A CHILD’S PRIMARY JOB IS TO BE A STUDENT

A good parent instills in their children the principle that their initial and main job is to be a student. That means not skipping school for anything other than a contagious illness and doing homework and studying for tests five nights a week (i.e., Monday night through Friday night, or substitute Saturday or Sunday for Friday night).

            Sounds like basic parenting, right? Unfortunately, too many parents these days are placing sports over school in their children’s lives. These parents have placed more emphasis on working hard at the athletic practice so to make it on the first string than on working hard on your homework so to make it on the school’s honor roll. Back in the 20^th Century, most parents would never have thought of allowing their kids to skip finishing homework or to put aside completing a school project because something more important – a sporting event – was calling. 

            Parents pour thousands of dollars and years of their kids’ lives into focusing on one or two things: getting their child into college and/or getting their child on a top sports team (whether it be the high school team, a college team, or for those with high hopes – the pros).

            During my years as a principal, I have had school parents not just pull their fifth-grade kids out of school on a Thursday afternoon to get a head start on traveling to an out-of-town weekend sports tournament but pull their second grade kids out of school permanently so to send them to an out-of-state, fulltime, tennis or gymnastics academy. 

            For those families who didn’t emphasize sports for their kids, school parents would often ask me what they could do to assure their children would get accepted to the best Catholic or private high schools after graduating from our school in eighth grade. Parents would be willing to pay for tutors, would ask me to mail in recommendation letters to the high school principals, and would start as early as their child’s fourth grade year to take actions that would get their name known by the high school admissions director.

            Whether it was to get their kids into the best schools or onto the best sports teams, these were very enthused parents who would stop at no expense or no amount of time to help their child. They thought they had their kid’s best interest at. heart. Unfortunately, I rarely witnessed this same passion in doing whatever it took to assure their child would get into heaven. 

            A child who earns a college scholarship – be it via a sports talent or academic merit – is certainly to be applauded. But what a parent has gained for his/her child is a four-year stint at a university that saved the family thousands of dollars. I instead want to applaud the parent who worked hard to help his/her child secure an eternal-stint in the celestial paradise with Christ that saved the child from the eternal fires of hell.

            Our school had a few marketing directors over the years, and with them came various marketing slogans to help us in admissions process to attract new school families. In my early years as principal, our school focused on selling prospective parents the reality that students who graduate from Catholic schools are more likely to go to college than those coming from public schools. I realized that this was purely a secular-based focus on an advantage of enrolling in our school. So, I added something to our slogan. I started telling prospective parents that our job at St. Louise Catholic School was to help get their children into college…and to help get their children into heaven. We wanted parents to know, and I wanted my teachers to know, that teaching the academics was fundamental but that teaching about the faith was critical too. 

            Christian parents who are searching for a school for their child should obviously investigate the school’s academic rigor and high expectations for student behavior. Getting a great education in elementary and high school will set up your child for either a future college diploma or a start to a terrific career. But it’s vital that parents also investigate how much the school focuses on their students’ faith lives and promotes authentic Christianity. Although developing a strong faith in God does not pay the bills like a diploma or career will for your child, with a strongly developed faith your child will have access to heaven’s infinite supply of kindness, compassion, patience, perseverance, generosity, gentleness, and mercy.

In a future post, I will write about how to know a Catholic school is authentically Catholic, or if the parents are simply throwing their tuition dollars at a private school that has “religion class” in its list of subjects taught. Not all Catholic or Christian schools are alike, and not all have their eyes on the heavenly prize.