The question of religious education and the formation in the faith of the next generation of Catholics in the United States was the theme of the Holy Father’s remarks to prelates from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (Regions X-XIII), who have just completed their five-yearly “ad limina” visit: Speaking to the group in [...]
When I was a Sophomore in high school, I was assigned a research paper that was to make up a percentage of my overall English grade. I purchased a sizable stack of index cards per instructions and immediately set to work filling them in. As I sat surveying the small mountain of ridiculous index cards [...]
There’s an old joke that talks about the angels questioning Jesus about the worldwide evangelization plan after his return to heaven following the Ascension: Angel: So, Jesus, you’ve just returned to heaven as the victorious Lord of Glory, King of Heaven and Earth, what’s your plan for spreading the news of salvation to the whole [...]
Notre Dame is still struggling with its mission as Our Lady’s university. On August 15, 1990, Pope John Paul II promulgated the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae (English: From the Heart of the Church). The document marked the first step in the systematic effort to renew and reform Catholic higher education around the world. One [...]
Imagine someone coming up to you and without hesitation telling you: “I desire to save your soul.” This is exactly what St. John Bosco would do in his attempt to rescue the kids of Turin, Italy from the depths of despair. He would make his point very clear to the youths he would encounter in the [...]
A new homeschooler recently asked me, “How do you homeschool a preschooler?” Time was, keeping a child home for his or her preschool years was a perfectly normal thing to do. Children went to school when they were five (or even six!) and somehow still managed to learn to read and write and maintain friendships. [...]
One of the issues of this presidential campaign as well as of the recent Occupy movement is the cost of higher education and the burden of student loans. I’ve heard some people remark that people who complain about the cost of student loans are “whiners” and that they should have realized what they were getting [...]
That rumbling sound you hear isn’t a snow-removal truck, a low-flying plane or a train inadvertently chugging through your backyard. No, it’s the low, slow churning of civic discontent, fomenting thanks to the decades-long trend toward educational mediocrity and resulting in a grass-roots movement that will — with any luck at all — restore our [...]
As my son enters the final lap of his grade school career, I’ve noticed a marked increase in anxiety. An increase in my own anxiety, of course, but also in those who remain unconvinced that homeschooling for high school is a healthy option for my son. I don’t mind discussing the pros and cons of [...]
Just how frustrated are American parents with the leftist Kool Aid being passed off as curriculum in our nation’s public schools? It’s come to this: Last week, the New Hampshire legislature overturned a gubernatorial veto of a bill that will allow parents to object to material being taught in school and further empowers them to [...]
I heard a fantastic homily awhile back – well, the first part of it anyway. Father’s initial comments set me on a train of thought that I will pass along in the body of the article. Father asked us to contemplate the incredible gifts that God has given us. He pointed out that we humans [...]
My mother was the first one of us to encounter Distributism. (She’ll find that out when she reads this article!) But when she made the decision to cast aside a job title and paycheck, in the eyes of the world, to begin the world of our family with my father, she was on the path. [...]
If you do an Internet search for “Catholic Fatherhood” how much data would you find in comparison to Panda Bears, Applied Linear Algebra, and Welding Theory? According to John Clark, author of Who’s Got You, Catholic Fatherhood comes in last. The results respectively were 1,914, 1,706, and 284. Catholic Fatherhood netted 270 results. Clark surmised [...]
“My 4-H achievement record is a waste of time that no one will ever look at,” a teen grumbled at me this summer. I disagreed. Now that I’m the mother of a daughter on the quest for college acceptance letters and scholarship offers, I can back up my disagreement. Each college has its own questions [...]
[This document was prepared on behalf of a group of Catholic parents to address issues locally that may also be going on elsewhere in the country. It is published here as a resource for parents who may find it useful.] Teaching Tolerance in the Catholic School: Parental Concerns and Suggested Remedies When Pope Benedict authorized [...]
Jamaica’s Prime Minister and his wife recently decided to homeschool their two sons after noticing that their youngest was falling behind. Critics were quick to complain that this suggests that the public and private schools are inadequate. The Prime Minister’s defense highlights the important role of parents. Andrew Holness became Prime Minister two months ago, [...]
Beginning November 2, on All Souls Day, the College of Saint Mary Magdalen is now offering its students the opportunity to experience Mass in both its ordinary and extraordinary forms. On the Commemoration of All Souls, three Masses were celebrated: a Mass chanted in English according to the ordinary form at 7:00 AM, a Missa [...]
The other day, I was half-jokingly trying to talk my friends into doing a reality show about homeschooling moms. Unfortunately, they weren’t buying the idea. As one put it, “I’d much rather have people believe the myth.” The Sept/Oct 2011 issue of the HSLDA Home School Court Report features an article by Michael O. Farris [...]
For too long government-run systems have dominated American primary and secondary education. As innovations of the past two decades such as charter schools and vouchers prove, parents, children, and society benefit when government promotes rather than stifles educational reform based on choice and competition. Add to the mounting evidence another success story: St. Martin de [...]
The college years used to be known as a time to explore new ideas, adopt new identities and embrace — and discard — new affiliations. You could arrive on campus a political conservative and leave a liberal; enter a staunch atheist and exit a devout believer; declare yourself a biology major, then switch to theater [...]
If you’ve been too busy holding down a job (or two), juggling the demands of a busy family, engaging in community service and occasionally taking the wife and children out for a pizza on a Saturday night, you may not have noticed that several thousand protesters have “occupied” Wall Street, the District and other locations [...]
I am in a high state of agitation as I write this, because unless she is able to take off a year to work and then return to school with the same scholarship status, our daughter will have to leave a Catholic institution of higher learning after a straight-A freshman year. It was a calculated [...]
Barely enough time has passed for bologna sandwiches to begin rotting in school lockers, yet the 2011-2012 school year is shaping up to be one of the stinkiest ever, if we’re measuring in episodes of putrid political correctness and radicalism. Already: • A group in Brookline, Mass., is working to ban the Pledge of Allegiance [...]
Here’s a pop quiz: What percentage of elementary school children in the District’s public schools is proficient in math? What about reading? What is the proficiency of D.C. high school students in these areas? The answer: less than half. Scores on the 2011 D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System exams showed only about 43 percent of elementary [...]
