The Future of Catholic Education Part 5

I’ve devoted this space lately to a reflection on a talk on the future of American Catholic education given by Fordham University President, Joseph McShane, SJ. Father McShane articulated five theses which, he believes, will characterize Catholic schools of the future:


1. The challenges that Catholic education has faced and overcome in the past 50 years will pale in comparison to the challenges that it will face in the next 50 years

2. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if the Church recognizes that it is a community of communities – and that the needs of the various communities that it is called to serve are different

3. The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents

4. Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entrée to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith

5. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment

This month I want to consider his fifth and final thesis:

The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment

McShane’s use of the term grace alludes to one of the great assertions of Catholic theology made by Saint Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica: “grace builds on nature.” By this, he meant that God works through the natural and human condition in order to bring us closer to the perfection to which we aspire in the next life. Humanity, in all of its sinfulness, becomes the vehicle through which God moves us closer to Him. In the words of one commentator: “To say that grace builds on nature means that we can change.”

I can’t think of a better rationale for the existence of Catholic schools than this understanding of grace: it is possible for humans to change for the better. The entire system of K-12 Catholic education is organized around this principle. Two of the three sacraments of Initiation occur during this time. Elementary students prepare for the sacrament of First Eucharist while secondary students prepare for the sacrament of Confirmation. Both moments memorialize, in McShane’s understanding, “the transforming instrument of…grace.” The study of Religion over the course of 12 years and student involvement in community service programs reinforce this notion that we humans are on a journey of “personal enrichment” which aims at union with God in the next life. In one sense, McShane’s fifth thesis embodies the first four. Saint John Baptist de La Salle understood this when he insisted the purpose of his schools is to offer the students entrusted to our care salvation that is both human and Christian: that is a productive life in this world and union with God in the next. Lutheran theologian, Stephen Schmidt underscores this dynamic when he wrote:

Grace builds on nature, and the whole enterprise of becoming a Christian is about the abundant possibility of optimistic hope.

What a noble sentiment to reflect upon during these days following the great celebration of Pentecost. With the Holy Spirit as our guide and a renewed commitment to the transcendent and transformative possibilities of Catholic education, McShane’s prognosis for Catholic schools over the course of the next 50 years may find us positioned to impact secular culture in more ways than we can now imagine.

The Future of Catholic Education Part 4

I’ve devoted this space lately to a reflection on a talk on the future of American Catholic education given by Fordham University President, Joseph McShane, SJ. Father McShane articulated five theses which, he believes, will characterize Catholic schools of the future:


1. The challenges that Catholic education has faced and overcome in the past 50 years will pale in comparison to the challenges that it will face in the next 50 years


2. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if the Church recognizes that it is a community of communities – and that the needs of the various communities that it is called to serve are different


3. The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents


4. Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entrée to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith


5. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment

This month I want to consider his fourth thesis:
Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entrée to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith

Recently La Salle’s Trustees conducted their annual Mission Effectiveness Workshop in which administrators, faculty, parents and students came together to evaluate the degree to which the School is successful in implementing the principles of our Mission Statement. The workshop ended with a Q & A session in which the adults asked the student panel to describe their experience through the lens of our Mission Statement. It was a powerful and exciting experience to encounter the candor of our students regarding what we do well and what we can do better.

I was particularly pleased to see that they identified the School’s commitment to community service as an integral component of their day-to-day experience. I have often described our Mission in terms of producing good students and good people. The students’ recognition of the importance of service reinforces the second ideal of producing good people and resonates with McShane’s notion that students will discover something far richer than just a superior college preparatory education. In his words:

Parents are willing to invest in Catholic schools because they believe (rightly) that the schools will reinforce the values that they teach their children at home.

I’ve commented in this space and elsewhere that La Salle is successful primarily because of the close home/school partnership that nourishes a shared set of values above and beyond the demands of preparation for college. And, while these values are rooted in the Catholic faith, they are pertinent to all faith traditions represented in the school. I’ve come to believe that the values formation component of our educational program encourages all of our students to become more deeply committed to their particular faith tradition and, since there are many ways to approach God in this world, we can be assured of their spiritual formation as well. After all, schools like La Salle exist because of the shared belief that students are being educated for something that is bigger than they. If we merely offered a good preparation for college and didn’t embed in that education a deep commitment to values formation, our Mission would cease to have any significance in the larger culture. McShane puts it this way:

Therefore, although the schools stressed the importance of passing on the faith, they also stressed the need to prepare students to be players in the culture and the world that they would inhabit as they grew older.


