a profound effect on the education and formation of their students (p. 233).
This witness is so important, the directory goes on to say, “While some situations might entail compelling reasons for members of another faith tradition to teach in a Catholic school, as much as possible, all teachers in a Catholic school should be practicing Catholics” (p. 233).
Section 61.4b states that religion programs in Catholic schools should be in harmony with the catechetical efforts of local parishes and diocesan catechetical priorities and that Catholic schools should be affordable, accessible, and open to all.
This document was developed by the Committee on Education of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to reaffirm commitment to Catholic education and its fourfold purposes of “providing an atmosphere in which the Gospel message is proclaimed, community in Christ is experienced, service to our sisters and brothers is the norm, and thanksgiving and worship of our God is cultivated” (par. 2). The document reiterates the value of Catholic education, citing some of the previous documents released by the Sacred Congregation of Catholic Education, and discusses the importance of Catholic schools especially for the economically poor and minority students in inner-city environments. The document addresses the changing demographics of the Church in America, citing the increase in the Hispanic/Latino population and the need to find and properly train lay administrators for positions in the Catholic school environment, develop new models for economic sustainability of schools, and continue advocacy of Catholic schools in the public policy arena. It recommends meetings across the country to address “critical issues of Catholic identity, cultural diversity, finances, just wages and benefits, academic quality—especially in the area of religious education—alternative governance models, and the marketing of our Catholic schools.”
This document from the Congregation for Catholic Education “considers the pastoral aspects regarding cooperation between lay and consecrated persons within the same educational mission. In it, the choice of the lay faithful to live their educational commitment as ‘a personal vocation in the Church, and not simply as… the exercise of a profession’” (#6). Catholic education is discussed from the perspective of communion, defined as union both with God and neighbor. Aspects of communion are further described, and importance is placed upon the Catholic educator as being a person living in communion, with a spirituality of communion, and living for communion with Christ and with others.
As “a consecrated person is called to testify his or her specific vocation to a life of communion in love so as to be in the scholastic community a sign, a memorial and a prophecy of the values of the Gospel, so too a lay educator is required to exercise ‘a specific mission within the Church by living, in faith, a secular vocation in the communitarian structure of the school’” (#15).
Sufficient detail is given to the professional and spiritual formation of those working in Catholic schools. All should continually update methodologies and knowledge of culture, psychology, and pedagogical approaches. Catholic educators must possess a “sensitivity with regard to the person to be educated in order to grasp not only the request for growth in knowledge and skills, but also the need for growth in humanity” (#24).
For this reason, Catholic educators need “a ‘formation of the heart’: they need to be led to that encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others”, so that their educational commitment becomes “a consequence deriving from their faith, a faith which becomes active through love (cf. Gal 5:6)”. In fact, even “care for instruction means loving” (Wis 6:17). It is only in this way that they can make their teaching a school of faith, that is to say, a transmission of the Gospel, as required by the educational project of the Catholic school (#25).
Communion not only includes collaboration among colleagues, but also with parents, the local community, and the entire Church.
Primarily aimed at parents, teachers, and other personnel in Catholic schools, this document from the Congregation for Catholic Education addresses what it sees as a central challenge of education—the acceptance of various cultural expressions among all peoples and the necessity to overcome prejudices and build harmony among cultures without losing one’s own identity and pedagogical vision. Culture is defined as the “particular expression of human beings, their specific way of being and organizing their presence in the world” (Ch. 1, #1). While dialogue and clarity regarding the understanding of other religions is discussed, it is done so with “faithfulness to one’s own Christian identity” (#16). Catholic schools, as institutions of evangelization and enculturation, are seen as places where this intercultural dialogue should take place. In order for this dialogue to be effective, it must be “set-out from a deep-seated knowledge of the specific identity of the various dialogue partners. From this point of view, diversity ceases to be seen as a problem. Instead, a community characterized by pluralism is seen as a resource, a chance for opening up the whole system to all differences of origin, relationship between men and women, social status and educational history” (#27). Culture is discussed from a theological, anthropological, and pedagogical perspective before focus is placed practical applications of the transmission of culture in Catholic schools. “The contribution that Catholicism can make to education and to intercultural dialogue is in their reference to the centrality of the human person, who has his or her constitutive element in relationships with others. Catholic schools have in Jesus Christ the basis of their anthropological and pedagogical paradigm…” (#57).
Of importance to Catholic educators and administrators are the sections titled, “The curriculum as the expression of the school’s identity” (#64-69) and the sections directed toward the formation and profession of teachers and administrators (#76-86). A Catholic school’s programs “can be harmonized with the school’s original mission” (#65), and their curricula should “place on centre-stage both individuals and their search for meaning. This is the reference value, in view of which the various academic disciplines are important resources… From this perspective, what is taught is not neutral, and neither is the way of teaching it” (#65).
