Reclaiming Childhood Through Poetry

Reclaiming Childhood Through Poetry by Anthony Esolen at Touchstone. Why should a young person read a poem? Why should he read those lines from the "Ode to Autumn"? We can't answer that question without asking some more fundamental ones, simply these: What is a child? What is the child for?... The child—and the fully realized human person to which his education should aim—is meant to be free. Read

What Classic Text Caught Your Students' Eyes? by Andrew J. Zwerneman at Cana Academy. Classic texts of imaginative literature are the heart of a genuinely liberal education. They free our students to see what they could not see otherwise. Here at the end of another academic year, it is good to look back and see what worked well in your reading list. Ask yourself this question: What caught your students’ eyes? What wider experience did they have? What did they love? Or, what surprised them? Here are five testimonials from teachers from a variety of schools—public, public charter, independent Catholic, and independent ecumenical academies. Read

Parent-Led Catechesis: The End of Sunday School by Maria Riley at What We Need Now. Young Catholics are leaving the Church in droves. The most recent study from Pew Research Center shows that for every new Catholic convert, eight have left the faith.1 The vast majority who leave do so during their teen or young adult years. Looking at these staggering numbers leads to one logical conclusion: the current faith formation model that most parishes implement simply isn’t cutting it for youth today. Read

Pope Encourages Christian Brothers to Evangelize Through Education by Carol Glatz at OSV News. Teaching should be lived as ministry and mission, Pope Leo XIV told the Brothers of the Christian Schools, also known as the De La Salle Brothers or the Christian Brothers. He praised and encouraged them to continue to pay attention to teacher training “and the creation of educating communities where teaching is enriched by the contribution of everyone.” Read

What to Know About a Federal Proposal to Help Families Pay for Private School by Cory Turner at NPR. A first-of-its-kind effort to leverage federal tax dollars to help families pay for private school tuition anywhere in the U.S. is one step closer to becoming a reality. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted this week to include a federal school voucher program, worth $20 billion over four years, in the broader reconciliation bill that would also extend President Trump's 2017 tax cuts. The voucher vote was hailed by Republicans and school choice advocates. Read

Thoroughness and Charm by Kyle Hughes at ClassicalEd Review. In the spirit of John Milton Gregory’s The Seven Laws of Teaching and Daniel Coupland’s Tried & True, Mandi Gerth’s new book Thoroughness & Charm serves as a brief, accessible, and (dare I say) charming primer to the basic principles of running a successful classroom. Relative to these two other works, though, Gerth emphasizes classroom practices that form teachers and cultivate a distinctly classical Christian ethos. In this way, Thoroughness & Charm aims at nothing less than joining that venerable canon of books that classical Christian schools require their new teachers to read (and veteran teachers to review on a regular basis). Read

On Education, Mississippi Shows the Way by Michael Barone at The Daily Signal. What is Mississippi doing right? According to The 74’s Chad Aldeman, over the last decade, it has deployed literacy coaches to low-performing schools, prompted schools to screen pupils early for reading problems, and required holding back third graders not reaching reading proficiency. Schools use “science of reading” phonics-based curricula, which require repetitive drills that education school professors and many teachers loathe but young children thrive on. Parents are notified when their children are lagging and mobilized to help. Read

Inside the Growing Push for More Religion in Public Schools by Russell Contreras at Axios. The Supreme Court is weighing an Oklahoma case on whether to allow public funding of religious charter schools. It's just one part of a new wave of initiatives by Christian groups to put more religion into public education. A movement driven mostly by Republican-led states also is pushing to expand education voucher programs, require Bibles and the Ten Commandments in classrooms, and allow students to skip school for religious instruction. Read

California Catholic School Launches ‘House System’ to Build Community, Foster Leadership by Daniel Payne at Catholic News Agency. A Catholic school in Southern California is preparing to launch a “house system” that it says will help students connect with one another and foster leadership among young Catholics preparing to go out into the world. JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano said in a press release that the house arrangement will “foster community, provide mentorship, and cultivate leadership rooted in Gospel values.” Read

Franciscan University – Commencement Address by Mary Rice Hasson at Ethics and Public Policy Center. During commencement on May 10, Mary Rice Hasson, JD, the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and director of the Person and Identity Project, and her husband Kevin “Seamus” Hasson, JD, founder and president emeritus of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, were awarded honorary doctorates in humane letters for their work defending and promoting religious liberty and the dignity of the human person. Mary Hasson accepted the degrees of behalf of the couple and delivered the commencement speech. Read

Throwback Thursday

For Teachers, Evangelizing is Priority One by Bishop Robert Barron and Dr. Matthew Petrusek at Word on Fire on October 11, 2021. On this episode of the Word on Fire podcast, Bishop Barron addresses the Catholic educators of the Archdiocese of Vancouver. He exhorted teachers to boldly proclaim the resurrection and lordship of Jesus, affirming that all Catholic teachers are, fundamentally, evangelizers. Listen