Columbia ©ntoergitp 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
$ermi0su Sttperiorum. 
 
 A. MORRISSEY, CJ3.C, 
 
 Provincial. 
 
 Wt&il ©fistat. 
 
 ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, 
 
 Censor Librorum. 
 
 Imprimatur. 
 
 * JOHN CARDINAL FARLEY, 
 
 Archbishop of New York 
 
 New York, October 1st, 1917. 
 
CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 A STUDY OF CONDITIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. J. A. BURNS, C.S.C., Ph.D. 
 
 Author of "Origin and Establishment of the Catholic School System"; 
 " Growth and Development of the Catholic School System " 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO 
 
 FOURTH AVENUE & 30th ST., NEW YORK 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 
 
 1917 
 
; 
 
 If-. S 16 
 
 Copyright, 1917 
 
 BY 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 It has been my purpose in this work to describe 
 the condition of Catholic education in the United 
 States at the present time, and to direct attention 
 to the problems that must be solved in order to 
 insure its future progress. After a survey of the 
 general condition of Catholic education, its funda- 
 mental principles are examined from the stand- 
 point of religion and morality, as well as of modern 
 psychology. The relations — ideal and actual — of 
 the several departments of Catholic educational 
 activity to each other are next discussed. A 
 special study is then made of each of these depart- 
 ments, including grade schools, high schools for 
 boys, high schools for girls, colleges and sem- 
 inaries. 
 
 The book is intended primarily for Catholics, 
 but I have also had in mind non-Catholics who are 
 desirous of being fully informed about Catholic 
 education — its aims and methods, its problems 
 and difficulties, its achievements and future pros- 
 pects. Such readers will, I think, be specially in- 
 terested in noting the connection that exists be- 
 tween certain Catholic educational movements 
 
VI PREFACE 
 
 and general educational movements or tendencies 
 of the time. I am hopeful that the work, besides 
 contributing directly to the progress of Catholic 
 education, will thus help, in some measure, to 
 bring non-Catholic Americans to a better under- 
 standing and appreciation of the contribution 
 that Catholics are making, at such heavy cost and 
 sacrifice, to the advancement of the highest inter- 
 ests of our common country. 
 
 My thanks are due to a number of kind friends, 
 for the practical assistance they rendered me in 
 preparing the work for the press. 
 
 James A. Burns, C.S.C. 
 
 Holy Cross College, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Author's Preface v 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 General Conditions 
 
 A Quantitative View. Qualitative Aspect. Stability 
 of Catholic School System i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Religious and Moral Teaching 
 
 In the Public Schools. Religious Knowledge is the 
 Most Important. Religious Instruction and 
 Moral Instruction Must go Hand in Hand 15 
 
 CHAPTER IH 
 
 The Psychological Side 
 
 Some Current Teachings. The Correlation of Studies. 
 
 The Atmosphere of the School 30 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Inner Relations 
 
 Organization. Cooperation. Causes of Lack of Coop- 
 eration. What Has Been Accomplished. Lines 
 
 of Future Progress 48 
 
 vii 
 
viil CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 Teaching the Children 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Diocesan System. The Teaching. The Curricu- 
 lum. Keeping Children at School 66 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 High Schools for Boys 
 
 Number and Kind of Schools. Teachers. Relation to 
 Catholic Colleges. Relation to Parish Schools. 
 Cost. Proper Work of the Catholic High School. 
 Reorganization of the High School 88 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Secondary Education op Girls 
 
 Schools and Pupils. Free High Schools for Girls- 
 Quality of the Instruction. Woman's Changed 
 Position. Future Progress in 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 College Growth and Tendencies 
 
 Increasing Enrollment. Colleges for Women. Uni- 
 versity Development. Preparatory Departments 
 and Junior Colleges. The Curriculum — Standard- 
 ization. Endowment and Support. Freedom of 
 Teaching 126 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Inner College Problems 
 Discipline. Religion. The Teacher 149 
 
CONTENTS ix 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Seminaries 
 
 Diocesan and Religious Seminaries. Preparatory Sem- 
 inaries. Government and Discipline. Length of 
 the Curriculum. New Studies. Seminary and 
 College. Equipment and Support 169 
 
 Bibliography 193 
 
 Index 195 
 
CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 GENERAL CONDITIONS 
 A Quantitative View 
 
 Catholic schools are found in every State, and, 
 generally speaking, in number proportionate to the 
 Catholic population. In many of the States they 
 antedated the public schools and those of other 
 denominations. Catholic education extends to the 
 entire Catholic cosmopolitan population. There 
 are schools for Germans, French, Italians, Poles, 
 Spanish, Bohemians, Lithuanians, Slovaks, Greeks, 
 Hungarians, and Belgians, besides schools for the 
 Indians and colored people. The effort to care 
 educationally for these foreign nationalities has 
 proceeded along a definite and comprehensive 
 plan. Many religious teaching communities have 
 been formed for this work, the latest being a Slovak 
 Sisterhood founded in 1910, at Scranton, Pa. 
 
 Catholic education likewise undertakes to 
 provide completely for the development of the 
 
2 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 child, from the beginning of formal school work 
 to the completion of post-graduate studies. It 
 embraces kindergarten and elementary school, 
 high school, college and university. Furthermore, 
 two distinct types of institutions for both secondary 
 and higher education are maintained, for co- 
 education does not exist in Catholic colleges or 
 universities, and in secondary education it is found 
 only in the smaller schools. 
 
 There were 1,456,206 pupils in the 5488 Catholic 
 elementary schools in the United States in the 
 year 19 15. Elementary pupils in Catholic high 
 schools and academies would make an addition of 
 about 90,000 to this number. Pupils in orphan 
 asylums are not included. 1 About 36,000 teachers 
 were engaged in the elementary schools, nine-tenths 
 of these being religious, belonging to 275 teaching 
 communities. Male teachers numbered probably 
 less than one-fifteenth of the total. 2 
 
 In the same year, Catholic educational institu- 
 tions contained 74,538 pupils of secondary school 
 grade. This total was made up, approximately, of 
 17,000 boys in colleges, 29,000 pupils in high 
 schools attended by boys alone or by both boys and 
 girls, and 28,000 pupils in girls' high schools or 
 
 1 Cath. Dir., 1915. 
 
 2 Burns, Growth and Development of Cath. School System, 
 pp. 216, 381. 
 
GENERAL CONDITIONS 3 
 
 academies. 1 Altogether, the boys numbered 34,798 
 and the girls 39,740. There were 84 male 
 colleges with secondary-school pupils, 599 high 
 schools containing boys, and 577 academies for 
 girls — making a total of nearly 1300 institutions 
 carrying on instruction of secondary grade. 
 
 In the 84 male colleges engaged in collegiate 
 work, there were found enrolled, in the year 1916, 
 14,846 students of collegiate grade. 2 In the col- 
 leges for girls, there were at least 1000 collegiate 
 students. 3 
 
 An interesting question is as to the proportion of 
 Catholic pupils who are attending institutions that 
 are non-Catholic. In the case of the elementary 
 schools, investigation has shown that the enroll- 
 ment in Catholic schools is not quite one-half of 
 what it ought to be, or, in other words, that about 
 the same number of Catholic children go to the 
 public schools as go to Catholic schools. 4 It 
 must be remembered, however, that the diocesan 
 
 1 Burns, Cath. Secondary Ed. in the U. S. (Bull, of the 
 Cath. Ed. Assn., Aug., 1915). 
 
 2 Report on the Attendance at Cath. Colleges and Uni- 
 versities in the U. S. (Bull, of the Cath. Ed. Assn., Aug., 1916) ; 
 cf. chapter VIII, infra. 
 
 3 The Report of the Bureau of Ed. for 1014 gives six insti- 
 tutions, with a collegiate enrollment of 685. These returns 
 are far from complete. 
 
 4 Bums, Growth and Development, p. 356. 
 
4 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 I --* 
 
 school system, in some of the great centers of 
 population, is unable to accommodate at once the 
 vast numbers of Italian and other immigrant 
 children arriving every year, and that even the 
 state school system is unable to do this. Fur- 
 thermore, probably one-fourth or even one-third 
 of the entire number of Catholic children of 
 school age live in towns, villages, or country dis- 
 tricts in which the Catholic population is so 
 small or scattered that parish schools are im- 
 practicable. 1 There are other causes that lead 
 Catholic children to attend the public schools, 2 
 but these two conditions offer the greatest ob- 
 stacles to the systematic extension of the diocesan 
 school system. Until immigration ceases, or at 
 least slackens, and until Catholics greatly increase 
 in number in the country districts and smaller 
 towns, it is not likely that there will be much 
 change in the above proportion. Catholic ele- 
 mentary-school enrollment is growing at a very 
 rapid pace, but it is not growing faster than the 
 general population. 
 
 The proportionate enrollment in Catholic sec- 
 ondary schools, in 191 5, was somewhat less than 
 one-third of the secondary-school enrollment gen- 
 erally in the United States. While Catholic sec- 
 
 l IK P-357- 
 2 IK p. 358 seq. 
 
GENERAL CONDITIONS 5 
 
 ondary education has shown a remarkable growth 
 of late, this growth has not kept pace with that of 
 the public high schools. The increase of attend- 
 ance at the latter has been far more rapid than the 
 increase of the population of the country. 
 
 Catholic male colleges and universities have 
 almost one-half of their due proportion of col- 
 legiate students, if we take as a standard the 
 general collegiate enrollment in the country. The 
 growth of collegiate enrollment in Catholic insti- 
 tutions of higher education has been more rapid 
 than the growth of the Catholic population, and 
 more rapid, too, than the general increase of col- 
 legiate enrollment throughout the United States. 1 
 The data upon which these statements are 
 based may now be summed up in such a form as 
 to render comparison the more easy and accurate. 
 The following table shows the proportion of the 
 
 For each 10,000 of respective population.* 
 
 In Catholic institutions... 
 In entire United States §. 
 
 Elementary 
 Students. f 
 
 893 
 I948 
 
 Secondary 
 Students.t 
 
 46 
 153 
 
 Students in 
 
 Higher 
 Education.! 
 
 9 
 19 
 
 * For the year 1915. 
 
 t Including male and female pupils. 
 
 X Including only male students (cf. note 2 on p. 127). 
 
 § From Report of Commissioner of Education. 
 
 1 Cf. Chapter VIII, infra. 
 
6 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 Catholic population that is enrolled in each of 
 the above classes of Catholic institutions, as com- 
 pared with the proportion of the general popu- 
 lation of the country that is enrolled in all schools 
 or institutions of the corresponding class. 
 
 Qualitative Aspect 
 
 i 
 
 It is safe to conclude, from what has been said, 
 that Catholic educational institutions, elementary, 
 secondary, and higher, are fairly holding their own 
 numerically in the general educational development 
 of the country. But what of the quality of the 
 schools and the teaching? It is not so easy to 
 institute a comparison here, for a number of dis- 
 tinct factors have to be taken into account. Reli- 
 gion is one of these, since, in the eyes of Catholics, 
 the teaching of religion invests the school with a 
 value that nothing else can give it. This factor 
 will be considered in the two following chapters. 
 After religion, the most important of the qualita- 
 tive factors that affect the school are equipment, 
 curriculum, and teaching. It will be more con- 
 venient to confine our attention, throughout the 
 remainder of this Chapter, to the elementary and 
 secondary schools, and to reserve consideration of 
 the colleges till farther on. 1 
 
 1 Cf . Chapters VIII and IX. 
 
GENERAL CONDITIONS 7 
 
 It may frankly be admitted that, with certain 
 exceptions, the equipment in Catholic schools was 
 not, in the past, equal to the equipment in the cor- 
 responding state-supported schools. But a great 
 change has taken place. Not only in the large 
 cities, but even in the smaller cities and towns, 
 Catholic schools of all kinds are now to be seen 
 which compare favorably with the public schools, 
 in respect of building, interior appointments, and 
 class-room equipment. Ever where to-day there is 
 a keen realization of the need of making school 
 buildings and equipment thoroughly up-to-date 
 and equal to the best. 
 
 Since the public schools occupy a position of 
 prestige and advantage, owing to their relation to 
 the state and their numerical preponderance, it 
 might be expected that the curriculum of the parish 
 school would tend to conform to that of the public 
 school. As a matter of fact, the tendency in the 
 parish schools has always been towards the adop- 
 tion of the same academic standards as have ob- 
 tained in the public schools, including curriculum, 
 text-books, methods of teaching and educational 
 theories, the only exception being in the matter of 
 religious instruction. 1 The so-called " real " stud- 
 
 1 Cf. Bums, Principles, Origin and Esiab. of Cath. 
 ScJwol System, p. 161 ; also Growth and Devel. of Cath. School 
 System, p. 350. 
 
8 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 ies, in spite of all the clamor raised against them, 
 have steadily made their way into the curriculum 
 of the parish school, as they have into the cur- 
 riculum of the public school. The movement has 
 been, perhaps, a little slower in the one case than 
 in the other, for Catholics are prone to be con- 
 servative in such things, especially on account 
 of the increased expenditure involved. Again, 
 attempts that have been made of late to bring 
 about radical changes in the curriculum of the 
 parish schools have failed so far, because of a 
 general feeling that such action would be inexpedi- 
 ent, except in conjunction with a similar reform in 
 the public schools. 1 
 
 It is by the teaching, however, that the quality 
 of a school is chiefly to be judged, and in this 
 respect Catholic schools, both elementary and 
 secondary, have a certain fundamental advantage. 
 It is admitted on all sides that the great obstacle 
 to efficient teaching in the public schools is the 
 shortness of the service of the most capable teachers. 
 A recent writer in the Educational Review puts the 
 matter in this way: 
 
 It is the most serious disadvantage of women as teachers, 
 that the more desirable they are, the more they contemplate 
 a marriage which will take them out of teaching. Hence, 
 
 1 Cf. Rep. of Cath. Ed. Assn., IX, p. 87; also, Chapter VI 
 infra. 
 
GENERAL CONDITIONS 9 
 
 they cannot give themselves to teaching with the whole- 
 heartedness, the professional spirit, of the man who sees no 
 other avenue to success. But when marriage is no longer 
 probable the woman loses something of what she already 
 has. 1 
 
 Whatever may be thought of the last statement, 
 there can be no question that marriage is con- 
 stantly depleting the ranks of the trained teachers. 
 No remedy, apparently, can be devised for this 
 condition of things, except the replacement of 
 women by men, and this is at present an economic 
 impossibility. The effect of this condition upon 
 the quality and standard of the teaching in 
 the public schools is dispassionately shown by a 
 member of the editorial staff of the Bureau of 
 Education, in his " Survey of Education During 
 1911-12." In discussing current criticisms of the 
 schools, he says: 
 
 The usual criticism is rather of the inadequacy of the 
 supply of teachers than of the inefficiency of the individuals, 
 though, of course, there is a direct relation between the two. 
 The teaching standard is unquestionably lower in many 
 parts of the United States than in certain other countries, 
 for a number of reasons that need not be entered into here. 
 It is seldom recognized how inadequate the supply of teach- 
 ers for American schools really is. There were, last year, 
 about 25,000 graduates of teacher-training courses in col- 
 leges, normal schools and high schools in the United States. 
 
 1 Ed. Rev., XLIII, p. 33. 
 
,10 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 It is found by the Bureau of Education that the average 
 length of employment is less than five years. With a total 
 teaching force of about 450,000, this means that not more 
 than one in five of the teachers actually employed is pro- 
 fessionally trained, even on a minimum basis. In one 
 Western State, by no means the lowest in educational 
 facilities, only about one-half the teachers in the schools 
 have even a high-school edv~ation, and there are many parts 
 of the United States where the average education of the 
 teachers is not above the seventh grade. 1 
 
 In contrast to this condition, the Rt. Rev. Philip 
 R. McDevitt, when Superintendent of Schools of 
 the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, drew attention to 
 the advantages enjoyed by the Catholic teaching 
 body, made up, as it is, almost entirely of Brothers 
 and Sisters: 
 
 The teachers of the parish schools make teaching a life 
 work; with them it is a high calling, a distinct vocation 
 which is entered upon with no thought of turning therefrom 
 until age or infirmity removes them from the field of activ- 
 ity. . « . While inexperienced teachers are found in the 
 parish schools, it is inevitable that their number should not 
 be as large in a system where teaching is a life work as in a 
 system where it is not. Still more, the evils resulting from 
 inexperienced teachers are more easily corrected in the 
 parish-school system, because of the spirit of solidarity and 
 cooperation which characterizes religious communities, 
 and which brings to the young teacher the helpful assistance 
 of the principal and of older teachers. 
 
 1 Rep. Bur. 0} Ed. for 1912, 1, p. 11. 
 
GENERAL CONDITIONS 11 
 
 By reason of this attitude which the teachers of the parish 
 schools assume toward their work, and by reason of other 
 puissant forces inherent in our system of education, it 
 is certain that, at no distant date, the results of parish school 
 education will bear more than a favorable comparison with 
 those of the state-supported institutions. 1 
 
 Catholic teachers have to pass through the 
 postulate and novitiate, and are, therefore, never 
 without considerable professional preparation when 
 they begin their work. It is a life-work with them, 
 moreover, and whatever may be the defects of the 
 young teacher, the " spirit of solidarity and coop- 
 eration " in religious communities may be counted 
 on as a permanently helpful influence in the 
 teacher's life and work. 
 
 It may be pointed out that during the past decade 
 great progress has been made by the teaching com- 
 munities in respect to normal school training. 
 Postulate and novitiate courses have been enlarged 
 and strengthened; summer institutes have been 
 reorganized; and — most important of all — summer 
 schools, lasting from four to six weeks, have been 
 instituted at several of the larger Catholic colleges, 
 where Sisters may have the benefit of regular col- 
 lege courses conducted by able and experienced 
 professors. The summer school at the Catholic 
 University, Washington, was attended, in 191 6, by 
 
 1 Report for 1913, p. 20. 
 
12 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 304 Sisters, representing 25 religious orders, 64 
 religious houses, 40 dioceses, and 27 States, besides 
 the Dominion of Canada. 1 A fact of even greater 
 significance in this connection was the conferring 
 of the degree of Bachelor of Arts the same year on 
 sixteen Sisters, the degree of Master of Arts on ten, 
 and the degree of Doctor of Philosophy on one, all 
 of these being students of Sisters' College, a higher 
 normal institute at the Catholic University. 2 
 
 Stability of Catholic School System 
 
 The upkeep of the parish schools is costing 
 Catholics in the United States about $12,000,000 a 
 year, besides the cost of permanent improvements. 
 This is truly an enormous sum to raise each year 
 by voluntary contributions. The amount is, of 
 course, steadily increasing, and it is likely to be 
 near $20,000,000 by the next census-year. Can 
 the school system be maintained under this heavy 
 financial burden? 
 
 There are two factors in the Catholic school 
 system which may be briefly referred to, in answer 
 to this question. The first is, the teachers. We have 
 seen that they nearly all belong to stable religious 
 organizations, and that they make teaching their 
 
 1 Cath. Ed. Rev., XII, p. 157. 
 
 2 lb., p. 177. 
 
GENERAL CONDITIONS 13 
 
 life work. If there were a question of abolishing 
 the public schools and substituting something else 
 in place of them, the half million teachers in the 
 public schools would stand arrayed in solid oppo- 
 sition against the change, and their influence would 
 be apt to be decisive. May we not likewise say 
 that the forty thousand teachers engaged in Cath- 
 olic elementary and secondary schools constitute 
 a most effective guarantee of the stable contin- 
 uance of the Catholic school system? With them 
 it is more than a matter of individual interest; 
 the very life of the teaching community is bound up 
 with the continuance of the schools. 
 