Catholic schools are encouraged to promote a wisdom-based society, to go beyond knowledge and educate people to think, evaluating facts in the light of values… In teaching the various academic disciplines, teachers share and promote a methodological viewpoint in which the various branches of knowledge are dynamically correlated, in a wisdom perspective. The epistemological framework of every branch of knowledge has its own identity, both in content and methodology. However, this framework does not relate merely to ‘internal’ questions, touching upon the correct realization of each discipline. Each discipline is not an island inhabited by a form of knowledge that is distinct and ring-fenced; rather, it is in a dynamic relationship with all other forms of knowledge, each of which expresses something about the human person and touches upon some truth. (#66-67) Moreover, it must be pointed out that teaching the Catholic religion in schools has its own aims, different from those of catechesis. In fact, while catechesis promotes personal adherence to Christ and maturing of the Christian life, school teaching gives the students knowledge about Christianity’s identity and the Christian life. Thus, one aims ‘to enlarge the area of our rationality, to reopen it to the larger questions of the truth and the good, to link theology, philosophy and science between them in full respect for the methods proper to them and for their reciprocal autonomy, but also in the awareness of the intrinsic unity that holds them together.’ (#74)
The formation of Catholic school teachers and administrators is discussed as not simply an initial formation, but an initiation into an on-going, professional learning community of scholars who collaborate with each other and integrate their ideas and faith into the subjects they teach. Their camaraderie goes beyond the classroom to a personal level and their responsibilities as teachers does not end when the final bell rings, for “Good teachers know that their responsibilities do not end outside the classroom or school. They know that their responsibilities are also connected with their local area, and are demonstrated by their understanding for today’s social problems…teachers must be able to provide their students with the cultural tools necessary for giving direction to their lives” (#83).
In its conclusion, the document states Catholic schools are to “avoid both fundamentalism and ideas of relativism where everything is the same. Instead, they are encouraged to progress in harmony with the identity they have received from their Gospel inspiration.”
Congregation for Catholic Education. (2015). Educating today and tomorrow: A renewing passion. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_ con_ccatheduc_doc_20140407_ educare-oggi-e-domani_en.html
This post-synodal document from the Congregation for Catholic Education focuses on the need for Catholic education to “convey vital values and principles to younger generations” and to “contribute to building the common good” (Introduction). Both the context and approach of teaching in a Catholic school are described. The context is the collaborative, unified learning and teaching environment where care and concern is exhibited between teachers and students; where a wealth of opportunities exist for students to thrive and develop their talents; where the cognitive, affective, social, professional, ethical and spiritual dimensions of the person are all addressed; and where ideas are respected, dialogue is free-flowing, and a rigorous commitment towards truth is found. The approach to teaching and learning engages one in the pursuit of knowledge and research where “Engagement in knowledge and research cannot be separated from a sense of ethics and transcendence: no real science can disregard ethical consequences and no real science drives us away from transcendence. Science and ethics, science and transcendence are not mutually exclusive, but come together for a greater and better understanding of man and the world” (II, #2). The pedagogy of teaching includes the centrality of the learner within a relationship where teachers are trained and prepared to guide and accompany students toward deeper learning and challenging goals.
Challenges of Catholic education are to “make young people realize the beauty of faith in Jesus Christ and of religious freedom in a multireligious universe. In every environment, whether it is favorable or not, Catholic educators will have to be credible witnesses” (III). The educational vision for Catholic education must sit within a “philosophical anthropology that must also be an anthropology of truth, i.e., a social anthropology whereby man is seen in his relations and way of being; an anthropology of recollection and promise; an anthropology that refers to the cosmos and cares about sustainable development; and, even more, an anthropology that refers to God” (III).
Education is not just knowledge, but also experience: it links together knowledge and action; it works to achieve unity amongst different forms of knowledge and pursues consistency. It encompasses the affective and emotional domains, and is also endowed with an ethical dimension: knowing how to do things and what we want to do, daring to change society and the world, and serving the community. Education is based on participation, shared intelligence and intelligence interdependence; dialogue, self-giving, example, cooperation and reciprocity are also equally important elements (III).
Challenges to Catholic schools include an increased hostility toward private, religious education by local and national governments.
The document addresses Catholic higher education and its challenges and then concludes with a quote from Pope Francis to educators (below) and a questionnaire.
Do not be disheartened in the face of the difficulties that the educational challenge presents. Educating is not a profession but an attitude, a way of being; in order to educate it is necessary to step out of ourselves and be among young people, to accompany them in the stages of their growth and to set ourselves beside them; Give them hope and optimism for their journey in the world. Teach them to see the beauty and goodness of creation and of man who always retains the Creator’s hallmark. But above all with your life be witnesses of what you communicate (Conclusion).
This Instruction is another follow-up on the 2015 World Congress Educating today and tomorrow: A renewing passion (29) as well as the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the social encyclical, Populorum progressio. Divided into seven sections, it presents the current state of global affairs as one filled with multiple crises in economic, financial, political, environmental, and social fields. It proposes a “joint development of civic opportunities with an educational plan” (6) to promote cooperation and solidarity in the world instead of marginalization.
