Dear Parents! You MUST read this Absolutely Awesome List! It is inspiring and a good affirmation as we head back to the classrooms for another year! This list was found on Catholic School Chronicle page. You may find a lot of great information in regards to Catholic Schools. But this list is really great.
Why should you send your children to a Catholic school? So they can experience:
- Prayer each morning before the school day begins
- Prayer before eating lunch
- Prayer at the end of each school day
- A Christmas concert rather than a “Winter Concert”
- Weekly Mass with their closest friends
- Learning about saints and other heroes of faith
- Praying the rosary
- Participating in the Stations of the Cross
- Spiritual retreats
- Celebrating the true meaning of Christmas
- Reading scripture regularly
- Praying with the entire school when disasters or tragedies occur
- Celebrating All Saints Day instead of Halloween
- No school on Easter Monday!
- Learning responsibility for their own education by fund raising
- Learning the connection between faith and reason
- Being able to talk to a teacher about religion
- Sharing faith journeys with each other
- Seeing priests on a regular basis
- Celebrating Mary in May
- Halls decorated with a manger during Advent and Christmas
- Talking with friends about what to give up for Lent
- Congratulating second graders on receiving First Communion
- Helping Catholic Charities with service projects
- Hearing Jesus’ name regularly, and not as a swear word
- Getting pets blessed on the feast of St. Francis
- Getting throats blessed on the feast of St. Blase
- Celebrating the Immaculate Conception
- Seeing teachers at Sunday Mass
- Connecting service with Catholic social teaching
- Hearing a consistent pro-life message
- Easy shopping for school clothes
- Being able to discuss the religious symbolism in works like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings
- St. Nicholas parties
- Epiphany parties
- Seeing the same friends at church that they see at school
- Learning about liturgical colors and seasons
- Discipline based on gospel values
- Crucifixes on the walls
- Statues of Mary
- Religious-themed bulletin boards
- Nearness to the Blessed Sacrament
- The chance to lector at school Masses
- The chance to serve at the altar at school Masses
- Making rosaries during Art
- Learning that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit
- Hearing “Make room for Jesus!” at school dances
- Seeing teachers wear religious-themed jewelry or clothing to school
- Hearing a teacher witness to his or her faith
- Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus at Easter
- Religious art on the walls
- A curriculum designed to help students grow in spirituality
- Learning about sacred music in Choir class
- The freedom to talk about any religion, rather than no religion
- An atmosphere that cares more about students getting in to heaven than into Harvard
- Spending seven hours a day in a faith community
- Learning about all vocation options including marriage, ordained and religious life
- Getting to listen to the Pope talk about school
- Discussing the religious and ethical implications of stem cell research, abortion, euthanasia, and other life issues
- Dressing up as their favorite saint for All Saints Day
- Constant support and encouragement in their spiritual life
- Exposure to classic spiritual works by St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis de Sales, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, Hildegard of Bingen, etc.
- Ash Wednesday Mass
- Daily exposure to the Bible
- Learning about the Catholic contribution to science through great Catholic scientists including Pasteur, Mendel, Lemaitre, Bacon, and Albertus Magnus
- A mission to educate the whole child: spiritually, as well as academically, morally, socially and physically.
- An outstanding academic program that helps students become their best selves
- The freedom to talk explicitly about the creator who has endowed us with the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
- Learning about the redemptive value of suffering
- Teachers who explicitly model their instruction after the great teacher, Jesus Christ
- Celebrating St. Joseph the Worker
- A strong intellectual history whose tradition of academic excellence is unmatched by any other organization that has ever been
- The development of a Catholic world view
- A natural integration with all aspects of family life, rather than a compartmentalized existence
- Moral development based on gospel values
- An antidote for the surrounding culture’s materialistic, image-centric distortions of reality
- Discovering what it means to live a “Christ-centered” way of life
- Learning the meaning of life in its fullness
- Coming to understand that at the heart of every subject is Jesus, “the way, the truth and the life”
- Learning to recognize the voice of God in all creation
- Learning to be a living witness to God’s love
- Being constantly reminded that God loves them
- Parent Nights that begin with prayer
- Hearing prayers at 8th grade graduation
- Mass to begin the year
- Mass to end the year
- Field trips to convents and seminaries
- Learning about the connection between faith and service to the poor and underprivileged
- Field trips to nursing homes to sing Christmas carols
- Classrooms visits by priests, deacons and women religious
- Learning different ways to pray
- Awards assemblies that begin with prayer
- Sports leagues that begin each game with prayer
- Student council meetings that begin with prayer
- Becoming comfortable talking about God and faith with peers
- Spending more hours a day in a room with a crucifix than in a room with a television
- Learning the history of the Catholic Church
- Acquiring the skills to spread the good news to all corners of the world
- Opportunities for Eucharistic Adoration
- Learning about the only thing that really matters: a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, lived out in a community of faith guided by the Holy Spirit, in order to more deeply and devoutly follow will of the Father
- Catholic Schools Week!