Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) has been recognized as one of the most significant philosophers of the 16th century. Born into a privileged family and raised during the period of the French Renaissance, he was educated in a private boarding school where all his lessons were taught in Latin. Because of his family’s great wealth, he was free to devote the first half of his life to jobs serving the public sector; including volunteering as a legal counselor, advisor to King Charles IX and mayor of the town of Bordeaux.
In 1571, at the age of 38, he retired from public life to his estate, where he isolated himself from all social and family affairs so that he could dedicate his time to reading, meditating, and writing. It was in his castle’s round library room – which contained more than 1,500 books – where Montaigne probed his mind and produced two highly influential books titled simply Essays; which he published in 1580. Montaigne wrote that “I am myself the matter of my book“, and his stated goal was to describe humans, and especially himself, with utter frankness.
Some of the key topics Montaigne explored in his various essays include:
Mankind’s dangerously inflated claims to knowledge and certainty
The assertion that there is no greater achievement than the ability to accept one’s limitations
The problem of trying to locate truth in commonly accepted ideas that are false or unexamined – especially since many things we held yesterday as articles of faith today we know as fables.
The importance of freeing ourselves from outside influences, customs and opinions
His belief that the best path to understanding truth is by a careful exploration of one’s own body-and-mind.
Montaigne believed that the self, even with all its imperfections, was the best possible place to begin the search for truth, even though our identities can’t be defined as a stable thing because it is always changing. The most obvious example to him was the struggle of living with the infirmities of a human body. “Our bodies smell, ache, sag, pulse, throb and age regardless of the best desires of our mind“. It is only in acceptance of these traits that we can remain faithful to the truth of one’s being.
Montaigne isolated himself while writing his Essays but maintained the importance of maintaining contact with the outside world of other people and events because one can learn much that is useful from others. He described human beings as having a front room, facing the exterior street, where they meet and interact with others, but also with a back room where they are able to retreat back into their interior private self to reflect upon the vagaries of human experience and consider how it impacts their intimate identity.
Montaigne was refreshingly different from other philosophers and academics of his day who believed that their advanced powers of reason were a divine gift that gave them mastery over the world and a happiness that was denied to lesser educated creatures. He mocked those philosophers who were proud of their big brains and his writings come across as wise and intelligent – but also as modest and eager to debunk the pretensions of learning.
He wrote of his fellow academics and philosophers: “On our highest thrones in the world we are seated, still, on our arses” and, “…in practice, thousands of little women in their villages have lived more gentle, more equable and more constant lives than us.
He mocked books that were difficult to read. He found Plato boring and just wanted to have fun with books. “I’m not prepared to bash my brains out for anything, not even for learning’s sake – however precious it may be. If one book tires me, I just take up another“.
[note: I must admit that this sentiment makes me feel somewhat better about my decision to hold off reading the notorious difficult novel Ulysses by Irish writer James Joyce].
Montaigne was honest about the limitations and usefulness of his own intellect and attacked his prestigious academic friends for studying difficult things that were not useful to our lives.
“Difficulty is a coin which the learned conjure with so as not to reveal the vanity of their studies. Intellectuals would prefer you to study other people’s books way before we study our own minds. If man were wise, he would gauge the true worth of anything by its usefulness and appropriateness to his life”
I can’t help but wonder if Montaigne’s admiration for the working class – and life’s simple things – stemmed from the decision his humanist father made to leave him for three years when he was a small boy in the sole care of a peasant family in their town, in order to “draw the boy close to the people, and to the life conditions of the people, who need our help“.
Whatever the reason for his modest and humble personality, Montaigne comes across as one of the world’s first examples of a tolerant mind; a breath of fresh air in the cloistered and snobbish corridors of 16th century academia. He became an inspiration and encouragement to all those who felt put-upon and patronized by the arrogance of self-proclaimed clever people.
Montaigne tells us that each one of us is richer than we think. We may all arrive at wise ideas if we cease to think of ourselves as unsuited to the task just because we haven’t been classically trained or happen to lead an ordinary life.
The inscription Montagne had placed on the crown of the book shelf in his library was “I do not understand; I pause; I examine“. He had the inscription placed there to remind him of the limitations of his own knowledge and to caution him about the dangers that can result when one hastily forms opinions without careful consideration of all the facts.
Too many people today, especially since the advent of social media – which allows anybody to pass themselves off as experts – form their beliefs by adopting commonly accepted ideas or by making broad generalizations. Outside influences and political talking points trigger knee-jerk reactions from those who fail to take the time to study all sides of a topic – or to consider what is the truth and what is morally just.
It would be refreshing if more of us today, before forming our opinions, would like Montaigne, acknowledge the limitations of our knowledge, admit that we don’t fully understand a topic and then take time to examine all aspects of the issues in question using qualified experts in the field as our guides.
The danger of operating a society with uninformed or half-informed subjects was identified as early as the 2nd century by the Roman writer Publilius Syrus who said that it is “Better to be ignorant of a matter than to half know it“.
Today there are so many competing sources of information, where anyone with a computer can offer their uninformed opinions. Few people check the credentials of writers or the authenticity of the facts, and foreign actors can easily spread misinformation along via unregulated social networks.
The next time we are asked to form an opinion or make a decision about subjects we do not fully understand, we would do well to follow the sage advice of Montaigne: Do not let somebody else speak for you and do not fall prey to the pressures of biased outside influences. Instead take a moment to pause, study all sides of the issue, consult qualified experts and sources, and endeavor to reach true understanding.
If you can summon the conviction and discipline to do this, then you will be able to take solace knowing that even though you can not govern external events, you at least govern yourself.