Section two provides the document’s thesis that “education should be at the service of a new humanism,” and that education itself needs to be humanized through
…a process in which each person can develop his or her own deep-rooted attitudes and vocation, and thus contribute to his or her vocation within the community. ‘Humanizing education’ means putting the person at the centre of education, in a framework of relationships that make up a living community, which is interdependent and bound to a common destiny. This is fraternal humanism. (8)
Fraternal humanism includes respect for the family as the “first natural society” and a methodology that
does not just provide an educational service, but deals with its results in the overall context of the personal, moral and social abilities of those who participate in the educational process. It does not simply ask the teacher to teach and students to learn, but urges everyone to live, study and act in accordance with the reasons of fraternal humanism. It does not aim to create division and divergence, but rather offers places for meeting and discussion to create valid educational projects. It is an education – at the same time – that is sound and open, that pulls down the walls of exclusivity, promoting the richness and diversity of individual talents and extending the classroom to embrace every corner of social experience in which education can generate solidarity, sharing and communion. (10)
Section three leans heavily on the use of the “grammar of dialogue” (12) to build networks of fraternal humanism which “ha[ve] the weighty responsibility of providing a formation of citizens” (14) who will work with positive ethical values in the public sphere (13). Section four states that “the education to fraternal humanism must start from the certainty of the message of hope contained in the truth of Jesus Christ” (17) and that this is the job of education, to make connections that offer hope to the world. Section five moves toward inclusion of all peoples, not just education for the future and the needs of citizens in that world but establishing a relationship with a community’s past generations. Section six discusses cooperative networks among faculty, schools, universities, research groups, and content areas for the collaboration and sharing of knowledge and services. The last section sums up the “themes and horizons” (31) just explored as a “culture of dialogue, globalizing hope, inclusion and cooperation networks” (31) and encourages everyone to use these tools to engage civic society.
This document is specifically in response to the push of ‘gender ideology,’ which “leads to educational programmes and legislative enactments that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the biological difference between male and female” (2). It states that discussion of gender should not be separated from a larger discussion of an “education in the call to love” and the presentation of a “clear and convincing” (30) Christian vision of anthropology. The document warns that traditional notions of marriage and the family are abandoned if gender ideology is accepted (14, 21). The document recommends a process of ‘Listening’ to all sides of the issue to find points of agreement and disagreement, ‘Reasoning’ through rational arguments from biology/physiology/medical science, philosophy, psychology, and theology and ‘Proposing’ acceptable ways for Catholic schools to address the issue. It encourages schools to provide solid teaching in Christian anthropology and human sexuality in conjunction with the family (subsidiarity) and with carefully prepared teachers (47) formed in the moral teachings of the Church and human psychological and physical development (46). The document highlights the importance of all those working in Catholic education, not just teachers, in the Christian formation of students.
School managers, teaching staff and personnel all share the responsibility of both guaranteeing delivery of a high-quality service coherent with the Christian principles that lie at the heart of their educational project, as well as interpreting the challenges of their time while giving daily witness of their understanding, objectivity and prudence. (48)
The document’s preferred “path of dialogue, which involves listening, reasoning and proposing” is put forward as a means of addressing the issue of gender theory in order to bring “positive transformation of concerns and misunderstandings” (52). Schools are to provide a “way of accompanying” (56) that is “discrete and confidential, capable of reaching out to those who are experiencing complex and painful situations” (56).
Every school should therefore make sure it is an environment of trust, calmness and openness, particularly where there are cases that require time and careful discernment. It is essential that the right conditions are created to provide a patient and understanding ear, far removed from any unjust discrimination. (56)
This Instruction is a follow-up on the 2015 World Congress Educating today and tomorrow: A renewing passion.It addresses the need for a “clearer awareness and consistency of the Catholic identity of the Church’s educational institutions all over the world” (1). It is written as a “concise and practical tool” to “help clarify certain current issues” and to “prevent conflicts and divisions in the critical area of education” (7). The document addresses Catholic identity from four points: the reductive, the formal, the charismatic, and the narrow; The document encourages Catholic schools to be in “the educational sphere the model of a ‘Church which goes forth’, in dialogue with everyone” (68-72). It emphasizes that everyonein a Catholic school is important to the establishment of the school’s Catholic identity. It details safeguards for teachers to know the mission and catholicity of the school prior to employment. It suggests the development of self-assessments and formation programs detailing expectations of those working in Catholic education. A very specific section on the Bishop’s authority over Catholic schools and the recourse to both civil and canon law available to solve conflicts is emphasized as are the processes of dialogue, subsidiarity, graduality, and proportionality when handling these conflicts.
Catholic education experts are hailing The Cardinal Newman Society’s new Catholic Curriculum Standards as a “splendid” and “invaluable” new resource to help Catholic schools focus on their mission.
With the help of leading Catholic scholars like Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer, Anthony Esolen and Joseph Pearce, the Newman Society’s Dr. Denise Donohue and Dr. Dan Guernsey have produced a new tool to help families and teachers regain their focus on what matters most in Catholic education.
The standards cover English language arts, math, science and history, and they complement the U.S. bishops’ and diocesan standards for religious instruction. Each academic discipline’s standards are broadly grouped into two grade levels, K-6 and 7-12. They express outcomes according to which learning should be measured, with the goal of leading educators to assign or develop materials and choose subject matter that truly serve the mission of Catholic education.
Praise from Educators
A couple of dioceses are already working with the standards, which have received strong approval.
“Since, in every school, the curriculum carries the mission, these Catholic Curricular Standards are an invaluable contribution to Catholic schools everywhere,” said Fr. John Belmonte, S.J., superintendent of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Joliet and a national expert in Catholic school administration.
