Suggested Catholic Curriculum Standards to Address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity in Catholic Education

Teachers working in Catholic education can use these standards taken from The Cardinal Newman Society’s Catholic Curriculum Standards to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusivity from a Catholic worldview. These Standards help educators go deeper into a discussion of how God works throughout all time and space and how He is present today in creation and in the very being of those we interact with daily who have been given varied gifts and talents to share. God, by His own design, does not give to all the same qualities and characteristics but gives each person their own unique set of gifts and talents so that we might learn generosity and interdependency (CCC 1936-1937).   

Teachers might also consider incorporating the Standards for Christian Anthropology to provide students with a deeper understanding of what is means to be a person and a beautiful gift from God to the world and to one another.

Catholic Curriculum General Standards:

• Exhibit care and concern at all stages of life for each human person as an image and likeness of God (S.K6 GS1; S.712 GS1)
• Value the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit (S.K6 GS3; S.712 GS3)

Catholic Curriculum Dispositional Standards:

• Exhibit affinity for the common good and a shared humanity with those present, those who have gone before, and those who will come after (H.K6 DS2; H712 DS2).
• Demonstrate respect and solicitude to individual differences among students in the classroom and school community (H.K6 DS3).
• Accept and value how literature aids one to live harmoniously with others (ELA.K6 DS1).
• 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 (H.712 DS3).
• Discriminate between what is positive in the world with what needs to be transformed and what injustices need to be overcome (H.K6 DS4).
• 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 (H.712 DS5).
• Demonstrate respect and appreciation for the qualities and characteristics of different cultures in order to pursue peace and understanding, knowledge and truth (H.712 DS6).
• 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 (ELA.712 DS2).
• 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 (ELA.712 DS6).

Catholic Curriculum Content Standards Grades 1-6

• Describe how history begins and ends in God and how history has a religious dimension (H.K6 IS1).
• Explain the human condition and the role and dignity of man in God’s plan (H.K6 IS8).
• Explain how historical events involving critical human experiences, especially those dealing with good and evil, help enlarge perspective and understanding of self and others (H.K6 IS10).
• 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 (ELA.K6 IS11).

Catholic Curriculum Standards Grades 7-12

• 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 (H.712 IS5).
• Demonstrate the ways men and societies change and/or persist over time to better understand the human condition (H.712 IS8).
• 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 (H.712 IS6).
• Demonstrate the ways men and societies change and/or persist over time to better understand the human condition (H.712 IS8).
• Describe how the moral qualities of a citizenry naturally give rise to the nature of the government and influence societal outcomes and destinies (H.712 IS13).
• Relate how the development of a broader viewpoint of history and events affects individual experiences and deepens a sense of being and the world (H.712 IS14).
• Examine texts for historical truths, recognizing bias or distortion by the author and overcoming a relativistic viewpoint (H.712 IS17).
• Evaluate how Christian social ethics extend to questions of politics, economy, and social institutions and not just personal moral decision-making (H.712 IS20).
• Analyze the concept of solidarity and describe its effect on a local, regional, and global level (H.712 IS22).
• Compare the right to own private property with the universal distribution of goods and the distribution of goods in a socialist society (H.712 IS23).
• Identify the dangers of relativism present in the notion that one culture cannot critique another, and that truth is simply culturally created (H.712 IS27).
• 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? (ELA.712 IS4).
• 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 (ELA.712 IS11).