 The second factor is the people, the source from 
 which is drawn annually the vast sum of money 
 required for the support of the schools. Can the 
 people be relied on to continue this support? 
 Individuals have been known to complain of the 
 burden. Yet, in spite of the constant increase of 
 the sum-total that is needed, the Catholic people 
 as a whole have continued, year after year, to 
 contribute the requisite funds, not only uncom- 
 plainingly, but with cheerful confidence. They 
 have, indeed, felt the burden and the injustice of a 
 double school support, but they have believed, at 
 the same time, that Catholic schools are more than 
 worth their heavy cost. To-day, as never before, 
 Catholics are united in support of the principle of 
 
14 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 religious education, with all that it involves. They 
 have a firm conviction that they must ever stand 
 for this principle, whatever be the ways and means 
 by which its realization may be legitimately sought 
 in practice. 1 
 
 The struggle for Catholic schools is, in fact, 
 largely a thing of the past. The main issue has 
 long since been decided. Beginning far back in 
 the days of the very infancy of Catholic life in this 
 country, the Catholic school system was contin- 
 ually enlarged with the growth of the Church, until 
 it attained its mature proportions in the period of 
 wonderful Catholic development that followed the 
 first great immigration. It was the immigrants, 
 especially those from Germany and Ireland, who 
 really settled the matter. 2 Catholics of the present 
 generation have had only to preserve and perfect 
 the educational system which they found already 
 solidly established. 
 
 1 For the financial cost of the parish schools, cf. Rt. 
 Rev. Mgr. Philip R. McDevitt, Supt. of Schools of the 
 Archdiocese of Phila., in his Ann. Rep. for 1913, p. 17; 
 also the calculation made by the author, with approxi- 
 mately the same result, for New York City, in Amer. Eccl. 
 Rev., XLIV, p. 531 seq., art. on The Economic Side of the 
 School Question, and the author's Growth and Bevel, of the 
 Cath. School System, p. 274, seq. 
 
 2 Burns, Growth and Develop, of Cath. School System, p. 15. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TEACHING 
 
 In the Public Schools 
 
 It was shown by Bishop Hughes, some four- 
 score years ago, that although the public schools of 
 his day might provide well enough for the religious 
 instruction of Protestants, they could not be made 
 satisfactory to Catholics for the same purpose. 
 The public schools of that time were strongly 
 Protestant in tone; the teachers were generally 
 Protestants, and Protestant Bible-reading and 
 prayers formed part of the daily program. But 
 even if the Douay Bible were to be substituted for 
 the King James Version, the Bishop would have 
 remained unsatisfied. He maintained that the 
 Catholic creed had, in the nature of things, to be 
 taught in its entirety, in order to be taught effec- 
 tively. It was not so with the Protestant creeds, 
 these being " so ambiguously defined that the 
 addition or subtraction of half a dozen dogmas can- 
 not destroy their identity." 1 The fundamental 
 position of Bishop Hughes, in all his utterances on 
 
 1 Hassard, Life of Archb. Hughes, p. 177. 
 15 
 
16 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 the school question, was simple and clear: It was 
 essential that the Catholic religion should be taught 
 to Catholic children in the school; and since this 
 was impossible in the public schools as constituted 
 at the time, it was imperative for Catholics to 
 establish schools of their own. 1 He was governed 
 by the same principles in his attitude towards 
 colleges. This is still, substantially, the attitude 
 of Catholics towards the public schools and the 
 non-Catholic colleges. 
 
 The public schools, however, have changed con- 
 siderably in character since the days of Bishop 
 Hughes. They have lost their Protestant tone, 
 especially in the large centers of population. In 
 many schools the Bible is still read, and a daily 
 prayer offered; but the prayers are, as a rule, as 
 colorless as the daily prayer in the houses of Con- 
 gress, and the prevailing tendency for a long time 
 has been towards the complete elimination of Bible- 
 reading. The State of Illinois, by a decision of its 
 Supreme Court in 1910, was added to the list of 
 States that bar from the classroom not only the 
 Bible, but also prayers and hymns of any kind. 2 
 
 Positive Christian teaching has thus been prac- 
 tically eliminated from the public schools. Moral 
 teaching, however, can never be entirely eliminated 
 
 1 Ibid. ; Cf . Works of Bishop Hughes, Vol. I, passim. 
 
 2 Decision of June 29, 1910. 
 
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TEACHING 17 
 
 from them, because certain moral habits and vir- 
 tues are absolutely essential, not only to civiliza- 
 tion, but even to normal school-room life. The 
 school could not do its work at all, except there 
 went along with the pupil's growth in knowledge 
 a certain growth in moral power — the formation of 
 habits of honesty, industry, fidelity, thoroughness, 
 order, patience, and the rest. These habits may 
 be acquired, to a certain degree, through the teach- 
 ing of the common-school branches, and, indeed, 
 they must be at least partly so acquired. This 
 holds true for Catholic schools, no less than for 
 those in which religion is not formally taught. 
 But while moral habits and virtues must neces- 
 sarily be inculcated by the public schools, even 
 though there be no formal instruction in ethics, 
 yet, without positive Christian or religious teach- 
 ing, such habits and virtues must rest upon a 
 purely naturalistic basis, consisting of the ideas of 
 right and wrong, of virtue and vice, which are 
 found in rational nature and are made known by 
 the voice of conscience. 
 
 Now, the American people, as a whole, are far 
 from desiring that the moral training of their 
 children shall be based solely upon a pagan ethics. 
 The atmosphere of America is Christian. Most 
 Protestants or descendants of Protestants, how- 
 ever indifferent they may be in the matter of church- 
 
18 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 going, cling to Christian standards and sanctions of 
 moral life, and are certainly not ■willing to accept 
 anything inferior to these for their children. The 
 great majority of the American people would agree 
 with Archbishop Ireland that, " Morals not im- 
 bedded in the conscience are but shadowy con- 
 ventionalities, powerless in presence of strong 
 temptation; and the conscience, to be the moral 
 censor it is destined by the Creator to be, must be 
 permeated with, solidified in, religion: The con- 
 science without God and the Savior is as a tribunal 
 without a judge." 1 How, then, is the acquiescence 
 of most American parents in the complete exclu- 
 sion of religion from the public schools to be 
 explained? 
 
 There are several facts that throw light upon this 
 inconsistency. First of all, the abandonment of 
 positive Christian teaching in the schools has been 
 a gradual process, and not a sudden change. The 
 framers of the public school system never intended 
 or even considered as possible, the complete de- 
 Christianization of the schools. The plan they 
 adopted comprehended the teaching of such fun- 
 damental Christian truths as would be acceptable 
 to all. The multiplication of religious denomina- 
 tions, together with the influx of non-Christian 
 
 1 Pastoral Letter, Aug. 18, 1913, A Catholic School for 
 Catholic Children. 
 
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TEACHING 19 
 
 immigrants and the growth of unbelief, completely 
 upset this plan, and religious teaching in the 
 schools has had to give way, little by little, under 
 the influence of these entirely unforeseen condi- 
 tions. It has been a case of the unwise adoption 
 of a principle the consequences of which were not 
 forecast. 
 
 Again, although moral instruction in the public 
 schools has been reduced to a purely naturalistic 
 basis, Christian standards of moral conduct still 
 obtain in the schools, as they do in the life of the 
 people. For instance, the child is taught to prac- 
 tice honesty. The motives that are proposed to 
 him, to this end, are probably no higher than the 
 motives that were proposed to children by their 
 preceptors in pagan Greece and Rome. But the 
 standards of honesty and virtue to-day are higher. 
 The ideals and standards of morality which were in- 
 troduced into the world by Christianity have been 
 implanted too deeply in the life and aspirations of 
 the race to be easily laid aside, even when they are 
 no longer associated with the great truths from 
 which they spring; and as long as the Christian re- 
 ligion prevails in the land, its ideals and standards 
 of moral conduct must have a certain influence in 
 the schools. 
 
 The chief factor, however, in this attitude of the 
 Protestant parent, is reliance upon the Sunday 
 
20 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 school. With the gradual elimination of religion 
 from the school, there grew up the belief that the 
 work that religion did in the school could be done 
 just as well in the Sunday-morning class, under 
 the auspices of the church. Indeed, it has even 
 been maintained that the work of religion would 
 be done all the better, by reason of its being con- 
 fined to the Sunday-morning class. 1 What had 
 become a matter of practical necessity, thus cams 
 to be defended and advocated on psychological 
 grounds. 
 
 One very serious disadvantage of the Sunday 
 school is, that attendance at it cannot, in the nature 
 of things, be made compulsory. Many parents 
 are neglectful; and the tendency in America is to 
 allow children greater liberty. It is a generally 
 admitted fact, at any rate, that not over 50 per 
 cent of the children of the United States attend 
 Sunday school. 2 Here is, at the very outset, an 
 insurmountable obstacle to the effective substi- 
 tution of the work of the Sunday school for relig- 
 ious instruction in the ordinary school. 
 
 But is the Sunday school an efficient and satis- 
 factory substitute, in the case of the children who 
 do attend it? There can be no doubt that, under 
 
 1 Cf. Paper of W. T. Harris, in Proceedings of National 
 Ed. Assn., 1903. 
 
 8 Ed. Rev., XXXV, p. 132; America, Oct. 24, 1914, p. 52. 
 
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TEACHING 21 
 
 existing circumstances, the religious instruction 
 imparted in the Sunday school is very important 
 for the Protestant denominational bodies. It 
 would be impossible for them to get along without 
 it. Nevertheless, there is grave reason for doubt- 
 ing the efficiency of the Sunday school, even with 
 respect to those who regularly attend it. At the 
 World's Sunday-school Convention in Washing- 
 ton, in 1910, a distinguished delegate made the 
 statement that 75 per cent of all the boys over 
 thirteen years of age in the Protestant Sunday 
 schools of the United States are lost to the church, 
 and never make profession of faith. The calcu- 
 lation was made, it was stated, after study, obser- 
 vation, and experience, and appears to have been 
 agreed to by most of the delegates present. 1 This 
 statement is cited here simply because it is typical 
 of past and present criticism of the Sunday school. 
 
 If we now turn from the data of fact and experi- 
 ence to a consideration of the principles involved, 
 it will be still clearer that the Sunday school is 
 altogether inadequate to provide the necessary 
 religious and moral instruction for the child. It 
 will be seen that the position of Catholics — that 
 religion must be taught in the schools — is but an 
 inevitable practical conclusion drawn from fun- 
 damental tenets of the Christian Faith, as well as a 
 
 1 Quoted in Cath. Standard and Times, Aug. 6, 1910. 
 
22 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 practical expression of established psychological 
 laws. The discussion of psychological principles 
 will be reserved for the following chapter. Here 
 we will consider the question of religious instruc- 
 tion in the school with reference to the acquirement 
 of necessary religious knowledge and the devel- 
 opment of sound moral character. 
 
 Religious Knowledge is the Most Important 
 
 for the pupil, because, above all, we are creatures 
 of God, and are, therefore, bound to worship and 
 obey Him as our Creator. Our duties to God 
 stand before all our other duties; and the knowl- 
 edge and worship of God must ever be first among 
 the obligations arising in the dawning intelligence 
 of the child. But it is impossible for the child to 
 acquire a due knowledge of God and of his obliga- 
 tions towards Him in a few lessons, or within a 
 few weeks or months. Time is needed, as with 
 all other branches of knowledge. Progress can be 
 made only step by step. Hence, the work of teach- 
 ing religion should occupy the place of first im- 
 portance in the education of the child and should 
 be, so far as possible, continuous. These condi- 
 tions can be realized, in the case of the majority 
 of children, only in the regular daily school. 
 
 Consider, again, the Christian teaching about 
 the future life. A course in engineering that would 
 
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TEACHING 23 
 
 make no account of the future work of the engi- 
 neer would be fatally defective. Not less defec- 
 tive, surely, must be a system of education that 
 leaves out of account the life after death, if one 
 accepts the view that the present life is for each 
 individual but a preparation for an unending life 
 that is to follow, and that the happiness or unhap- 
 piness of each in the future life is to be determined 
 by his success or failure in the moral and religous 
 order here on earth. Hence, Catholics consist- 
 ently hold that the complete moral and religious 
 instruction of the child and youth is abundantly 
 essential for his welfare, both here and hereafter, 
 and should occupy a place of corresponding im- 
 portance in his daily acquisitions of needful knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 I have mentioned only two of the fundamental 
 doctrines of Christianity. The consideration of 
 others, such as the Incarnation or the law of char- 
 ity, would lead just as plainly to the same con- 
 clusion. To the Christian mind, all these are 
 incontrovertible truths. Since this is so, it is 
 essential that the Christian child should come to 
 know them and to regulate his life by them, at the 
 earliest possible age and in the most complete 
 manner. The home, the school, and the Church 
 must each furnish its share of his religious in- 
 struction and training. The work of all three is 
 
24 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 needed. And even after these three universal 
 agencies of education have done their work and 
 done it well, the young Christian man or woman 
 will still have much to learn in the sphere of re- 
 ligious truth and practice — so earthly is our nature, 
 so profound and far-reaching are the " deep things 
 of God." 
 
 A second reason upon which Catholics base the 
 necessity of religious instruction in the school is, that 
 
 Religious Instruction and Moral Instrlction 
 Must Go Hand in Hand, 
 
 if either is to be effective. All admit that 
 there must be moral instruction in the school; 
 but the moral virtues that go to constitute the 
 Christian ideal of conduct are not really sep- 
 arable from their religious background. " Mor- 
 ality," says Bishop Shahan, " is religion in daily 
 life, religion applied to our ordinary actions, the 
 love and fear of God brought to bear upon the 
 passions of men." l From the very beginning of 
 Old Testament history, the two things, religion 
 and morality, are represented as intimately united. 
 The life and teachings of Christ bring into even 
 clearer light the indissoluble character of their 
 
 l God and Morality in Education, in Cath. Ed. Review, 
 VI, p. 393- 
 
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TEACHING 25 
 
 union. To attempt to separate the two, therefore, 
 and to teach morality without religion, is to attempt 
 to undo the work of divine revelation. " What God 
 has joined together, let no man put asunder." 
 
 As a matter of fact, the most compelling motives 
 and sanctions in the moral order are inextricably 
 bound up with the great primary truths of the 
 Christian faith. These supreme moral sanctions 
 are, the attainment or loss of one's last end, in 
 final union with or separation from God. Even 
 here and now, these conditions are inchoately 
 realizable, inasmuch as man's life in the moral 
 order may either lead him to God, or withdraw and 
 separate him from God. Hence the idea of sin, as 
 an offence against and a separation from God. 
 It is plain that the motive of sin, as well as that of 
 reward or punishment in a future life, can have no 
 moral efficacy, apart from belief in God and His 
 divine attributes. 
 
 An apt illustration of the necessity of appeal to 
 these supreme sanctions is afforded by the current 
 agitation for the teaching of sex-hygiene in the 
 schools. What is to be done to save the rising 
 generations from the flood of vice that is threat- 
 ening to engulf them? Forewarn them of the 
 danger; explain to them the secrets of physiology 
 and biology; point out clearly the path of nature, 
 and paint in the strongest colors the penalties 
 
26 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 nature exacts for disobedience to her laws — 
 such is the demand we hear. Catholics are op- 
 posed to the teaching of these things in the schools, 
 for both religious and psychological reasons. They 
 do not deny that in individual instances it may be 
 expedient to urge certain of the above consider- 
 ations. But they have the confessional for this, 
 and in the confessional, as elsewhere, the natural 
 motives and sanctions for right moral conduct 
 are never separated by them from those higher 
 motives and sanctions afforded by faith. They 
 hold that, in the light of history and experience, 
 purely natural and human motives are incapable 
 of producing such firmly rooted habits of virtue 
 as shall be proof against either the stormy passions 
 of youth or the subtler temptations of maturer 
 years. They seek to impress on the youthful mind 
 that, 
 
 That is right which is according to the will of God, and 
 that is wrong which is opposed to the same high and holy 
 rule of conduct. Man does not make his own morality, 
 nor can society make it for him. It is not a conventional 
 thing, nor a passing condition of manners, or an elegant 
 fairness and sweetness of life, but a stern and solemn and 
 fixed rule of conduct made known to us by Almighty God. 
 From this rule none may deviate. None may ignore it, 
 and by it all must one day be judged. The moral law, 
 thus taught, ceases to be a weak rational restraint, no 
 stronger than the uncertain heart and the darkened mind of 
 
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TEACHING 2? 
 
 nan; it is God Himself shining through our nature, dimly, 
 but sweetly and warmly. 1 
 
 Are these supreme moral sanctions above the 
 grasp of the child in the school? They are in 
 reality less difficult for the child to grasp than the 
 natural motives for right conduct that may be 
 proposed to him. Seek to explain, for instance, 
 why one should not steal. The idea of justice, the 
 sense of honor, the bond of universal brotherhood — 
 do these motives appeal as forcibly to the immature 
 mind of the average child as does the simple idea 
 of God and His will? Ask a Catholic child, Would 
 you steal? The child will tell you that he would 
 not steal, because God does not wish us to steal; 
 that God made us, and we must obey Him; that 
 if we obey we shall be rewarded, and if we do not 
 obey we shall be punished. 2 The Catholic child 
 has thus a simple, clear, rational, ethical system, 
 and this system is based upon unchangeable 
 religious truth; it is the idea of duty, but illu- 
 mined and transformed by the rays of divine faith. 
 
 Religion, however, does not impair in any way 
 the force of the purely natural motives that may 
 be appealed to for right conduct; on the con- 
 
 1 Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Shahan, op. ciL, p. 394. 
 
 2 Rev. F. W. Howard, The Catholic Position in Educa- 
 tion, an address delivered before the Protestant Ministers 
 of Columbus, O., Feb. 7, 1910. 
 
28 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 trary, it greatly adds to their force. There is not, 
 in fact, a single natural motive for the doing of 
 what is right and good, which is not enlarged and 
 enriched by the religious maxims laid down by 
 Christ and exemplified in His life and in the lives 
 of the Saints. In the case of honesty — to continue 
 the same illustration — the motives of natural 
 justice are reinforced by motives in the super- 
 natural order, such as, " Blessed are the poor in 
 spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." 
 The sense of honor, as a motive for honesty, can- 
 not but be heightened by the realization of the 
 nobleness and dignity of man's nature as de- 
 picted in the pages of the evangelists. The bond 
 of universal brotherhood, as a motive for social 
 actions, was unknown to the pagans, and can have 
 no real validity apart from the religious truths 
 from which it springs. If we are all children of 
 one Heavenly Father, the duty of brotherly love 
 is a consequence that any child can grasp; if we 
 are not, the wisest philosophers can furnish no 
 valid reason for an all-inclusive charity. 
 
 But if religion and morality are not really sep- 
 arable in practice, must it not follow that our ideals 
 and standards of moral conduct will deteriorate, if 
 separated from the religion of Christ? The new 
 and higher moral code which He promulgated was 
 based upon the fundamental Christian truths. Can 
 
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TEACHING 29 
 
 this higher Christian moral code be maintained, 
 with the teaching of only natural ethics in the 
 schools? It may, perhaps, be maintained for a 
 time. J As has been pointed out, even though relig- 
 ion is not taught in the public schools, Christian 
 standards of morality still have influence there. 
 Nevertheless, since only natural motives and 
 sanctions for right conduct are appealed to in the 
 schools, there must result a gradual lowering of the 
 moral standards of both pupils and schools to this 
 same level; and this must mean, in time, a cor- 
 responding deterioration in the morals of the 
 people!) It is a well-recognized principle of ped- 
 agogy, that mere intellectual content does not 
 count for much, unless it is brought into use or 
 action. 1 So, likewise, Christian ideals and stand- 
 ards of moral life will gradually lose their motive 
 power, unless they are constantly reinforced 
 through feeling and action. 
 
 1 Shields, Philosophy of Education, p. 309. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE 
 
 Some Current Teachings 
 
 Teachers of philosophy and psychology in non- 
 Catholic colleges and normal schools generally 
 accept the theory of evolution, and employ it as a 
 " working hypothesis " in the study and exposi- 
 tion of the phenomena of consciousness. Some 
 distinguished Catholic scholars are believers in a 
 modified evolution, but they maintain, at the 
 same time, " the absence of all proof that man's 
 body is derived from animal ancestors, and the 
 proof that man's spirituality is not from animality 
 as its source." 1 The theory of evolution, as it is 
 commonly taught, is but little related to estab- 
 lished facts, and appears to run counter to both 
 Scripture and Christian tradition. If there were 
 no other objection to the public schools and the 
 non-Catholic colleges, the fact that so many of 
 their teachers profess materialistic or agnostic 
 views about the origin and nature of the human 
 
 1 Views of Rev. E. Wasmann, S. J., in London Tablet, 
 Aug. 30, 1913, p. 327. 
 
 30 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE 31 
 
 soul would constitute a serious difficulty for 
 Catholics who might be disposed to send their 
 children to such institutions. 
 