“Catholic schools have benefited from the standards-based reform movement in education with one notable exception: the absence of rigorous standards rooted and grounded in our Catholic tradition,” said Fr. Belmonte. “Implementation of the Catholic Curricular Standards will provide a renewed sense of mission for our Catholic schools operating within the increasingly secularized world of education today.”
“A splendid achievement,” said Dr. Ryan Topping, author of The Case for Catholic Education and a fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. “Amidst widespread confusion about the nature and aims of the curriculum, these K-12 standards off educators structured guidance on how to deliver a robust Catholic intellectual formation.”
Dr. Sandra Stotsky, developer of the highly respected Massachusetts Academic Standards, said the Catholic Curriculum Standards “reflect more than the uniqueness of their intellectual tradition. They also provide the academic rigor missing in most public school English language arts curricula.”
For parents and educators seeking more practical assistance, the Catholic Curriculum Standards are accompanied by lists of recommended resources and even suggested literature for Catholic students at different grade levels.
The Cardinal Newman Society developed the standards with adaptability in mind. Educators are invited to amend and fit them into their own standards and curriculum guides to focus on the complete formation of students in the rich, Catholic intellectual heritage. We also anticipate developing practical tools to help educators work toward the standards in their classrooms.
Serving a Need
Today, many parents rightfully ask why Catholic schools often appear similar to public schools. Beyond religion class, the textbooks, reading assignments and even discussions of sensitive topics can seem very secular in many Catholic schools.
Have you ever wondered if there is a Catholic approach to teaching science? If you attended Catholic school decades ago, you’d have no doubt that there is such a thing. But today, many parents and students lack appreciation for what is special about a faithful Catholic education.
On topics like creation, nature, reproduction, behavior, scientific method, environment and technology, does Catholic education have something more important to teach than facts and figures?
What about literature? Good Catholic educators reject the Common Core’s emphasis on technical reading, preferring to instead focus on great literature — the epic tales, classical plays, poetry, biographies, persuasive essays and more that spark wonder, imagination and reasoning in young minds. Such literature prepares them to transform culture and renew it in the light of Christ.
And history! Too long has textbook history been dominated by Protestant distortions and emphases. A true grounding in history couldn’t be more important for young Catholics today: Christianity’s role in Western civilization, the rise of Islam, the glories of the Middle Ages, America’s founding principles and so much more.
The sad truth, however, is that many Catholic schools have looked to public school standards as measures of success in education. The defective Common Core and other government standards are secular and oriented to college and career. If Catholic educators measure success by these standards, they lose sight of their mission to evangelize and form young people in mind, body and spirit.
Renewed Purpose
The Cardinal Newman Society anchored its Catholic CurriculumStandards on principles of Catholic identity in education:
Involves the integral formation of the whole person—body, mind and spirit—in light of the individual’s ultimate end and the good of society.
Seeks to know and understand objective reality, including transcendent Truth, which is knowable by reason and faith and finds its origin, unity and end in God.
Promotes human virtues and the dignity of the human person, as created in the image and likeness of God and modeled on the person of Jesus Christ.
Encourages a synthesis of faith, life and culture.
Develops a Catholic worldview and enables a deeper incorporation of the student into the heart of the Catholic Church.
These elements of Catholic education are quite different from the philosophy and objectives that drive secular education. As Drs. Guernsey and Donohue explain in their introduction to the standards:
The mission and goals of Catholic education are significantly different from the college and career goals that guide public schools. Because the mission of a school should guide its choice of standards, the unique and broader mission of Catholic education requires additional, and foundational, standards that include specific Catholic modes of intellectual reasoning as well as accompanying dispositions.
While Catholic education has many similarities to secular education, “Catholic education is uniquely positioned to offer guidance on issues of values and morality as well as to provide life-giving and definitive answers related to questions of human purpose, human dignity, and human flourishing.”
Designed for Change
It is our own mission at The Cardinal Newman Society to help restore excitement among educators and Catholic families about the great value of faithful Catholic education. This requires agreement about what makes Catholic learning unique and … well, “Catholic.”
We believe that our new Catholic Curriculum Standards can be pivotal in the renewal of Catholic elementary and secondary education. Diocesan school leaders, independent educators and homeschoolers alike can make use of them — and even modify and improve them — to ensure an emphasis on student formation that is largely missing from modern evaluations of school success.
Of course, ours is not the only effort toward improved Catholic education. Many dioceses have done important work toward refocusing classroom instruction, and our standards rely heavily on the conceptual work of many experts in Catholic education.
But that’s precisely why we believe that our Catholic Curriculum Standards will have such a tremendous impact. We worked with more than a dozen leading Catholic scholars to develop the standards, and we even had the great honor of working with Dr. Stotsky. Several Catholic school leaders also provided valuable input.
The standards were composed using research from Church documents, the educational philosophies of Newman Guide colleges, and many books and articles on Catholic education, liberal arts education and classical education.
The time is ripe for the Catholic Curriculum Standards. Thanks in part to the Newman Society’s steady drumbeat for 23 years, calling for renewed attention to Catholic identity — but even more because of the leadership of Saint Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict in urging reforms, and the quiet work of many bishops and school leaders — we find much eagerness among Catholic families and educators for serious improvement.
