Why Is This Catholic School Failing?
A blind man could see why
Oops... that would be sight impaired. That's it, isn't it?? "Sight impaired"? Or is it "Vision Othercapped"? Hell, I don't know.
Anyhow, I was reading today's California Catholic, and I came across this article about, yet another, failing Catholic School. In this case, Resurrection Academy in Fontana, California.
So I decided to take a gander at this institution's homepage. It goes without saying that I ran into the phrase "Catholic Christian" more than once. As I've said before, isn't "Catholic Christian" pretty much the same as saying "male father" or "female daughter"? Is this a case of The Catholic Christian mob having a grand time painfully pointing out the obvious... or they somehow consider generic Christianity (Protestantism) on an equal footing with Catholicism?
With that said, under the Education tab, I came across this;
"...instill the values of Catholic schools..." Why not "instill the values of the Catholic Church"? This a Catholic school... isn't it? I also perused their handbook, and saw some rather interesting information.
Under SPIRITUAL GOALS:
To teach our children the basic principles and practices of Catholic/Christian Doctrine. (Keep this in mind -- BASIC principles. And again with the Catholic/Christian.)
To provide opportunities for the students to share faith with others by serving the needy and less fortunate in the community.
To build a faith community which values the gift and uniqueness of each person.
To help students be aware of their responsibility to be involved in the Church community.
To provide students with a solid moral foundation to enable them to make good moral decisions in their lives. (Ahh, but now the kiddies are expected to have a "solid moral foundation". How could they have anything solid when they've only been taught the basics? That simply defies common sense.)
To provide students with a respect for life and the wonder of creation. (I don't know about you, but I'm ready to dance around the Sacred Oak.) And of course, under SOCIAL GOALS;
To enhance students’ conscious awareness of the needs of the world, be concerned, and actively promote peace and social justice. EMOTIONAL GOALS were oh-so-predictable. Here's some of them;
To develop in each student a positive self-image.
To instill in every student a respect for each individual wants, needs, and feelings. Yeah, it's all about me.
This section here under Student Learning Expectations is just absurd in the extreme. 3c and 4c just couldn't get more generic and relativistic if they tried. Breathe deep. There's a strong stench of 'the fresh breeze' of the Spirit of Vatican II in the air. Below emphasis mine -
3. Creative critical thinkers who:
a. can critically analyze and synthesize spoken and written word.
b. are able to adapt in multi-faceted ways within an ever-changing environment.
c. can analyze and integrate the information and resources around them to form their own Christian based opinions. (Elementary age kids!?)
4. Moral decision makers who:
a. cognitively and rationally distinguish between moral and immoral choices.
b. regard life’s decisions based on formal and informal education.
c. use the Gospel values and teachings of the Church as well as personal family belief systems when deciding appropriate courses of actions. I don't know which is more obvious --- the utter lack of moral absolutes or the one-size-fits-all version of generic Christianity they push there.
Like I said at the beginning of this post, the problem with this "Catholic" school is so obvious, a blind man could see it.
A blind man could see why
Oops... that would be sight impaired. That's it, isn't it?? "Sight impaired"? Or is it "Vision Othercapped"? Hell, I don't know.
Anyhow, I was reading today's California Catholic, and I came across this article about, yet another, failing Catholic School. In this case, Resurrection Academy in Fontana, California.
So I decided to take a gander at this institution's homepage. It goes without saying that I ran into the phrase "Catholic Christian" more than once. As I've said before, isn't "Catholic Christian" pretty much the same as saying "male father" or "female daughter"? Is this a case of The Catholic Christian mob having a grand time painfully pointing out the obvious... or they somehow consider generic Christianity (Protestantism) on an equal footing with Catholicism?
With that said, under the Education tab, I came across this;
Under SPIRITUAL GOALS:
To provide opportunities for the students to share faith with others by serving the needy and less fortunate in the community.