 Much the same might be said about the teach- 
 ing of sex-hygiene in the schools. ^Catholics, 
 as has been said, are opposed to this, on both 
 religious and psychological grounds. Eminent 
 psychologists have taken the same stand. At best, 
 the teaching of sex-hygiene is but an experiment, 
 and, in matters of religion and morality, Catholics 
 are inclined to be conservative. Where the eternal 
 destiny of a soul may be involved, there can be no 
 room for experimentation^ 
 
 Nor can Catholics regard without suspicion a 
 pedagogical scheme or system based upon the 
 theory that " the normal child, placed in natural 
 surroundings, is always good "; and that, " if one 
 finds that a child in such surroundings persists in 
 being bad, it is patent that it is abnormal, being 
 either physically or mentally weak." 1 Whatever 
 may be thought of this theory, as applied in the 
 Montessori kindergartens, there are very serious 
 objections to its application in the elementary 
 schools. 
 
 The tendency towards paternalism in the public 
 schools, which has become increasingly evident 
 
 1 Maria Montessori, Washington Post, Dec. 5, 1913; cf. 
 America, X, p. 130. 
 
32 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 during recent years, need not concern us here, 
 although it has led to a fear that the nation's 
 schools might be made an adjunct of the social- 
 istic propaganda. 1 This question lies beyond the 
 scope of our present discussion, which has to do 
 with the psychological basis of the Catholic sys- 
 tem of education, especially as regards the teach- 
 ing of religion in the school. 
 
 There are many facts and laws in the domain of 
 psychology that bear upon the question of teaching 
 religion in the school. The most important of 
 these are summed up in two broad and universally 
 recognized pedagogical formulas which we may 
 conveniently make use of. One of them is, 
 
 The Correlation of Studies 
 
 Correlation means, " such arrangement of the 
 different lines of work in the school that the work 
 in each constantly bears upon the work that is 
 being done at the same time in the other subjects." 2 
 This is correlation in the stricter sense. The 
 term has also a broader meaning. It may refer 
 to the bringing about of the proper connection 
 between school work and the outer life. Some of 
 
 !Cf. Bird S. Coler, Socialism in the Schools, and The 
 Residuary Sect. 
 
 1 Henderson, art. on Apperception, in Cyclopedia of Edu- 
 cation, I, p. 143. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE 33 
 
 the most promising educational movements of 
 the day have to do with correlation in this wider 
 aspect — " the correlation of school and home, of 
 school and vocation, and of school and the entire 
 present or future outside activity of the pupil." 1 
 
 Correlation in the stricter sense, as defined above, 
 may be of two kinds — incidental, and systematic. 
 
 Incidental correlation is that which arises as a result of 
 the broad presentation of a topic to a class. If the teacher 
 is giving a history lesson on the discovery of America by 
 Columbus, and makes use of arithmetic, geometry, geog- 
 raphy, natural history, literature, and drawing, as a means 
 of developing interest in the class and giving a compre- 
 hensive notion of the event, she is employing correlation. 
 Systematic correlation involves such arrangement of the 
 content of the various subjects in the curriculum as makes 
 them constantly bear upon each other. 1 
 
 A systematic correlation of all the subjects in 
 the curriculum, however desirable, is full of diffi- 
 culties. Various schemes of study have been 
 proposed for this purpose, but so far none of them 
 has met with more than a limited acceptance. 
 Incidental correlation, however, is now generally 
 recognized as a necessity for good teaching. 1 
 The principle may be applied, more or less, in 
 almost every recitation. The interlocking of one 
 subject or branch of the curriculum with the 
 
 1 Ib., II, art. on Correlation, p. 210. 
 
34 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 others, in so far as the particular topic that is 
 being treated may allow, is one of the most dis- 
 tinctive features of modern pedagogical method. 1 
 " No piece of knowledge," says Maxwell, " should 
 be left isolated, unassociated with other pieces of 
 knowledge." 2 
 
 What is the reason for the universal acceptance 
 of the principle of correlation, and the ever- 
 widening scope of its application? The reply is, 
 that correlation enables the child to understand 
 better what he studies; it makes his studies more 
 interesting, and the use of the knowledge gained 
 more easy and sure. 3 A deeper reason lies in the 
 psychological laws of association. James declared 
 that " there is no other elementary causal law of 
 association than the law of neural habit," and he 
 formulated the law in these terms: " When two 
 elementary brain processes have been active to- 
 gether or in immediate succession, one of them, on 
 re-occurring, tends to propagate its excitement into 
 the other." 4 In other words, an idea or image 
 tends to recall that other idea or image which has 
 been habitually associated with it. The other idea 
 
 1 Cf. Shields, The Teaching of Religion, C. H, on Correla- 
 tion. 
 
 2 Ed. Rev., XLVII, p. 172. 
 
 3 Henderson, op. cit., II, p. 209. 
 
 4 Psychology, Briefer Course, p. 256. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE 35 
 
 or image may not, as a matter of fact, always be 
 recalled, for there are other factors than mere fre- 
 quency or habit that play a part. But the most 
 radical tendency, whether it be in the case of sim- 
 ple or of compound images, is that of recall through 
 frequency or habit of association. 
 
 The Catholic view, as regards the teaching of 
 religion in the school, is in perfect harmony with the 
 laws of mental association, as formulated by 
 psychologists, and given pedagogical application by 
 Herbart in his theory of apperception. To illus- 
 trate, by a few examples. In nature-study, if 
 the idea of God as the Creator of nature and 
 her laws is kept before the mind of the child, 
 there will be a tendency on the part of the child 
 to recall the idea of God in connection with the 
 phenomena of nature. If, in the study of history, 
 Christ is properly represented as the central 
 figure in all history, and Christianity, as the most 
 important and comprehensive fact in history, 
 the youth will be inclined to regard the events 
 of the past, as well as those of the present, from 
 the standpoint of their relation to Christ and 
 Christianity. In vocal music, if the exercises that 
 may be selected breathe the spirit of religion, they 
 will foster in the pupils religious sentiment and 
 emotion. These conclusions are simple conse- 
 quences from the laws of association, no less than 
 
36 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 observations of experience. In the lesson in his- 
 tory on the Discovery of America by Columbus, 
 as the modern pedagogist declares — taking this 
 as an illustration to be applied, cceteris paribus, to 
 all the other studies — the teacher is to " make use 
 of arithmetic, geometry, geography, natural his- 
 tory, literature, and drawing, as a means of devel- 
 oping interest in the class and giving a compre- 
 hensive notion of the event." 1 But why, we ask, 
 omit religion from the list? It clearly belongs 
 there, both because it is bound up with the his- 
 toric circumstances of the event, and because of 
 the splendid opportunity offered for impressing 
 upon the pupils an idea of the beneficent influence 
 of Christianity in the world. 
 
 Religion is the most comprehensive subject in 
 the curriculum. It has a wider range of cor- 
 relating power than any other subject. It can be 
 brought into the reading lesson, as into the writing 
 exercise; into language lessons and literature, as 
 well as history; into nature-study and drawing; 
 into art and music; and even, to some extent, 
 into the study of arithmetic. 2 Religion, accord- 
 ing to the Catholic view, should have part in the 
 teaching of all the branches of the curriculum, in 
 so far as this is reasonably possible; just as, on 
 
 1 Cyclopedia of Ed., I, p. 143. 
 
 2 Shields, The Teaching of Religion, p. 26. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE 37 
 
 the other hand, in teaching religion, symbols, 
 analogies, and illustrations of spiritual truths 
 must be drawn from nature, from art, from history 
 and personal experience, from literature and all 
 other sources available, if the work is to be done 
 effectively. Only thus can the expanding ideas of 
 the plastic youthful mind attain fullest develop- 
 ment, while becoming " compacted and fitly joined 
 together," according to the fundamental laws of 
 mental growth. Religious principles can never 
 rightly be excluded from any occupation, activity, 
 or interest of a truly Christian man; and to this 
 end it is essential that there should be established 
 the most intimate correlation between religion and 
 the secular occupations, activities, and interests 
 of the child and the youth. " The teacher," says 
 Herbart, " must represent the future man in the 
 boy; consequently, the aims which the pupil will 
 as an adult place before himself in the future must 
 be the present care of the teacher; he must pre- 
 pare beforehand an inward facility for attaining 
 them." 1 
 
 It must be admitted that Catholic educators 
 have not, as yet, fully succeeded in establishing 
 this intimate correlation between religious instruc- 
 tion and the other studies of the curriculum. The 
 
 1 Herbart, The Science of Education, translation by H. M. 
 and E. Felkin, p. 109. 
 
38 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 general idea of correlation has been instinctively 
 grasped; but it has not always been consistently 
 carried out. In many schools, the teaching of 
 religion is confined almost exclusively to the cate- 
 chism class. Where Catholic text-books are used 
 in history, reading and literature, and geography, 
 as is now frequently the case, a notable improve- 
 ment has been effected. But very much remains 
 still to be done. There is needed, on the part of 
 many Catholic teachers, a more thorough knowl- 
 edge of the psychological laws of association, and a 
 closer study of their application through the prin- 
 ciple of correlation. Catholic text-books are very 
 desirable; but, in the hands of a teacher who does 
 not understand their fundamental purpose, they 
 may be of little or no service. On the other hand, 
 a teacher who realizes the importance of invest- 
 ing every study and every class, so far as possible, 
 with a religious spirit and interest, will know how to 
 do this effectively even without the aid of text- 
 books. Incidental correlation depends for its suc- 
 cess upon the teacher. 1 
 If the psychological laws of association require 
 
 1 A new series of Catholic readers, which admirably 
 exemplify this principle of incidental correlation, has issued 
 recently from the Catholic Education Press, Washington, 
 D. C. The author of the series is the Rev. Dr. T. E. 
 Shields, of the Catholic University. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE 39 
 
 4 
 
 that religion, if it is to be taught at all, should be 
 taught in the school and correlated with the other 
 subjects, what is to be thought, from our present 
 point of view, of the omission of religious instruc- 
 tion altogether in the school, and its relegation to 
 the Sunday school? From what has been said, 
 it is evident that the result of the omission will be, 
 that the ideas derived from the secular school and 
 the ideas derived from the Sunday school will tend 
 to remain without causal connection in the pupil's 
 mind. There will be the large circle of secular 
 ideas and interests, represented by the long list of 
 regular school studies, and the five full days each 
 week devoted to these; and there will be the 
 smaller circle of religious ideas and interests, rep- 
 resented by the single weekly class, for a single 
 hour. Not that the two sets of ideas, secular and 
 religious, will remain in the mind altogether 
 unassociated. This would be impossible. The 
 religious lessons drawn from the Sunday school 
 will react, more or less, upon the mental content 
 derived from the regular school work. But the 
 respective processes of apperception, secular and 
 religious, are without connection; and the advan- 
 tage that would be gained by their correlation — 
 precisely the same as is gained in the case of the 
 secular studies by their correlation — is altogether 
 lost. 
 
40 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 But this negative effect is not all. There is a 
 
 positive evil effect resulting from the omission of 
 
 religious instruction in the school. The course 
 
 of study is a great object lesson. The work of the 
 
 school, with the large space it occupies in his life, 
 
 comes gradually to be regarded by the pupil as 
 
 comprising the things of utmost value for him in 
 
 the future. The fact that religion is left out of 
 
 the program cannot fail to impress him. Will he 
 
 not be inclined to draw the conclusion that religion 
 
 is either something superfluous, or something that 
 
 is, at any rate, without necessary connection with 
 
 everyday life? 1 A non-Catholic educator has 
 
 directed attention to this danger in the following 
 
 words: 
 
 One of the first practical dangers of society is that the 
 greatest truths that bear on human life shall come to be 
 identified in the public mind with Sundays, churches, and 
 Sunday-school. We certainly are helping that when we 
 provide that the most aroused activities of a boy's mind 
 shall be divorced from those truths, and that the subjects of 
 science, literature, and history, with which the church and 
 Sunday school cannot deal, shall be taught with a studied 
 absence of reference to " the Divine Intelligence at the 
 heart of things." What is this but a lesson in the practical 
 atheism that shuts God out of all but certain selected parts 
 of fife with which the young man may have as little to do as 
 
 1 Very Rev. E. A. Pace, Ph.D., Modern Psydwlogy and 
 Education {Educational Briefs, Phila.), p. 21, reprinted from 
 Cath. World, Sept., 1905. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE 41 
 
 he pleases. What would be the effect upon a child's mind 
 of excluding studiously all mention of his earthly father 
 from his work and play for five or six days of the week, of 
 treating all his belongings and relations without reference to 
 the parents to whom he owes them, and permitting such 
 reference only on stated times when they are declared in 
 order? 
 
 But the monstrosity and the mischievousness of such an 
 arrangement would be as nothing to the scholastic taboo of 
 the living God, to whom the child owes every breath of its 
 daily life, who lies about it as a great flood of life and light 
 seeking to enter in and possess its spirit, and who as much 
 feeds its mind with knowledge and wisdom as its spirit with 
 righteousness, and its body with earthly food, in providing 
 " food convenient for it." 1 
 
 Another series of psychological data that bear 
 upon the question of teaching religion in the school, 
 is summed up in the general pedagogical formula of, 
 
 The Atmosphere of the School 
 
 By the atmosphere of a school is meant, the sum 
 of the educative influences at work, outside the 
 formal instruction. These indirect agencies con- 
 stitute the very life-blood of the school. It is 
 their silent, subtle, persistent impress upon the 
 
 1 Rev. Robert Ellis Thompson, Pres. of Central High 
 School, Philadelphia, in Divine Order of Human Society, 
 pp. 189, 190 (quoted in art. on The School Question by 
 Rt. Rev. P. R. McDevitt, in Catholic Citizens and Public 
 Education — pamphlet) . 
 
42 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 will and heart that begets character. Chief among 
 them is the influence of the teacher, not as a teacher, 
 but as a man or woman, with a definite character, 
 definite views, and definite manner of life. The 
 pupils, also, influence each other: character, habits, 
 views, conduct, manners, and home surroundings 
 — all combine to produce individual as well as social 
 influence. The schoolroom itself, with its walls 
 and floor and furniture, has its effect; and it may- 
 be made to convey lessons of order, neatness, virtue 
 and religion day by day, silently, but none the less 
 surely, through appeal to the eye and the aesthetic 
 sense. 1 
 
 The influence exercised by teacher and pupils 
 in these indirect ways is largely due to the imita- 
 tive instinct, which, as psychology has shown, 
 impels the pupil to copy the behavior of other 
 human beings, and, especially, the teacher — " a 
 model far more suggestive, in word and look and 
 deed, than the plainest admonition or the strictest 
 rule of discipline." 2 To the laws of mental asso- 
 ciation and sense-perception are due the effects 
 produced by the appointments and adornments of 
 the schoolroom. 3 The bare crucifix on the wall, 
 
 1 Burns, Principles, Origin, and Establishment of the Cath. 
 School System, p. 26. 
 
 2 Pace, op. cit., p. 18. 
 
 3 lb., p. 7 seq. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE 43 
 
 in a Christian school, is as clearly an expression 
 of psychological laws as it is of religious devo- 
 tion, for what other symbol is so rich in spiritual 
 and religious motives for the mind and heart of the 
 Christian youth? Time, of course, is needed for 
 the fruitful operation of these indirect educational 
 agencies, the effect of each upon the mind and 
 will being due to the cumulative action of a long 
 series of impressions, which may be largely un- 
 perceived. 
 
 In the Catholic school and college, these indirect 
 agencies are rightly held to be of very great value, 
 especially for the development of religious and 
 moral character; and every effort is usually made 
 to secure their realization under the best condi- 
 tions, t Thus, as regards teachers, the vast majority 
 of those engaged in Catholic schools and colleges 
 are men and women who are devoted to the service 
 of religion by profession. They belong to the 
 religious orders, and wear a garb which symbolizes 
 their sacred calling. They have had to undergo a 
 probation of at least two years' duration, the object 
 of which was not only to prove their religious voca- 
 tion, but also to foster the growth of their spiritual 
 life. They realize fully that th e most J imiortant 
 thing in the training of the young is their religious 
 and moral formation. They teach without any 
 personal remuneration. Such teachers must appear 
 
44 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 to their pupils as concrete, living evidences of the 
 supreme worth of spiritual realities as compared 
 with material things. Their very character is 
 thus calculated to diffuse the spirit of religion. It 
 is not too much to say that it is psychologically 
 impossible for the pupil, be he what he may, to 
 remain under the influence of a teacher of this kind, 
 without some corresponding effect upon his life 
 and character. So clear is this to the Catholic 
 mind, that the laity no less than the clergy have 
 always manifested an eager preference for religious 
 teachers; and lay teachers, who were numerous in 
 the schools up to the middle of the last century, 
 were rapidly replaced by members of religious 
 orders, once a way was found to secure these in 
 sufficient numbers. 1 There are, of course, many 
 lay teachers still in Catholic schools and colleges; 
 but it is regarded as essential that they be of unex- 
 ceptionable moral character and of a truly religious 
 spirit. No Catholic school or college would be 
 likely to tolerate a serious defect in respect to 
 either of these two qualifications^ 
 
 The atmosphere of religion is also furthered by 
 the generality of the pupils being of the Catholic 
 faith. The character and habits of a pupil are apt 
 to have a profound influence upon his companions. 
 In close companionship, this influence may some- 
 1 Burns, op. cit., pp. 277, 289, 301, 325. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE 45 
 
 times be far greater than even that of the teacher. 
 All experienced parents and teachers know this. 
 Certain souls possess this power of influencing 
 others to a remarkable degree. Every school has 
 its " leaders." Are these all-important facts not 
 to be taken into account in planning for the inter- 
 ests of religion? Catholics have consistently 
 reckoned with them; and this is the reason why 
 personal character is always emphasized in the 
 requirements of their schools and colleges. ^Not 
 only must the great majority of the pupils be of 
 the Catholic faith, but clean moral character is 
 regarded in every Catholic educational institu- 
 tion as a necessary qualification for the pupil's 
 entrance and stay. A Catholic school or college 
 could not consistently tolerate a pupil known to 
 be irreligious in temper or unclean in moral lif e?) 
 
 Catholic instinct has also grasped the importance 
 of symbolical and artistic imagery as an aid to 
 instruction in religion. There is no classroom in 
 any Catholic educational institution without the 
 crucifix hanging conspicuously before the eyes 
 of all, and there is seldom a wall that does not 
 bear its share of religious pictures. Pupils may 
 not apparently notice such things. Their effect 
 will naturally be greater upon some than upon 
 others. But upon each and all they are inev- 
 itably bound to exert a certain measure of religious 
 
46 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 influence, at least as complementary parts of a 
 whole. Experience shows that the memory of 
 such symbols often persists, long after the knowl- 
 edge gained during school days has been forgotten. 
 
 There are other elements that enter into the 
 religious atmosphere of the Catholic educational 
 institution, such as the recitation of a prayer in 
 common before and after class, before and after 
 meals, and at the beginning and end of each school 
 day. These are, however, direct acts of prayer 
 and worship, akin to the formal religious services in 
 church or chapel, and the psychological principles 
 they embody need no exposition here. 
 
