Catholic Higher Education in America

Extract

To understand the position, the accomplishments and the problems of Catholic higher education in the United States, one must first understand the circumstances under which it was set up. The Catholic immigrants coming to the country found there an educational system already established, and established with an atmosphere that was anything but Catholic. American school law was strict in that it required every child to go to school, and American public opinion was becoming constantly more interested in extending the period in which he should remain in school. But along with this legal and social insistence or schooling there went a universal recognition that a parent could choose the school that his child would attend. He was perfectly free, if he so wished and could afford it, to send the child to a private school. There was neither a state monopoly of education as found in France, nor state aid to private schools as has been the case in England.

The American hierarchy had a choice to make. Would they allow Catholic children to be educated in the state schools and run the risk of loss of faith, or would they construct a Catholic school system and raise the money for it themselves? They chose the latter course, and by herculean effort and great sacrifice they built an educational structure whose aim was to duplicate the public-school system, grade for grade, subject for subject, advantage for advantage. This work would have been impossible without the teaching Orders, especially the Orders of teaching sisters.