As students return to school after Christmas holidays, and in light of yesterday’s memorial of founding Catholic educator Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys, I offer these reflections on the (Catholic) public school system here in Ontario. Readers may also peruse Miles Smit’s own thoughts in these pages a while back, to which this is something of a reply. I’ll admit from the outset that I don’t share Mr. Smit’s hope in the publicly-funded system, and why so many families are deciding to opt out, running for the halcyonic hills of homeschooling or private schools, for the reasons that follow.
The Attenuated Curriculum
Many of the great (and good) books – from Shakespeare to Anne Frank – have been expurgated in favour of others considered more au courant, more in line with the zeitgeist, and students suffer from the loss of the ‘best that’s been thought or said’. Much of the ‘classical curriculum’ is now deemed colonialist, racist, sexist, patriarchal and, ergo, verboten to impressionable young minds, which must now conform to the current ideology. This is no longer confined to literature, but now seeping into the ‘hard sciences’ of math and physics, which are dropping off the curriculum, and one wonders how much these views have drift into the Catholic school system.
Although some school districts strive to hold the line, the noxious milieu of CRT (critical race theory), DEI and LGBTQ+ ideologies. Even the Fully Alive series on human sexuality – itself problematic in its prurience – has been criticized, now deemed too ‘heteronormative’ and ‘cis-gendered’, even if some school boards still use it for now. Yet as one Catholic teacher, Paolo de Buono, who ‘advocates for students outside of school hours’ commented: “No Catholic teacher should be teaching this type of content to students”.
What type of content would Mr. de Buono like to see?
Perhaps Salma Writes a Book, or older fare such as Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate? Such fare is available in libraries, with permission, so that a ‘Catholic context’ may be offered. Hmm.
‘Rainbow’ flags now festoon flagpoles, classrooms and hallways. Add to this the ubiquitous ‘land acknowledgements’, recited like a daily prayer ritual, undermining in children’s minds not only the principles of private property necessary to maintain any society, but a despising of their own Christian heritage on which this society was built. In some districts, students are now writing their own ‘acknowledgements’, properly vetted and approved, of course.
And we may as well add the tiresome ‘climate change’ tirades, with their implicit misanthropic Manicheism and population control agenda.
As one philosopher has it, ‘great is power of constant repetition.‘
Almost needless to say, catechetics are at a nadir – basic articles of the Faith are not taught, far less ‘repeated’ or memorized. I learned almost nothing in my years in Catholic schools, a tragic ignorance which many readers likely share. From what may be gathered, things have not improved. There are a few stalwart defenders of orthodoxy out there, but far too many are not so; the milieu is hostile and students unreceptive. Most students, and teachers, are woefully indifferent, if not hostile, to the basic teachings of our Catholic Faith. Students live – or fail to live – accordingly.
Falling Standards
In line with the socialism infiltrating our society, which exalts ‘equality’ above all things, the standard of the curriculum is lowered so that ‘no student is left behind’. This is not unique to the Catholic system. The best and brightest, and even many of the good and diligent, are themselves ironically ‘left behind’, bored, unchallenged, and ultimately unprepared for post-secondary studies, to say nothing of life itself.
Peruse this grade 8 test from 1895. Sure, it was over a hundred years ago, but it signifies how far standards have plummeted. Canada and America were built by men and women with such ‘elementary’ educations that were far more rigorous than many college courses today. As the title of the article laconically states, ‘I couldn’t pass it, could you?’. To put this into context, John Henry Newman, recently canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church, went to Oxford at the age of 16, by which point he could fluently read and write Latin and Greek. And he wasn’t all that exceptional, for so could everyone else in his class. A hundred years before him, Thomas Jefferson spent his spare time penning epigrams in Hellenic verse.
