Can Your Catholic School Check Off Everything on This List?

“Catholic Schools’ Week” is taking place this week, and nationwide Catholic schools are touting their successes and promoting enrollment for the 2024-25 school year. Whereas there are definitely some Catholic schools that are doing a wonderful job, there is a developing crisis in Catholic education is that many schools have lost their way and no longer are trustworthily and wholeheartedly following the historical mission of Catholic education. Parents can still find individual schools and some diocesan school systems teaching the time-tested basics, led by authentically Catholic administrators, and taught by devoutly faithful teachers, but too many Catholic schools in recent times have transformed into being “Catholic” in name only. 

Catholic parents in past generations would unthinkingly enroll their children in the local Catholic school, being assured it would provide a solid education with devout religious formation and adherence to the Truths of the Catholic faith. Today’s parents need to drop the assumption that the conventional choice for schooling is in a parochial school but instead cautiously investigate just how “Catholic” and superior to the public school their local Catholic school is…or is not.

I spent 55 years of my life in Catholic education – starting with when my mom enrolled me in 1^st grade in a Catholic elementary school, continuing as I earned my Catholic college degree in education and taught in a Catholic high school and an elementary school, and ending with a 34-year tenure as a Catholic school principal. During this half-century of studying in, teaching in, and administering in the Catholic system, I saw how too many Catholic schools were either overseen by weak diocesan leadership, administered by lukewarm-Catholic principals, or infiltrated by Catholic-dissenting faculty.  

Whereas in earlier times most if not all Catholic schools appropriately focused on teaching the academic basics and orthodoxly passing on the faith, in more modern times too many of them have turned to focusing on mimicking public schools with woke, weakened academics while also diluting their religious instruction. In recent decades, countless Catholic school administrators and diocesan superintendents have eagerly looked to public education as the model system, even though public schools brazenly push political ideology and constantly adopt experimental, unproven curricula.

One big proof of the diminishing stalwartness of Catholic schools is how most of them jumped on the public system’s bandwagon of adopting Common Core State Standards, which became commonplace nationwide in 2010. Initially created to change how mathematics and language arts were to be taught and assessed, Common Core later spread to more academic subjects and even to the SAT college entrance exam. Catholic school leaders became deeply worried, fearing their schools would be seen as “behind the times” or their students would be at a disadvantage should they later enroll in a public high school or test for college acceptance, having not been exposed to the Common Core curricula. Thus, the majority of diocesan superintendents and Catholic principals implemented the Common Core Standards, which resulted in adopting less rigorous and more politically-correct textbooks, devaluing special subjects such as art and music, and moving away from the tried-and-true way of teaching math and grammar, which Catholic schools had previously been doing more effectively than public schools.

Besides this watering down of academic rigor, another shortcoming of contemporary Catholic schools is how many are now being administered by principals and taught by teachers who either don’t have solid faith lives themselves or choose to dilute their schools’ religion curricula. This is happening for one of three reasons:

1. The current generation of educators received poor theological training in their younger years due to the weakened Vatican II-tainted viewpoints they themselves were taught when students in their own Catholic school or faith formation classes;

2. Since more and more non-Catholic students are enrolling in their schools, today’s Catholic school faculty are watering down the curricula so to better match with what their non-Catholic school parents are more comfortable; 

3. Today’s faculty themselves disagree with some Church teachings and can’t help themselves in wanting to pass on to students their false or heretical beliefs.

As I entered the latter half of my career as a principal, I observed in my diocesan school system an escalating number of weak, clueless, and/or sinful fellow principals and teachers. The principals were caving to the woke, depraved culture by allowing confused boys to wear girls’ uniforms, hiring active-homosexual teachers on their faculties, and endorsing “gay student clubs” as school-sanctioned programs. The teachers, including some uncovered in my own school, were either innocently ignorant of or purposely defiant toward Church doctrine.

Most notable at the high school level is how many Catholic schools are adopting the public schools’ love affair with promoting the so-called LGBT agenda and pushing political movements by teaching critical race theory and hiring diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI) officers. Catholic schools which not only emulate what the godless, secular culture embraces but also have moved away from teaching traditional truths of the Catholic faith should be considered “Catholic-light”, and thus, not different enough from government-run schools to be worth their high tuition costs. 

Because of what is happening nationwide in many Catholic school buildings and diocesan school systems, today’s parents must drop the bygone assumption that enrolling their kids in a Catholic school is the indisputable, smart choice. Parents need to scrutinize if their local Catholic school is teaching tried and true, fundamental academics along with authentic faith formation that positively benefit their children’s souls and thus justifies paying tuition.