I recently read an article in TIME magazine about an interesting new economic theory called Dougnut Economics. The concept was first introduced by the British economist Kate Raworth in a 2012 Oxfam report and then developed more fully in her 2017 book ‘Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st century economist‘.
Raworth proposed the new economic model as a way to address one of humanity’s most challenging problems: how to reduce global poverty without depleting or damaging the planet’s limited natural resources.
The economic theory comes by its name because it is visually represented by two doughnut-shaped discs as shown below. The disc in the center represents a social foundation consisting of the basic fundamental rights all humans ought to have, like access to food & water, housing, education, work, etc. The outer disc represents earth’s ecological ceiling consisting of the environmental thresholds which cannot be exceeded if we want to guarantee the future prosperity of the human species.
The middle green area represents the doughnut, the space where humanity can thrive and progress if the planet’s boundaries are respected. Society’s goal should be to bring all of human life into the “goldilocks zone”; that sweet spot area where everyone has what they need to live a good life, but without overshooting the ecological ceiling limits which would cause further degradation of the environment and jeopardize the health of the Planet.
Capitalism has been the world’s dominant economic system since the 16th century and its adoption by the world’s fastest growing countries has transformed life on earth by helping to lift billions of people from poverty. It is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.
Proponents of the Doughnut economic theory argue that capitalism is an imperfect system because it emerged during a time when humanity saw itself as separated from the web of life, one where ecological issues were ignored or labeled externalities.
The broad measure used as an economic scorecard in capitalist economic systems is the Gross Domestic Product or GDP. It is a measure of the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders during a specific time period.
The Doughnut economic theory recognizes that economic prosperity depends not only on growth as measured by GDP but on human and natural well-being as well; and it encourages societies to shift to an economic model that is more regenerative and distributive than today’s capitalistic system.
They argue that continued application of 20th century economic thinking is not sustainable or responsible now that the world is aware that the planet is teetering on the edge of a climate breakdown and we know we will witness the death of the living world unless we transform the way we live.
In a doughnut world, local economies would sometimes be growing and sometimes shrinking. It recognizes that growth is a healthy phase of life but endless uncontrolled growth, like cancer, can be harmful to our overall health. Significant GDP growth may be very much needed in low and middle income countries to ensure that their communities can overcome the shortfalls that create deprivations for their citizens, while richer countries would focus not so much on growth but on maintaining their thriving social foundations but at a reduced ecological cost.
Adopting such an economic theory would help balance the inequities that are present in the world today – one where the high living standards of the people in rich countries have them overshooting the planet’s ecological ceiling, while people in poorer countries fall short of the fundamental human rights that comprise the doughnut’s social foundation.
Many economists are skeptical of the doughnut economic theory because in order for it to work it asks humans to magically become indifferent to wealth and income or how well they are doing compared to others. That is a difficult ask when the world includes 7.3 billion people.
Different class and national interests are always fighting one another and it is naïve to believe that globalized capitalism will suddenly transform itself to become more cooperative and gentle; especially when all indicators point towards citizens today becoming more commercially motivated, self-centered and focused on money and success.
I too am skeptical that something as revolutionary as a Doughnut economics system could be universally adopted given today’s political divisiveness, uncompromising culture wars, and money-fueled corporate lobbying interests. Too many rich and powerful people benefit from the economic status quo – and would use their influence within the halls of power to protect their self-interests.
However, the encouraging thing about doughnut economic programs is that they can be run at a grassroots level. Since its introduction many homes, towns, cities, and states have bypassed their national governments and done what they could to apply the concepts behind doughnut economics from the bottom up – to try and help their local societies become more resilient.
Cities have become the laboratories of doughnut economic programs. The simple way that the doughnut economic model captures both the needs of the people and the needs of the planet makes it a convenient tool for leaders to have big conversations about reimagining and remaking the future. Ideas based on doughnut economics are now being discussed, debated and put into practice in academia, business, and in town, city and national governments worldwide.
Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dunedin, Melbourne, Berlin, Portland and even Austin TX are examples of cities applying the new economic concepts as a way to help their cities attain social and environmental sustainability. Since the theory doesn’t lay out specific policies or goals, stakeholders are free to have constructive conversations to decide what benchmarks would help bring their communities inside the doughnut.
Amsterdam’s lofty ambition is to bring all 872,000 of their residents inside the doughnut, ensuring that everyone has access to a good quality of life, without putting more pressure on the planet than is sustainable. They have implemented a true price initiative which takes into account the carbon footprint of the goods and services they produce as well as the living wage requirements of the workers. To satisfy the dual need for more affordable housing and reduced CO2 emissions, Amsterdam has implemented laws making the use of recycled and natural materials mandatory in the construction sector and they have started transforming neighborhood parking lots into community gardens.
Without a series of universal solutions, which do not exist and will probably never exist, it will be up to the politicians and economists to determine which elements of the donut system can be implemented successfully and to what extent. Amsterdam has made a start by applying this litmus test question to all their municipal project decisions: “Will doing this project actually make our community healthy and happy?”
To all my readers, wherever you may be: I hope you are healthy and happy and living comfortably in the sweet spot of the donut – and I hope that you are thinking about what life decisions you can make today to ensure that future generations will have that same chance to have a bite out of the donut as you.
It seems like everyone I talk to believes that 2020 was a terrible year. It’s easy to understand why given the COVID-19 pandemic, the global recession, numerous episodes of racial injustice, refugees fleeing their homes, continued global warming, and to top it off, a bitter election year battle for the soul of the America.