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Catholic-is-our-core_768px-730x361-1.png361730Cardinal Newman Society Staffhttps://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/CNS-logo-2C-450-tag2.pngCardinal Newman Society Staff2016-10-17 15:56:002020-05-26 14:17:26New Catholic Curriculum Standards Put Focus on Faith
The Cardinal Newman Society presents our new Catholic Curriculum Standards to help Catholic educators strengthen their core mission of evangelization and forming young people for God.
The Newman Society has long promoted and defended faithful Catholic education, and increasingly this work is turned toward helping schools study, embrace and implement the Church’s vision for Catholic education. Our new Standards are central to this work.
“We want to help, to propose a path forward that is more appropriate for Catholic schools than the problematic Common Core and other secular options,” says Dr. Dan Guernsey, director of K-12 education programs for The Cardinal Newman Society and co-author of the Catholic Curriculum Standards with deputy director Dr. Denise Donohue.
“The Standards point Catholic education in the right direction,” Dr. Donohue says. “We expect and in fact encourage more innovation, continued efforts to delve into the mission of Catholic schools and further develop authentic Catholic standards of education so that Catholic identity thrives.”
With emphasis on literature, science, history and math, the Catholic Curriculum Standards incorporate Catholic insights into these curricular areas and indicate what students should be learning beyond the accumulation of useful skills and knowledge. The standards are grouped into two grade levels, K-6 and 7-12, to help educators assign or develop materials and choose subject matter that serve the unique mission of Catholic education.
For too long, many Catholic schools have relied heavily on secular government standards like the Common Core to measure school success and on similarly focused standardized tests to measure student outcomes. These distract Catholic educators from their core mission, because they ignore key aspects of human formation and often depend on philosophies of education that are contrary to the Catholic faith. Still, Catholic schools have far outperformed public schools because of the genuine concern of their leaders and teachers for students’ personal formation.
Good intentions, sadly, are not enough.
Catholic education’s road to renewal will be paved with genuine Catholic standards, resting on the solid foundation of Catholic teaching and the Church’s vision for Catholic education.
What are standards? Consider the grand promises of the Common Core State Standards: “These learning goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live.”
Standards indicate levels of student achievement. They help determine curriculum, testing, and measures of school success. When developed rightly, they are a wonderful tool for educators and have become fundamental to American schooling.
But if standards are fundamental to modern education, then it should be obvious that Catholic schools need Catholic standards. If we measure Catholic school success by standards that do not serve the authentic mission of Catholic education, we fail to attend to Catholic identity — and eventually, our schools simply fail.
But that doesn’t have to be the fate of Catholic education. It cannot be the fate of Catholic education, on which we rely for the reform of Catholic life and American society.
“Even amid growing challenges in today’s society, Catholic schools and homeschool programs that embrace and celebrate the mission of Catholic education continue to thrive across the United States,” write Drs. Donohue and Guernsey in their online letter introducing the Catholic Curriculum Standards. “The Cardinal Newman Society makes this free resource available to all educators, including parents, the primary educators of children, in hopes of continuing this renewal of Catholic education for the benefit of our children, our Church, and the common good they serve.”
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/St-Agnes-priest-scaled-e1587578991192.jpg9722560Cardinal Newman Society Staffhttps://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/CNS-logo-2C-450-tag2.pngCardinal Newman Society Staff2016-10-17 14:30:002020-05-26 14:17:56Catholic Schools Need Catholic Standards
It’s an intriguing question. We wrestled with the question this past year at The Cardinal Newman Society, while developing proposed Catholic curriculum standards for Catholic education.
It’s easy to understand that Jesus is the Master Teacher. “Rabbi,” His disciples called Him. A Catholic teacher should emulate Christ and should lead young people to Him.
But saying there’s a Catholic approach to mathematics evokes a vision of Jesus writing in the sand at the Sea of Galilee, attempting to teach pre-calculus to a school of fishermen. Oh, if only Catholics did have a divinely simple method of advanced mathematics! It’s not, at least, in my translation of the Bible.
I’ve never heard a historian suggest that Catholics should learn only about their own experience while neglecting other important world events. Salvation history deserves priority in Catholic education. But within the particular academic discipline of history, studying the Nazi Holocaust is arguably as necessary as studying the Exodus.
I’ve also never heard a scientist suggest that the scientific method works better for Catholics, or that the Old Testament is a textbook for scientific knowledge.
So what’s “Catholic education,” then? Is it a secular education on which we sprinkle prayer, catechesis and Christian values?
The promise seems much larger. Certainly there’s not much point of Catholic standards for curricula in math, history, science and English language arts, if the “education” in Catholic schools is not uniquely Catholic.
The truth is, there is indeed something very special in Catholic education about how and what a student learns. That’s in every subject — not just religion. It doesn’t mean rejecting knowledge that is truthful and worthy of a secular education. But Catholic education has priorities that are uniquely suited to human development and to the needs of the soul, and so our expectations for student learning are always and substantially different … and better!
A Catholic education is evangelical; it is one of the Church’s chief means of teaching the faith and bringing people to Christ. We find God in all things, inside and outside religion class.
