Oct 17, 2024
Study: Charters Hastened Catholic School Decline. Will ESAs Slow the Process? by Kevin Mahnken at The 74. The 2023–24 school year offered some encouragement for Catholic schools in the United States, with 20 new K–12 institutions opening around the country. Set against 55 closures or consolidations that also took place — the lowest number in years, according to a report from the National Catholic Education Association — total student enrollment managed to hold steady from the previous year. Just stopping the bleeding is considered a good omen in a sector that has lost more than 3.5 million pupils, or two-thirds of its headcount, since the 1960s. Read
‘He’s Having Fun!’: Why Children Should Be Encouraged to Play With Mud by Sally Weale at The Guardian. As a former play worker and founder and director of Opal (Outdoor Play and Learning), which supports schools to improve play opportunities, Michael Follett is evangelical about the benefits of unstructured outdoor play. “It is so important for children’s mental and physical health to have access to green space and nature every day, and if the price of that is getting a bit muddy then we should embrace it.” Read
In Praise of School Uniforms by Jenna A. Robinson at Intellectual Takeout. As a mom, I love school uniforms. They take the decision-making out of back-to-school shopping and my kids’ morning routines. But the benefits of school uniforms go far beyond my personal experiences. Most obviously, uniforms prevent students from wearing inappropriate clothing to school…But school leaders also favor uniforms to improve safety, promote school spirit, limit distractions, and save parents money. Read
Get Tech Out of Schools by Daniel Buck at National Review. Surveys find that students already spend at least one hour of class time on screens per day, with 27 percent of students spending five hours staring into Chromebooks and iPads at school. Seeing as the average school day runs for 6.8 hours — if you factor in passing time, lunch, and recess — that means over a quarter of students spend almost the entirety of their instructional time on a device. Read
These Three States Have School Choice on the Ballot by Kate Quiñones at Catholic News Agency. As Election Day approaches, three states will be deciding on policies regarding school choice. Colorado and Kentucky have amendments on the ballot to promote school choice, while Nebraska has a ballot measure that could repeal a recent school choice scholarship program. The Colorado and Kentucky ballot measures would enshrine school choice as a right if passed, setting the groundwork for legislation to implement school choice programs. Read
States Continue to Report High Levels of Home Schooling After Pandemic Boost, Study Finds by Kate Quiñones at Catholic News Agency. Home schooling continues to grow even as the pandemic is no longer a contributing factor, according to a September study that found multiple states reaching all-time-high numbers of home-schooled students. The Johns Hopkins School of Education’s Homeschool Research Lab in its 2023-2024 report on home school growth found that 90% of states that shared numbers with the institute reported that home schooling had increased since the previous school year. Read
UPDATE: Colleges With Strong Catholic Identity See Record Enrollment in Fall 2024 by Kate Quiñones at Catholic News Agency. College enrollment has been declining since 2010 by approximately 12%. Enrollment at private four-year colleges decreased by 54% from 2010 to 2021. Meanwhile, enrollment nationwide declined by 7% from 2019 to 2022. But at 11 Catholic colleges, enrollment is up, some with record enrollment rates. Read
Rembrandt: All Things to All Men by Mary Frances Loughran at Cana Academy. As with great works of imaginative literature, masterworks of art move us to understand and appreciate the human condition. And no master artist moves us better than Rembrandt. In his more than three hundred paintings, Rembrandt’s focus is riveted on what is real—specifically, the imperfect and yet glorious spectacle of human existence. Rembrandt captures intricate detail and, with a presciently modern sweep of his brush across the canvas, creates movement out of texture, producing paintings that many of his contemporaries regarded as unfinished. While the art world of his time was experiencing a revival of the classical ideal with its emphasis on perfect forms and portraits airbrushed of the weathering of age upon their subjects, Rembrandt painted with the eyes of a fellow man. Read
Childhood in American Literature by Haley Stewart at Word on Fire. Haley Stewart interviews Dr. LuElla D’Amico, an Associate Professor of English at the University of the Incarnate Word. They discuss the concept of childhood in North American literature, specifically girlhood, and how classic stories of girlhood help form the imagination for good relationships with the opposite sex. The conversation explores a variety of characters that demonstrate healthy femininity and masculinity in Anne of Green Gables and Little Women as well as contemporary titles that may become classics. Listen
Throwback Thursday
The Purpose of Mathematics in a Classical Education by Thomas Treloar at The Imaginative Conservative on January 23, 2023. One of the chief aims of mathematics has always been to reveal and describe an order in the natural world. Mathematics, as a language, reveals this order and harmony, yet it should also be lifted from this concrete foundation and brought into the world of the abstract…When surveying the landscape of classical education, it becomes evident that there is a clear vision available for the purpose of the study of humanities. What does not seem as clear, though, is the nature of mathematics in a classical education. Read