But we need not go that far back in time. Even earlier last century – which is to say, the twentieth – curricula were replete with Shakespeare, geometry, classic novels, grammar and logic. I’m currently reading through an anthology entitled “Poems Every Child Should Know”, each entry preceded with a short preface, apparently by a teacher, who recounts how many of his students memorized these poems. Now most students, if not all, are scarcely aware these poems even exist, and wouldn’t know a haiku from a sonnet. So much of the truth and beauty of our past heritage is, to quote a certain chanteuse, ‘white blank pages’ in the minds of many.
Grade Inflation
To mask these deficiencies, as well as to soothe the sensitive souls of students and keep their illusions intact, grades have risen, inflated like the similarly unreal currency that supposedly undergirds our economy. What used to be given a ‘B’ or even a ‘C’ is now a nice glossy ‘A’, a D is a C, and no one ‘fails’. Grades are almost invariably in the 80s or 90s, with a consequently squished ‘normal distribution’. And why even talk of such a distribution, in a society so enamored of absolute equality? Academic excellence or failure is all but impossible to discern, until you spend a few moments actually conversing with the person in that quaint concept known as reality.
The Moral Mire
Then we have the moral and cultural milieu. Most students are from broken homes, with little in the way of moral formation. They grow up – if such be the term – undisciplined, ungoverned, feral, with no role models, especially paternal ones, and few moral principles. Fatherless homes, often with multiple disinterested or abusive step-dads and boyfriends, are now the norm.
The school often doesn’t help. ‘Sex Ed’ is getting ever-more explicit, and deviant sexuality is promoted as normal and to be ‘celebrated’. This is likely worse than most parent might imagine. Add to this the ubiquitous cellphone, which provides not only exposure – and eventual addiction – to all sorts of malevolent content that wastes time and is addictive. Sure, you may not allow your own child to have one, but every other child in the school will, and how is his innocence to be protected when pornography, even of the hard-core variety, is now just a click away? Such fare is now consumed, along with consequent sexual activity, at an ever-younger age (as low as nine years).
What is seen can never be unseen, and what is done can never be undone. Spiritual scars are the worst sort.
Loss of Liturgy and the Mass
What of the sacraments, which should hold a central place in any Catholic school system? How does one educate students on this topic when many of them aren’t Catholic, and the vast majority of those who are don’t practice their Faith? By ‘practice the Faith’ is meant holding to the principles of natural law – following the Ten Commandments – and fulfilling the Church’s minimal five precepts, which include regular attendance at Sunday Mass.
At school Masses, most students have to be told when to stand up, sit down and kneel – which signifies something quite tragic. Without judging the state of their souls before God – I have enough to worry about with the state of my own – should these students be receiving Holy Communion, an act which signifies full communion with the Church, when they are not so, and unprepared? Although many of these children ‘know not what they do’, we should heed Saint Paul’s advice to ‘discern’ before you receive’, and try to avoid the danger of widespread sacrilege.
I’ve heard that a number of schools have admitted defeat, and stopped such school Masses, which says much.
Hope of Reform?
All of this might be tolerated, if we could hope things might improve. If ecclesia semper reformanda holds true for the Church, might the Catholic school system also be renewed?
This gets to the crux of the problem, for the underlying issue is that for any sort of reform, one needs two things: principles by which to reform, and the authority by which to carry out the reform.
Both are missing, or at least grievously weakened.
The Church’s authority over the school system all changed here in Ontario in the late 1980s, when Premier Bill Davis extended full government funding to the entire Catholic separate system. Before that, students used to pay tuition. The schools were ‘private’, or mostly so, which means the Church and families – also private societies – had more say over what went on. (This is still the case in Vancouver, British Columbia, as I discovered).
With the apparently inexhaustible slush fund of full government (which is to say, taxpayer) support, teachers’ salaries have ratcheted upwards ever since, and the Church found it difficult to resist the promise of new buildings, sports fields, gymnasia and classrooms.
With the loss of ecclesial authority went the principles to guide any reform, for he who pays the bills calls the shots. The school system has drifted in an ever-more secular direction of the state and wider culture. Schools are no longer a ‘sign of contradiction’, but a ‘sign of complacence’.
