Since the beginning, my favorite place has been school.
My ideal Catholic school, the one I fancy creating, I lay before you.
Of course, it would require a very rich person build and endow it.
Staff: five tutors and a principal
No grade levels
Lower School (Building A)
Room 1, giant classroom, 25 boys with male tutor
Room 2, giant classroom, 25 girls with female tutor
Entrance requirements: child can read one-syllable and two-syllable words and simple sentences with basic punctuation (period, question mark, and exclamation point); child can count and do addition and subtraction
Curriculum: trivium and quadrivium, Catechism, Introduction to Latin
Upper School (Building B)
Seven periods
First floor
Room 3 English, Latin, rhetoric, speech, logic, history, civics, Catechism 25 boys with male tutor
Room 4 English, Latin, rhetoric, speech, logic, history, civics, Catechism 25 girls with female tutor
Second floor
Room 5, giant classroom and lab, STEM coed 50 students with one tutor, male or female
Entrance requirements: movement from Lower School to Upper School normally at age 13 or 14. Student evaluated by the tutors to determine whether he or she is ready. Gifted children advanced faster according to demonstrated ability. Scores on a national test to be used to strengthen weak areas.
Curriculum: English, Latin, US and world history, civics, rhetoric, speech, logic, Catechism, STEM (science to include short courses on subjects other than biology, chemistry, and physics, TBD by students and tutor), all courses tutored to SAT standards and Common Core ignored.
Credential not required; solid education and observable ability to teach are. Background check mandatory. All tutors to be practicing Catholics who have signed the Mandatum. Without the Catechism, education is purposeless.
Tutors must gain competency at teaching music and art appreciation, which is a secondary but important subject.
Learning to play a musical instrument or sing is for outside school.
Learning to draw or paint is for outside school.
Sport is not a subject; students are encouraged to participate in club sports.
Sex education to be done by parents at home and to be highly encouraged.
Wechsler test administered.
Testing is frequent and is to be used to determine a student’s weaknesses and progress. Semester grading is based on the amount of progress demonstrated, not tests.
Student body officers for lower and upper school.
No service requirements; parents to guide service in the way they see fit.
Verbal discipline leading to expulsion for those who cannot cooperate.
By necessity, the school would be cognizant of the fact that children, parents, and other adults sometimes lie as a result of the fallen nature of humanity. For this reason, the restriction against touching a child and the resulting outcry, which is supercilious, would not apply. However, each tutor would be coached at the start of every semester on proper physical contact with children.
Tutors and students clean the school.
Uniforms required of everyone at all times.
Tuition enough to pay the staff, nothing more.
The purpose of an education is threefold:
1) to know, love, and serve God
2) to be an educated person
3) to get a job
If I took the time, I could draw the school. There would be a separate school yard for lower and upper school and a shared auditorium. Latin Mass every first Friday of the school year for all in the auditorium. Confession required before Mass for those who have made their first confession. Every school day to begin (8:30 AM) and end (3 PM) with recitation of the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.
My ideal Catholic school, the one I fancy creating, I lay before you.
Of course, it would require a very rich person build and endow it.
Staff: five tutors and a principal
No grade levels
Lower School (Building A)
Room 1, giant classroom, 25 boys with male tutor
Room 2, giant classroom, 25 girls with female tutor
Entrance requirements: child can read one-syllable and two-syllable words and simple sentences with basic punctuation (period, question mark, and exclamation point); child can count and do addition and subtraction
Curriculum: trivium and quadrivium, Catechism, Introduction to Latin
Upper School (Building B)
Seven periods
First floor
Room 3 English, Latin, rhetoric, speech, logic, history, civics, Catechism 25 boys with male tutor
Room 4 English, Latin, rhetoric, speech, logic, history, civics, Catechism 25 girls with female tutor
Second floor
Room 5, giant classroom and lab, STEM coed 50 students with one tutor, male or female
Entrance requirements: movement from Lower School to Upper School normally at age 13 or 14. Student evaluated by the tutors to determine whether he or she is ready. Gifted children advanced faster according to demonstrated ability. Scores on a national test to be used to strengthen weak areas.
Curriculum: English, Latin, US and world history, civics, rhetoric, speech, logic, Catechism, STEM (science to include short courses on subjects other than biology, chemistry, and physics, TBD by students and tutor), all courses tutored to SAT standards and Common Core ignored.
Credential not required; solid education and observable ability to teach are. Background check mandatory. All tutors to be practicing Catholics who have signed the Mandatum. Without the Catechism, education is purposeless.
Tutors must gain competency at teaching music and art appreciation, which is a secondary but important subject.
Learning to play a musical instrument or sing is for outside school.
Learning to draw or paint is for outside school.
Sport is not a subject; students are encouraged to participate in club sports.
Sex education to be done by parents at home and to be highly encouraged.
Wechsler test administered.
Testing is frequent and is to be used to determine a student’s weaknesses and progress. Semester grading is based on the amount of progress demonstrated, not tests.
Student body officers for lower and upper school.
No service requirements; parents to guide service in the way they see fit.
Verbal discipline leading to expulsion for those who cannot cooperate.
By necessity, the school would be cognizant of the fact that children, parents, and other adults sometimes lie as a result of the fallen nature of humanity. For this reason, the restriction against touching a child and the resulting outcry, which is supercilious, would not apply. However, each tutor would be coached at the start of every semester on proper physical contact with children.
Tutors and students clean the school.
Uniforms required of everyone at all times.
Tuition enough to pay the staff, nothing more.
The purpose of an education is threefold:
1) to know, love, and serve God
2) to be an educated person
3) to get a job
If I took the time, I could draw the school. There would be a separate school yard for lower and upper school and a shared auditorium. Latin Mass every first Friday of the school year for all in the auditorium. Confession required before Mass for those who have made their first confession. Every school day to begin (8:30 AM) and end (3 PM) with recitation of the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.
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