Recently, we adopted a new phrase to capture the essence of a La Salle education:

LEARN  SERVE  LEAD

We expect the students entrusted to our care to make a difference when they leave us; to be “players in the culture” by using their experience of learning and serving while at La Salle to form them into tomorrow’s leaders. This is the “for something” that distinguishes La Salle from other exemplary high schools. It is gratifying to hear our students echo this sentiment in the context of our Mission Effectiveness Workshop.

Next month, the final condition of McShane’s thesis: Catholic schools as transforming institutions.

The Future of Catholic Education Part 3

I’ve devoted this space lately to a reflection on a talk on the future of American Catholic education given by Fordham University President, Joseph McShane, SJ. Father McShane articulated five theses which, he believes, will characterize Catholic schools of the future:



1. The challenges that Catholic education has faced and overcome in the past 50 years will pale in comparison to the challenges that it will face in the next 50 years


2. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if the Church recognizes that it is a community of communities – and that the needs of the various communities that it is called to serve are different


3. The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents


4. Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entrée to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith


5. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment

This month I want to consider his third thesis:
The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents

Since we are a Lasallian school, sponsored by a religious congregation, I think it is fair to paraphrase McShane’s thesis this way:

La Salle High School will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build a community-based school in which ownership is shared by the Christian Brothers, the school faculty and the parents

As I write this, the School community is experiencing the third and final day of the WCEA/WASC accreditation visit. The Visiting Committee has been busy observing classes, interviewing administrators, faculty, students and parents. They were particularly impressed by their encounters with our students and parents. One member of the Visiting Committee commented to me that she wished her school had the depth and breadth of commitment that our parents demonstrate here at La Salle. She went on to note how impressive it is that a substantial number of freshman parents demonstrate similar qualities of commitment here. I was proud to hear this message because I agree with her observation. In my 30 years as a Catholic educator I have never encountered a more engaged, supportive and involved parent community as I have here at La Salle. We are surrounded by evidence: the work of the four parent Booster groups, the large attendance at monthly Parent Association meetings, the enormous volunteer effort that supports a wide variety of school-sponsored events, especially the Crystal Ball, PALS, new parent orientation and the Back to Swing dance. I mention this because, as McShane notes below, this represents “parent ownership” of the school:
The product was an extraordinary achievement: a school system that was owned by the people and owned in two important ways: It was owned in the sense that the people paid for it voluntarily. It was also owned because the people who paid for its maintenance believed that its central proposition (namely, the passing on of the faith) was important.


At La Salle, where we cheerfully welcome up to a third of our families from other – or no – religious traditions, we know that the transmission of the faith, one of our chief responsibilities as a Catholic school, generates valuable by-products that are appreciated by everyone: a shared sense of purpose, moral and ethical values that stand against an increasingly secular – and hostile – culture and a commitment to serve the community. The term “ownership” in the context McShane uses, refers to the relationship between the Catholic school and the community it serves. Seen in this light, “moral ownership” of the school belongs to the enrolled families who are, according to McShane, “endowed with a shared sense of purpose…and who believe that the school will reinforce the values that they teach their children at home.”

I have long believed – and the WCEA/WASC Visitation has confirmed – that the successful involvement of parents in the life of the School emerges from their “shared sense of purpose” which we like to paraphrase by asserting that La Salle’s Mission is to produce good students and good people.


Next month, more about developing “good students and good people.”

The Future of Catholic Education Part 2

Last month I made reference to a talk on the future of American Catholic education given by Fordham University President, Joseph McShane, SJ. Father McShane articulated five theses which, he believed, will characterize Catholic schools of the future:




1. The challenges that Catholic education has faced and overcome in the past 50 years will pale in comparison to the challenges that it will face in the next 50 years


2. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if the Church recognizes that it is a community of communities – and that the needs of the various communities that it is called to serve are different


3. The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents


4. Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entrée to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith


5. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment

I commented on his first thesis in this space last month. This time, I want to take up his second thesis that the success of Catholic schools is (and will be) a function of their ability to become a “community of communities.”