A Catholic education is formational; it strives not only to teach useful knowledge and skills, but to prepare the whole person — body, mind and soul — for service to man and God. We want our students to be saints.
A Catholic education is empowering; it teaches students the knowledge and ability to think critically about the world and about human culture, so that our graduates can go forth and help transform family, society, business, government and Church in accord with the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, we expect students to come away from mathematics with something more than a means of engineering and astronomy. By studying math, we want our students to:
“Demonstrate the mental habits of precise, determined, careful and accurate questioning, inquiry and reasoning.”
“Respond to the beauty, harmony, proportion, radiance and wholeness present in mathematics.”
“Recognize how mathematical arguments and processes can be extrapolated to other areas of study, including theology and philosophy.”
“Propose how mathematical objects or proofs (such as the golden mean, the Fibonacci numbers, the musical scale and geometric proofs) suggest divine origin.”
These are just some of the student outcomes identified by my colleagues, Dr. Dan Guernsey and Dr. Denise Donohue, in developing Catholic curriculum standards. They had help from some of the best minds in the Church, like Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., Anthony Esolen, Joseph Pearce and several others.
Such a project, of course, could go on forever and still bear much fruit. But the point is made: there is a uniquely Catholic approach to teaching math and other subjects, because God’s revelation opens up wonderful new ways of looking at the same data and methods. The world is so much more exciting and meaningful, given the gift of faith.
Therefore, science becomes more than the observations obtained by our five senses and “proved” (always uncertainly) by the weight of evidence. Paired with divine revelation, science becomes a means of better knowing God, by the analogy of His creation.
Graduates of Catholic education who study science should be able to, “Demonstrate confidence in human reason and in one’s ability to know the truth about God’s creation and the fundamental intelligibility of the world.” They should, “Relate how the human soul is specifically created by God for each human being, does not evolve from lesser matter, and is not inherited from our parents.”
And at the very least, they should be aware of the great Catholic contributions to science. They should know “Copernicus, Mendel, DaVinci, Bacon, Pasteur, Volta, St. Albert the Great, and others and the witness and evidence they supply against the false claim that Catholicism is not compatible with science.”
Upon learning history, a student from a Catholic school should know “the historical impact of the Catholic Church on human events” and “how Christian social ethics extend to questions of politics, economy, and social institutions and not just personal moral decision-making.”
And every student in Catholic education should have experienced great works of literature! By reading good literature, a student comes to a better understanding of “the proper nature of man, his problems, and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world.”
There’s so much more to a Catholic education — indeed as much as completes the perfection of man, which of course is limitless. But unless Catholic families and educators seek answers to the question — What is unique and essential to Catholic education? — we will surely fail to prepare our young people according to the vision of the Church.
After considering all that should be present in Catholic education, the Catholic school or homeschool becomes more exciting and inviting than ever before. If the Church wants a renaissance in Catholic education, faithful Catholic standards are a great starting point.
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/Reilly-MATH.jpg517679Patrick Reillyhttps://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/CNS-logo-2C-450-tag2.pngPatrick Reilly2016-10-17 14:07:002020-05-26 14:19:10Is There Such a Thing as Catholic Math?
By now, it should be apparent that the Common Core State Standards for schools won’t come close to fulfilling the grand promises of its proponents.
Parents, scholars, unions and the media all seem to be painfully aware of the fact — but after the mad rush to implement the standards, create new tests and market new textbooks, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of momentum to change course.
At least, that’s true of the nation’s public schools. But our Catholic schools can and should do much better, with standards that truly reflect their Catholic mission. I get the sense that most Catholics are eager to move above and beyond, and many dioceses are already working on it.
Last December, the Associated Press reported a “backlash” against Common Core in Catholic schools. Families want what’s best for their kids, and so do Catholic school leaders. Now’s the time to unite behind something better.
A major new report on the Common Core might be just the catalyst that we need to finally break away. After the Fall: Catholic Education Beyond the Common Core is published by the reputable Pioneer Institute and the American Principles Project, whose founder Robert George of Princeton University joined more than 130 Catholic scholars in a letter criticizing the Common Core in 2013.
The new report presents a rather dismal picture of Catholic education under the Common Core, but its conclusion is hopeful, suggesting that Catholic schools may have a special opportunity amid the chaos to reassert their superiority. Urging the Church to embrace and celebrate faithful Catholic education, the authors claim, “Now is the time for Catholic schools to press their advantage.”
Nothing could be more welcome to beleaguered Catholics today, after the long slide in Catholic school enrollment and Catholic identity over recent decades. In today’s society, we greatly need strong Catholic schools.
Incompatible and unsuited
The authors of After the Fall know this well. Anthony Esolen is the insightful author and critic from Providence College whose expertise is literature — perhaps the worst casualty of the Common Core. Dan Guernsey is the visionary expert in Catholic education who is launching an outstanding teacher program at Ave Maria University and leads The Cardinal Newman Society’s K-12 education programs. Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project and Kevin Ryan of Boston University have made great contributions to education policy, especially in their criticism of the Common Core.
