Feb 10, 2022
Christ Centered Education with Dr. Mark Newcomb on Anchored by Classic Learning Test. There is this stultifying overcomplicated approach to literature that happens. It reinforces the narcissistic impulse. So many students are given a text and the assumption is they can only be given a text about something they already know and appreciate so we’ve already clipped out anything beyond their own cultural experiences on the idea that it’s gotta be relevant. And relevant means it’s just a tale of a teenager in modern America so it’s a limited scope. You add to that, ‘Well now Johnny, what do you think of this book? What are your feelings about this book?’ The child is trapped back on the self again and again—the lure of the self…. A person who has been conditioned to do that all the time is not someone you want to spend a lot of time with. We’re forming young narcissists. Listen Catholic School Enrollment Numbers Rebounding in some of the Largest Dioceses, and the US Overall by Jonah McKeown at CNA. Overall, enrollment in Catholic schools in the U.S. is up from 1.63 million last year to 1.69 million this year, an increase of more than 3.5%, according to the NCEA. Despite the increase, enrollment numbers do not appear to have yet reached 2019 levels, which saw 1.74 million students enrolled. Read Catholic Schools must Restore America’s Faith in the Real Presence by Patrick J. Reilly at Crisis Magazine. The Church expects Catholic educators to not only teach the Faith, but also provide living encounters with Christ. “Catechesis is intrinsically linked with the whole of liturgical and sacramental activity, for it is in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist, that Christ Jesus works in fullness for the transformation of human beings” (Catechesi Tradendae, 23). Read Meet Catholic School Students who Pray the Rosary for the Unborn by Francesca Pollio at CNA. "The prayers of children through the intercession of Mary, the mother of all, are some of the most powerful weapons in the fight for the unborn,” expressed middle school teacher Katherine Abar. Read Catholic School Principal Removed By Archdiocese After Telling Students Masks Are Optional, Parents Say by Joe Ward and Colin Boyle at Block Club Chicago. Parents on the Far Southwest Side are protesting the archdiocese's decision to put Queen of Martyrs Principal M. Jacob "Doc" Mathius on administrative leave after he told students the school’s mask mandate was ending.... School districts statewide have been reconsidering their mask mandate policies following a state judge’s ruling against such mandates in public schools. Private institutions like Catholic schools can still have mask mandates independent of the ruling, but some dioceses in the state have announced the end of their mask requirements, according to the National Catholic Register. Read The Unique Challenge of a Catholic Education by Gertrude Clarke at Catholic Herald. I ask about the other aspect of pupils’ lives: the internet and social media. “When we were growing up there was one moral universe,” Stubbings says. “Everyone knew the boundaries, some people crossed them. Now there are two.” And the characteristic of the online moral universe is “hyper-personalism.” All young people, he thinks, are “dual nationals,” belonging to the normal world of family and school, and of the hyper-personalized internet. Read