 The effect of the religious atmosphere, as well as 
 of its absence, may be aptly summed up in the 
 words of a well-known Catholic educator. He 
 has in mind the college, but the description is not 
 less applicable to the school: 
 
 The young man attending the secular university from 
 which the name of God is banished may easily come to forget 
 God. The very fact that religion, which in his home and 
 amongst his people stood as the most important and solemn 
 fact of human life, is there ostentatiously passed over, is 
 itself a great shock to his faith. Constant intercourse 
 with professors whose learning he admires and who are 
 known not to be religious men, little by little gnaws at the 
 vitals of faith as a cancer works death upon the body. 
 Daily intercourse with students who have no religious faith 
 and, perhaps, even deride religion altogether, comes after 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIDE 47 
 
 a while to paralyze the instincts and impulses of religion. 
 It is not human reason which works this result; it is the 
 mere pressure of the atmosphere around him. It is not that 
 science is the enemy of faith, but that teachers of science, 
 themselves without faith, by persistent reiteration of their 
 own infidel opinions, suggest the belief that learning has no 
 fellowship with faith. The hero-worshiping youth, meas- 
 uring his untrained and callow mind against the mature 
 intellect of the professor, observing that the professor finds 
 no place for religion in his life, may come after a while to 
 believe that religion is not the all-important thing he fan- 
 cied it. 
 
 In the Catholic college, on the other hand, he finds him- 
 self surrounded by learned and virtuous men to whom the 
 Christian faith is the vital fact of existence. He will find 
 religion, not only in church and chapel, but in the daily 
 lecture, m daily conversation, touching, as it should touch, 
 life at every point. Fellow-students share with him this 
 glorious faith; devotions are performed in common; the 
 truths of religion and the forms of prayer mingle honorably 
 in the conversation all around him, and here the world is 
 full of God and the atmosphere is brightened with His name 
 and His praise. 1 
 
 1 Rev. John W. Cavanaugh, C.S.C., D.D., President of 
 the Univ. of Notre Dame, Sermon, Sept. 21, 1913 (Notre 
 Dame Scholastic, XL VII, 1). 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 INNER RELATIONS 
 
 Organization 
 
 The Catholic parish school, high school, and 
 college in the United States were founded inde- 
 pendently of each other, and, generally speaking, 
 they have developed along independent lines. 
 The parish school system was established by the 
 bishops and parish priests, and has remained sub- 
 ject to their authority. Most of the colleges and 
 larger high schools were founded by the religious 
 orders, and are consequently under their direction 
 to a great extent if not wholly. During recent 
 years, a number of the bishops have founded dio- 
 cesan high schools. Where this has been done, it 
 has been easy to effect an organic connection be- 
 tween the high schools and the neighboring parish 
 schools. But the great majority of the better 
 high schools are still unconnected with either the 
 parish schools or the colleges in any organic way. 
 
 In these general statements, no account is taken 
 of certain special relationships that may exist 
 between these institutions. For instance, Cath- 
 
 48 
 
INNER RELATIONS 49 
 
 olic colleges generally have their own high schools 
 or preparatory departments in organic connection 
 with the collegiate departments. Again, where 
 religious orders have a college, they usually have 
 charge of the parish in which it is located; and the 
 school of this particular parish may thus be 
 brought into touch with the preparatory depart- 
 ment and the college. So, too, teaching Brothers 
 or Sisters often have charge of the elementary 
 school and the high school in the same parish, and 
 where such is the case the two schools are naturally 
 brought into close relationship. But such excep- 
 tional conditions have conduced but little towards 
 the unification of Catholic educational work over 
 the entire broad field. 
 
 The American college seems destined, by its 
 nature and traditions, to stand apart, independent 
 of high school and elementary school. If it were 
 desirable to connect these three institutions as 
 organic parts of a general educational scheme or 
 system, as has been done in European countries, 
 this could probably be effected with less difficulty 
 in the case of Catholic institutions than in that of 
 others. It is very doubtful if it would be for the 
 best interests of the American college to be so con- 
 nected with the under schools. But there can be 
 no question as to the desirability of a close con- 
 nection between the elementary school and the 
 
50 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 • 
 high school. Such a relationship has long existed 
 
 between the public high school and the public 
 elementary school. The two are under the same 
 control, and their respective curricula are so ar- 
 ranged that the work of the one prepares for, and 
 fits into, the work of the other. The advantages 
 of this arrangement are obvious. The benefits 
 that would accrue to Catholic elementary schools 
 and high schools by being closely connected, as 
 component parts of the diocesan educational sys- 
 tem, are not less clear. These benefits have, in 
 fact, been fully realized and appreciated wherever 
 this condition has been brought about. 
 
 Cooperatioi 
 
 There is, however, another and an even more 
 important kind of relationship between educational 
 institutions than that of which I have been 
 speaking. There is a moral unity that manifests 
 itself in cooperation, or mutually helpful effort 
 directed towards the attainment of common ends. 
 Happily, this spirit has characterized our educa- 
 tional work to a notable degree. It will be shown 
 that the tendency has always been towards a more 
 perfect realization of the spirit of union and har- 
 mony. But, in a work like Catholic education, 
 whose scope is so vast, whose schools, colleges and 
 other institutions were so little connected in origin, 
 
INNER RELATIONS 51 
 
 and which is being carried on under conditions so 
 varying, it would be unreasonable to expect com- 
 plete moral unity to be everywhere attainable, 
 except with the aid of the slow processes of time. 
 In saying that much still remains to be accom- 
 plished in this way, I am, therefore, only stating 
 in other terms that our educational development 
 is still incomplete, and that further time and effort 
 are required to bring it to full maturity. The 
 purpose of this Chapter is, to point out the places 
 where this further development is most urgently 
 needed, and to suggest the means by which it may 
 best be brought about. 
 
 The question of the relations of the college and 
 the parish school may be passed over for the pres- 
 ent, since their respective interests appear to be so 
 far apart. With the college and the high school, 
 however, the case is different. They clearly have 
 mutual interests. The high school curriculum 
 should fit into the college curriculum, or, at least, 
 be capable of preparing effectively for it. The 
 Catholic high school should direct its graduates 
 by preference to the Catholic college; the college 
 should keep in close touch with the high school. 
 Yet, until quite recently, the Catholic college and 
 the Catholic high school stood far apart. The 
 colleges, with their own preparatory departments, 
 manifested little interest in other secondary schools. 
 
52 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 When, a couple of decades ago, Catholic high 
 schools began to increase rapidly in number, no 
 effort was made by the colleges to get in touch 
 with these new institutions. It was only after 
 the Catholic Educational Association was organ- 
 ized, and it was shown by investigation that many 
 of the new high schools were being affiliated to the 
 non-Catholic colleges and state universities, that 
 Catholic colleges began to take an active interest 
 in the high-school movement. A resolution ex- 
 pressive of sympathy with this movement was 
 offered at one of the early meetings of the Asso- 
 ciation, but it met with decided opposition, and 
 several years passed before the colleges came to 
 realize that the resolution merited approval. 
 College men appeared to fear that the new high 
 schools menaced their own preparatory depart- 
 ments. 
 
 Much the same has been the situation with 
 regard to the high schools and the elementary 
 schools. Until recently, nearly all the high schools 
 were conducted by the religious orders, and had no 
 direct connection with the neighboring parish 
 schools. Each high school had its elementary 
 department, and became, to this extent, a rival of 
 the parish schools. It enrolled pupils whom the 
 pastors wished to see attending their own parish 
 schools until the completion of the eighth grade. 
 
INNER RELATIONS 53 
 
 The elementary departments thus became a source 
 of weakness to the high schools, and served to 
 alienate from them the sympathy and support of 
 the pastors. Like the preparatory departments 
 in the colleges, these elementary schools have been 
 maintained to serve as feeders for the higher de- 
 partments, and to increase the financial receipts. 
 Whatever may be thought of the continuance of 
 the preparatory departments in the colleges — a 
 subject that will be discussed later on 1 — there is 
 little to justify the continuance of the elementary 
 departments in the high schools, save in excep- 
 tional circumstances. They are no longer neces- 
 sary as feeders to the high schools, and any loss of 
 revenue their discontinuance might entail could be 
 supplied by increased attendance in the high school 
 proper, brought about through the cultivation of 
 closer relations with the parish schools. 
 
 Even aside from this cause of friction, however, 
 existing Catholic high schools often fail to obtain 
 the recognition and support they deserve, except 
 where, as in Philadelphia and some other places, 
 the high school is under the direct control of the 
 Ordinary of the diocese, and thus has a diocesan 
 character. A zealous pastor, after building up a 
 high school with much trouble and expense, finds 
 that, gladly as he would welcome pupils from other 
 1 See Chapter VIII. 
 
54 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 parishes, the attendance is confined strictly to his 
 own parish; and he thus succeeds only in adding 
 one more to the already large number of parish 
 high schools. Frequently, a number of such parish 
 high schools are to be found in the same city, each 
 with a small enrollment, when their combined 
 enrollment would no more than suffice for a single 
 strong school. The result is, to say the least, any- 
 thing but conducive to efficiency and economy in 
 education. 
 
 Causes of Lack of Cooperation 
 
 What are the causes of this lack of cooperation 
 between parish school, high school, and college, 
 united, as they are, by religious bonds as well as 
 by their ultimate educational purpose? Some of 
 the causes have already been mentioned. Crit- 
 icisms of the college that are occasionally heard 
 would suggest the conclusion that the college is 
 actuated only by a narrow individualism in its 
 dealings with the lower schools. The same atti- 
 tude has been attributed by a Catholic editor to 
 parish priests and bishops in their treatment of the 
 broader needs and interests of the Church: 
 
 The blight of parish individualism is at our roots. . . . 
 We are a string of parishes and dioceses instead of a living 
 organism. We have the unity of faith and authority — as 
 for the rest we pull apart, hither and thither. Each bishop 
 
INNER RELATIONS 55 
 
 has his own ideals, notions and projects, and each parish 
 is stamped with an individualistic narrowness that bodes not 
 well. 1 
 
 It must not be forgotten, however, that the 
 diocese, the parish, and the college are bound 
 by their very nature to be, to some extent, self- 
 centered. This, in itself, would be no obstacle 
 to their effective cooperation. There is another 
 explanation for this lack of cooperation — I refer, 
 of course, only to education — an explanation that 
 is more just, as it is likewise more in accord with 
 all the facts. The condition, where it does exist, 
 is generally traceable to the peculiar difficulties 
 which attended the growth of the Church through- 
 out the United States, and which compelled bish- 
 ops and priests to concentrate their attention 
 upon local and immediate educational problems 
 of pressing importance, to the exclusion or neg- 
 lect, for the time being, of more general educa- 
 tional interests. 
 
 It was, in fact, utterly impossible in the begin- 
 ning for the bishops, parish priests, and religious 
 superiors to establish or devise a comprehensive 
 system of education that should include all Cath- 
 olic institutions. They were wholly preoccupied 
 with problems that involved the very existence of 
 
 1 The Monitor, Newark, N. J., quoted in New Century, 
 Jan. 17, 1914. 
 
56 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 those institutions for which they had direct respon- 
 sibility. Nor was effective organization or even 
 cooperation feasible, the existing schools and col- 
 leges being so few and so widely scattered. These 
 conditions changed but very slowly during the 
 first fifty years following the American Revolu- 
 tion. When the great tide of Irish and German 
 immigration set in, towards the middle of the 
 Nineteenth Century, the material side of the edu- 
 cational work that had already been accomplished 
 had to be begun all over again. It became once 
 more a question of building schools and colleges 
 and providing for their maintenance. And the 
 money for the schools had all to be obtained 
 from the free-will offerings of the people. It was 
 not until towards the time of the Third Plenary 
 Council of Baltimore, in 1884, that the condition 
 of Catholic education made it possible for the 
 bishops and religious superiors to give special 
 attention to its more general needs, and to pro- 
 vide for its better organization. 
 
 The work of organization was really taken in 
 hand just as soon as it was practicable. It will be 
 instructive to recount 
 
 What Has Been Accomplished 
 
 by way of organization and cooperation in the 
 period that has elapsed since then. 
 
INNER RELATIONS 57 
 
 As early as 1852, Bishop John Nepomucene 
 Neumann, of Philadelphia, was endeavoring to 
 systematize the educational work of the parishes 
 in his diocese; but events proved that the time 
 was not yet ripe for this. A real diocesan system 
 of education, involving supervision and examina- 
 tion of all parish schools by a diocesan school 
 board, was established by Bishop Joseph Dwenger, 
 of Fort Wayne, in 1879. This plan was adopted 
 by other bishops, approved by the Fourth Pro- 
 vincial Council of Cincinnati, three years later, 
 and became the basis of the school system imposed 
 upon all the dioceses by the Third Plenary Council 
 of Baltimore. 1 Since then, the work of perfecting 
 this diocesan school system has made steady 
 progress. The chief improvements introduced 
 have been, the placing of the practical work of 
 supervision in the hands of one man, the super- 
 intendent of schools, as the executive officer of the 
 diocesan school board; and the bringing of the 
 religious teachers more effectively within the in- 
 fluence of the superintendent, through the insti-. 
 tution of a board of assistants to him known as 
 community inspectors of schools. 2 
 
 1 Burns, Growth and Development of the Cath. Sch. System, 
 p. 199 seq. 
 
 2 lb., 207 seq.] Wright, Roman Catholic Schools, in Rep. 
 of Comm. of Ed. for 1912, 1, p. 230. 
 
58 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 A movement towards the establishment of 
 secondary schools as a part of the diocesan school 
 system was inaugurated by Thomas E. Cahill, of 
 Philadelphia, by the founding of the Central High 
 School for Boys in that city, in 1S73. 1 The school 
 was amply endowed, and provided accommodation 
 for over four hundred pupils. This important 
 step in the direction of better educational organi- 
 zation has exercised a wide and permanent influ- 
 ence. In several other dioceses, similar central 
 high schools have been founded under diocesan 
 control. Many of the bishops are but awaiting a 
 favorable opportunity to carry out the same plan. 
 Philadelphia has recently witnessed the estab- 
 lishment of a large sectional high school for boys 
 and of a central high school for girls, the teaching 
 staff of the latter institution being composed of 
 members of four distinct communities of nuns. 2 
 Such facts are evidence of the perfection to which 
 the diocesan school system has been brought in 
 that historic cradle of Catholic education. 
 
 Nor have efforts been wanting to bring the 
 dioceses and the colleges into closer touch. In 
 1906, with this end in view, a committee ap- 
 pointed by the Catholic College Conference ap- 
 peared before the archbishops at their annual 
 
 1 Burns, op. cit., p. 363. 
 
 2 McDevitt, Ann. Rep. for 1912-13, p. 8. 
 
INNER RELATIONS 59 
 
 conference in Washington. As a result, three 
 archbishops were selected to meet a committee of 
 prominent college educators, at the Milwaukee 
 Convention of the Catholic Educational Asso- 
 ciation, during the following summer. It was 
 hoped by many that such a discussion would lead 
 to further conferences of the same kind, and, per- 
 haps, to regular annual meetings. Unfortunately, 
 the topics to be discussed jointly were not agreed 
 upon beforehand, and the meeting was without 
 definite advantageous results. 
 
 Much has been done, however, towards bringing 
 the dioceses and the colleges into closer educational 
 relations through the work of the Catholic Educa- 
 tional Association. The beginnings of the Asso- 
 ciation, which dates from the year 1899, were feeble 
 enough; but, with the aid and encouragement of 
 the bishops, it has grown larger and stronger year 
 by year. Its policy has been to bring representa- 
 tives of the schools, high schools, colleges and 
 seminaries into active cooperation, through joint 
 discussions of the larger and more common prob- 
 lems of Catholic education, while leaving to each 
 affiliated conference or section all matters per- 
 taining to its own proper sphere. Outside of the 
 general conventions, it provides for meetings from 
 time to time of representatives of the colleges and 
 schools, and of the colleges and seminaries, for 
 
60 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 the consideration of questions affecting the rela- 
 tions of these respective institutions. The work 
 of these joint committees, besides being directly 
 and practically helpful, has contributed much to 
 the cultivation of the spirit of cooperation. The 
 Association has thus become a practical bond of 
 union between all Catholic educational agencies. 
 
 Lines of Future Progress 
 
 The developments that have been noted, in the 
 way of educational organization and cooperation, 
 indicate clearly the lines of progress for the 
 future. It is evident that there is need of closer 
 educational relations between the colleges and 
 the pastors, between the colleges and the commu- 
 nities engaged in secondary education, and be- 
 tween the colleges and the bishops. 
 
 The pastor is usually in charge of the educa- 
 tion of Catholic children up to their fourteenth 
 year, and he is likely to have considerable influ- 
 ence in the selecting of the college for the boy, and 
 the academy for the girl. If the schools are to be 
 brought closer to the colleges, it is, therefore, 
 necessary that the cooperation of the pastors 
 should be secured. Causes of friction, however 
 slight in themselves, should be studiously avoided 
 or removed. Much could be effected through 
 friendly visits to neighboring parish schools by 
 
INNER RELATIONS 61 
 
 members of a college faculty. Pastors are espe- 
 cially pleased to see representatives of the colleges 
 present at the closing exercises of the schools in 
 June, and at other formal school exercises during 
 the year. Their mere presence is an encourage- 
 ment, and tends to enhance the importance of the 
 parish school in the eyes of the people. And what is 
 more fitting than that such sympathy and support 
 should be freely given to the heads of the parish 
 schools by our highest academic authorities? It 
 is not too much to assert that many hundreds of 
 Catholic boys who make their way annually to 
 non-Catholic colleges might be drawn to our own 
 colleges, if the authorities of the latter would take 
 more pains to manifest, in practical ways, their 
 interest in the parish schools. 
 
 Pastors, on the other hand, ought to interest 
 themselves in every grade of Catholic education, 
 seeing that the same principle and purpose runs 
 through it all, and that the parish schools and the 
 colleges must ultimately stand or fall together. 
 Organizations such as the Catholic Educational 
 Association should enlist the name and active 
 support of every priest who has responsibility for 
 a Catholic school. Within recent years, a course 
 of lectures in pedagogy and school management has 
 been introduced into a number of the leading 
 seminaries. This new movement promises much 
 
62 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 for the parish schools of the future, and it will 
 probably be of scarcely less benefit to the colleges. 
 A pastor who has an enlightened interest in the 
 educational work of his own school, can hardly 
 fail to have a lively interest in the success of the 
 Catholic college. 
 
 All this is equally applicable to the colleges and 
 high schools. It is indispensable that college 
 authorities should cultivate the most friendly and 
 sympathetic attitude towards the teaching com- 
 munities engaged in secondary education. The 
 greatest need of the teaching communities, espe- 
 cially the brotherhoods, is vocations. Their novi- 
 tiates and houses of study should, therefore, be 
 objects of friendly solicitude to the priests of the 
 college faculty, as well as to other priests of the 
 same religious order who may be stationed in 
 parishes. College men ought to take an active 
 interest in the Catholic high school movement, 
 and endeavor so to shape its development as to 
 provide duly for the interests of the colleges. 
 The high school can be made an effective link be- 
 tween the parish school and the college. Only 
 through the high school, in fact, can anything 
 approaching a thorough and systematic organ- 
 ization of all our educational efforts be ex- 
 pected. 
 
 It is, however, to the bishops that we must look 
 
INNER RELATIONS 63 
 
 for the solution of some of the most difficult prob- 
 lems involved in the completion of the work of 
 Catholic educational organization and cooperation. 
 The bishops have control over the diocesan edu- 
 cational systems, including elementary schools 
 and high schools. Without them, little can, there- 
 fore, be done towards bringing schools and col- 
 leges into closer touch. Through their authority 
 and influence, on the other hand, any desirable 
 degree of organization and cooperation should not 
 be unattainable. 
 
 A few years ago, the bishop and parish clergy of 
 the Diocese of Springfield, Mass., erected a hand- 
 some dormitory building at Holy Cross College, 
 as a gift from the diocese. The spirit that prompted 
 this generous action is, no doubt, an asset of even 
 greater value to the institution than the material 
 structure donated. Since then, the bishop and 
 priests of one of the western dioceses have under- 
 taken a similar benefaction for the college in the 
 diocese. It is, of course, not to be expected that 
 such benefactions will be possible everywhere. 
 But the same sympathetic relations between col- 
 lege and diocese are surely realizable everywhere. 
 The success of the Catholic colleges is of vital 
 importance for religion. Without an educated 
 laity whose life-principles are grounded in Cath- 
 olic philosophy, and whose minds are trained to 
 
64 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 instinctive sympathy with everything Catholic, 
 the Church in America would be deprived of her 
 main arm of defense. Nor could the parish 
 schools long survive the colleges. Experience 
 has abundantly shown that, in this country at 
 least, Catholic laymen of this stamp are not apt 
 to be the product of non-Catholic colleges or uni- 
 versities. 
 