Every day we are assaulted with negative news about wars, shootings, protests, pollution, inequality, poverty and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. These stories suggest that the world is in bad shape and many people living today are convinced that things here on earth have never been worse.
Despite all the depressing news coverage, people ought to be told that the world has actually never been better than it is right now. As hard as it is for us to believe – humans, as a species, are doing a lot better than we ever have.
That is the conclusion that Harvard professor and acclaimed science writer Steven Pinker comes to in his 2018 Ted Talk and in his book Enlightenment Now. Pinker argues that the world is not that bad. In fact, he says when you look at all of the objective data, our world is in the best shape it’s ever been and humanity is improving every day. He concludes that now is the best time in the history of the world to be alive.
We know that people did not live well in the distant past, regardless of how much money they had. For the vast majority of human history — if you were lucky enough to survive childbirth, life really was nasty, brutish and short. It was lived at the edge of starvation, and to modern eyes it looks unpleasant, boring and sometimes terrifying.
Pinker uses numerous categories as a yardstick to measure the variety of ways that the world is better for humans now compared to the past:
We’re all Living Longer
The average life expectancy of people today compared to the past clearly shows that humanity is flourishing. Just 250 years ago, one-third of children in the world’s richest countries did not live to see their fifth birthday. Today, even in the world’s poorest countries, more than 94% of children survive past their fifth birthday.
The life expectancy of a person born in England in the year 1558 was 22 years old! It slowly increased over the next few hundred years but it wasn’t until 1907 that the average life expectancy reached 50.
Today the average worldwide life expectancy is 70 years old and in developed countries it is over 80. There is nowhere on Earth where life expectancy is less than 50.
The advancements we’ve made globally in the last 100 years, even in our poorest, most war-torn countries, are incredible. The life expectancy in Somalia today is higher than the highest life-expectancy of any country in the world 100 years ago. In this respect even the poorest of third world countries is better off today than the richest, most powerful countries were in the early 20th century.
It is hard for those of us living today to imagine living during a time when so many people died so young. But all you have to do is walk around an old cemetery of people who lived in the 17th and 18th centuries to get an idea of how commonplace it is to encounter the gravestones of infants and children who died at a very young age; and how remarkable it is to encounter a gravestone of someone who lived past 80.
As an example, during a recent hike I came upon an old cemetery and was struck by the tragic family gravesite of Ansel & Esther Howard. They had three daughters: Sally born in 1825, Silvia born in 1827 and Nancy born in 1834. All of them died young. Nancy in 1836 at the age of 2, Silvia in 1845 at the age of 18 and Sally in 1846 at the age of 21. What heartache their parents must have suffered.
Family Gravesite of Ansel & Esther Howard
We’re Healthier Now
A big factor behind the gradual increase of human longevity has been incremental advancements made by the medical field over time. The discovery of antibiotics, vaccines, targeted medicines and proven disease treatment protocols – along with the increasing availability of clean tap water – have kept us alive and made our lives less miserable.
Our increasing knowledge of the human machine and how to keep it healthy has directly led to more people adopting healthy lifestyle regimens (diet, exercise and sleep) that when followed prevent or delay the onset of aging related diseases.
Thanks to the discovery of antibiotics like penicillin, developing an infection does not have to mean death or the amputation of a body part; and thanks to vaccines, virulent contagious diseases like Smallpox (which was responsible for the deaths of more than 300 million people in the 20th century) no longer terrorize the earth.
We’re Safer Now
If you only paid attention to the news, you would probably think that crime is at an all-time high, when in actuality the American crime rate is at a 50 year low and roughly half of what it was in 1990. In the last thirty years alone, the homicide rate has dropped from 8.5 per 100,000 to 5.3 per 100,000.
There is also less conflict between countries today. Before the advent of modern democracies most of the world was run by fanatics and madmen like Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan who would destroy entire cities and murder their populations over the slightest provocation.
During the 1950s, there were an average of six international wars per year going on, with approximately 250 people per million dying war-related deaths. In the last ten years the world has averaged only one war per year with less than 10 people per million dying per year. There has also been a reduction in the number of nuclear arms from more than 60,000 in 1988 to 10,325 in 2017.
There are still far too many conflicts in the world, but as hard as it might be to believe, there are much less of them than there ever have been before.
And let’s not forget that a great Civil War was fought to eliminate the scourge of a robust slave trade that abducted millions of Africans, shipped them to foreign shores where they lived in bondage and were subjected to the atrocities of rape, beatings, family separations, lynchings, racial hatred and political disenfranchisement.
Other developments over the last 50 years years that have served to make us safer include:
Labor laws ensuring greedy businesses do not exploit children or force workers to toil under unsafe operating conditions.
Civil rights laws preventing discrimination against employees and job applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age.
Department of Transportation agencies establishing codified safety standards for automobiles, highways, railroads, aircraft, boats and the safe transport of hazardous materials.
Because of our adherence to these safety standards over the last century we’ve become 96% less likely to die in a car accident, 88% less likely to be killed on the sidewalk, 99% less likely to die in a plane crash, 95% less likely to be killed on the job, and 89% less likely to die from a natural disaster.
Environmental Protection regulations protecting the nation’s air, land and water from being polluted by the waste generated by the Industrial Revolution.
Prior to these environmental protections laws, the industrial waste generated by factories was allowed to be dumped directly into the environment poisoning the air, land, and water and sickening the people who came in contact with it. Thirty years ago in the US, there were 35 million tons of hazardous particulate matter in the air, today that has been reduced by 40% to 21 million tons.