At first glance, the notion that a school can function as a “community of communities” may appear to be a bit of an oxymoron. After all, one could argue that the primary function of a school is to nurture a community of learners. But this perspective, while accurate, overlooks the challenge every school faces in responding to the needs of a heterogeneous population of students while, at the same time, treating them as equals. Successful schools recognize that their students come from different neighborhoods, cultural, economic and ethnic backgrounds and academic foundations. Even the most prestigious school must face – and meet – this challenge.

At La Salle, for example, we take great pride in the policy established by our Board of Trustees, which requires that the student population we serve should reflect the demographics of the San Gabriel Valley. This explains why there is no majority from any one racial/ethnic population among our students; why 5% of them qualify for full tuition assistance and the next 10% are eligible for 50% financial aid grants and that up to 30% of our students will come from religious traditions other than the Catholic Church. At La Salle, we strive to create one community of learners out of the various communities from which our students’ identity is forged. Our success in this endeavor is predicated upon the strong ties between home and school that are nurtured over the course of four years. It is not at all unusual, for example, to have parents tell me that they appreciate the diversity of teenagers who socialize in their home after school and on weekends. This unity in diversity can be observed on our campus at lunch, during break, in the classrooms and on the playing field. And, while no adolescent society is ever completely free of the tyranny found in social relationships among peers, at La Salle, I find that our young people are extremely conscious of the inclusive values inherent in schools sponsored by the Christian Brothers. This, too, echoes the American Catholic school experience over the course of the last 150 years.

In describing the emergence of the Catholic school system in the middle of the 19th century, Father McShane artfully notes that “…the American Catholic Church was (and is) the only institution in the nation (aside from the nation itself) that mirrors the national motto/aspiration: “Out of many, one.” Then, the challenge for the Church was to protect an immigrant population from the quasi-public effort to instill Protestant religious values in Catholic children, thus weakening their adherence to Catholic beliefs. So the Church nurtured “ethnic villages” organized around urban neighborhoods where Central and Western European immigrants could feel comfortable speaking their native language and practicing cherished customs from their homeland.

In some ways American Catholic schools continue to protect our students from a hostile culture – only now the hostility is to be found in the secularization of values, the homogenization of customs and the incessant stream of messages which effectively degrade moral and ethical principles that are the essential building blocks of healthy social interactions. At La Salle, these challenges are met with a robust response that is prevalent throughout the day-to-day school experience especially in the Religion classroom, monthly liturgical celebrations and our retreat and community service programs. These programs enable the students entrusted to our care to develop a respect and compassion for others, especially the poor and, equally importantly, to celebrate the diversity of the human condition. It is in this sense that La Salle, like the American Catholic school system can be said to be a “community of communities.”

Next month: shared “ownership” of the educational enterprise.

The Future of Catholic Education

In a recent address to the John Carroll Society of Washington, DC on the future of Catholic education, Fordham University President, Joseph McShane, SJ articulated five theses:


1. The challenges that Catholic education has faced and overcome in the past fifty years will pale in comparison to the challenges that it will face in the next fifty years.


2. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if the Church recognizes that it is a community of communities – and that the needs of the various communities that it is called to serve are different.


3. The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents.


4. Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entree to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith.


5. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment.


