Catholic Schools Week

This week, 30 January-5 February, is National Catholic Schools Week. This year’s theme is “Catholic Schools: A+ for America.”

This theme is designed to celebrate the fact that Catholic schools are an added value (“a plus”) for the nation. Because of their traditionally high academic standards and high graduation rates, all supported by strong moral values, Catholic schools and their graduates make a definite contribution to American society.

Across the U.S., there are 7,094 Catholic elementary and secondary schools with approximately 2.1 million students (14.5 per cent of which are not Catholic).

Unfortunately, a number of Catholic schools throughout this region and the rest of the nation have closed over the past few years, and many of the remaining schools are struggling to stay open. May the Lord bless each of these schools, including the members of the teaching and support staffs, as well as the students and their families and all in the greater school communities who are working to support them.

“Every education teaches a philosophy; if not by dogma then by suggestion, by implication, by atmosphere. Every part of that education has a connection with every other part. If it does not all combine to convey some general view of life, it is not education at all,”  - G.K. Chesterton, The Common Man

For further reading and reflection:

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium (2005)

Pope Benedict's Address to U.S. Catholic Educators (17 April 2008)