People criticize bishops for not doing enough, and allowing this mayhem to continue. But the Church sold out any real, practical authority with government largesse, and one cannot help but think of Esau’s bowl of lentil soup. All bishops can really do is to remove the name ‘Catholic’, a Rubicon they are loathe to cross. The government in a number or provinces – Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick – has already beat them to it, administering the coup de grâce.
Gone too are parental rights, except through the very distant mechanism of trustees. Even if one could get elected, one is caught in a tightly controlled byzantine bureaucracy and against the juggernaut of a distorted culture, wielding little authority in practice.
Public Monopoly
There’s really no easy way out of this quandary, for every Catholic has to pay into the system through their property taxes by the full force of law. The Church has warned against such a monopoly in education. As Gravissimus Educationis, the Vatican II declaration on education, declares:
Therefore the state must protect the right of children to an adequate school education, check on the ability of teachers and the excellence of their training, look after the health of the pupils and in general, promote the whole school project. But it must always keep in mind the principle of subsidiarity so that there is no kind of school monopoly, for this is opposed to the native rights of the human person, to the development and spread of culture, to the peaceful association of citizens and to the pluralism that exists today in ever so many societies.
The socialist ‘full funding’ model removes any possibility of autonomy, self-governance and, as we just mentioned, reform. There is a role for the state, but a subsidiary, supportive and minimal one, leaving much room for freedom. Parents are the first educators of their children. In a private system, parents are free to hire, and fire, the teachers of their children. Not so in the public system, where there is no choice. As Henry Ford quipped, you can buy a Model-T in any colour, so long as it’s black. And you can give your money to any school you like, so long as it goes to the public one.
Doing Good in a Flawed and Broken System
Catholics always have some hope, but grounded on the supernatural sort. Good teachers can do a lot of good — we have all heard a number of stories to that effect and personally experienced the effects of such steadfast souls. But there comes a point where ‘infiltrating’ an ideological system becomes counterproductive, if not impractical. How many compromises must be made, from teachers’ college and on through one’s career, that may imperil one’s own integrity? Toeing the line and holding one’s tongue, standing by as students are indoctrinated in rank falsity, does wear on one. One stray word or gesture, one ‘misgendering’, even a mention of controversial Catholic teaching may get you disciplined or fired. At what point does Stockholm syndrome set in?
Children formed well at home, through family prayer, honest dialogue and spiritual support – and we should never underestimate such formation — can also be lights in the darkness. But such young souls are not meant to be ‘apostles’. They don’t have the protection of age, experience, formation and autonomy of adults, and too often are much more affected by their peers than by parents. Children need good soil in which to grow and thrive, and many have been and will be lost in the stony ground, thorns and thistles of the barren landscape that schools have become.
The Educational Benedict Option – Going it on Our Own
This is why many Catholics are retreating from the public system, and putting their hope in homeschooling, or one of the private Catholic schools popping up across the land. Sure, they’re often struggling financially, but likely all the better for it. They’re solid, orthodox and produce morally, intellectually and spiritually well-formed students, many of whom I’ve had the privilege of teaching. It’s also true that many of the ‘elite’ don’t send their own children to public schools, instead paying a small fortune to send them to their own expensive and boutique private academies.
Since even the struggling Catholic private schools have to charge something, parents choosing this option have to pay tuition on top of the coerced taxed contribution to the public system. Many can’t afford this, which leaves homeschooling and start-up cooperatives as the only economically viable option for many parents who choose to eschew the public system.
Whatever the option, parents have to do something, whatever the difficulty and obstacles. It’s time we faced the real and abiding peril of the Catholic school system, and take on their role as primary educators, by hook or by crook, doing what they can, at least in ways supplemental to the system – dialogue, faith formation – to form their children into the saints they’re meant to be.
Michael Smit put some hope in the fact that students in the Toronto school system at least learn the prayer of their diocese’s patron, Saint Michael, which is something, I suppose. Defend us in the day of battle, indeed.
God will be with you, to see you through.