Together they have provided Catholics “a tremendous service,” according to two of America’s former ambassadors to the Vatican: Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon and former Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn. In their preface to the report, Flynn and Glendon declare the Common Core standards “incompatible with and unsuited for a traditional Catholic education.”
The specific arguments are provided by the authors of After the Fall. They delve into three “insufficiencies” of the Common Core: its “misunderstanding of the nature of character formation due to a corrupting workforce-development view,” its “misunderstanding of the nature of literature due to a lack of understanding about man, creativity, and God,” and its “misunderstanding of the liberal arts due to a lack of understanding about the relationship of man and God to each other and to everything else.”
They could have simply written that the Common Core ignores what is most important to Catholics about God and man. But that’s the point that critics have been saying all along. What makes After the Fall such an important document is that it carefully examines and debunks arguments for the Common Core and then explains the case for faithfully Catholic standards of education, all in great detail. It should convince the most devoted fan of the Common Core.
The intended audience is clearly Catholic school leaders and scholars, but any Catholic will benefit from its outstanding defense of authentic Catholic education.
Toward better standards
After the Fall validates many of the concerns of Common Core critics, but it shouldn’t be used simply for an “I told you so” moment. Instead, as the authors strongly encourage, now is the time to more deeply examine the purpose of Catholic education and embrace educational standards that appropriately drive the curriculum and fulfill the mission of Catholic schools. The prospect is very exciting.
“A benefit of the Common Core to Catholic schools,” according to authors of After the Fall, “is that it has drawn attention to the need for Catholic educators to better articulate exactly what the unique standards and elements of Catholic education might be.”
Next week, The Cardinal Newman Society will be releasing Catholic curriculum standards to help move this process forward. Dioceses and other organizations have made important contributions as well.
After the Fall is what the Education Department of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recommended three years ago, when it warned, “The CCSS [Common Core] should be neither adopted nor rejected without review, study, consultation, discussion and caution.” The office also advised:
Catholic schools must consider standards that support the mission and purpose of the school as a Catholic institution. Attempts to compartmentalize the religious and the secular in Catholic schools reflect a relativistic perspective by suggesting that faith is merely a private matter and does not have a significant bearing on how reality as a whole should be understood. Such attempts are at odds with the integral approach to education that is a hallmark of Catholic schools. Standards that support an appropriate integration should be encouraged.
Well-intentioned Catholic educators have tried to contort Common Core to fit within Catholic schools. But as the After the Fall authors suggest, such efforts ultimately will not be successful, because the design and purpose of the standards makes them impossible.
Focusing standards on the mission of Catholic schools, however, is eminently possible — and necessary. It’s a great time to get it done.
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/St-Agnes-priest-scaled-e1587578991192.jpg9722560Patrick Reillyhttps://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/CNS-logo-2C-450-tag2.pngPatrick Reilly2016-10-13 19:03:092020-05-26 14:19:52Let’s Move Beyond the Common Core in Catholic Schools
Is the great debate over the use of Common Core State Standards in Catholic schools finally resolved? It should be, especially with this week’s publication of After the Fall: Catholic Education Beyond the Common Core, the first thorough academic critique of the standards and their impact on Catholic education.
Dr. Dan Guernsey, director of K-12 programs for The Cardinal Newman Society, was the lead author of the report, joined by education experts Dr. Anthony Esolen of Providence College, Jane Robbins of American Principles Project and Dr. Kevin Ryan of Boston University. The study was jointly sponsored by the Boston-based research group Pioneer Institute and the public policy organization American Principles Project.
Since the release of the Common Core in 2010, Catholic families, educators and even some bishops have expressed concern about use of the standards in Catholic schools. The Cardinal Newman Society strongly cautioned school leaders against rushing to adopt the Common Core and launched the Catholic Is Our Core initiative to inform families and educators about the standards’ failings. The essential concern is that the Common Core’s one-size-fits-all secular approach to education and its emphasis on preparing students for college and workforce training are incompatible with the much higher goals and mission of Catholic schools.
In After the Fall, Dr. Guernsey and his fellow scholars confirm the warnings of the Newman Society and many other critics of the Common Core.
In about 50 pages of analysis, the authors debunk key arguments that Catholic school leaders have made when adopting the Common Core in Catholic schools. The report explains how the philosophy behind Common Core simply cannot be reconciled with the mission of Catholic education.
I spoke recently with Dr. Guernsey about the findings in After the Fall and his thoughts about the Common Core’s impact on Catholic education:
What was the conventional wisdom at the time the Common Core was first adopted in Catholic schools, in terms of it being a good idea?
Dr. Guernsey: Conventional wisdom at first seemed to be: Common Core was just business as usual for Catholic schools, seeking to adapt to the latest state standards that had come their way — only this time the scale was national.
Previously, some dioceses had followed their individual state standards closely, in some cases not so closely, and many Catholic educators and parents did not overly concern themselves with their state’s standards. It seemed prudent to some professional educators to get out ahead of the new standards and do them better than the public schools, and thus ensure our competitive advantage.
The problem was that the standards obfuscated our real competitive advantage as Catholic schools: we educate the whole person and have access to full and transcendent views of man, his purpose and his ultimate good.
Also, the early conventional wisdom of some professional educators failed to predict the tremendous negative backlash that accompanied the Common Core and the concerns of parents who were seeking an elite education — that their expensive private school was now just “common” like the public schools they fled.