As a young boy growing up in the 1970’s I remember there were rivers that were considered too polluted to fish because they were downstream from a paper mill or factory. Other rivers had no fish because they had been killed from the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide compounds that poured into the streams in the form of “Acid Rain”. Today, these rivers run clean and the fish thrive.
There is Less Poverty Now
Global poverty is one of the worst problems that the world faces. The poorest in the world today suffer with diminished health because they are often hungry, poorly educated and have no reliable access to electricity, plumbing or medical care.
For much of history, only a small elite enjoyed living conditions that would not be described as ‘extreme poverty’ today. But with the onset of industrialization and rising productivity, the share of people living in extreme poverty started to decrease. Over the course of the last two centuries, one of the most remarkable achievements of humankind has been the reduction in the share of people that are living in extreme poverty.
Two hundred years ago 90% of the people in the world suffered from extreme poverty, today less than 10% do. As recently as 50 years ago, half of the people in the American South lived in extreme poverty and had no hope of improvement – but today no southern state has a poverty rate higher than 20%.
Cutting the global poverty rate in half since 1990 has translated into approximately one billion less starving, desperate people in the world today.
The trend continues to be positive due to globalization of the world’s economies and government social programs that provide aid to the needy. It is important however, for us living today to recognize how incredibly privileged we are to live at a time when, thanks to technological advancements, even the poorest citizens live in more comfort than the richest kings of yesterday.
We’re more Educated Now
When my mother was a young girl growing up in the 1930’s she was lucky to attend elementary school through the 7th grade. She was part of a farming family and her father thought it was more important for her and her seven siblings to stay home and help him run the farm.
That was the norm back when children were put to labor at an early age on the farm or in the factories. Educating children was not a priority or a requirement, so many children never participated in formal school training.
Before the 17th century, only 5% of Europeans could read or write. Today, more than 90% of the world’s population under the age of 25 can read and write. Literacy is at an all-time high and a more educated populace has had a direct effect on lowering the global poverty rate.
In addition, patriarchal dominated systems around the world are now being pressured to offer equal education opportunities for the women in their country that were denied in the past.
We’re more Productive Now
Constant advancements in science and technology have been the foundation underlying most of the reasons why humans are better today. Poverty, life-expectancy and quality of life are all better because science is being harnessed to make us more productive.
Take hunger as an example. Back in the 1970s, many people were concerned that the world would not have enough food to keep up with the growing population. That fear was portrayed in the old movie Soylent Green. Food shortages would have been a major problem indeed, had not science made remarkable advancements in the areas of agriculture and food-resource management which enabled the food industry to exponentially increase their crop yields.
People also have more free time today to devote to productive pursuits because new labor-saving gadgets have been invented that dramatically reduce the amount of time we spend doing housework. In the last 100 years, the average time spent doing housework has fallen from 60 hours a week to fewer than 15 hours a week! That gives modern humans an additional 45+ hours per week to spend pursuing productive activities, making it possible for women to leave home, join the workplace, and make positive contributions to society.
Finally, the advent of the world-wide Internet and global cellular communications has had a tremendous multiplying effect on society’s productivity. We take it for granted today that most everybody has a smart phone genie in their pocket that, within seconds, can connect them to anyone at any time, give them precise directions on how to navigate to any destination, play any song ever recorded or answer any question that they can think up.
None of this technology existed 20 years ago. Think about how amazing it is that you can find just about anything you want within seconds – a book, a movie, a new pair of boots. We get to live in the kind of world that used to be imagined only in science-fiction novels. My 92 year old mother, who we are training to use an iPad, stares at us in wide-eyed wonder when we show her what she can do with the device. She can attend her Church service, visit with her grandchildren and watch her soap opera all without leaving her chair!
Of course, constant communication and information overload also plays a part in explaining why everyone is so convinced that things in the world are so bad now. Everything is so immediate, the entire world laid out in real-time before us – and that can be scary and stressful.
But the information overload may actually help save us because it makes us look the world in the face and confront all the evil that has nowhere to hide anymore. We can’t pretend George Floyd wasn’t unjustly killed because we all watched him slowly murdered by the police on our TV screens and Twitter feeds. In a sense, the outrage, horror and disgust that gets generated by exposing these heinous events actually helps keep the world from spinning further out of control by bending the arc of the moral universe further toward justice.
Contemplating all the ways that the world is better for humans today compared to the past was a good exercise for me because, as my wife reminds me, I do have a tendency sometimes to focus on the negative (when I do this, my wife calls me Eeyore because my behavior reminds her of the gloomy sidekick character portrayed in the Winnie the Pooh children’s books).
You can always fool yourself into seeing a decline if you compare the constantly bleeding headlines of the present with the rose-tinted memories of the past.
Pinker concludes that while the world still has plenty of problems to solve, it’s healthier for us to look at the big picture and see the glass as half full. “We will never have a perfect world, but there’s no limit to the betterments we can attain if we continue to apply knowledge to enhance human flourishing and if we think of issues like climate change and nuclear war as problems to be solved instead of apocalypses in waiting.”
I have a new appreciation for all the blessings that come with living in the present age, I feel grateful to be a beneficiary of all the progress the world has made, and I look toward the future with optimism, in the hope that it will be an even better world for my grandchildren.
So, I salute 2020 as the best year ever! Henceforth, whenever I feel my inner Eeyore rising, I will remember how good I have it and remind myself to always keep on the sunny side of life.
