A Catholic school that is not 100% Catholic is a waste of resources, energy, and a potential liability for the Church. I don’t think that this has to mean mandatory daily Adoration, Rosary, Mass, Penance, etc. but the school should not have any staff that teach false doctrine, exhibit unchristian behavior, or have an agenda that goes against the Church. If a Catholic school’s curriculum and spirit matches that of any secular school, then any money spent on tuition there is wasted. Here on Long Island, particularly on the north shore, we have some excellent public schools. There is every reason to send your child to them and unless a Catholic school offers as good an education, but also something extra, it will be empty. That something extra has to be a solid Catholic education. Again, less may be more when it comes to Catholic schools.

Connected to a solid Catholic education is how that faith is taught. A school could make kids memorize the Baltimore catechism and attend prayer services on the hour, but if the staff is grumpy, cold, nasty, or stupid, then it will not succeed in evangelization. The whole culture of a Catholic school should be positive and this especially applies to Theology class. Some people today think the way theology was taught in the past was too simple, too rote, too uncritical. There is some truth to this. But it is equally false to think that teaching in a critical, constantly questioning way is going to turn out Catholics ready to set the world on fire with their faith. The Jesus seminar type of thing does not evangelize, it de-evangelizes. When I got to high school I remember being impressed with the first religion class I had to take. Grammar school was God is Love type of stuff, but in this class we studied the Bible as history and it was interesting. It also made me realize that this religion stuff was real, not theory. Religion class was an academic subject, like the others, just as important and in fact most important. The brothers and priests (no lay people in the religion dept. even today) taught us as if they respected our intelligence but also expected us to respect the Church. My first posts on education prompted some comments showing that many who get taught in a negative way, either get confused or just give up believing. This is simple educational methodology too. Which is better for teaching classical music--- teaching a class for 45 minutes that rock music sucks and that classical is better or teaching a class for 45 minutes about classical music and letting kids figure it out for themselves? If a teacher really truly loves classical music, then he/she will be passionate about it and children will pick up on that. People who are passionate want to spread their knowledge not tear down what others think or like. When teaching theology or any subject in religion, teachers should be passionate and love what they are teaching. If they spend most of their time teaching impressionable kids that everything they have been taught is wrong, that we need to create a new church to replace the big bad old one, then the kids will not exactly go evangelizing the world. This is what is happening now in many places in Catholic education and we are becoming a church of Woody Allens – neurotic, self-doubting, wimps. (No offense Woody).