Overall, and compared to public schools, in what position were Catholic schools academically before Common Core?
Dr. Guernsey: The Common Core was purportedly designed to meet the perceived academic crisis in public schools. But no such crisis existed in Catholic schools.
Catholic schools have been outperforming public schools by double-digit margins for the last 20 years on federal National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading and math tests (often referred to as “the nation’s report card”). Catholic-school college preparation is outstanding, with over 99 percent of students graduating from high school and 84 percent going on to four-year colleges (almost double the public-school rate). Once they get to college, Catholic-school graduates are twice as likely as those from public schools to graduate from college within eight years of high-school graduation (62 percent vs. 31 percent).
These statistics suggest that in adopting the Common Core, Catholic schools were attempting to fix what was not broken. Why Catholic schools should plunge into an untested “solution” for a nonexistent problem has never been satisfactorily explained.
And what effect has Common Core had on Catholic school academics where it’s been implemented?
Dr. Guernsey: There is no specific published data on how Catholic schools’ standardized test scores per se have done post-Common Core. We do know that for all schools, five years into the Common Core experiment, the data is at best mixed. NAEP scores are dropping and below expectations, although causation is not yet clear.
But what we are not hearing is wide-scale applause and admiration for the Common Core. It has not delivered. Public school teacher support for the Common Core has dropped from 76 percent to 40 percent. So the bloom is off the rose.
So Common Core hasn’t led to test scores going through the roof and kids being more prepared for college?
Dr. Guernsey: There is no evidence that the Common Core has led to increased test scores. There is data to suggest that five years into the Common Core, professors report that students are less prepared for college.
Again, it is hard to prove strict causation, but according to the 2016 ACT National Curriculum Survey, while in 2009 and 2012, 26 percent of college instructors reported that their incoming students were well prepared for college-level work, by 2016 that the percentage had dropped to 16 percent. ACT also found that of those college instructors who reported a degree of familiarity with the Common Core, a full 60 percent reported that the Common Core expectations were not “completely” or “a great deal” aligned to what the professors expect of their college student.
What about Catholic educators? How has the adoption of Common Core in Catholic schools impacted their ability to teach and form students?
Dr. Guernsey: Those in the know have always been free to work around the standards as they see fit. Since the standards set minimums, Catholic educators can and should do more. A danger is that those not fully aware of the weaknesses in the standards or those not fully immersed in the Catholic intellectual tradition, might not know what they do not know.
In an effort to help address this potential need, The Cardinal Newman Society has been publishing several helpful resources available on our website. The most recent, being released this month, is a set of Catholic Curriculum Standards which seek to outline specific elements of the Catholic intellectual tradition which schools should include in their efforts to teach math, history, science and literature.
In terms of the mission of Catholic schools and overall student formation, what effect has Common Core had on Catholic schools?
Dr. Guernsey: It’s hard to say what has happened, but my sense is that Catholic educators as a whole are more attuned to figuring out what the specific mission of Catholic education is. The grief many Catholic schools who implemented the Common Core experienced caused them to dig deeper to justify to their customer base why they are different from public schools. This is a great development.
Here, again, The Cardinal Newman Society has developed crucial resources including our forthcoming Principles of Catholic Identity in Education which outlines the Church’s expectations for her schools.
Is it safe to say Common Core was never needed in Catholic schools and should have never been implemented?
Dr. Guernsey: It is safe to say they were never needed. If mission drives standards, then to the degree the Catholic schools’ educational mission is similar to public schools’ (e.g., in teaching basic math skills to second-graders), there can be some sharing of standards, if there is proof of their effectiveness. However, there is no proof the Common Core standards are an improvement over other standards.
Surprisingly, there is little data to suggest that better standards even result in higher test scores. Education is much more complex than that. But even if some still want to try to maintain that the Common Core standards are effective, they are just one set of possible standards among hundreds that are out there, many of which have stronger track records.
That being said, we also have to remember that to the degree that elements of the Catholic mission are broader than the public schools’, different or additional standards are required.
So what should Catholic schools do now?
Dr. Guernsey: As we wrote in the conclusiong of After the Fall:
To the degree that Catholic schools learn to articulate and embrace the Catholic intellectual tradition and their unique salvific mission, they have a pearl of great price. They have the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
A quality religious education is the number one reason Catholic school parents (the customer base) decide to enroll in Catholic schools; a safe environment and quality academics are close behind. Catholic schools have a competitive advantage in that they are free to offer all of these elements in an uncommon way — according to their standards of excellence. They can cater to parents’ natural desire for their child to experience excellence rather than basic common educational norms.
The Common Core helps throw this reality into stark relief. The distinct mission of Catholic schools is clearer and can stand out now more than ever. Now is the time for Catholic schools to press their advantage.
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/high-school-class-768px-730x350-1.jpg350730Cardinal Newman Society Staffhttps://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/CNS-logo-2C-450-tag2.pngCardinal Newman Society Staff2016-10-12 19:26:402020-05-26 14:20:30Common Core ‘Never Needed’ in Catholic Schools, Says Study’s Lead Author
St. Agnes School, St. Paul, MN