There’s a dark and a troubled side of life There’s a bright and a sunny side, too Though we meet with the darkness and strife The sunny side we also may view
Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side Keep on the sunny side of life It will help us every day, it will brighten all the way If we’ll keep on the sunny side of life
Lyrics to old Folk Spiritual “Keep on the Sunny Side of Life” as sung by the Carter Family
My connection with Catholic education is long and deep. It includes growing up attending grades 1-5 at a Catholic school, watching my two daughters progress through the Catholic education system, supporting my first wife as she happily labored for a decade as a Catholic Kindergarten teacher and most recently three years spent serving on the School Board of a Catholic Elementary School.
Catholic schools took root in the United States in the early 1900’s when church officials, responding to anti-Catholic sentiment in the public schools, urged every parish to build its own school. Enrollments peaked in the early 1960s, when there were more than 5.2 million students attending Catholic schools.
Staffed by religious orders the schools quickly gained reputations for discipline and academic rigor with results that showed Catholic school students significantly outperforming public schools students in reading and math.
Most educators know that Catholic schools work and have worked for a long time. A variety of studies have all supported the conclusion that Catholic schools do a better job educating children, especially the poor and minority populations, than public schools. How do they do it?
Discipline and Rigor
There is a joke about a kid whose parents were so fed up with their son’s constant discipline problems in the public school that they finally said, ‘That’s it! It’s Catholic school for you.’ They sent him and were surprised when they didn’t get any calls about their son’s behavior from the school. ‘What’s up?’ the dad asked. ‘The nuns been boxin’ your ears?’ ‘No,’ says the kid. ‘They didn’t have to. When I got to school, I saw this guy hanging from a cross with nails in his hands and feet and I figured they meant business.’
The grain of truth behind that joke is that Catholic schools are very good at getting kids’ attention. Catholic schools stand out because they establish order and discipline in all things: students must do their homework, eat their lunch, maintain good posture, demonstrate modesty in dress and behavior and be kind to one another.
Those of us who attended Catholic schools learned quickly that there were no prizes given for just showing up – if we mispronounced a word we had to put a nickel in the “mission box” and recesses were spent practicing poor penmanship until it was perfect.
It was explained that all of us were there for the greater glory of God and the curriculum was designed to deliver a comprehensive vision of life that revealed to students the truth of their duties to God, to themselves, and their neighbors. To prepare them to be ‘better’ so they could play a productive role in society and in God’s plan.
The research paper Catholic Schools and the Common Good reported that Catholic Schools’ consistent approach to education, which focuses on academics inside a disciplined and ordered environment, was effective because it did not just rely on the teachers. It succeeded even when the teaching and the curriculum were “ordinary.” The authors wrote that Catholic schools —“manage simultaneously to achieve relatively high levels of student learning, distribute this learning more equitably with regard to race and class than in the public sector, and sustain higher levels of teacher commitment and student engagement.”
Dedicated teachers and staff
With an average salary three times less than their Public school counterparts, it is obvious that money is not the motivating factor driving Catholic school teachers and staff. Despite the large discrepancy in pay, Catholic school educators consistently report having greater job satisfaction than their Public school counterparts.
Anyone who has ever been a Catholic school teacher will tell you that it is more of a “calling” than a “job”. With smaller class sizes, Catholic school teachers are better able to address the individual needs of each child and maintain high expectations for their students. They operate in a culture of caring that includes engaged parents, committed teachers and knowledgeable leaders – all who are invested in providing a quality education that is focused on developing the unique talents of each person.
Parents also expect Catholic school educators to serve as moral role models for their children. The CARA Institute at Georgetown University confirmed that “strong moral values” is the top reason parents choose to send their child to a Catholic school. Many of the parents who choose a Catholic school education want their child’s education at school to mirror the loving and supportive relationships they experience at home.
Academic Results
Catholic school students achieve superior academic results compared to Public school students. Consider the following research statistics:
On national tests, Catholic schools consistently outperform public and other private schools by as much as 20 percentage points.
Over 99 percent of catholic school students graduate. ACT scores are in the top 25 percent nationally.
Over 88 percent of high school students go on to college.
Catholic Schools were ranked #1 in the percentage of graduates who actively participate in civic and community activities.
Catholic school students learn that excellence is a response to God’s blessings. Students learn so as to help others, and make a difference in the world around them. They operate with the philosophy espoused by Cardinal Mercier that “All knowledge is sterile which does not lead to action and end in charity.”
Safe Environment
Quality education only occurs when an environment is safe, stable and caring. Catholic schools are known for providing a nurturing and supportive environment that allows students to grow and prosper. They provide a community where each child is accepted, respected and given individual attention.
School Uniforms
Most students who attend Catholic schools are not fans of the parochial school uniforms that all students are required to wear. In fact, a favorite way to reward students is to give them permission for a “free dress” day.
Students may not like the old-fashioned look of the uniforms and the way they feel it suppresses their individuality, but each uniform serves to deliver these important messages to the school community:
Every student is a child of God, made in His image and a treasure of great worth.
Every student has value regardless of their race, sex, ethnicity, religious beliefs or socioeconomic status.
Catholic educators believed in the No Child Left Behind philosophy long before it became a Government program. The uniforms are a reminder that every student will be treated fairly and justly, that special privileges or advantages will not be extended to some students just because they have wealthy parents and can afford lots of stylish material things.
Commitment to Service
Catholic school students are taught that we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord, therefore, we have a responsibility to respond to the needs of others because we are all part of God’s family.
They recognize the signs of God’s love around them and are encouraged to become instruments of God’s grace in their own families, neighborhoods and the world around them by becoming actively involved in Service projects that make their communities a better place.
If Catholic schools are so good, why are they disappearing? What happened to a school system that at one time educated one of every eight American children? And did it quite well.