 But apart from the needs of the colleges, there 
 are many defects in Catholic education that would 
 find a remedy, if the efforts of college authorities 
 and members of the hierarchy were united more 
 closely in active cooperation. A number of these 
 defects have been pointed out in the course of 
 the present Chapter. Our colleges and univer- 
 sities must be looked to for that broad, deep, 
 philosophic knowledge of education, in its various 
 processes, which is derivable only from a study of 
 the subject in institutions of higher learning. 
 They must supply the element of academic leader- 
 ship. But professional knowledge and experi- 
 ence will avail little for the proper organization of 
 the vast and complex work of Catholic education 
 in the United States, without the active coopera- 
 tion of the bishops. Proper organization will 
 result in strengthening individual seminaries, 
 colleges, and schools. It should go far towards 
 stopping the drift of Catholic youth of both sexes 
 
INNER RELATIONS 65 
 
 towards non-Catholic institutions of every kind. 
 It will prevent untold waste of effort at many 
 points, by linking all our educational institutions 
 together in closest moral union, if not in a single 
 comprehensive system. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 TEACHING THE CHILDREN 
 
 The Diocesan System 1 
 
 Catholic elementary education is organized 
 along diocesan lines. Each of the dioceses has its 
 own school system, at the head of which is the 
 bishop. The bishops are bound by the legisla- 
 tion of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 
 which has established an educational norm for all 
 the dioceses in essential matters, and the diocesan 
 school systems are consequently very much alike. 
 Usually, one hears only of the Catholic school 
 system. Unity and variety, stability and elas- 
 ticity are thus provided for in Catholic elementary 
 education, in much the same way as they are 
 secured in the civil order by the division of author- 
 ity between the Federal Government and the 
 States. 
 
 In accordance with the legislation of the Third 
 Plenary Council of Baltimore, the control of the 
 diocesan school system is vested in the diocesan 
 
 1 For the number of elementary schools, pupils and teach- 
 ers, cf. Chapter I, supra, p. 2. 
 
 66 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 67 
 
 school board, which consists of a number of the 
 more influential clergy, presided over by the 
 bishop. Most of the larger dioceses now have an 
 inspector or superintendent of schools as the 
 executive officer of the school board, and many of 
 them have also community inspectors of schools. 
 The community inspector is practically an assist- 
 ant superintendent, with supervision over the 
 schools that are in charge of his or her religious 
 community within the diocese. 1 
 
 The pastor is, by right, the head of the parish 
 school. In some respects, he is the most important 
 factor in the entire school system. Apart from 
 matters relating to the material and religious well- 
 being of the school, however, the teachers have 
 full charge of the work, and when they are 
 religious, as is generally the case, the actual prin- 
 cipal of the school is their immediate religious 
 superior. The religious teachers usually live in 
 or near the school building, which is almost invari- 
 ably in close proximity to the parish church. 
 
 1 For an account of the development of the organization 
 of the diocesan school system, cf. the author's Growth and 
 Bevel, of Cath. Sch. Sys., p. 199 seq. For a discussion of the 
 problems connected with diocesan supervision, cf. paper 
 of Rev. E. F. Gibbons, School Supervision — its Necessity, 
 Aims, and Methods, in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., II, 
 p. 164. 
 
68 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 Besides eight-grade elementary schools, the 
 diocesan school system includes kindergartens 
 and high schools. Of late years, Catholics have 
 been giving more attention to the establishment of 
 kindergartens, and in many dioceses the kinder- 
 garten class has become a regular feature of the 
 parish school. Experience shows that children 
 who have had a good kindergarten training progress 
 more rapidly in the lower grades. Moreover, if 
 they take kindergarten work in the public schools, 
 they are likely to continue to attend these schools. 1 
 
 We have now to consider some of the more im- 
 portant questions in respect to the diocesan school 
 system that are engaging the attention of Catholic 
 educators. 2 
 
 The Teaching 
 
 An experienced diocesan superintendent recently 
 expressed the opinion, that the most urgent needs 
 of the parish schools at present are, " Better teach- 
 ers; more teachers, and better equipment; and 
 the keeping of all Catholic children through the 
 grades and the high school." 3 Something has 
 already been said about the efficiency of the train- 
 
 1 Rev. A. V. Garthoeffner, in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn. 
 VIII, p. 340. 
 
 2 Cf. Bro. John Waldron, The Organization of a Diocesan 
 School System, in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., XI, p. 254. 
 
 3 Rt. Rev. P. R. McDevitt, in letter to author. 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 69 
 
 ing of Catholic teachers, as compared with teachers 
 in the public schools. 1 Satisfactory as is the 
 training of our teachers, from this comparative 
 point of view, there can be no doubt that the 
 greatest need of the parish schools is still the 
 better preparation of the teacher. 
 
 Educational experience proves the necessity of 
 providing fully for the preparation of the teacher in 
 the regular training course of the teaching order. 
 All other plans are but makeshifts, and can bring 
 but temporary or partial improvement. The train- 
 ing course, comprising the postulate, novitiate, 
 and normal school proper, must be strengthened 
 and developed, if the teaching in the schools 
 is to be improved and vitalized. Such was the 
 view of the Third Plenary Council, of Baltimore. 
 One of the chief functions of the diocesan school 
 board, as decreed by the Council, was to be the 
 examination of teachers; and no lay teacher or 
 member of a diocesan teaching community was to 
 be allowed to teach, without having passed the 
 examination of the diocesan board and received a 
 teacher's diploma. The diploma was to be valid 
 for five years. After this period, another and final 
 examination was to be required. 2 The object was 
 
 1 Chapter I, supra, p. 8 seq. 
 
 2 Cone. Plen. Bait. Ill Acta et Decreta, n. 203; Burns, 
 op. cit., pp. 201, 211. 
 
70 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 made plain: it was to provide a corps of better 
 trained teachers for the schools, and, as a means to 
 this, the work of the training course was to be 
 strengthened and prolonged. 
 
 This plan, so far as relates to the examination 
 and certification of teachers, has not proven a 
 success. The scheme did not include non-diocesan 
 communities, and in many dioceses the great 
 majority of the teachers belong to this category. 
 This, in itself, was almost a fatal drawback. In- 
 herently, there is no more reason for subjecting 
 diocesan communities to the requirements of 
 examination and certification than there is for 
 subjecting non-dioceson communities to such 
 requirements. Again, no program of studies was 
 drawn up by the diocesan boards for the com- 
 munity training courses, nor, indeed, could this 
 reasonably be expected of the boards. Without 
 a definite prescribed program of studies, as the 
 subject-matter or basis for the examinations, it 
 was inevitable that these, if held at all, should 
 come to partake of the character of a mere for- 
 mality. 1 As a matter of fact, responsibility for 
 the preparation of the teachers has generally been 
 left to the religious superiors. This is the situa- 
 tion at present. 
 
 The aim of the legislation of the Third Plenary 
 1 Bro. John Waldron, op. cit. 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 71 
 
 Council on this point may, however, be attained 
 by the diocesan authorities, through super- 
 vision of the program and work of the community 
 training courses. This task will naturally fall to 
 the diocesan superintendents. Far more effective 
 than the scheme of examination and certification 
 by the diocesan school board, will be the careful 
 study of the community training courses by those 
 in the diocese who are professionally competent — 
 the superintendent and the community inspectors. 
 Their united recommendations would have almost 
 the force of laws; for no one of the many com- 
 munities concerned would care to run the risk of 
 being backward in a matter so important. Rarely, 
 if ever, should it become necessary for the bishop 
 to take up the matter personally with the religious 
 superiors. Were there assurance as to the pro- 
 gram of studies followed in the training courses, 
 and the competency of teaching staffs, the exami- 
 nation of the candidates for teaching in the dio- 
 cesan schools might well be left to the community 
 authorities. 
 
 Not less important than the program of studies 
 in the community training courses, is the educa- 
 tion of the teachers who are to carry out that 
 program. Experience has shown that a single 
 very capable teacher in the normal school is able 
 to raise the standard of teaching throughout the 
 
72 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 entire community. A few thoroughly educated 
 men or women, with the high ideals and noble 
 enthusiasm that spring from the pursuit of the 
 scientific study of education, will be able, through 
 the training of young teachers in the normal school, 
 to improve the quality of the teaching in hundreds 
 of parish schools. Nor will their influence be con- 
 fined to the particular community or diocese in 
 which they labor. The most hopeful outlook at 
 present for the improvement of the teaching in the 
 parish schools is, that ^o many of the religious 
 orders are endeavoring to educate very thoroughly 
 their more gifted and promising young teachers. 1 
 The difficulties that stand in the way of a more 
 thorough preparation of teachers for their work in 
 the schools, come chiefly from the lack of a suf- 
 ficient number of vocations to the teaching orders. 
 Young religious, who are still far from the comple- 
 tion of the work of the normal school, are often 
 sent out into the schools and academies to teach, 
 with but slight prospect of ever being able to com- 
 plete their education. Many of these would be 
 capable of rendering incalculably more fruitful 
 educational service, if they were more thoroughly 
 trained. Their superiors may be willing enough to 
 afford them this training; but there are not teachers 
 enough for the schools and academies, as matters 
 1 Cf. Chapter I, p. n. 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 73 
 
 stand, and how can these young teachers be spared? 
 No one can blame the religious superiors; yet, 
 gifted minds are left undeve'oped, and Catholic 
 education is decidedly the loser by it in the long 
 run. 
 
 It is true, in very many instances, that the schools 
 are not sufficiently staffed. " More teachers," is 
 the second urgent need of the parish schools, 
 according to the superintendent quoted above. 
 To be convinced of the truth of this, one need only 
 visit the crowded classrooms of many of our city 
 schools, especially in the primary department. 
 Seventy, and even eighty, children may not infre- 
 quently be found in charge of a single teacher. In 
 one of the larger western dioceses, a community 
 that has charge of twenty-three schools has an 
 average of fifty pupils to the teacher. In an east- 
 ern diocese, in which the parish school system may 
 be said to be as well organized as it is anywhere 
 else in the country, a community with thirty-seven 
 schools has an average of fifty-four pupils to the 
 teacher; another community, with five schools, 
 has fifty-eight pupils to the teacher. 1 In schools 
 for foreign nationalities, the disproportion is often 
 still greater. One community, in charge of twenty- 
 five Polish schools, has, on an average, only one 
 teacher to every sixty-four pupils; another, with 
 1 Reports of diocesan superintendents. 
 
74 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 six schools, has only one teacher to every seventy 
 pupils. 1 
 
 It is generally admitted that no teacher should 
 have more than forty pupils, even in the primary 
 grades, and that ordinarily the quality of the teach- 
 ing is bound to suffer when the number becomes 
 greater than this. The teacher is physically unable 
 to attend properly to more than a limited number 
 of pupils; and besides, there is the matter of ven- 
 tilation, involving possible detriment to their 
 health, application and morale. The fact that 
 the evils of overcrowding may not be greater in the 
 parish schools than they are in the public schools, 
 is no excuse for indifference on our part in regard 
 to these evils. The condition described, wherever 
 it exists, is bad. To tolerate it is to run the risk 
 of losing all the advantages of the Catholic school, 
 and of allowing the self-sacrificing labors of devoted 
 religious teachers to remain barren of fruit. 
 
 A short-sighted parochial economy is sometimes 
 responsible for this condition. But more often it 
 is due to the impossibility of obtaining a sufficient 
 number of religious teachers. All the teaching 
 communities are in urgent need of more subjects. 
 All of them have demands every year for more 
 teachers in existing schools, as well as offers of new 
 schools. Hundreds of new parish schools might be 
 
 1 Bums, Growth and Devel. of the Cath. Sch. Sys., p. 317. 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 75 
 
 cpened every year, if the communities could sup- 
 ply the teachers. Neither pastors nor people will 
 be satisfied with lay teachers, as long as there is the 
 possibility of getting Sisters or Brothers. Since 
 fully one-half of the Catholic children of the land 
 still attend the public schools, it is evident that the 
 increase of the membership of the teaching orders is 
 vitally connected with the interests of Catholic 
 education in a quantitative as well as a qualitative 
 way. 
 
 The novitiates of the teaching orders ought to 
 contain twice as many candidates as they have at 
 present. If all pastors would take an active per- 
 sonal interest in fostering such vocations, the total 
 number in the novitiates could easily be doubled 
 within a few years. There is no intention here of 
 implying that there has been a neglect of positive 
 duty on the part of the parish clergy. It is a 
 question of duty only in the larger sense — of that 
 finer priestly zeal that knows no parochial bound- 
 aries, and is ever stirred and quickened by the 
 vital f needs and supreme interests of the Church. 
 The Catholic school system, as it stands, is the 
 splendid product of such priestly zeal. 
 
 The Curriculum 
 
 The school curriculum may conveniently be con- 
 sidered under two aspects, content and length. 
 
76 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 The Catholic school has been affected by prac- 
 tically the same conditions as the public school, 
 and Catholic educators are confronted by the same 
 problems in regard to the curriculum as non- 
 Catholic educators. 1 Thus, in respect to content, 
 the parish-school curriculum has undergone much 
 the same transformation as the public-school 
 curriculum, and from the same causes. Over one- 
 half of the studies in the parish school today 
 represent additions that have been made to the 
 curriculum since about the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century. The older or " formal " studies 
 — reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and 
 spelling, together with some geography and history 
 — have retained their place; but alongside of them 
 has been placed the long list of subjects known 
 as " real " studies, representing language and lit- 
 erature, and the elementary arts and sciences. 
 The teaching of the older branches has also, to a 
 great extent, been transformed by the introduction 
 of empirical methods. 
 
 The multiplication of studies in the school has 
 resulted in overloading the curriculum, and the 
 need of simplifying it is generally acknowledged. 
 As to just how this is to be brought about, how- 
 ever, there are conflicting views. Some educators 
 would simplify the curriculum by cutting down still 
 1 Cf. Chapter I, p. 7. 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 77 
 
 further the time allotted to such studies as arith- 
 metic and grammar, and by aiming at a unifica- 
 tion of classwork and study through the applica- 
 tion of the principle of correlation. Others favor 
 the cutting out altogether of many of the " real " 
 studies, or so-called " fads." Business men 
 clamor for the " three R's " — for clerks who can 
 write, spell, and figure well, whether they may 
 know anything more or not. Many Catholics 
 believe that, if more time were devoted in school 
 to the old " formal " studies, our youth would 
 have a better chance of securing good positions 
 in the business world after they leave school. 
 
 Such arguments are plausible. They appeal to 
 the practical instinct. Nevertheless, adjustment 
 to one's environment, in this narrow, utilitarian 
 sense, can never wisely be made the dominating 
 principle in any general scheme of education. 
 The reason is simple. Education must aim to 
 develop and train the whole child — all his faculties 
 or powers, all his emotions, senses, capacities. If 
 we accept this view of the function of education, it 
 would seem that the new or " real " studies are 
 essentially required in the curriculum, inasmuch 
 as they are calculated to develop powers that are 
 left practically untouched by the older studies. 
 In elementary education especially, the principle of 
 direct utility must be applied with caution. Super- 
 
78 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 ficial results naturally show themselves quickly. 
 A boy who can figure, write, and spell better than 
 another may not be nearly so well educated as the 
 latter, and, in the long run, may fall far behind him 
 in the race of life. The product of the modern 
 educational process may be, as it is claimed, lack- 
 ing in accuracy, definiteness and precision; l but 
 this, if it be true, must result rather from the 
 method than from the subject-matter made use 
 of. Surely, the study of the sciences and drawing 
 must tend to beget habits of accuracy, definiteness 
 and precision not less than does the study of 
 reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic. 
 
 It is not unlikely that the demand for the sim- 
 plification of the curriculum will be satisfied, ulti- 
 mately, through the more successful application of 
 the principle of the correlation of studies. Sim- 
 plification will be secured, both by the general 
 arrangement of the subject-matter of instruction, 
 and by incidental appeal to the knowledge derived 
 from all the other branches in the study of any 
 particular subject. 2 
 
 The question of the proper length of the curricu- 
 lum is one that is receiving much attention at the 
 present time. Most American educators have 
 come to believe that our elementary school course 
 
 » Ed. Rev., XLVII, p. 106. 
 2 Cf. Chapter III, p. 33. 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 79 
 
 is too long. There is abundant evidence that the 
 work which the school now takes eight years to do, 
 could, under proper conditions, be done in approx- 
 imately six years; or, in other words, that two en- 
 tire years are wasted in the educational process, 
 between the beginning and the completion of the 
 elementary school. As a result, it is pointed out, 
 the American young man is two years older than 
 the German or Italian youth when, after gradua- 
 tion from the university or the professional school, 
 the real work of life is begun. On the Continent, 
 there is a longer school day and a longer school 
 year than with us, as well as more intensive study, 
 and pupils there cover the ground of our eight- 
 year elementary curriculum in a shorter time. 1 
 
 This view is shared by many prominent Catholic 
 educators. The members of the Advisory Board 
 of the Catholic Educational Association, in 191 2, 
 adopted a plan for the reorganization of elementary 
 education which would involve the cutting down 
 of the work to six years. Bro. John Waldron, for 
 
 »Cf. Rep. Comm. of Ed., 1913, pp. XXEV-XXVI; Rep. 
 of Committee of National Council of Ed. on Economy of 
 Time in Education (Bull. No. 38, U. S. Bur. of Ed., 1913) ; 
 Ed. Rev., XLVII, p. 28 seq., Experiences of an American 
 Exchange Teacher in Germany; Dr. Chas. L. Dana, address 
 to Schoolmasters' Assn. of N. Y. City, N. Y. Sun, Jan. 25, 
 1914. 
 
80 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 many years supervisor of the schools of the 
 Brothers of Mary, in a paper read before the 
 above-mentioned association, said: 
 
 Inasmuch as this paper calls for a completed elementary 
 education at the end of the sixth year, it may be asked with 
 reason whether such work can be done within six years. 
 In many dioceses, and especially where there is excellent 
 and effective diocesan supervision, it can; but, frankly 
 said, in some schools it cannot be done, as long as certain 
 obstacles are there to impede the work. 1 
 
 The Rt. Rev. P. R. McDevitt, former superin- 
 tendent of schools in the Archdiocese of Phila- 
 delphia, is of the same opinion: 
 
 With better teaching, with proper conditions in our 
 schools, smaller classes and a longer school term, the work 
 that is now done in eight years, and done sometimes badly, 
 can be done well in six years. Two years of school life 
 can thus be saved for higher studies. 2 
 
 If two years of time are to be taken from the 
 elementary school, what is the boy or girl to do 
 after finishing the sixth grade? In answer to this 
 question, it may be said that a number of plans 
 are being tried. The one adopted by the Advisory 
 Board of the Catholic Educational Association 
 
 1 How many Grades should there be in the Elementary 
 School? — Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., VII, p. 290. 
 
 2 In letter to the author Nov. 15, 1913. Cf. also, The 
 Present-day Tendencies in Education, by Bro. John B. Nichol, 
 S.M., in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., XI, p. 143. 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 81 
 
 involves a differentiation of curricula at the end of 
 the sixth school year; pupils going on for high- 
 school work would at once begin this, while the 
 rest would devote two years to studies supple- 
 mentary to those already had, together with man- 
 ual training. 1 The plan of Junior and Senior High 
 Schools involves the division of the high school into 
 two sections, each of three years' length, and the 
 admission of pupils into the lower section after their 
 completion of the sixth grade. 2 This plan, how- 
 ever, will not result in shortening the entire aca- 
 demic period, unless the college should accept the 
 work of the last two years of the high school in lieu 
 of the work of its Freshman and Sophomore years. 3 
 It is the contention of the Catholic educators 
 quoted above, and of many experienced non- 
 Catholic educators, that, under proper conditions, 
 the work of the eight years' elementary school can 
 be done in six years. If these conditions can be 
 brought about, and two years of the elementary- 
 school period saved, the boy or girl would begin 
 
 1 Cf. Chapter VI, p. 108; also, Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., 
 
 IX, p. 87; and the paper of Rev. Dr. F. W. Howard, on 
 The Problem of the Curriculum, in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., 
 
 X, p. 132. 
 