The context for Father McShane’s address is the startling shift in the number of Catholic schools from a high of over 12,000 in the 1960s to just over 7,000 in 2009. The vast majority of the closed schools have been located in the nation’s inner cities. This trend mirrors the demographic shift that Father McShane describes as the “suburbanization of American culture” in which the expansion of Catholic education followed the move from urban to exurban locations. This informs McShane’s first point: that the challenges facing Catholic education in the next fifty years are expected to be far more dramatic than anything experienced in the last fifty. Why? Because, as McShane notes, the success of the first 100 years of Catholic schools in the United States “reflected the ethnic villages (neighborhoods) in which the Catholic people lived. This was a brilliant strategy: the bishops sought to keep the Church together by catering to the very different needs of their diverse flock. (They sought unity through diversity.) This meant that schools reflected linguistically and culturally the neighborhoods in which they were located.” This isn’t the case in suburbia, where schools like La Salle, located on the edge of an urban center, serve a majority/minority population. Moreover, the population served by a Catholic school tends to become more homogenous the farther out it is from the urban core. Ironically, therefore, the social network that sustained Catholic schools for the first hundred years (local, ethnically based institutions staffed by “inexpensive” labor – religious men and women – united in the values and traditions of the Catholic faith) – will be largely absent in the next fifty. La Salle is a case in point. In 1960 there were fifteen Christian Brothers staffing a school of 400 boys. Today there is one Brother on staff (doing the work of three!) serving 740 young men and women. Our students come from 33 different communities and, while two-thirds of them identify as Catholic, we are proud to serve students who identify with each of the major world religions. We are equally proud of the ethnic diversity that they represent. I would argue that this is precisely why La Salle enjoys a robust admissions profile. Our success as a Catholic high school in the early years of a new millennium is due, in no small part, to our ability to adapt to the needs of the community we serve. This is a uniquely “Lasallian” characteristic, derived from the commitment of Saint John Baptist de La Salle to meet the needs and challenges of the students entrusted to his care, particularly in and around the margins of seventeenth century French cities.

By the time you read this column, we will be in the middle of “Catholic Schools Week” an annual nation-wide celebration sponsored by the National Catholic Educational Association (www.ncea.org). I want to take the opportunity of Catholic Schools Week to begin to explore the theses Father McShane asserts and to see how they correspond to the lived reality of La Salle High School. Next month: the Catholic school as a “community of communities.”

We Have Met the Enemy & They is Us

I can’t wait for this election to be over. Don’t misunderstand me – I’ve been glued to the news channels on television and radio for the better part of the last six months – and one reason why I look forward to November 5th is what I consider to be the excessive length of time it took to get from the first Primary to Election Day. And while I believe that American voters would be better served by a relatively brief election cycle (such as in Britain, where it is six weeks), that doesn’t fully explain my desire to see this election season come to a close.


My political exhaustion stems from the incredibly polarized context within which this presidential contest is being negotiated. While I recognize that the art of politics requires that the choice of candidates needs to be presented in stark terms; it is hard for me to watch the debates and view television ads which imply that support for the other side will lead to moral, economic and political ruin. After all, the nation survived the election of 1868 which put Ulysses S. Grant (a man better suited for the battlefield than the halls of government) in office, as well as the disputed election of 1876 that put Rutherford B. Hayes in office. More recently, while the election of Herbert Hoover in 1928 didn’t directly lead to the Great Depression, historians regard his failure to respond effectively to this calamity as one of the great presidential failures.

The point, I think, is obvious: the strength of the American political system is to be found in its resilience. We understand that politicians are as flawed as we are – yet when it comes to the ballot box, we seem to ignore that rational understanding and invest entirely too much energy into the “Great Man” theory – that one man (or woman) can singlehandedly fix our problems. Recently, I was listening to a radio presentation of a panel discussion of Republican and Democratic economists who were debating the causes of our current financial crisis. At the end of the session, the moderator – a student at Georgetown University – summarized the conversation by expressing gratitude that the panel could disagree agreeably. I sensed a note of astonishment in her voice. That’s why I can’t wait for this election to be over. Somehow we have allowed the public debate about our Nation’s future to become a shouting match regarding who’s right and who’s wrong. Last time I checked, neither political party (nor their leadership) could fall back on a sterling record regarding their prognostication skills. And that’s the point: we, the consumers of political messages, allow our elected officials to distract us from the central fact that neither red nor blue states have a lock on the Truth. We do this because the issues are complex and complicated and it is stressful for us to try to figure them out. Yet, the desire to consider these challenging social problems in a simplified way often results in outcomes we never expected.

