Confused Catholic Schools

USCCB Catholic Education Chair Speaks Out on ‘Confused Catholic Schools’ Embracing ‘Sinful’ Gender Ideology by Lauretta Brown at National Catholic Register. Catholic institutions permitting the use of preferred pronouns in line with gender ideology is a “tragic” and “sinful” occurrence that has unfortunately become more common, Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, Washington, who heads the U.S. Bishops Catholic Education Committee, recently told the Register. As transgender ideology continues to gain popularity with young people, he sees the need for U.S. bishops to be vocal on the issue and firmly articulate the truths of the faith on gender and sexuality. Read

Vermont to Allow Religious Schools to Use State Assistance After Settling Lawsuit by Jonah McKeown at National Catholic Register. Religious private schools in Vermont will now be allowed to make use of a state-tuition assistance program that previously excluded them, after the state settled two lawsuits on the matter Nov. 30. Vermont’s Town Tuition Program provides tuition benefits for students who live in towns without public schools, and it previously allowed payments to secular private schools but not religious ones. As part of the settlements, state and local government officials agreed that Vermont’s exclusion of religious private schools from the program is unconstitutional and unenforceable. Read

The Education of the Human Heart by Anton Vorozhko at HeightsCast. ‘You will obtain anything from your children if they realize that you are seeking their own good.’ Act toward them as a good father. I think if we bring that thought and idea and ideal into our classroom, we don’t have to be thinking about the nitty gritty of, ‘This kid’s talking back to me,” ‘What do I have to do?’ or, ‘He’s not listening.’ If we bring this, then they see it. And, yes, there might be times where a kid really needs to be redirected, but those will be very far and few between. Read

Catholic Student Center in Nebraska Receives Shooting Threat, Signed ‘Jane’s Revenge’ by Joe Bukuras at Catholic News Agency. A Catholic campus ministry center at the University of Nebraska received a death threat Saturday morning in a note signed “Jane’s Revenge,” a calling card used by pro-abortion activists. “If our right to abortion in Bellevue is taken away due to the attempt to pass an abortion ban and it gets passed[,] we will shoot up your Newman center with our new AR-74 rifles. Sincerely, Jane’s Revenge,” the note, which was posted online, says…. The threat is the latest in a series of intimidation tactics used against pro-life organizations. In other instances, the threats have come in the form of spray-painted messages with a variation on the words, “If abortion isn’t safe, neither are you.” Read

‘What Else Are They Willing to Lie About?’: Indiana School Compels Staff to Hide ‘Gender Support Plans’ from Parents by Tony Kinnett at The Daily Signal. An email unearthed by parents at an Indiana high school has revealed a districtwide support plan for students undergoing gender transition and a policy to withhold and hide information from students’ parents. An Aug. 16 email sent by a counselor at Pendleton Heights High School in Pendleton, Indiana, informed teachers that a student had changed genders, provided new pronouns, and said teachers should not inform the student’s parents because they were “not supportive of the decision.” Read

Teacher Refuses to Teach Grammar, Claiming It Is Part of White Supremacy by Luke Gentile at Washington Examiner. A teacher in California who identifies as "cringey" is going viral after claiming she does not teach grammar usage and writing skills in an attempt to defeat white supremacy. Marta Shaffer teaches English at Oroville High School and uses linguistics to fight "white supremacy in my classes" and be "inclusive of all kinds of ways we use the language," she said. Read

Throwback Thursday

The Saving Nature of a Liberal Education by Ashley G. Miller at Crisis Magazine on July 23, 2019. There is a personal and social utility to being well-read aside from the one pertaining to the workforce. An engaged reader achieves emotional maturity and understanding of the world far more quickly and effectively than a person who does not read or reads little. Every experience of reading is experience—an experience of how humanity has acted and how humans tend to react, which prepares a person for encountering the challenges of the world. D. H. Lawrence wrote to Arthur McLeod, “One sheds one’s sickness in books, repeats and presents again one’s emotions to be master of them.” Catharsis, a sort of emotional cleansing, has always been the domain of art; in an age where our young people are medicated for emotional well-being more than ever, and crying out for safe spaces, they should turn to books for emotional health—books that teach the experience of humanity—such as novels, plays, tragedies, poems, histories, philosophies, and psychologies. Read