 2 Cf. Rep. of the Committee of the National Council of 
 Ed., on Economy of Time in Education, loc. cit. 
 
 3 For a fuller discussion of the Junior and Senior High 
 School plan, see Chapter VI, p. 106. 
 
82 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 high school work at the age of twelve or thirteen, 
 and finish it four years later. There is no valid 
 reason for prolonging the high-school period. The 
 really important reform is the elimination of the 
 enormous waste of time in the elementary school. 
 The conditions necessary, in order to bring about 
 this reform, are, better teaching with smaller 
 classes, more intensive study, a longer school day 
 and school term, and the avoidance of whatever 
 is opposed to economy of time. Under this last 
 head, a long-standing abuse in Catholic schools is 
 thus characterized by one who has had wide oppor- 
 tunities for observation: 
 
 Beyond any doubt, the greatest cause of loss of time in 
 our educational work is the preparation for entertain- 
 ments, as it is carried out in many schools, either for com- 
 mencements or for purely financial purposes — especially 
 entertainments in which, to secure a record attendance of 
 parents and relations, every class, and when possible every 
 child in the class, must appear on the stage, regardless alike 
 of the histrionic incapacity of teacher and pupils for such 
 work. I feel convinced that if diocesan school boards 
 would get the actual statistics of the loss of time involved 
 in the preparation of entertainments, every endeavor would 
 be made to suppress them entirely, where possible, and to 
 reduce them to a minimum where they must remain as 
 necessary evils. 1 
 
 1 Bro. John Waldron, Grades in the Elementary School, in 
 Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., VII, p. 281. 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 83 
 
 The length of both school day and school term 
 has been cut down in Catholic schools, after the 
 example of the public schools. It is clear now that 
 this was a serious mistake. Pastors and teachers 
 should set their faces resolutely in the opposite 
 direction. It will take time to recover the lost 
 ground, and this must be effected by a concerted 
 movement. The cultivation of the habit of in- 
 tensive study by pupils is dependent upon im- 
 provement in teaching and reduction in the size 
 of classes. These matters have already been 
 discussed. 
 
 Keeping Children at School 
 
 The causes of the retardation and elimination of 
 pupils in school have been carefully studied during 
 recent years. Catholic schools appear to be 
 affected by these causes quite as much as the public 
 schools. A few years ago, an investigation that 
 covered 386 of the larger cities of the country was 
 made by the Sage Foundation. The results showed 
 that of every eighteen pupils in the first grade, only 
 ten appeared in the fifth grade, and five in the 
 eighth grade, while only one out of the eighteen 
 went on to the high school. 1 In one of our large 
 dioceses, in which there are over 62,000 children 
 enrolled in the parish schools, 37,000 — over one- 
 
 1 America, May 27, 1911, p. 165. 
 
84 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 half of the entire enrollment — are in the first grade. 
 Between the fourth and fifth grades, in the same 
 diocese, the enrollment decreases by almost one- 
 half. In passing from the sixth to the seventh 
 grade, the enrollment is halved again, and the 
 process is repeated in the passage from the seventh 
 to the eighth grade. There are 92 per cent more 
 children in the first than in the highest or eighth 
 grade. 1 
 
 The conditions just described appear to be typi- 
 cal. This means that by far the greater number of 
 pupils in our schools fail to gain the benefit of the 
 full course of instruction and training, religious and 
 secular, which has been provided for them at such 
 great cost and sacrifice. Most of them drop out 
 long before they come to the end of the course; 
 a large proportion of those who stay lag behind in 
 their work, and are kept much of the time going 
 over the same ground. This is a dark shadow 
 upon our schools. It is not brightened in the 
 least by the fact that the public schools are suffer- 
 ing just as much in the same way. The efficiency 
 of our entire school system is gravely imperiled. 
 
 The causes of retardation are closely allied with 
 those of elimination. By law, children are gener- 
 
 1 Rev. P. J. McCormick, Ph.D., Retardation and Elimina- 
 tion of Pupils in our Schools, in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn,, 
 VIII, p. 326; cf. also, L. P. Ayres, Laggards in our Schools. 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 85 
 
 ally obliged to begin school at six to eight years of 
 age and to attend school until fourteen to sixteen 
 years of age. But parents who wash to evade the 
 law, do not, as a rule, find it difficult to do so. 
 The compulsory education laws differ considerably 
 in the various States, and are enforced far less 
 strictly in some than in others. In consequence, the 
 proportion of children of school age who actually 
 attend school differs very much throughout the 
 country, ranging from 54.6 per cent in Louisiana 
 to 92.9 per cent in Vermont and Massachusetts. 1 
 
 A superintendent of Catholic schools who has 
 devoted special attention to the subject, enumer- 
 ates the following five causes of retardation: 
 
 1. Late entrance. 
 
 2. Irregular attendance. Less than three-fourths of the 
 children in the schools attend school as much as three- 
 fourths of the year. 
 
 3. Physical defects. 
 
 4. Deficient school administration. Under this heading 
 are placed overcrowding of courses and classes, loss of time, 
 lack of discipline, faulty methods, inefficient teaching, 
 and an irrational system of promotion. 
 
 5. A lack of understanding of the problem of retardation. 
 
 As remedies, he suggests that every possible effort 
 should be made to get the children to school at an 
 
 1 Compulsory School Attendance, Bull. No. 2, U. S. Bur, 
 of Ed., 1914, p. 25. 
 
86 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 earlier age, especially by the establishment of 
 kindergartens; that regular attendance should be 
 insisted on more vigorously; that courses should be 
 revised so as to enable the average child to complete 
 the grades; and that provision should be made for 
 better school administration, in the large sense in 
 which the term is used above. 1 To these reme- 
 dies, another diocesan superintendent would add 
 the following: 
 
 i. Special attention should be given to those who fall 
 behind their grade, in order to discover the cause and to 
 apply the best available remedy. While it is impossible 
 under our present conditions to reach each child individ- 
 ually, yet with a little effort much can be done for those 
 exceptional children who are to be found in every grade. 
 
 2. Intelligent, systematic medical inspection of the school 
 will be an important factor in preventing certain evils and 
 in eliminating others. It has been demonstrated time and 
 again that the removal of physical defects helps towards 
 the unfolding and developing of a child's intellectual 
 powers. 
 
 3. There should be a radical correction of the overcrowd- 
 ing evil. Whatever excuse there may be for our inability 
 to provide special remedies for the backward children, in 
 nearly every case the overcrowding in our schools can be 
 corrected if there be a sincere desire to do so. Not unfre- 
 quently non-essentials about a parish establishment are 
 carefully looked after, while those things that concern the 
 
 1 Rev. A. V. Garthoeffner, in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., 
 VIII, p. 336 seq. 
 
TEACHING THE CHILDREN 87 
 
 health of both teachers and pupils are made to assume a 
 secondary importance. 1 
 
 Measures thoroughly corrective of these evils 
 will undoubtedly be beset with difficulties. But 
 much improvement can easily be effected, pro- 
 vided there be an understanding of the conditions, 
 and a tender sympathy for retarded or backward 
 children, who are the most helpless and the most 
 worthy of intelligent consideration. 2 
 
 1 Rt. Rev. P. R. McDevitt, Phila., Fourteenth Ann. Rep., 
 p. 18. 
 
 2 lb. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 
 
 Catholic secondary schools are multiplying very 
 rapidly, over one hundred having come into exist- 
 ence during the past three years. 1 These schools 
 are evidently being opened in response to a popular 
 demand. The movement is very significant, and 
 full of promise for the further development of 
 Catholic education. 
 
 Teachers 
 
 Nearly all Catholic secondary schools are 
 taught by religious. Brothers have charge of 92 
 high schools, and Sisters teach in 473 high schools 
 containing boys. 2 Although the parish priest would, 
 as a rule, prefer to have men rather than women 
 as teachers for boys of high-school age, yet he may 
 find that he cannot get Brothers and cannot 
 
 1 Cf. The Condition of Cath. Secondary Ed. in the U. S., 
 Aug. Bull, of Cath. Ed. Assn., 1915, p. 64. For a statement 
 of the enrollment in Catholic secondary schools, cf. Chapter 
 I, supra, p. 2. 
 
 2 Rep. on Cath. Sec. Ed., 1915, p. 64. High schools that 
 are exclusively for girls will be discussed in the next chapter. 
 
 88 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 89 
 
 afford to hire laymen. On the other hand, if he has 
 not a high school of his own, his boys will go to 
 the public high school, where most of their teachers 
 are likely to be women. Hence, he is often obliged 
 to draw the practical conclusion that he cannot 
 do better than to get Sisters to conduct the work 
 of his high school. Moreover, in parish high 
 schools conducted by Sisters, at least one class — 
 Christian doctrine — is almost always taught by 
 one of the clergy, who also looks after the dis- 
 cipline of the school. It is chiefly in regard to 
 discipline and character-training that objection 
 is raised against the teaching of boys by women. 
 This objection is thus partly obviated in the case 
 of these schools. While all this is true, the fact 
 remains that men teachers are, by common consent, 
 preferable for boys of high-school age. We would 
 have a larger number of Brothers' high schools 
 if we had more teaching Brothers. One of the 
 greatest needs in Catholic education at the present 
 time is an increase of vocations to the teaching 
 brotherhoods. 
 
 Relation to Catholic Colleges 
 
 Fully one-half of our high schools have courses 
 in Latin, which is generally among the entrance 
 requirements of Catholic colleges. 1 The standard 
 
 1 Report on Cath. Secondary Ed., 191 5, p. 8. 
 
90 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 college, as defined by the College Department of 
 the Catholic Educational Association, must require 
 sixteen units of specified preparatory studies for 
 entrance. 1 According to this definition, which is 
 also accepted by non-Catholic educational associa- 
 tions, most Catholic high schools that teach Latin 
 have a curriculum that is capable of fitting boys 
 and girls to enter our standard colleges. Many 
 others are capable of preparing their pupils to 
 enter the Freshman Year of colleges that are less 
 strict in regard to entrance requirements. Only 
 a few high schools teach Greek, unless they are 
 directly connected with the colleges. 
 
 A very large proportion of our high schools, how- 
 ever, do not attempt to prepare pupils for college. 
 In many instances, this is due to their recent estab- 
 lishment, or to the difficulty of attaining the en- 
 trance standards of the colleges. Such difficul- 
 ties will probably be overcome in time. The 
 secondary school, it is true, exists primarily for 
 pupils who are not going to college. Its first duty 
 is to them. But it will always have a certain 
 number of pupils who are ambitious for higher 
 studies. Statistics show that about one out of 
 every ten pupils in the public high schools actually 
 goes to college. A Catholic secondary school, 
 therefore, cannot afford to neglect the interests 
 1 Circular of College Dept., Feb., 1915. 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 91 
 
 of higher education, however much it may sub- 
 ordinate them to the needs of the greater 
 number of its pupils, for such neglect would 
 be abandonment of one of its own fundamental 
 utilities. 
 
 Not only should the Catholic high school care- 
 fully provide for those among its pupils who are 
 looking towards the college, but it should employ 
 every legitimate influence to direct such pupils to 
 Catholic colleges. Graduates of our high schools 
 will, doubtless, continue to go to non-Catholic 
 colleges. Local proximity, if no other cause, would 
 lead to this. But Catholic colleges have a right 
 to expect the great majority of these high-school 
 graduates. It would be sad, indeed, if any of our 
 middle schools, which ought to form the central 
 link in the organization of Catholic education, 
 should come to be a hindrance rather than a help 
 to the passage of pupils from our parish schools to 
 our colleges. 
 
 Probably one-half of the graduates of Catholic 
 high schools who enter college go to non-Catholic 
 institutions. These institutions make no discrim- 
 ination between Catholic and public high schools. 
 They are eager, as a rule, to place Catholic schools 
 on their accrediting lists, when the schools meet 
 their substantial requirements, and quite a number 
 of our high schools are now accredited to various 
 
92 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 state universities. 1 It is natural that high schools 
 should seek recognition from standard collegiate 
 institutions, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, 
 for such recognition means much for their own 
 standing as reputable secondary schools. The 
 Catholic University has been quick to recognize 
 the opportunity that this condition offers, as is 
 shown by its long list of accredited Catholic high 
 schools. 
 
 The determination of the relations that are to 
 exist between college and high school depends more 
 upon the former than upon the latter. There are 
 several things that the Catholic college may do 
 in order to attract the graduates of Catholic high 
 schools, and prevent their being drawn to non- 
 Catholic colleges and universities. First of all, 
 there is the cultivation of friendly relations with 
 the authorities of the high school. 2 It is per- 
 sonal influence, more than anything else, that 
 counts in the selection of a college by the high- 
 school student. Again, the high school may be 
 brought into close academic touch with the col- 
 lege, so that the high-school diploma would admit 
 its possessor, without examination, to the Fresh- 
 man Year of the college, or to one of the upper 
 preparatory years. Another bond of union is the 
 
 1 Reports on Cath. Sec. Ed., 191 2 and 191 5. 
 
 2 Cf. Chapter IV, p. 52. 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 93 
 
 competitive scholarship, admitting the high-school 
 graduate to free tuition or board, or both, in the 
 college. A single competitive scholarship may 
 attract many pupils to the college that offers it; 
 and a number of such benefactions, attached to 
 different high schools, will be sure to attract 
 to the college a large proportion of their graduates 
 who go on for higher education. Some of our col- 
 leges have already succeeded in establishing such 
 scholarships, and many others are, doubtless, only 
 awaiting opportunities for doing so. 
 
 Relation to Parish Schools 
 
 There is a growing tendency to establish central 
 high schools, or high schools connected with all 
 the parish schools of a city or city district. 1 The 
 number of Catholic central high schools now 
 amounts to several dozen. In advocating their 
 establishment, a diocesan superintendent describes 
 the general situation very clearly as follows: 
 
 The difficulty of conducting high schools attached to 
 single parish schools can be grasped once you note the cost 
 of equipment, the securing of teachers specially qualified 
 for the work, teachers who are sorely needed in the lower 
 grades, and then see the small number of candidates who 
 present themselves for secondary education, and the still 
 smaller number who survive after four years' work. The 
 
 1 Cf. Chapter IV, p. 58. 
 
94 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 thin remnant of the elect who outlast the four strenuous 
 years leads one to ask whether, after all, the game is worth 
 the candle. 
 
 This situation is by no means peculiar to our diocese; 
 it is widespread. Nay, more, it has been the chief cause of 
 concern among our most able Catholic educators. Those 
 who have devoted time and thought to this matter have 
 but one conclusion, and that is the central high school. 
 It has been tried and proved a splendid success. This 
 solution has stood every test, answered every objection. 1 
 
 In most cases, the Catholic high school is either 
 under the exclusive control of a particular pastor 
 and draws its pupils from his parish alone, or it is 
 independent of the parishes and under the control 
 of a religious community. It is evident that, in 
 the first case, unless the parish is a very large one, 
 the high school will be small and weak. The coop- 
 eration of a number of parishes is generally neces- 
 sary to ensure a fair high-school enrollment, as 
 well as the requisite financial support. 2 
 
 The independent high school in charge of a 
 religious community is not an organic part of the 
 strictly diocesan system. The parish schools 
 around it have no direct connection with it, and 
 their pupils do not necessarily look up to it as a 
 school to which they are to go, as a matter of 
 
 1 Rev. Joseph A. Dunney, Ann. Rep. of Schools of Albany 
 Diocese for 1914, p. 28. 
 
 2 Cf. Chapter IV, p. 53- 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 95 
 
 course, for the continuation of their studies. 1 
 Catholic high schools of this type are analogous to 
 the " academies " which preceded the public high 
 schools. The genius of the American public high 
 school consists precisely in that which the " acad- 
 emies " lacked — an organic connection with the 
 elementary school system, and the opportunity 
 and inducement thereby offered to every elemen- 
 tary pupil to take up a higher course of studies, as 
 the continuation and complement of the studies 
 of the lower school. This advantage, which 
 accords so well with the democratic spirit and in- 
 stitutions of America, is largely lost when the con- 
 nection between the secondary school and the 
 elementary schools is broken. This is not, of 
 course, intended as an argument against the main- 
 tenance of the independent high schools. They 
 are, on the whole, among our most valued and effi- 
 cient educational institutions, and we cannot have 
 too many of them;, but they can never take the 
 place of the central high schools. In order to secure 
 the general support of the parishes, a high school 
 must not be either under the exclusive control of 
 any one of them, or altogether independent of 
 them. All must have a common interest in it, 
 and all must contribute to its support and success. 
 
 1 For a discussion of the elementary departments attached 
 to these high schools, cf. Chapter IV, p. 52. 
 
96 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 These conditions can be brought about only through 
 the influence or authority of the bishop. 
 
 In treating of the relationship that ought to 
 subsist between the high schools and the parish 
 schools, one of our foremost educators says: 
 
 The Catholic high school education of a city or town or 
 locality should be carried on by the combined efforts of 
 all the parishes of a city in the organization of a central 
 high school, or by groups of parishes in the organization 
 of sectional high schools. This policy opposes directly 
 and emphatically that which makes an individual parish, 
 with no relation to other parishes, responsible for high- 
 school education. Many reasons might be added to demon- 
 strate the soundness and efficiency of the policy which ignores 
 parish limits, and coordinates the educational forces and 
 the financial resources of all or many parishes. 
 
 First, a central school or a sectional school makes for 
 economy in administration, in buildings, in equipment. 
 Second, it conduces to greater efficiency in the teaching 
 body, and, consequently, in the educational work which 
 the school attempts to carry on. Third, it unconsciously 
 counteracts the intolerance and narrowness which appear 
 in the views of those whose whole education has been attained 
 in the one restricted environment. Fourth, by bringing 
 into closer relations groups of pupils from different par- 
 ishes, and by exercising, therefore, an educational influ- 
 ence in the formation of character, it aids in preparing 
 Catholic boys and girls for the more exacting trials which 
 are met in the wider experiences of their chosen calling. 
 Fifth, it affects radically, as experience has demonstrated in 
 Philadelphia, elementary education, by erecting certain 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 97 
 
 definite educational standards which the parish schools 
 endeavor to reach. Sixth, it radiates a unifying force in 
 the development of a solidarity in public opinion which is 
 lamentably weak among Catholics, in all questions except 
 the one — religion. 
 
 On the other hand, the parish high school adds practically 
 nothing to the permanent and systematic development of 
 the general system of Catholic education. It is, perhaps, 
 in this respect that the policy of solving the high-school 
 problem through the individual and unrelated efforts of 
 one parish shows its greatest weakness. Usually a parish 
 high school owes its existence to the zeal and educational 
 activity of a particular pastor. The school may fulfill its 
 work as long as the living personality dominates its life. 
 But there is always a reasonable fear that when the man 
 who creates a parish high school dies or changes his pas- 
 torate, the high school will languish and gradually disap- 
 pear. Thus, the energy, time and money which were 
 expended in the individual high school, instead of being 
 conserved and made contributory to the progressive growth 
 of the school system, becomes a passing, transient force. 
 It is self-evident that real progress in our school system is 
 out of the question if an important part of it, such as the 
 high-school department, endures and disappears as indi- 
 viduals come and go. 1 
 
 Cost of Catholic High Schools 
 
 The question of the cost of Catholic secondary 
 schools is of particular importance, especially if 
 they are to become central or sectional high 
 
 1 Rt. Rev. P. R. McDevitt, in Ann. Rep. for Schools of 
 Archd. of Phil., 1916. 
 
98 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 schools. It may be observed that Catholic high 
 schools are usually needed only where their sup- 
 port would be least felt as a burden. In country 
 districts or towns, where the Catholic population 
 is scattered or small, Catholic high schools are 
 scarcely possible at present. The immediate need 
 for them is in cities that contain a number of par- 
 ishes, with large and flourishing congregations. 
 In such places, the establishment of a central 
 high school would entail much less expense than is 
 commonly supposed. 
 
