The Diocese of Charlotte school system, including Asheville Catholic School, focuses on how best to weave our faith throughout the curriculum so that students understand how they are connected, and establishing a context for other things they learn. In common conversation, we often ask how we can ensure the "Catholicity" of our schools remains strong and continues to grow.
A natural inclination is to look back through the history of the Church and identify the monumental impact the Catholic Church has had on education. We might recall Gregor Mendel, the Augustinian monk, called "the father of genetics" because of his discoveries while conducting genetic experiments with pea plants. Or, we might remember St. Augustine and his profound teachings as a Doctor of the Church. As an isolated approach, teaching students about these historical figures, while very important, makes it difficult for our students to see the relevancy, meaning and connection that our faith has to what they are learning each day in school. We must also show our students how they fit into the contemporary world with all of its challenges.
In understanding that all knowledge comes from God, we must not neglect to teach our students that the wisdom of how to use that knowledge also comes from God. Choose any admired thinker from any era, and you'll find someone whose knowledge and wisdom came from God. As educators, we must impress upon our students the enormous opportunity they have to make choices about how they might change the world with what they have learned in the classroom – in other words, how to use wisdom, a gift of the Holy Spirit, to guide their free will so they may fulfill God's mission for them.
This is where our focus should be when it comes to the "Catholicity" of our schools. What are we teaching our students to do with the knowledge gained in our classrooms? What problems are we facing that our students could grow up to solve because of what they learned from a Catholic education?
Pope Francis made the following statement about the struggles our schools face when it comes to instilling a Catholic worldview and finding solutions to the world's problems: "Again and again, the Church has acted as a mediator in finding solutions to problems affecting peace, social harmony, the land, the defense of life, human and civil rights, and so forth. And how much good has been done by Catholic schools and universities around the world! This is a good thing. Yet, we find it difficult to make people see that when we raise other questions less palatable to public opinion, we are doing so out of fidelity to precisely the same convictions about human dignity and the common good."
In his statement, not only does the Holy Father identify the major areas where we continue to see global concerns, but he does so while acknowledging the challenges of current public opinions.
At Asheville Catholic School, students experience a high level of academic challenge, while they also learn the virtues and other guiding principles needed to weather the storms of public opinion. Seeing to such a task must be intentional, or the prevailing winds that buffet our students while they navigate the narrow straits of today's culture will blow them off course. For example, at Asheville Catholic School, we have developed a model for global leadership that relies heavily on making the theological and cardinal virtues ubiquitous in the school culture. We combine these seven virtues with Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" to build a values system to serve students well when combined with the academic knowledge they gain. The principles found in the virtues are timeless and applicable to any situation – enormously important in today's society. If we have a student who combines a commitment to living out the virtues of our faith along with strong academic knowledge, even in the challenging culture of today, then we have someone who is well prepared to take on the problems of our world.
In 2014, Pope Francis identified three areas of focus for Catholic education: the value of dialogue, the qualified preparation of educators, and the responsibility of educational institutions to express the living presence of the Gospel in the fields of education, science and culture.
On his first point, he compared the task at hand for Catholic schools to that of Christ Himself when He proclaimed the Good News in a region that was a crossroads of people, culture and religion. The Holy Father acknowledges the profound changes that have led to an "ever wider diffusion of multicultural societies." This educational environment requires dialogue, as Pope Francis says, "...with courageous and innovative fidelity that enables Catholic identity to encounter the various 'souls' of multicultural society."
Addressing the preparation of Catholic educators, he went on to emphasize that the current educational environment is "guided by a changing generation," and that even the Church as a whole (as an educating mother) "is required to change, in the sense of knowing how to communicate with the young."
On his third point, Pope Francis reiterated that Catholic academic institutions should avoid "isolating themselves in the world." Instead, he said, Catholic schools should "know how to enter, with courage, into the Areopagus of contemporary cultures and to initiate dialogue, aware of the gift they are able to offer to all."
So, as we consider the value of a Catholic education in celebration of Catholic Schools Week, let us consider "Catholicity" not solely by looking back at history, but as an integral part of charting a path forward for our students so that they can make history – relying on Christ to guide them in solving the problems of our world.
Michael Miller is the principal of Asheville Catholic School.