While it is easy to look at religious world views through the same, cynical lens, there are perspectives which remind us that, in the end, we are responsible for the people we elect. The Catholic Bishops in the United States issued a pastoral letter entitled:



Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship



The document offers three statements, in particular, which clarify our responsibility as citizens and Catholics:



We do not tell Catholics how to vote. The responsibility to make political choices rests with each person and his or her properly formed conscience.



and:



As Catholics we are not single-issue voters. A candidate’s position on a single issue is not sufficient to guarantee a voter’s support.



and:



Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person

recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act. . . . [Every person] is obliged to follow faithfully what he [or she] knows to be just and right”



What I find particularly encouraging in these statements – and in the document as a whole – is the Bishops’ clear recognition that we are responsible for the government we put in place and we cannot abandon that task in search of simple answers. So, while I can’t wait for the election to be over, I can find some peace in the notion that glib answers in debates or advertising cannot be substituted for our individual responsibility to choose wisely, carefully, and with a great deal of thought.

All You Have to Do is Show Up

It was 4:00 PM when I left the school building a week ago Friday. I happened to be walking through the Ahmanson Science Hall when I noticed a half-dozen Freshmen sitting on the floor, intently examining the computer screen of a laptop in front of them. One of the group noticed the puzzled look on my face and hastened to explain that they were working on a Science project. I smiled, wished them well, and continued on my way. As I passed the Atrium of the Dining Hall, there were three upperclassmen, seated at a picnic table laughing at a story being told by a fourth. Next, I passed the Blakeslee Library where a trio of girls was attempting to share two earplugs connected to an Ipod. As I made my way to my car, I could hear a coach’s whistle halting a Girls Volleyball practice in the Duffy Lewis Gymnasium. Out on Lancer Field, I could hear Pat Wickhem announcing the start of the JV Football Game. Did I happen to mention that it was 4:00 PM on a Friday?


Later, when I returned at 7:00 PM to watch the Varsity lose a heartbreaker against San Marino, I noticed that not only were the stands packed with La Salle students and parents (and, I should point out a Drum Line that was clearly having way too much fun performing for the fans) but the area in front of the Concession stand was so jammed with freshmen that we could have easily conducted a Class Assembly on the spot. As I walked home that evening, I thought about each of these scenes and with a clarity that happens typically when I trip and fall, I asked myself how I got so lucky.

I’ve often said that being President of a school like La Salle in a community like Pasadena is really quite easy – all you have to do is show up. Meaning that the sense of community at La Salle – as in Pasadena – is so completely tangible that, as the School’s chief promoter, all I have to do is nurture the overlapping circles created by La Salle’s interaction with the wider community it serves. At a time of day when some schools take on the look of a ghost town, La Salle – the school that never sleeps – is buzzing with activity. I’ve long since stopped fussing about the School’s gates being open on a Sunday – for I know that some thing is always going on.

I am lucky – not so much because La Salle is a perpetual beehive of activity – but because students and adults want to be here. I get to promote a school community that celebrates individuals coming together for a common purpose. I’ve always remembered the advice Pete Griffith, P ’00, ’03 gave me shortly after my arrival at La Salle: “Richard, you don’t understand something. When our kids are happy, we’re happy.” It goes without saying that, by definition, teenagers go through volatile swings of emotion – often in the same day! So, the notion that teenagers can be happy requires some parsing. Perhaps the best way for adults to get their arms around the notion of adolescent happiness is to observe those moments when they are looking forward to something – a sweet sixteen birthday party, a date with the Captain of the Football team, the chance to perform at Café Bibliotheque, being in the starting lineup at Homecoming, to suggest a few. Similarly, when they are disappointed that an enjoyable activity comes to an end – Prom, a pep rally, or a graduation party come to mind. At La Salle we can take a rough measure of adolescent happiness by noting their presence on campus long after the school day ends or – strangely enough – by their determination to go to school, even when a head cold makes them sound like bleating sheep. There’s a certain magic that happens at La Salle each moment when adults and teenagers come together to pursue a common purpose.

I’ve often remarked that 50% of my own success is due to luck – some would argue it’s more like 95% - whichever – I can assure you that when I observe our students at work, at play, or socializing with each other and think about the 24/7 world of La Salle, I know I am very lucky indeed.