One way to verify the scholastic strength and proper Catholic identity of a school is to use the following checklist. Parents should scour their current or prospective Catholic school’s webpage and policy manuals, interview the principal, and observe the teachers so to be able to affirm the following items are endorsed and/or being accomplished.

Catholic School Authenticity Checklist:

__ Every teacher of religion and all administrators with the power to make schoolwide decisions are practicing Catholics who attend Mass every Sunday. Furthermore, they all are knowledgeable on the tenets of Catholicism and refer to the Catechism, Sacred Tradition, and Scripture in their lessons, lectures, and written statements. 

__ In the school’s mission statement and policies it is noted that the parents are the primary educators of their children and the school’s role is to partner with and assist them. The school promisestheir administrators, teachers, and counselors will not hide things from parents and will only do what a reasonable, Catholic parent would want. 

__ There are no co-called diversity/equity/inclusion lessons (DEI) in the classrooms and no one on staff has a DEI-connected job description.

__ The school counselor does not waste critical learning time by coming into classrooms to teach so-called social/emotional learning lessons (SEL) and does not insert secular, non-Biblical worldviews in counseling information given to students, parents, or teachers. 

__ Every student stands for and participates with their teachers and classmates in prayer on a daily basis. Every classroom has a crucifix on the wall and at least one other visible sacramental, such as a statue of Mary.

__ The Church’s liturgical calendar is integrated into the school’s main calendar and regular activities, such as celebrating/teaching feast days and observing holy days. 

__ The entire school attends Mass together on a regular basis (typically weekly), and although these Masses may cater to the students with homilies and music the youth better relate to, the order of the Mass is orthodox and reverent. 

__ The school encourages the Sacrament of Confession as well as teaches students the life-skill connections with the Sacrament – namely, the importance of regularly examining one’s conscience, repenting, and making right what needs to be made right. 

__ Not only the principal – but also the pastor – regularly interacts with students informally on campus and/or in scheduled classroom visits. Both leaders make themselves easily accessible for meeting with parents.

__ The rest rooms are marked “boys” and “girls” (not as so-called “gender neutral” rooms), and neither the locker rooms nor sports teams allow opposite-sex individuals. 

__ The only flags flying outside the school and in the classrooms are American flags. Not only are so-called “rainbow” flags not allowed, but no policy, program, administrator, or teacher conveys support for any so-called LGBT-agenda item such as gay marriage or transgenderism. The school teaches compassion for those who struggle with same-sex attraction or with the mental illness of gender dysphoria, yet makes it clear that no faculty member can endorse them. Instead, school policies, as well as any teachers and counselors questioned by their students, refer to the Catechism (which in part states, “Homosexual acts are… contrary to the natural law… and objectively disordered… Homosexual persons are called to chastity…” and refer to Scripture and Vatican documents which reassert that God’s creative plan for life is thorough the complementary sexes of a man and a woman being in a committed, sacramental marriage. 

__ The only visible or spoken references to sexuality allowed on campus are in biology class and parent-approved human sexuality lessons in religion class. These human sexuality lessons only address necessary, basic information, and are always presented through a Catholic lens, such as teaching that sexual activity is reserved solely for married husbands and wives.

__ All school faculty adhere to the school’s well-developed discipline policy which holds students accountable for making poor choices and the natural consequences which must follow. For example, cheating on a test will result in a failed score and swearing on the playground will result in missing the next recess. In all large discipline matters, parents are always brought into the conversation.

__ The school’s dress code expects adherence to traditional, counter-cultural policies, such as not allowing boys to wear girls’ clothing or vise-versa, not allowing unnatural hair colors or distractive hairstyles, not allowing suggestive/revealing clothing, not allowing boys’ facial hair, and only allowing older grade girls to wear makeup (which must be reasonably temperate).

__ The faculty are supported as evidenced by fellow, master teachers or administrators coaching inexperienced teachers, by providing teachers financial assistance for required, ongoing, professional development, and by offering annual opportunities for personal faith formation such as paid days off to attend spiritual retreats and theology classes. 

Parents will want to consider alternatives if their current Catholic school or the one they are considering enrolling their children in is not able to check off the 15 items above – thus indicating it is authentically Catholic with faithful faculty, a strong, proven curriculum, and effective, traditional policies. Parents should not confine their search for alternatives solely to fellow diocesan schools. Independent, classical-model Catholic schools and homeschooling are two strong options for Catholic families to choose instead of the conventional choice of enrollment in a parochial school. 

While parents want to be vigilant in choosing the best elementary and high school that will help get their kids into a good college, trade school, or career, it is even more important for parents to pay heed to which is the best elementary and high school that will help get their kids into Heaven.