To build a faith community which values the gift and uniqueness of each person.
To help students be aware of their responsibility to be involved in the Church community.
To provide students with a solid moral foundation to enable them to make good moral decisions in their lives. (Ahh, but now the kiddies are expected to have a "solid moral foundation". How could they have anything solid when they've only been taught the basics? That simply defies common sense.)
To provide students with a respect for life and the wonder of creation. (I don't know about you, but I'm ready to dance around the Sacred Oak.)
To instill in every student a respect for each individual wants, needs, and feelings.
This section here under Student Learning Expectations is just absurd in the extreme. 3c and 4c just couldn't get more generic and relativistic if they tried. Breathe deep. There's a strong stench of 'the fresh breeze' of the Spirit of Vatican II in the air. Below emphasis mine -
a. can critically analyze and synthesize spoken and written word.
b. are able to adapt in multi-faceted ways within an ever-changing environment.
c. can analyze and integrate the information and resources around them to form their own Christian based opinions. (Elementary age kids!?)
4. Moral decision makers who:
a. cognitively and rationally distinguish between moral and immoral choices.
b. regard life’s decisions based on formal and informal education.
c. use the Gospel values and teachings of the Church as well as personal family belief systems when deciding appropriate courses of actions.
Like I said at the beginning of this post, the problem with this "Catholic" school is so obvious, a blind man could see it.
posted by Kevin Whiteman at
1:48 PM
9 Comments:
"To build a faith community which values the gift and uniqueness of each person."
Cavey - trust this more-Catholic-every-day Protestant. That line is straight out of The Episcopal Church...errr...Episcopal Social Club - I've heard it word for word.
None of this surprizes me. Growing up everyone knew that the local Catholic schools in this archdiocese were Catholic because they cleasrly acted Catholic. Now they are anything but Catholic so they added Catholic to the name so people would be able to tell the difference. If these schools were Catholic there would be no need for any of this emphasis to say they are being Catholic when they really aren't.
Speaking of betraying youth, did you see where Dale Fushek, the founder of Life Teen, has been dismissed from the clerical state?
http://v-forvictory.blogspot.com/2010/02/life-teen-rooted-in-filth.html
Some Catholic schools have a large portion, maybe sometimes over half, who are not Catholic.
The Catholic high school here changed its name from Dowling to Dowling Catholic.
On the "uniqueness of each person" pitch: In the Apocalypse it is mentioned that each faithful soul has a name known only to Jesus and that eventually that soul will know his or her name. And I recall that Jesus tells us in the Gospel that we are called by our name. There is precedent in the Old Testament. But we have our identity through out union with Jesus Christ which comes through the uniting Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and not from some kindergarten teacher or any other teacher or school.
The Church brings out the personality of individuals by providing the Sacraments, but it is not done by plastering a bunch of faddish nonsense on the kids, or putting on halloween liturgies, which only misleads them.
There are lots of cheap imitations, and hollywood does well at creating such personas.
I would expect a Catholic school to be Catholic. Just like I'd expect a Lutheran school to be Lutheran. Actually teach the doctrine you supposedly have, and parents will know you're a trustworthy school.
Under the "creative" expectations- I believe these days that also comes with attention spans just slightly longer than those of mayflies.
Mike, I'm glad to see I'm not the only still-Protestant reading this. It's kind of an odd thing to discuss with Prot friends what I'm learning, and very few would listen anyway.
byronfrombyron, you're Protestant? Have you ever studied real true Catholcism, such as the Bible (believe it or not)? What are you waiting for, man? While you're at it, why not bring Ollie North over to the Cave for instruction. Today the Cave, tomorrow the world.
About halfway through the CCC. The first part went quick, then I lost some of the urgency, which has recently picked up a bit. Loving the Macabees so far.
I've pretty much determined I'm going to cross the Tiber, it's just a matter of time/RCIA.
Favorite authors: GKC and Belloc.
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