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6 - Catholic Education

from Part II - Catholic Life and Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2021

Margaret M. McGuinness
Affiliation:
La Salle University, Philadelphia
Thomas F. Rzeznik
Affiliation:
Seton Hall University, New Jersey
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Summary

The growth and development of Catholic schools in the United States represented an ambitious, ideologically motivated, and faith-based effort on the part of both church leaders and the Catholic faithful to educate youth and young adults and provide an alternative to public schools, which were considered hostile to the tenets of Catholicism. The opening of the Ursuline Academy in New Orleans in 1727 laid a foundation for the most extensive privately funded system of schools in history. The Catholic school system – both parish schools and private institutions founded by religious orders – grew at a slow rate in the early years of the republic, but quickly accelerated with the arrival of Catholic immigrants at the midpoint of the nineteenth century, primarily from Ireland and Germany. This growth continued unabated until the mid-1960s, when the baby boom generation fueled demands for seats in classrooms across the nation. In 1965, the apex of Catholic school enrollments, 4.5 million children attended parish elementary schools. Over the years, the Catholic Church built an incredible network of educational institutions in every corner of the nation.

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Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Brinig, Margaret and Garnett, Nicole. Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools’ Importance in Urban America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Dolan, Jay P. The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985.Google Scholar
Gleason, Philip. Contending with Modernity: Catholic Higher Education in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Hunt, Thomas, et al. Urban Catholic Education: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times. New York: Peter Lang, 2013.Google Scholar
Oates, Mary J., CSJ. “The Development of Catholic Colleges for Women, 1895–1960.” U.S. Catholic Historian 7:4 (Fall 1988): 413428.Google Scholar
Perko, F. Michael, SJ, ed. Enlightening the Next Generation: Catholics and Their Schools, 1830–1980. New York: Garland Publishing, 1988.Google Scholar
Walch, Timothy. Parish School: American Catholic Parochial Education From Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1996.Google Scholar
White, Joseph. The Diocesan Seminary in the United States: A History from the 1780s to the Present. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990.Google Scholar

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