 It costs, generally speaking, only about one- 
 third as much to maintain a parish elementary 
 school as it does to maintain a public elementary 
 school, and the same proportion holds good in the 
 case of Catholic high schools and public high 
 schools. But many of our present high schools 
 cost much less than this proportion would indicate. 
 Where the work is all done in the one parish-school 
 building, there is practically no extra expense for 
 building, heat, light, or janitor service, on account 
 of the high school, and its cost amounts to no more 
 than the salaries paid to the teachers. With four 
 Sisters as teachers, the total cost of such a high 
 school to the parish would amount to about $1200 
 annually. As the salaries of Sisters are often less 
 than $300 a year, and as the parish high school 
 often has less than four grades, its annual cost is, 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 99 
 
 in many instances, much less than the above 
 figure. The cheapness of secondary education, 
 under such circumstances, has led to the estab- 
 lishment of a large number of high schools attached 
 to individual parish schools. 
 
 It is, however, with the cost of central high 
 schools that we are chiefly concerned. In esti- 
 mating the actual cost of maintaining a Catholic 
 central high school, we may assume that such a 
 school, with four regular grades and two com- 
 mercial grades, will require six or seven teachers. 
 If the teachers are Brothers, their salaries, at $400 
 each, will amount to $2800 annually. To tins 
 must ordinarily be added, for all other expenses, 
 about 35 per cent of the salary-total, or the sum of 
 $980. The estimated total expense of a central 
 high school would thus be $3780 annually. With 
 thirty pupils to each teacher, the per capita annual 
 expense would be $18. Were the teachers Sisters, 
 with salaries of $300 each, the total cost would be 
 reduced to less than $3000 annually, and the per 
 capita expense to about $14. 
 
 An annual expense of from $3000 to $4000 for a 
 Catholic high school is more than any single parish 
 is able to bear. But where a number of parishes 
 would unite in support of such a school, the expense 
 devolving upon each would be comparatively 
 slight, amounting to only a few hundred dollars a 
 
100 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 year. 1 It is desirable that the central high school 
 should be a free school, supported by parish con- 
 tributions rather than individual tuition-fees. As 
 to the apportionment of the charges for its support 
 among the parishes, there are obvious objections 
 against assessing all the parishes equally. The 
 assessment upon each parish might, however, be 
 based on the number of pupils that attend the high 
 school from it, or, better still, on the parish school 
 enrollment. This latter plan would stimulate inter- 
 est in the high school among the several parishes, 
 and induce each to send as many pupils to it as 
 possible, since the cost to the parish would be the 
 same. On the other hand, to base the assess- 
 ment on the high school enrollment from each parish, 
 would expose certain parishes to the temptation 
 of being satisfied with a small representation at the 
 high school, to keep down expenses. Still, it is 
 not to be expected that such problems will be 
 solved everywhere in exactly the same way. Local 
 conditions may have to be taken into account. A 
 plan that works successfully in one place, might 
 not work so well in another. The all-important 
 thing is, that the high schools should, so far as 
 possible, conform to the general type which experi- 
 ence has shown to be the best. The ideal condi- 
 
 1 Cf. description of Cath. Central High School at Grand 
 Rapids, Mich., in Cath. Ed. Rev., I, p. 391. 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 101 
 
 tion, under existing circumstances, is represented 
 by the central high school, established by the 
 parishes, and supported by them according to some 
 equitable and permanent plan. 
 
 Proper Work of the Catholic High School 
 
 Catholic high schools do not, as a rule, attempt 
 to give manual training. It is given in a few 
 of the larger high schools, and there are special 
 manual training schools, like those of the Chris- 
 tian Brothers and the Xaverian Brothers. The 
 more of such schools and departments we can have, 
 under like conditions, the better. But, in the case 
 of the ordinary Catholic high school, a manual 
 training department is a practical impossibility. 
 Its cost would forbid it, and, besides, it is entirely 
 unnecessary. Neither is it necessary that the 
 Catholic high school should include in its curricu- 
 lum a number of other subjects that are now taught 
 in public high schools. Studies like psychology, 
 and advanced courses in mathematics, history, 
 English, and the sciences, belong to the college. 
 There is no room for them in the high school, 
 unless room is made at the expense of the essential 
 subjects, which fully suffice of themselves to occupy 
 the four years. The overburdening of the curricu- 
 lum in this way, with the resulting superficial 
 teaching of the essential subjects has seriously 
 
102 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 interfered with the efficiency of the public high 
 schools, and is frustrating, to some extent, their 
 very purpose. 
 
 Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, President of the Car- 
 negie Foundation for the Advancement of Teach- 
 ing, in one of his annual reports deals at con- 
 siderable length with the work of the American 
 public high school. 1 His discussion of the relations 
 of colleges and secondary schools has been charac- 
 terized by the Educational Review as " the most 
 comprehensive and sanest statement of the causes 
 that have contributed to bring about the present 
 unsatisfactory conditions that largely prevail." 2 
 In our haste to enrich the curriculum of the sec- 
 ondary school, Dr. Pritchett says, 
 
 We have, to some extent, lost our ideal of what education 
 means. To learn a little about many subjects, to dip super- 
 ficially into the study of English and Latin and chemistry 
 and psychology and home economics, and a dozen other 
 things, is not education. Only that human being has 
 gained the fundamentals of an education who has acquired 
 soundly a few elementary branches of human knowledge 
 and who, in acquiring these, has so disciplined his mind 
 that it is an efficient instrument ready to be turned to what- 
 soever task is set before it. The high-school student is 
 led to believe that education is attained by learning a little 
 
 1 Fifth Ann. Rep. of the Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- 
 vancement of Teaching. 
 
 2 Vol. XLI, p. 422. 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 103 
 
 of each of many things; he gains, therefore, a superficial 
 knowledge of many subjects and learns none with thorough- 
 ness. He lacks the hard fiber of intellectual discipline. 
 Such a youth has not been educated. That only is educa- 
 tion which sets a boy on the way to use his own mind for 
 his pleasure and his profit; which enables him to attack a 
 problem, whether it be in school or in business, and to 
 think out the right answer. Education, rightly under- 
 stood, is a power-producing process; and the serious indict- 
 ment against the secondary-school system to-day is that 
 its graduates do not acquire either discipline or power. 
 The real struggle in the American high school is between 
 that influence which makes toward thoroughness and that 
 which makes toward superficiality; and if the high school 
 is to become the true training-place of the people, the ideal 
 of thoroughness must supplant the ideal of superficiality. 
 
 The boy who desires to enter college and the boy who 
 desires to enter business alike need to be well grounded in 
 fundamental studies and to gain a real mastery of a few 
 things. It appears equally clear that the educational ideal 
 which makes for a simple and thorough curriculum for the 
 individual, serves equally well the boy who looks toward 
 college and the boy who goes directly from the high school 
 into a vocation. 
 
 Here, then, is our opportunity. So far from 
 regretting our inability to rival in all respects the 
 large public high schools, with their extensive 
 equipment and numerous teaching staff, we may 
 not unreasonably feel that our poverty is, in this 
 matter, a safeguard. The Catholic high school 
 does not need much material equipment, nor a 
 
104 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 large teaching staff. It requires, above all else, 
 competent, earnest and devoted teachers. A 
 staff of from four to seven such teachers is amply 
 sufficient for the ordinary central high school. It 
 ought to have a business or commercial course, as 
 well as the academic course. It should aim, as 
 Dr. Pritchett says, at teaching only a few subjects, 
 and at teaching these well. There can be little if 
 any difference of opinion as to what these subjects 
 ought to be, once it is agreed that they are to be 
 few and that they are to be fundamental. Latin, 
 English, history, mathematics, modern languages, 
 and elementary science will form a simple but 
 substantial curriculum. The Catholic high school 
 should also, wherever possible, include in its cur- 
 riculum the study of Greek; and this can easily be 
 d"bne, in many places, through the cooperation of 
 the parish clergy. It will often, in fact, be much 
 easier to provide courses in Greek than courses in 
 the modern languages or science; and, for the boy 
 who is looking forward to a college or seminary 
 career, Greek will be far more profitable than either 
 the modern languages or science. 
 
 Reorganization of the High School 
 
 There is quite a general agreement among 
 American educators that a reconstruction of the 
 curriculum of the high school is needed. This 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 105 
 
 conviction has been arrived at after many years of 
 study and discussion of the matter. It is main- 
 tained that the age of twelve would be preferable 
 to the age of fourteen for the transfer of the pupil 
 from the elementary school to the high school, 
 because the age of twelve corresponds more closely 
 to the great change from childhood to youth which 
 takes place during this period of his life. More- 
 over, much time is lost in the elementary grades; 
 with better teaching and organization, the work 
 that really belongs to the lower school could be com- 
 pleted by the age of twelve. Furthermore, the 
 social and economic conditions which the Amer- 
 ican high school system was designed to fit into, 
 have changed very greatly. The fundamental 
 idea of the high school was, equal opportunity for 
 all — knowledge being regarded as the equivalent 
 of opportunity. This was well enough, as long as 
 our great undeveloped natural resources, together 
 with the comparative smallness of the population, 
 made knowledge of even a general kind an easy 
 pathway to success in life. To-day, however, this 
 is no longer the case. Graduates of the high 
 schools, in ever-increasing proportion, find them- 
 selves in a world where the vague and superficial 
 knowledge they have acquired is rather a hindrance 
 than a help. Parents who have the ambition to 
 give their children a high-school education are 
 
106 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 endeavoring, in their own way, to adjust this 
 education to the changed outer conditions; and 
 the greater number of pupils quit the high school 
 after a year or two. Those who stay till gradua- 
 tion are but a small fraction of the vast number 
 who enter. Plainly, the high school of to-day 
 does not meet well the needs either of its pupils 
 or of the times. 
 
 Some reconstruction or readjustment of the 
 curriculum appears, therefore, to be necessary, 
 while, at the same time, it is recognized that the 
 general character of the high school and its 
 important social function as a democratizing 
 agency should, so far as possible, be preserved. 
 But what form shall this reconstruction or read- 
 justment take? How far shall it go? and how may 
 it best be brought about? These are questions 
 that are still to be decided. Several practical 
 plans that involve a solution of them are being 
 tried. The one that is most in favor just now is 
 that of Junior and Senior High Schools, or, as it is 
 sometimes called, the " Six and Six High School 
 Plan." Its essential provisions may be shown by 
 quoting the following resolutions adopted by the 
 Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, 
 in June, 1914: 
 
 That school authorities be encouraged to incorporate the 
 seventh and eighth grades of the elementary school as 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 107 
 
 an integral part of the high school, forming a six-year 
 system. 
 
 That high school authorities be recommended to organize 
 the six-year high-school system into a Junior High School of 
 three years and a Senior High School of three years, as soon 
 as local conditions will admit. 1 
 
 The superintendent of schools of the State of 
 Michigan has outlined courses of study to accord 
 with these resolutions. Three years ago, the 
 Federal Bureau of Education reported that thirty- 
 one city superintendents of schools throughout 
 the country had already adopted the plan or some 
 modification of it. Objections to it have, of 
 course, been made, chiefly on practical and economic 
 grounds; but these objections do not appear, so 
 far, to raise any very serious difficulties. An 
 obvious advantage of the plan is the opportunity 
 it would afford pupils to choose a definite line of 
 work, suitable to their capacities and environ- 
 ment, in the seventh rather than in the ninth 
 grade, with the prospect of their being thus induced 
 to remain at school longer. The existing school 
 laws would make it necessary for most of the pupils 
 of the elementary schools to enter the Junior High 
 Schools. 
 
 Some years ago a plan for the solution of this 
 problem in our own schools was formulated by the 
 Advisory Board of the Catholic Educational Asso- 
 1 School Review, Sept., 1914. 
 
108 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 ciation, and was formally adopted by the Execu- 
 tive Board in November, 19 14, in the sense that 
 it was recommended to Catholic educators as an 
 embodiment of guiding principles. It has not 
 thus far, however, been adopted by the general 
 Association. The plan has reference only to boys, 
 and is substantially as follows: 
 
 About the age of twelve, the parents, the teachers, and 
 the children themselves should begin to look forward to the 
 future, and select a kind of education in conformity with the 
 purpose they have in view. We may divide our boys at 
 this period into five classes. 
 
 Class I. Those who are called to the priesthood; those 
 who intend to enter the liberal professions, law, medicine, 
 education, journalism; those who wish a full liberal educa- 
 tion. We should aim to give these boys the classical 
 training, extending over a period of eight years, and includ- 
 ing a course of two years in philosophy. 
 
 Class II. Those who expect to take up the technical 
 professions — mechanical, civil, electrical, sanitary, or ceramic 
 engineering, veterinary surgery, agriculture, etc. The 
 classical training will not be so much in demand for these 
 boys. The course should extend four or five years beyond 
 the elementary schools, and then the special technical 
 studies can be taken up. 
 
 Class III. Those who expect to enter business or com- 
 mercial pursuits. Many of these may be induced to take 
 the full course of secondary training. Our parish schools 
 or our high schools can take care of those who wish a few 
 years of training beyond the elementary period. 
 
 Class IV. Those who expect to enter the trades. We 
 
HIGH SCHOOLS FOR BOYS 109 
 
 should aim to keep these boys in our parish schools for two 
 years after the completion of the elementary course. 
 
 Class V. Those who will engage in manual labor, and 
 those who are backward and deficient in studies. These 
 boys should be taken care of in our parish schools. 
 
 These proposals embody broad principles to be 
 kept in view in reorganizing the curriculum, 
 rather than a definite scheme of reorganization; 
 and in this lies their chief merit. The time may- 
 or may not be ripe for the universal establishment 
 of Junior and Senior High Schools; but the time 
 has certainly arrived when pupils must have a 
 definite aim in view sooner, and select work that 
 will prepare them efficiently for its realization. 
 There is no Catholic secondary school in which 
 these recommendations may not, to some extent, 
 be converted into actual practice at once. 
 
 The establishment of Junior and Senior High 
 Schools would remedy certain of the defects that 
 have been pointed out in Catholic secondary edu- 
 cation. It would, for instance, promote the 
 founding of strong central high schools, and keep 
 pupils longer at school. The desire of the pastor 
 to keep pupils in his own school as long as possible, 
 could be carried out by his having a Junior High 
 School. Every large parish might well have such 
 a high school attached to the parish school; the 
 more of them established, the better. After fin- 
 
110 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 ishing the parish high-school course, pupils would 
 pass to the Senior High School, located at some 
 central point, for the higher course of three years. 
 Although most of them would doubtless be content 
 with the three years' course in the Junior High 
 School, it is certain that a much larger number 
 than at present would remain at school till the end 
 of the ninth grade; and — more important still — 
 the work of the seventh, eighth and ninth grades, 
 as well as of the higher grades, could not fail to 
 have a more definite and purposeful character for 
 the greater number of pupils than it has to-day. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 THE SECONDARY EDUCATION OF GIRLS 
 
 Schools and Pupils 
 
 A study of Catholic secondary education that 
 was made in the year 19 15 showed that we had 
 then, all told, 577 girls' schools of secondary grade, 
 with an enrollment of 27,858 pupils who had com- 
 pleted the eighth grade. Besides these schools, 
 which are exclusively for girls, there are many 
 Catholic high schools that contain both boys and 
 girls, and it was found that 11,882 girls were en- 
 rolled in such institutions. The combined figures 
 for the two classes of schools gave an enrollment of 
 39,740 girls in the 1276 Catholic secondary schools 
 in the United States. 1 These numbers are im- 
 pressive. A closer study of them, however, will 
 show that, relatively speaking, the educational 
 provision which they represent is not nearly so 
 large or sufficient as it might at first appear. 
 
 It is to be noticed that the above figures indicate 
 an average enrollment of less than fifty pupils 
 
 1 Cf. Cath. Secondary Ed. in the U. S., by the author, in 
 Aug. Bull, of Cath. Ed. Assn., 1915. 
 
 Ill 
 
112 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 above the eighth grade for each school. There is 
 usually a large attendance of elementary pupils 
 in these schools, and frequently the pupils who are 
 below the eighth grade are more numerous than 
 those who are above it. With very few excep- 
 tions, Catholic girls' schools consist of both an ele- 
 mentary school and a high school. 
 
 The number of girls in our secondary schools is 
 somewhat in excess of the number of boys; but, 
 in both cases, the enrollment is far less than it 
 ought normally to be. Catholic secondary schools, 
 taken in the aggregate, have only about one-third 
 of their due proportion of girls. 1 This means 
 that about two-thirds of the Catholic girls who seek 
 a secondary education go to public high schools 
 and private non-Catholic academies. It is evident, 
 therefore, that the existing facilities for the second- 
 ary education of Catholic girls will have to be 
 greatly enlarged, if we would have them all edu- 
 cated under our own auspices. 
 
 Free High Schools for Girls 
 
 One of the principal reasons, apparently, why 
 so many Catholic girls attend the public high 
 school, rather than the excellent schools of second- 
 ary grade conducted by the Sisters, is, that the 
 
 1 Cf. op. cit.; also pp. 3, 5 supra. 
 
SECONDARY EDUCATION FOR GIRLS 113 
 
 public high schools are free. A tuition charge of 
 two to five dollars a month does not, at first sight, 
 appear to involve much of a burden for parents, and 
 such a charge is certainly not excessive, if one takes 
 into account the high quality of the education that 
 is given in the Sisters' schools. But, in most 
 cases, the tuition charge is only one of several items 
 of expense that the Catholic parent is called upon 
 to meet, if he decides to send his daughter to a 
 Catholic secondary school; and it is to be remem- 
 bered that the parent may be paying for other 
 children at the elementary school. If his daughter 
 goes to the academy, she may want to take music, 
 and perhaps other " extras," and the charge for 
 such courses is comparatively high; in the public 
 school, these extra courses are not generally to be 
 had. Then too, text-books are often free in the 
 public school, while they have to be paid for in the 
 academy. Adding together the cost of tuition, 
 " extras," and text-books, many a parent who 
 has a desire to send his daughter to a Catholic 
 academy finds that the sum amounts to more 
 than he is able conveniently to pay. 
 
 The extent to which these motives have influence 
 with parents may be inferred from the rapid growth 
 of the new Catholic Girls' High School in Phila- 
 delphia. Opened only a few years ago, this insti- 
 tution, which is a free school, has now nearly a 
 
114 CATHOLIC EDUCATION] 
 
 thousand pupils, and the attendance is increasing 
 so fast that the capacity of the school will soon be 
 taxed to the full. 1 Yet Philadelphia contains 
 many excellent Catholic academies that could 
 accommodate more pupils than they have. There 
 can be no doubt that a free Catholic high school 
 for girls, in any large town or city, if organized 
 in the same way as the Girls' High School in Phil- 
 adelphia, would be equally successful. The result 
 of the general establishment of such schools 
 would be to attract to our own educational insti- 
 tutions a large proportion of the Catholic girls 
 who are now taking their secondary education in 
 the public schools. 
 
 But there are other motives than that of ex- 
 pense which lead Catholic girls to go to the public 
 high schools. Girls who are looking forward to a 
 career as teachers in the public schools find it 
 advantageous to make their secondary studies in 
 the public schools. In some places it is prac- 
 tically necessary for them to do this, to prevent 
 unfair discrimination when admission is sought to 
 the normal school. Recently, the circuit court in 
 the City of St. Louis ruled against the constitu- 
 tionality of such discrimination, in the case of a 
 girl who applied for admission to the normal school 
 without having previously attended the public 
 1 Rt. Rev. P. R. McDevitt, Ann. Rep. for 1915. 
 
SECONDARY EDUCATION FOR GIRLS 115 
 
 schools. 1 It would be of great advantage to Cath- 
 olic education, as well as a wholesome vindication 
 of the principle of civic equality, if the attitude 
 represented by this judicial decision were to pre- 
 vail generally. 
 
