Quotes: Catholic Education

"Of the educational programs available to the Catholic community, Catholic schools afford the fullest and best opportunity to realize the threefold purpose of Christian education among children and young people."
To Teach As Jesus Did, USCC, #101, 1972

"As it reflects on the mission entrusted to it by the Lord, the Church gradually develops its pastoral instruments so that they may become ever more effective in proclaiming the Gospel and promoting total human formation. The Catholic school is one of these pastoral instruments; its specific pastoral service consists in mediating between faith and culture: being faithful to the newness of the Gospel while at the same time respecting the autonomy and the methods proper to human knowledge."
The Religious Dimensions of Education in a Catholic School, Congregation for Catholic Education, #31, 1988

"Christian education is intended to 'make men's faith become living, conscious, and active, through the light of instruction." The Bishops' Office in the Church, #14

"The Catholic school is the unique setting within which this ideal can be realized in the lives of Catholic children and young people." To Teach As Jesus Did, USCC, #102, 1972

"Only in such a school can they experience learning and living fully integrated in the light of faith."
To Teach as Jesus Did, USCC, #103, 1972

"Thus Catholicism, per se, does not account for the low dropout rate. Slowly we come to the conclusion that the relationship between the religious community that surrounds a religious school and the students in the school makes an enormous impact in terms of students dropping out of school."
Taken from James S. Coleman's article "Social Capital and the Development of Youth" in Momentum, November, 1987

"Here is where Catholic and other schools based on a religious foundation have an advantage. The community and its central institution, the church, provide the social capital which can give the school staff and the family the support necessary to discourage youth in their care from merely taking the easiest path in high school."
Taken from James S. Coleman's article, "Social Capital and the Development of Youth" in Momentum, November, 1987

"Consequently, graduates of Catholic high schools show the highest level of success among those who enter four year colleges." Taken from Patricia James Sweeney's article, "Coleman Revisited: Policy Implications for Catholic Educators" in Momentum, 1987

"The Catholic school's proper function is to create for the school community a special atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity, to help youth grow according to the new creatures they were made through baptism as they develop their own personalities, and finally to order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and man is illumined by faith."
Declaration on Christian Education, #8, 1965

"Theology of education can be, furthermore, a respected academic discipline."
Harold A. Buetow, The Catholic School, 1988

"Education also has an important connection with the development of reason." "Religious education differs from theology, the latter leading one to participate in, reflect upon, and analyze religious experience of all kinds."
Harold A. Buetow, The Catholic School, 1988

"Infancy is important because that is when religious and moral life make their first appearance."
Harold A. Buetow, The Catholic School, 1988

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