Despite all the positive benefits of a Catholic education, enrollment at Catholic schools continues to decline. According to the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), more than half of the nation’s Catholic schools have closed since 1960 (12,893 down to 6,429) and enrollment has plummeted from 5.2 million to 2.3 million students. Only 508 inner-city elementary Catholic schools remain in the country.
The same Catholic Elementary school where my children went to school, where my wife taught, and where I served on the Advisory Board recently closed their doors for good after 110 years of providing quality education to the inner-city children of Nashua NH.
IJS Elementary School Building, Nashua NH – 2018
Serving as a member of the school Advisory Board during this tumultuous time provided me with a close-up view of the challenges that many Catholic schools are struggling with today.
Rising Costs
I read a story about two fathers who were picking up their kids from a Catholic school. Both fathers were graduates of the Catholic school system and they were discussing the lowered standards and increasing costs of today’s Catholic schools compared with the Catholic schools they experienced a generation ago. At the end of the conversation one father succinctly diagnosed the root cause of the problem with the remark “Nothing wrong with this place, that a busload of nuns wouldn’t solve.”
Catholic schools are caught in a vicious cycle – the operating costs of the schools are rising at the same time the number of students enrolling is declining – forcing parents to shoulder a greater percentage of the costs. Put simply, the rising cost of providing a Catholic education has made it more difficult for parents to meet those rising costs.
A big component of those rising costs has been the steep decline in the number of nuns who are available to provide their professional teaching services. The Catholic schools systems were originally built and run for several generations on the backs of these guardians of moral order and academic achievement.
The ranks of religious sisters serving in Catholic schools has declined 70 percent since 1965 (from 180,000 to 54,000) and the Catholic schools have had to replace nuns (who only received room and board at the convent and very small annual stipends) with more expensive lay people who receive health care and pension benefits.
That large loss of cheap labor (only 3.2 percent of the professionals at today’s Catholic schools are clergy or in religious orders) has resulted in soaring tuition costs at Catholic schools. The average annual tuition at Catholic elementary schools has climbed 69% over the last ten years to $3,673.
The tuition at the elementary school where I served was $5,550 at the time it closed and even at that price, cost cutting measures like combining classes had to be employed and major fundraisers were required during the year in order to balance the budget – further taxing the school community.
These high costs work to price out the low and middle-income children the Catholic schools were designed to serve and even though scholarships are often available, many families are afraid to even consider Catholic schools because of the sticker shock.
Decline in the number of practicing Catholics
One of the factors in the decision to send our children to Catholic Elementary school back in the 1990’s was the support and encouragement we received from our Catholic Parish. We were part of a vibrant Parish community that consisted of many young families.
Every year, the Parish pastor would welcome a representative from the local Catholic schools to speak to the community and promote their schools. The Parish encouraged families to choose Catholic schools by offering subsidies that would lower the cost of tuition for their parishioners.
Since that time, weekly church attendance among Catholics has steadily declined. According to the Pew Research Center only 24% of Catholics regularly attend church services. The clergy sex-abuse scandal, which cost the U.S. church about $3 billion in settlements helped drive some people away. Less money in the collection plate meant less money to subsidize school tuition.
Many of the Churches that were once a spawning ground for funneling the next generation of students into the Catholic Elementary schools are now primarily populated only by middle-aged and elderly parishioners and Pastors are now reluctant to become ardent cheerleaders for Catholic education.
Families have more School Choices
If you look objectively at the problem of the decline of Catholic schools, one can say that it is simply the market talking. Families are deciding to send their children to other schools.
The expansion of charter schools, which offer an alternative to traditional public schools and charge no tuition, have hurt Catholic schools. It is estimated that one in three students gained by charter schools comes at the expense of Catholic schools. It is difficult to compete with an acceptable school alternative that doesn’t cost anything.
Catholic schools are at a disadvantage because the market they play in is not equitable. District-run public schools have students assigned to them and receive government funding. Charter schools also receive public dollars. Urban Catholic schools must rely on tuition and donations. When low-income families choose from a range of options, Catholic schools that charge tuition are disadvantaged.
Private-school-choice programs like voucher and tax-credit scholarship programs could help remove the inequities if they were extended to parents who choose catholic schools for their children, but these programs haven’t yet been adopted by the state and local governments on a scale that would stem the tide of closures.
One additional factor is that the public schools in the suburbs are not like the failing public schools that Catholics tried to avoid in the cities. Families who fled the cities for the suburbs discovered very quickly that it was expensive to build new schools and that the suburban public schools in their new communities were not as bad as the urban public schools.
Crumbling Infrastructure
One of my assignments while serving on the School Advisory Board was the Buildings and Grounds sub-committee. This sub-committee was responsible for assessing the operation and safety of the 80 year old school building and would recommend maintenance and upgrade projects to address failing and neglected school infrastructure.
As you can imagine, an 80 year old building requires a lot of maintenance and a lot of unexpected things, like burst pipes inside the walls, can happen at any time. Due to the school deficit, however, there was no money in the budget that was allocated for building repairs. Money for emergency school repairs had to come from loans from Church/Diocese or by targeting specific fundraising activities.
This is a common problem with many Catholic schools as most of them were originally built in the early 1900’s and are not up to the standards of more modern Public and Private schools.
This reality puts Catholic schools at a disadvantage when it comes to student recruitment as parents compare the building and ground facilities of the various schools and find the Catholic school facilities lacking. During my tenure on the Board, we tried for three years to find funds to add new playground equipment and new signs that would improve the appearance of our school – but it was not to be.
