Catholic High Schools.

Report of Joint Committee on High Schools Read at General Meeting of the Cath= olic Educational Association,

St. Louis, July 13, 1904.

At the meeting of the Catholic Educational Association in Philadelphia, in October, 1903, a committee on High Schools. was appointed, consisting of two members each from the Catholic College Conference, and the Conference of Parochial School Superintendents, for the purpose of investigating the condition of Catholic secondary schools and suggesting ways and means for the establishment of Catholic high schools. The committee named consisted of the Rev. J. A. Burns, C. S. C., President of Holy Cross College, Washington, and the Rev. Read Mullin, S. J., Vice-President of Georgetown University, representing the College Conference; and the Rev. Hugh T. Henry, President of the Catholic High School, Philadelphia, with the Rev. Morgan M. Sheedy, Rector of the Cathedral, Altoona, Pa., representing the Parochial School Conference. The first meeting of the committee was held soon after. Father Burns was elected chairman. A general discussion was had as to the work to be done, and after a careful mapping out of its main outlines, a specific portion of the work was assigned to each member of the committee, it being agreed that the committee should meet some time again. during the year to discuss the results of these individual investigations, and formulate a report to the Conferences.

The second meeting of the committee was held at Holy Cross College, Washington, on April 14, 1904. Each member submitted an individual report on the special topic assigned to him, and these reports were made the subject of general discussion.

The series of resolutions submitted below embodies the

chief points of agreement arrived at as a result of these reports and discussions. The resolutions were unanimously adopted by the committee and recommended to the Conferences. These resolutions form the basis of the report of the committee. Accompanying them is a general discussion, by the Rev. Chairman, of the facts and conditions upon which they are based, with the suggestion of ways and means for the establishment of high schools along the lines marked out. This is followed by a special report from Father Henry on the Philadelphia Catholic High School, including the curriculum of studies; and along with this there is an extremly interesting study of the new Girls' High School Centers in Philadelphia, by the Rev. Diocesan Superintendent. This last paper was prepared at the committee's special request. It evidences the need which exists in all our large cities for up-to-date Catholic high schools for girls, and is rich in suggestions as to how the more pressing problems in connection with their establishment and support may be solved.

RESOLUTIONS ON CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOLS.

I.

The principle of religious training in the school applies to the pupil of the high school age no less than to the pupil who is younger.

II.

A system of Catholie high schools which shall provide for the secondary education of boys as well as of girls is necessary, in order to complete the organization of Catholic education.

III.

The time seems opportune for a more general effort on the part of Catholics for the establishment of Catholic high schools.

IV.

In cities where there are several Catholic parishes there should be a central high school connected with the parochial schools of the several parishes.

V.

Under the foregoing plan of parish co-operation, the organ

ization of a Catholic high school is deemed at present feasible in almost every city of considerable size in the country.

VI.

Catholic high schools should be organically connected with the parochial schools, and be included in the diocesan school system.

VII.

While the high school is intended mainly for pupils who do not go to college, it would fail of an essential purpose did it not also provide a suitable preparatory curriculum for those of its students who either desire to prepare for college, or would be led to do so, were such a preparatory curriculum offered.

VIII.

The preparatory curriculum of the Catholic high school should lead up to the curriculum of the Catholic College, and be at least the equivalent of its entrance requirements.

IX.

It is desirable, generally speaking, that Catholic high schools should be under the direction of the religious communities, and it is especially desirable that one or more of the religious communities of men should take up the work of establishing Catholic high schools for boys along the lines suggested in the foregoing resolutions.

Catholic High Schools.

BY THE REV. J. A. BURNS, C. S. C.

It was President Eliot, of Harvard who, in a notable exposition of his educational views, some years since, laid down the principle that "the aims and the fundamental methods at all stages of education should be essentially the same because the essential constituents of education are the same at all stages. This is the principle upon which rests the argument for the Catholic high school. If we are to have a distinctively Catholic training for the Catholic pupil, it ought to be along the whole line of his intellectual development. The parochial school alone will not do. The parochial school and the college together are not * Educational Reform, p. 322.

enough. They may be enough in France or Germany or other parts of the world where social and educational conditions are different from ours. But here they leave a gap. They do not provide sufficiently for the middle classes of our population. There are thousands of Catholic parents who are able and willing to give their children more education than they can get in the parochial school, without being able or willing to send them to college. For this class, the Catholic high school is an imperative need a need as imperative as is the Catholic parochial school for the pupil who is younger, or the Catholic college and university for the student who would seek the highest culture. As an eminent Catholic apologist has put it, in arguing for the need of a Catholic university from the necessity of parochial schools: "Is not all education of a piece, from the beginning to the end? Is the opposition to, the contempt for, the ignorance of, the specific teachings of Catholicism any less among the teachers of youth in the last stages of formation than when it is yet plastic and innocent? Is it not then that they are finally and irreparably in danger? When does a young man take his final bent in life? Is it not precisely in those wonderful years when he ceases to be a parrot repeating the page before him, and enters life a man, a young man, if you will, but with all the ardor and enthusiasm of youth? How does he now look upon God and the soul? How does he now read the history of mankind? What does he now think of the principles of conduct? whence do they arise, what is their sanction?''*

That there is a growing realization of the necessity of Catholic high schools, is evident from the widespread interest in the subject, as well as from the steady increase in the number of Catholic high schools. Three years ago, in a study of this question, I endeavored to ascertain as accurately as possible the statistics of these schools. An examination of the current Catholic Directory and the report of the Commissioner of Education shows a very considerable growth in the movement since then. The growth is most marked in that class of secondary schools. which are directly attached to parochial schools and taught by

Very Rev. T. J. Shahan, Sermon at the Consecration of Bishop Conaty.

Sisters. As I have elsewhere pointed out,* secondary schools of this class have features which are of especial interest, and seem to point the way to the solution of some of the greatest problems connected with the establishment of Catholic high schools. It is interesting to note, therefore, that the number of high schools attached to parochial schools is constantly increasing. Take the Sisters' schools, for instance, which offer a high school course for boys. Last year there were seventy such schools listed in the report of the Commissioner, against fifty-three three years ago, an increase of thirty-two per cent. But there are probably as many as thirty more which have not reported to the Bureau of Education. The number of boys taking high school courses in these seventy schools last year was 951, against 646 three years ago, an increase of forty-seven per cent; which shows that these schools are not only increasing in number from year to year, but are also becoming better appreciated and patronized by the Catholic public.

I have selected only such high schools as are open to boys as well as girls for the purpose of this comparison, because there is greater need for the establishment of high schools for boys than for girls. The existent provisions for the secondary education of Catholic girls, although inadequate, are much more ample than in the case of boys. There is need of Catholic high schools for girls in all our large cities, but there is much more urgent need of Catholic high schools for boys. For this reason, and in order to simplify my discussion of the subject, I shall limit myself in this paper to the question of high schools for boys, it being understood that what is said in this connection is also applicable to the question of Catholic high schools for girls.

From what has been said, it is evident that we have already a considerable number of Catholic secondary schools for boys. The number is, in fact, much greater than is commonly supposed. Besides the seventy Sisters' schools enumerated above, and which more accurate investigation would, as I have intimated, probably increase to 100, not less than sixty Catholic secondary schools for boys, conducted by men teachers, generally religious, are given *American Catholic Quarterly, July, 1901.