PRIMARY SCHOOL SURVEY AND THE VALUE OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Fr Billy Swan

Initial results from a National Survey on primary education have just been released. They show that just 16% of eligible households expressed a preference for divestment, while the vast majority indicated support for the existing model of Catholic school provision.

The findings were outlined following publication by the Minister for Education, Hildegard Naughton, and relate to recent Primary School Surveys examining school patronage and related issues.

Chief Executive of the Catholic Education Partnership Alan Hynes-Cendrzak welcomed the strong level of support for existing provision but cautioned that localised patterns of demand for change could emerge in clusters across the country. He shares his thoughts in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1N0Wf2aGwE

However, as the issues of divestment and parental choice of schools remain in focus, we might also ask why the majority of parents of children in Catholic Schools are content for their children to remain there? What is distinct about Catholic Education and what is its value? Here I explore five possible reasons.

Discipline:

I recall a year I spent in a parish London where there was a Catholic primary school. It was attended by children whose parents were Catholic, Anglican, Muslim, Hindu, many other religions and none. There was a waiting list to be admitted to the school and the most sought after in the area. In the application form, the question was asked ‘what do you want to send your child to a Catholic school?’. A substantial number of parents responded: ‘Because of discipline’.

Most parents see discipline as a fundamental value – to train children to lead a disciplined life, to know boundaries, the value of hard work, commitment and to acquire an acute moral sense of what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false, what is temporary and what is ever-lasting.

Inclusion:

Denominational schools are often accused of being exclusive with the false impression that the school is only for Catholics, in the case, for example, of a Catholic school. Not true. The true meaning of the word ‘catholic’ comes from the Greek word meaning ‘according to the whole’. In every Catholic School in the country, there are people of different nationalities, cultures, religions and abilities. The ethos of a Catholic school energises staff and management to give everyone the same opportunities to fulfil their potential.

Values and Virtues:

To flourish today and withstand the tsunami of challenges that face us, we need to have deep roots – in our own human condition and in the God who made us. The transformation in us that Jesus was sent to accomplish, goes all the way down and right through every dimension of our being.

These deep roots represent the virtues that anchor every Christian life. The cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance are rooted in the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. These cardinal virtues are habits that form our character and dispose us to choosing what is right and good.

Striving for a virtuous life and a commitment to values is fundamental to Catholic Education. It is inclusive because it believes that Christianity is grounded in the human condition and the common experience of humanity that we all share. No school, or indeed no community could survive without faith, hope, love, prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. These are virtues and values that are operative every day in every Catholic school across the world.

Social Responsibility:

In contrast to other visions of the human person that can focus exclusively on the self and the betterment of self, Catholic Education insists that it is a social enterprise for the human person is a social being by nature. Related to the importance of values and virtues, it mean that a Catholic School does not focus exclusively on grades and academic success but in character building and preparing our young people to be mature and responsible citizens for the future who will become fathers and mothers and contribute to the good of society they are called to serve.

In the debate on the future of schools, those under Christian patronage and those who are not, it cannot be forgotten or denied that the Christian vision and Christian values have shaped Western culture and civilization for centuries. Therefore, the debate cannot be reduced to a matter of arbitrary choice where one is as good as the other. The type of society we want and need is shaped by the type of education our children receive.

The Catholic Christian Faith:

The ethos of a Catholic School understands faith as enabling us to grasp all that there is to see and acknowledge. It rails against a materialistic worldview that reduces everything to the physical and the human to a mere animal. It dares to speak of the existence of God, his Son Jesus Christ and the gift of his living Spirit who is present and active among us and resides in every human heart. It helps students to recognise their own dignity and the dignity of everyone else. Catholic Education helps students to see the universe as a place of enchantment that provokes questions of meaning and purpose and the reasonable possibility an intelligent Creator. It proposes that there is a Creator responsible for a universe that does not explain itself.

In the prayer life of a school, Catholic Education opens up moments of reflection and thanksgiving. Rituals like morning prayer teach students the value of things, of people and are antidotes to a mentality of entitlement and taking things/people for granted. Catholic education cultivates gratitude in young lives that helps them appreciate what they have and to think of those less fortunate than themselves. At times like Christmas, Lent and Easter, the story of Jesus of Nazareth reveals a God who became one like us, who teaches us how to love, to forgive, how to be human and opens up a horizon of hope for the future. It is a story that speaks to the imagination of young people and reminds them that they matter, that they are loved and that their lives have meaning.

Conclusion:

The late Pope Francis once said

‘Young people are the window through which the future enters the world. They are the window, and so they present us with great challenges. Our generation will show that it can rise to the promise found in each young person when we know how to give them space. This means that we have to create the material and spiritual conditions for their full development; to give them a solid basis on which to build their lives; to guarantee their safety and their education to be everything they can be; to pass on to them lasting values that make life worth living; to give them a transcendent horizon for their thirst for authentic happiness and their creativity for the good; to give them the legacy of a world worthy of human life; and to awaken in them their greatest potential as builders of their own destiny, sharing responsibility for the future of everyone. If we can do all this, we anticipate today the future that enters the world through the window of the young’ (Pope Francis, Rio de Janeiro, 22nd July 2013).

The mission of Catholic schools is to develop a sense of truth, of what is good and beautiful in the lives of the young. This is achieved by teaching them the importance of discipline, inclusion, values and virtues, social responsibility and the possibility of faith in a loving God who knows them and created them for mission. May the great work done in our Catholic schools continue to bear abundant fruit.