It is my conclusion, with some experience in Catholic education, that the biggest problem in Catholic education per se is the lack of mentoring given to the lay leaders who have inherited Catholic schools. Religious sisters, brothers, and priests have, for the most part, handed Catholic schools over to qualified lay leaders without mentoring or understanding of the philosophy or reason for the Catholic school. How is it essentially different from other schools and how will it be kept different? The answer is not the religion class, Cross on the wall, occasional Mass, and Christian service hours. Much less uniforms and fund-raisers. The school is no longer closed on “Holy Days.”
I would benefit the information of a statistical study of how many lay presidents and principals and teachers in Catholic schools have a Catholic education. Far more difficult to document via survey is how that education has formed their understanding of the Catholic school and philosophy of education. I conjecture, and purely conjecture, that most Catholic school leaders, teachers, and volunteers have not “come through the ranks of Catholic education with an appreciation or understanding of Catholic education.” Educated lay men and women have presented themselves with resume and credential in-hand, credential under their belts, and the best of intentions in their wishes and have been hired. But they, in my experience, have not been mentored as they have become leaders of schools founded and formed by religious sisters, brothers, and priests.
They have been given contracts and keys, they are given virtually free reign to govern the school as they were taught in, mostly secular, schools of education. Their biggest charge is to keep the school free from law-suits, sufficient in capital (by if necessary getting rid of old teachers who command high salaries and are teaching via old ides of educational methodology), winning in sports, with warm bodies in each classroom to balance the budget. Often and most often Catholic schools do not present the goal of the Catholic school; the formation of the next generation of Church as the Gospel is taught in every classroom giving life to and reason for each academic discipline and every activity. Every student ought to be able to say to each teacher: “But this isn’t the religion class!” Is such the case? Is it thought to be the outcome of Catholic education? Who has mentored the new generation of Catholic school leaders and educators and for what great good so that, at the end of the day, we can say: “Yes, the Catholic school system is still aiming at the Truth; The Love of Learning and the Desire for God the title of Jacques Leclercq’s master-piece?
That, in my opinion is part of what is wrong with Catholic schools.