Decentralized Operation
Catholic schools are not run as a monolithic corporation. The Catholic school “system” is actually a loose and decentralized confederation of 6,500 schools supported by 18,000 different parishes in more than 150 dioceses. Most schools operate independently with some oversight by the Diocese while other schools are directly operated by religious orders, totally outside the influence of the diocese.
Instead of a school system, they can be considered a system of schools. The local parishes have traditionally been responsible for the schools and they can feel change happening at the local, neighborhood level quite quickly. But it takes time for the huge and institutionally undemocratic “Church” to see the trends and react, and they are just starting now to develop new regional strategies to respond to them.
Because of the independent organizations of the schools there is little coordination and cooperation between them. Some Catholic schools are thriving, with healthy enrollment numbers and surplus money, yet those schools are reluctant to provide assistance or share resources with other struggling Catholic schools because those schools are viewed as competitors rather than partners in Catholic education.
This lack of coordination also fails to take advantage of the savings that could be achieved through economy of scales if all of the Catholic schools were to pool their resources for such things as collecting tuition, enrollment allocation, custodial contracts, building maintenance, health care bargaining and common marketing.
What the future has in store for Catholic schools is unknown, but it is likely to look much different than the past.
The new reality is that Catholic schools will have to become expert fundraisers and marketers and promoters and lobbyists to survive.
Where Catholic schools are growing, it’s often because of innovative ideas, voucher systems, and outreach programs that target immigrant communities. School officials hope that smart planning can save schools and they are trying to improve finances by closing underused schools, consolidating schools into regional centers of control and consulting lay expert talent in the areas of marketing, finance and building management.
My role in actively supporting Catholic education has come to an end but I am still rooting for their success as should all people in the nation because Catholic schools not only work, they are good for America.
Catholic schools have established a solid reputation for safety, academic standards and moral values and they have provided families with a quality alternative educational choice for more than 150 years. This has been supplied at a nominal cost to families and at no cost to taxpayers – reducing the overall community tax burden and alleviating overcrowding in the public schools..
Their continued decline would have negative implications for public schools as NCEA estimates Catholic schools are a form of subsidy to the nation that saves public schools approximately $21 billion a year in costs.
Even though it is wishful thinking and unlikely to ever happen – there is one thing I am hoping the future does have in store for Catholic schools – busloads of nuns.
School was not my favorite thing when I was attending grades 1 through 5 at a Catholic elementary school in my hometown – mostly because of the rigors and discipline that were imposed on the students by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Those sisters demanded obedience and made embarrassing examples out of any child found to be cutting corners or violating the rules. I did not thrive but I did manage to adapt to that austere school environment.
When I was 12 years old, my parents decided to enroll me in the sixth grade of the local public Elementary school because it was closer to my home and less expensive for my parents – who were doing their best to make ends meet while supporting their large family of 8 children.
I was the new kid in class and it was the first time I was exposed to a teacher who was not a Nun. My teacher, Mr Genaitas, was a man who became the first person in my life, outside my family, to really encourage me and motivate me to want to do my best.
While attending the Catholic elementary school I was just an average student at best – nothing special – but in my new public school surroundings I suddenly found myself at the top of my class, quickly becoming a favorite of my teacher who was delighted by my addition to his class. He pointed me out as an example for the other kids to follow, awarded me special privileges for my assistance in tutoring other kids and suggested to me additional readings that he thought would challenge me.
I came to realize later in life that I probably owed my sixth grade success, and many of the fruits of my life’s later accomplishments, to the rigor and discipline that I learned at the hands of those Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Despite the negative aspects of the education system employed by the Nuns, they certainly instilled in me the values of hard work and sacrifice that have served me well throughout my whole life. My experience is that the Catholic education system teaches good learning habits that stay with you for life.
The things I got in abundance from Mr Genaitas that I did not get from the Nuns is encouragement, praise, validation and self-esteem. At the end of my sixth grade school year I left for Junior High School filled with confidence and the belief that the direction my life could take had endless possibilities. Sometimes on my way home from Junior High School I would stop by my old 6th grade classroom and visit with Mr Genaitas. He would smile at me proudly and give me advice as I told him about my classes and the subjects I was learning.
Teachers have the power to change a life. I have heard numerous people fondly reminisce about a teacher from their past who they looked up to and who made a positive difference in their life. All it takes is one inspiring teacher but I was truly blessed to have had several such teachers in my life.
A recent event made me realize that it is also possible for students to create a memorable and long-lasting impact on their teachers. I was visiting my 90 year old mother and she told me that she had a chance encounter with my old High School History teacher while shopping at the Grocery store. She said he asked her how I was doing and wondered what I had done with my life, mentioning to her that teaching was always gratifying to him when I was in his class.
I was shocked that he even remembered me. A retired teacher in his late eighties, someone who taught thousands of students throughout his career, remembering me fondly for my participation in a class he taught over 40 years ago.
It brought to mind another teacher who was influential in my life; Dr. Leo Hines, a professor of Medieval Literature at the College I attended. Dr Hines introduced me to the great religious thinkers of the middle ages and challenged his students with lectures that made them think about how those philosophies could be applied in our times. Those discussions came at an important time in my life, at a point when I was learning to put away childish things and become a man of substance.
I was surprised to one day find this note from Dr Hines, along with a magazine article, in my College Campus mailbox. The note was another event for me that demonstrated how teachers especially appreciate students who actively participate in the classroom and who are attentive, curious and eager to learn.
Dear Alan,
Your Christian athleticism puts me in mind of an article of mine published in England about the time you were born. It appeared in The Month, July 7, 1962. Hopkins himself published in this periodical in the mid-nineteenth century.
You always guarantee me an intelligent class, for which I am glad, so I reciprocate herewith by giving you an intelligent gloss on your psyche. I was not aware when I wrote it, of course, that that was my intention.
See you in class.
Best always, Dr Hines
My inherent desire to learn about new things has always come naturally and it has been part of my daily practice to search for things that I can do to increase my knowledge.
You will notice that Aristotle’s advice to “Seek moderation in everything, except knowledge, for virtue is found in the mean between extremes” exempts the search of knowledge as the one thing that people can not do to extreme. Anything else can be done to excess, but not learning, because learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
Great and interesting things happen when we are curious and seek knowledge. Albert Einstein said “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious” and Walt Disney said “When you’re curious you find lots of interesting things to do”.
I hope I continue to remain curious and seek out knowledge to the end. When we learn new things we nurture growth points that bring new possibilities into our lives. So my advice is to go ahead and take that online physics class, read a book on a new subject, learn a new language, immerse yourself in a different culture, watch an educational documentary, visit a museum, start a new hobby, volunteer to help a charitable organization – always seek out knowledge and truth.
If you do, I’m certain your life will become filled with lots of interesting things to do!
I was listening to a Randy Newman recording when this phrase caught my attention. It is a twist on the phrase “I’ve been down so long, it looks like up to me” that was the title of a Richard Farina 1965 novel and was first used in the Furry Lewis’ 1920’s era blues song “I will turn your money green”.
The original phrase is meant to convey the hopeful attitude of those who are down and have had to struggle through life for any number of reasons, including their socioeconomic status; the place where they were born; their lack of access to education and healthcare; their abusive or dysfunctional families; their addictions; their mental or physical disabilities; and their lack of opportunities.
Despite their less than desirable circumstances, many in this class of downtrodden people manage to live an uplifting life, grateful for small blessings and trying to live with a positive outlook despite their tough circumstances.
In typical Randy Newman fashion, he employs a clever twist, exchanging the location of only two words in the phrase to convey an opposite downcast attitude displayed by many fortunate people; those who have been born into good circumstances with all the advantages that come with belonging to a wealthy and material rich society.
Despite all they have going for them, many of this fortunate class of people do not recognize how good they have it. They can’t picture themselves walking in the shoes of someone who is more unfortunate than them; yet they have no trouble imagining how great life would be to walk in the shoes of those who have more than they do – and instead of appreciating all that they have, they become envious of what they don’t have.
It is human nature I guess to take for granted all the good things that we have – and all the bad things we don’t have. It seems like we forget to be thankful and feel entitled to the good things we have – we can’t imagine what it would be like to go without all the best things that life has to offer.
Researchers have shown that affluent people are less generous and display less empathy for those who are poorer than they are. An April 2012 article in the magazine Scientific American reported the results of several studies that found as riches grow, empathy and generosity toward less affluent individuals decline, along with compassion for others. The researchers suspect that the reason may have something to do with how wealth and abundance give us a sense of freedom and independence from others. The less we have to rely on others, the less we may care about their feelings.
To help counteract this tendency, it is useful for those who are well off to consider these facts about world poverty from GlobalIssues.org:
Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
22,000 children die each day due to poverty.
About 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.
Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities.
2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized.
1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity.
More than 1 in 100 adults in the United States are in prison, and more than 9 in 100 black males are incarcerated.
Every year an average of 33,000 people die from gunshot wounds in the United States.
I have been guilty at times of failing to recognize my own good fortune and the incredible advantages I have been given compared to those who must struggle through life. I had the benefit of being born in a politically stable developed country, to parents who loved me, with good public and private schools, an excellent health care system and the opportunity to attend college rather than fight in a war.Because of these advantages I was enabled to reach my full potential.
I live in a house that I never could have dreamed owning when I was a kid, I drive a new car, enjoy the latest technological gadgets and am preparing for an early retirement in the near future. It is difficult for me to relate to the millions of refugees who are fleeing their war torn countries with just the clothes on their backs, or the struggling single mothers working 2 or 3 minimum wage jobs just to provide the basic necessities of life to their children.
I marvel at stories my Mother tells me about my grandparents, who were immigrant farmers from Canada who raised eight kids during the Great Depression. My Grandmother would not eat when there was not enough food, so that all the children would have something to eat – my mother would dig in the snow under the apple tree hoping to find some frozen apples to quench her hunger. Their family house burned down and they lost all their belongings and had to start from scratch.
My parents who only received a basic education, also managed to raise eight children by working multiple jobs, bringing in additional food and income when they could by living off the land, and living a frugal lifestyle.
Still, I sometime forget my family roots and the struggles they had to overcome, and it bothers me when I find myself complaining about some event in my personal or work life that is trivial compared to the challenges billions of people must face every day and the struggles those in my own family had to overcome in the past.
Here is some advice for those of you who want to avoid becoming afflicted with that “I’ve been up so long, it looks like down to me” attitude:
Start a gratitude journal to remind yourself every day how good you have it and how somebody always has it worst than you do.
Try to interact with or read about people who travel in different socioeconomic circles than you do. It can be centering to see life through the eyes of someone else.
Live a simple life and avoid the sin of comparison. Be happy with what you have. Don’t think yourself superior in some way because you have more than someone else – or become envious because someone has more than you do.
for virtue is found in the mean between extremes” exempts the search of knowledge as the one thing that people can not do to extreme. Anything else can be done to excess, but not learning, because learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
Words to Live By... 