 Another condition that must be considered, in 
 attempting to account for the attendance of Cath- 
 olic girls at the public high schools, is the 
 
 Quality of the Instruction 
 
 in girls' schools conducted by the religious sister- 
 hoods. Broadly speaking, we may say that such 
 schools are divided into two classes — those that 
 aim at culture only or chiefly, and those that aim 
 at both culture and utilitarian knowledge and 
 acquirements. Schools of the former class offer, 
 in addition to the regular high-school studies, 
 graded courses in vocal and instrumental music, 
 in drawing and painting, or other arts. They 
 offer no courses in utilitarian subjects, or, if they 
 do, these occupy a very subordinate position in the 
 general curriculum. Schools of the latter class 
 have, besides the regular high-school studies, a 
 commercial course of two or three years, in which 
 bookkeeping, shorthand and typewriting, or other 
 practical subjects are taught, with the view of 
 fitting girls for positions in active life. About 
 
 ] Cath. Ed. Rev., Nov., 1916, p. 357. 
 
116 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 one-half of all our academies appear to aim 
 chiefly at cultural education. 
 
 There can be no question about the high stand- 
 ing of these cultural schools, or of their great value 
 to society. No finer tribute could be paid to their 
 work, and no clearer evidence afforded of the high 
 esteem in which it is held by the public, than the 
 fact that so many non-Catholic parents send their 
 daughters to them to be educated. Almost every 
 academy of this class counts a considerable enroll- 
 ment of non-Catholic pupils, drawn from families 
 of the most respectable stations in life. The pop- 
 ularity of these institutions is due precisely to the 
 kind of education they give. This education aims, 
 above all, at developing the spiritual elements in 
 womanly nature, and includes not only the ordinary 
 school knowledge but also those finer ornamental 
 accomplishments which contribute so much to 
 make woman supreme in the home and in society. 
 In a materialistic age such as ours, it is more than 
 ever necessary to have schools that will stand 
 primarily for this kind of education. 
 
 At the same time, it is not to be denied that 
 many Catholic parents — and their number is 
 rapidly augmenting — want their daughters to be 
 trained along other lines, not so much from lack of 
 appreciation of cultural education, as from force of 
 circumstances. The classical colleges, some dec- 
 
SECONDARY EDUCATION FOR GIRLS 117 
 
 ades ago, were confronted by much the same con- 
 ditions. It was conceded by many of the highest 
 educational authorities that the training afforded 
 by Latin and Greek was in itself superior to that 
 afforded by the modern languages. Nevertheless, 
 the modern languages have, to a great extent, 
 replaced the classics in American colleges. The 
 reason for the change was, that a large and con- 
 stantly increasing body of students could not be 
 induced to take the old classical course, and would 
 not go to colleges that offered nothing else. Back 
 of this practical exigency lay the more fundamental 
 fact that the educational needs of society could 
 no longer be satisfied by a single group of studies, 
 however excellent. 
 
 For the same fundamental reason, the instruc- 
 tion that is given in academies that make culture 
 their principal aim is no longer able to satisfy the 
 needs of all Catholic girls. Besides these cultural 
 schools, with their time-honored curriculum, other 
 schools and curricula are imperatively needed. 
 
 Woman's Changed Position 
 
 This need is an inevitable consequence of the 
 changed position of woman in the world to-day. 
 The traditional education for girls was based upon 
 the view that woman's active interests were all to 
 be centered in the home. Under present condi- 
 
118 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 tions, however, very many women are compelled 
 to seek employment outside of the home. Labor- 
 saving machinery has swept industry from the 
 home, and the woman who has to earn her own 
 bread must go out and do so in competition with 
 other women or with men. 1 Woman has become 
 a new factor in the economic world, and the present 
 prospect is that there are comparatively few occu- 
 pations from which she is likely to be altogether 
 excluded. In some departments of active life, it 
 appears that men and women are destined to work 
 side by side, on a footing of economic equality. 
 In others, we see women gradually appropriating 
 to themselves certain kinds of employment for 
 which they are specially adapted by nature, and 
 in which men either cannot or will not enter into 
 competition with them. 
 
 In the public school system, women do all the 
 teaching in the kindergarten, and almost all the 
 teaching in the elementary schools. The same 
 condition now obtains in the parish-school system. 
 It is extremely probable that the few remaining 
 men teachers in both public and parish schools 
 will be replaced in time by teachers of the other 
 sex. And it is to be noticed that in neither case 
 was this movement foreseen or desired; it came 
 about naturally, under the irresistible pressure of 
 1 Shields, The Education of our Girls, p. 196 seq. 
 
SECONDARY EDUCATION FOR GIRLS 119 
 
 economic influences arising from changed general 
 conditions. 
 
 In the realm of commerce and industry — I do 
 not speak of occupations involving manual labor — 
 the opportunities for women are constantly being 
 widened. Women with a fair education are in 
 demand to-day as secretaries, typewriters, book- 
 keepers, clerks, commercial travelers, and the like. 
 Positions of the kind command a salary that affords 
 a comfortable, independent living. It is inevit- 
 able that Catholic young women should seek to 
 take advantage of such opportunities, and their 
 faith and education must be relied on to safe- 
 guard them from the dangers and temptations 
 they may have to encounter. 
 
 The professions of law and medicine are likewise 
 being opened to women, and year by year the list 
 of successful women practitioners in these pro- 
 fessions is increasing. So, too, in newspaper work, 
 literature, the fine arts, and other professional 
 occupations, women are daily demonstrating, in a 
 practical way, their right to work alongside of men, 
 without other limitation than that which may be 
 placed by the measure of their ability to do work 
 equally as good as that which may be done by men. 
 The development of college and university educa- 
 tion for women has resulted in throwing open 
 to them, in the higher walks of life, a whole series 
 
120 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 of occupations that were formerly regarded as 
 being exclusively within the capacity of educated 
 men. The graduate of a woman's college has no 
 more difficulty in securing a position suitable to 
 her attainments than the graduate of a college for 
 men; indeed, she has usually less difficulty. This 
 is due to the fact that while there is a great demand 
 for young women of ability and thorough educa- 
 tion, the supply is far from being equal to the 
 demand. 
 
 Future Progress 
 
 In view of the changed position of woman in the 
 world, and the ever-widening range of her oppor- 
 tunities for employment in active life, some im- 
 portant questions arise for those who are respon- 
 sible for our institutions of secondary education for 
 girls. It is plain that these schools must meet the 
 needs of the age in which we live, if they are to win 
 and hold the full patronage to which they are en- 
 titled. It is not less certain that, in order to do 
 this, they must offer a sufficient variety of courses 
 of instruction to enable girls to prepare themselves 
 efficiently for the employments they will try to 
 take up immediately upon their quitting school. 
 Are our secondary schools for girls meeting the 
 needs of the time in a way that is calculated to 
 satisfy the Catholic public? 
 
 It may be said, I think, that very successful 
 
SECONDARY EDUCATION FOR GIRLS 121 
 
 efforts have been made by many of those who are 
 in charge of our secondary schools for girls to 
 adapt these institutions to the changed circum- 
 stances of woman's life and work. These efforts 
 have been manifested in several ways. Many 
 of the academies have established, side by side 
 with the old regular academic curriculum, a com- 
 mercial course of studies, or, at least, courses in 
 shorthand, typewriting and bookkeeping, for the 
 benefit of those who might be looking to positions 
 along these lines. In some schools, excellent 
 courses in domestic science have also been insti- 
 tuted. In many city academies, a feature of the 
 regular work is the preparation of pupils for posi- 
 tions as teachers in public and parish schools. 
 More attention, too, is being given to the needs of 
 girls who are going on for a higher education. A 
 notable movement in this direction has been inau- 
 gurated by the Sisters of Notre Dame, who have 
 charge of Trinity College, all of whose secondary 
 schools now offer courses to prepare for entrance 
 to this college. 
 
 While much has thus been accomplished towards 
 differentiating the work in the academies, it must 
 be said that a great deal remains still to be done 
 before we can rest satisfied with conditions. More 
 Catholic secondary schools for girls are required, 
 as has been shown; at the same time, the changes 
 
122 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 and developments that have been going on in exist- 
 ing schools need to be carried much further, 
 in accordance with definite and comprehensive 
 plans. 
 
 In many places, Catholic girls are still left with- 
 out adequate provision, in the way of secondary 
 education, for their future employments. It would 
 not be true to say that we have too many cultural 
 schools for girls, but it is too often true that they 
 are not properly distributed. There is evidently 
 a serious defect in the adjustment of education 
 to individual and social needs, where pupils who 
 will have to go out and seek employment as soon 
 as they graduate spend a large part of their time 
 in school in the study of music and other artistic 
 accomplishments, to the entire neglect of studies 
 that would be of immediate help to them in secur- 
 ing good positions. Many academies that do not 
 at present offer the commercial course, ought to 
 do so, as a matter of service both to their pupils 
 and to society. The same suggestion might well 
 be made about the teaching of domestic science. 
 In England, latitude is now given by the Board 
 of Education for " an approved course in a com- 
 bination of the following subjects: Needlework, 
 cooking, laundry-work, housekeeping, and house- 
 hold hygiene for girls over fifteen years of age, to 
 be substituted partially or wholly for science and 
 
SECONDARY EDUCATION FOR GIRLS 123 
 
 for mathematics other than arithmetic." 1 This 
 provision in the English educational system, for 
 the training of girls in domestic science, might 
 very profitably be adopted by the greater number 
 of our secondary schools for girls. A course of 
 this kind, along with a good commercial course, 
 would give our schools a distinct advantage in this 
 respect over the public high schools, without 
 interfering in any way with the work of the ordi- 
 nary curriculum. 
 
 The interests of girls who aspire to a collegiate 
 education should also be carefully looked after in 
 the academies. Such pupils usually follow the 
 regular academic curriculum; but, in addition to 
 this, they often have need of special attention and 
 direction, or even special classes, in order to meet 
 the requirements of the colleges they are to enter. 
 The number of collegiate students in Catholic 
 colleges for women is far below what it ought to be, 
 and bears no comparison with the number in the 
 colleges for young men. There is no sound reason 
 why this disparity should continue to be as great 
 as it is. Of late years, happily, there has been 
 a marked improvement in the attendance at the 
 colleges for women. With our comparatively 
 large number of girls' secondary schools — more 
 numerous by far than our boys' secondary schools — 
 1 Stuart, The Education of Catholic Girls, p. 121. 
 
124 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 it ought to be possible for these colleges to increase 
 their enrollment several times over within the com- 
 ing decade or two. To the attainment of this 
 result, the academies may contribute much by 
 encouraging pupils, in the practical ways that have 
 been suggested, in their aspirations towards a 
 higher scholastic career. Much might be accom- 
 plished in the same direction by the colleges them- 
 selves, if their higher superiors would make each 
 of the academies conducted by the community a 
 school preparatory to the main collegiate insti- 
 tution. These academies would still retain their 
 character as finishing schools, for the great majority 
 of their pupils. Catholic colleges for women 
 occupy a position of special advantage in this 
 respect, because the religious communities that 
 conduct them are likewise in control of secondary 
 schools. This is not the case, as a rule, with the 
 teaching orders of men. 
 
 Several years ago it was suggested by the 
 Advisory Board of the Catholic Educational 
 Association, that toward the end of the grade 
 course the aptitude of pupils and their probable 
 future purpose or work in life should be the object 
 of special attention on the part of those in charge 
 of their education, so that suitable advice and 
 direction might be given them in selecting further 
 studies. The suggestion is specially applicable to 
 
SECONDARY EDUCATION FOR GIRLS 125 
 
 girls during their first year in the high school. With 
 proper advice and direction, and a proper variety 
 of courses of instruction, it will be possible, in most 
 cases, to provide for the effective adjustment of 
 the work of girls in the secondary school to their 
 work and place in after life. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 
 
 Increasing Enrollment 
 
 In the year 1916, a committee of the Catholic 
 Educational Association, with the author as 
 chairman, made an investigation of the attendance 
 at Catholic male colleges and universities. The 
 result showed that, in the 84 institutions contain- 
 ing students above the high school grades, there 
 had been, in the aggregate, a very rapid increase in 
 the number of collegiate students during the pre- 
 ceding decade. The increase was more rapid than 
 that of collegiate students generally throughout 
 the country during the same period. 
 
 The results obtained by the committee will 
 be the better understood, if they are arranged 
 alongside the returns for previous years. The 
 following table shows, for various divisions of 
 students, the numerical progress made during the 
 past quarter of a century. The returns are respec- 
 tively for the four scholastic years indicated in the 
 column headings. In the last line is given the 
 collegiate enrollment of all colleges and univer- 
 
 126 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 127 
 
 sities in the United States, non-Catholic as well as 
 Catholic, and for the same divisions of students 
 as are included in the first line of the table. The 
 figures for the last line were derived from the 
 Reports of the Commissioner of Education. 
 
 Growth of Catholic Colleges during Quarter Century. 1 
 
 
 1889- 
 1890. 
 
 1899- 
 1900. 
 
 1906- 
 1907. 
 
 1915- 
 1916. 
 
 Collegiate enrollment 2 
 
 Undergraduates and graduates 3 
 
 Professional students 4 
 
 Engineering students 
 
 2,972 
 2,402 
 57o 
 17 
 4,945 
 8,487 
 
 4,220 
 
 3,213 
 1,007 
 
 25 
 6,476 
 
 ",703 
 
 6,689 
 4,666 
 2,023 
 
 55 
 12,462 
 21,174 
 
 14,846 
 8,667 
 6,177 
 
 974 
 16,288 
 32,256 
 
 Preparatory students 
 
 Total college enrollment 5 
 
 Total collegiate enrollment in 
 U. S. 6 
 
 60,259 
 
 101,483 
 
 129,416 
 
 190,278" 
 
 1 Report on the Attendance at Catholic Colleges and Universities in the U.S. 
 (Bull, of Cath. Ed. Assn. for Aug., 1916). Throughout the table duplicates are 
 excluded. 
 
 2 Including undergraduate, graduate, and professional students; excluding 
 women and summer-school students. 
 
 3 Excluding professional students. 
 
 4 Theology, law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy. 
 
 'Including " Collegiate Enrollment" above, preparatory, and regular summer- 
 school students. 
 
 8 Non-Catholic and Catholic; including undergraduate and graduate students, 
 professional students in universities and colleges, and students in schools of 
 technology; exclusive of women. Special students, in music, art, etc., who are 
 not enrolled in regular four-year courses, are not included, as it is not known 
 how many of them are of collegiate grade. They are included in the Catholic 
 collegiate enrollment. Cf. Rep. Bur. Ed. for 1914, II, p. 192; and lb. for 1889- 
 90, II, p. 1582 seq. 
 
 'For the year 1914-15. 
 
 The investigation showed that nine of our uni- 
 versities now have over a thousand students, and 
 
128 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 that several are well on the way to their second 
 thousand. The preparatory-school enrollment, it 
 will be noticed, has not kept pace with the col- 
 legiate enrollment, and the preparatory students 
 are being gradually replaced by others of higher 
 grade. The collegiate enrollment, comprising un- 
 dergraduate, graduate, professional and engineer- 
 ing students, increased more than twofold during 
 the past nine years. The most rapid growth has 
 been in the department of engineering, in which 
 courses are now offered by seventeen institutions. 
 Next to the growth of the engineering department, 
 comes that of the professional departments. 
 Since the year 1890, the professional students have 
 increased much more rapidly than the other col- 
 legiates, outside of engineering, but within the 
 past few years this increase has been especially 
 marked. This is due in great measure to the fact 
 that, in some instances, independent schools of 
 law, medicine, etc., were taken over by Catholic 
 institutions, and became, at a stroke, fully organ- 
 ized university departments. But even with the 
 omission of professional students, it may be 
 observed that the collegiate enrollment was almost 
 doubled during the past nine years, and that its 
 growth was more rapid during this period than 
 during the preceding seventeen years. 
 
 An interesting feature of this collegiate devel- 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 129 
 
 opment has been the establishment of summer 
 schools for the members of the teaching sister- 
 hoods. Six of the colleges now offer summer 
 courses leading to regular academic degrees, while 
 in several others the diocesan educational author- 
 ities conduct summer schools or teachers' insti- 
 tutes. It is quite likely that other large colleges 
 that are favorably situated will join in this work, 
 one of the most promising results of which is, to 
 bring the colleges into closer touch with the parish 
 schools and high schools. 
 
 The increase of collegiate students may be shown 
 in a more striking way if the totals for collegiate 
 enrollment given above are reduced to a percentage 
 basis. The rate of growth of Catholic colleges 
 and universities may thus be compared at a glance 
 with the general rate of college and university 
 growth throughout the United States. In the 
 following table, for each of the three intervals of 
 time given, the percentage rate of growth is shown, 
 first for the entire interval, and then for each year 
 on the average, the intervals not being of equal 
 length. 
 
 This comparison shows that the rate of growth 
 of our collegiate enrollment, which was much lower 
 than the general rate for the United States in the 
 decade between 1890-1900, rose high above the 
 latter during the seven years between 1900-1907 
 
130 
 
 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 Comparative Rate of Growth of Catholic Colleges and Universities — 
 ■A Collegiate Enrollment. 1 
 
 
 1890-1900. 
 
 1900- 
 
 1907. 
 
 1907- 
 
 I9I6. 
 
 
 ■w to 
 
 a, 
 
 Average 
 per 
 Annum. 
 
 <u 
 U 
 
 S ■— ' 
 
 PL, 
 
 Average 
 per 
 Annum. 
 
 
 
 
 a, 
 
 Average 
 per 
 Annum. 
 
 Catholic colleges and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 universities 
 
 42 
 
 4.2 
 
 S8.S 
 
 8.4 
 
 121. 9 
 
 13-5 
 
 All colleges and uni- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 versities in U. S. . 
 
 68.4 
 
 6.8 
 
 27-5 
 
 3-9 
 
 47. 2 2 
 
 5-9 2 
 
 1 Including the same as " Collegiate enrollment" in preceding table. 
 
 2 For the period 1907-15. 
 
 and higher still during the past nine years. A 
 very significant fact is, that this rapid numerical 
 increase commenced about the time the Catholic 
 College Conference was organized, and began its 
 work of bringing representatives of the colleges 
 together annually. Much of the time of the 
 meetings of the Conference, in its early years, was 
 devoted to the discussion of ways and means of 
 increasing the number of collegiate students. 
 
 The proportion of Catholic young men who go 
 to non-Catholic colleges may also be ascertained, 
 approximately, from the data in the first table. 
 For this it is only necessary to compare the figures 
 given there for collegiate enrollment with the 
 respective population figures. This is done in the 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 131 
 
 following table, which shows, first, the number of 
 collegiate students in Catholic colleges and univer- 
 sities to every million persons of the Catholic 
 population; and next, the number of such students 
 in all colleges and universities in the United States 
 to every million persons of its population. The 
 respective results are given for the same periods 
 as above. 
 
 Number of Collegiate Students to Every 1,000,000 Persons of Respec- 
 tive Population, 1890-1016. 
 
 
 1890 
 
 1900 
 
 1907 
 
 1916 
 
 Catholic collegiate enrollment *. . . . 
 Total collegiate enrollment in U. S. 1 . 
 
 359 
 
 957 
 
 417 
 1,335 
 
 5ii 
 i,Si3 
 
 896 
 i,895 2 
 
 1 Including the same as " Collegiate enrollment " in first table. 
 
 2 For 1915. 
 
 These figures show that, while in the year 1890 
 two-thirds of the young men who were due in our 
 colleges were either not going to college at all or 
 were going to non-Catholic institutions, by the 
 year 19 16 this adverse ratio had been reduced to 
 about one-half. To be more exact, the collegiate 
 students enrolled in our preparatory seminaries, 
 which are, in reality, junior colleges, should also 
 be counted in here. If this is done, the number 
 896 in the preceding table becomes 945. 1 As there 
 is no reason for supposing that Catholics furnish 
 1 Report on Attendance at Calh. Colleges and Universities, p. 9. 
 
132 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 less than their normal proportion of college stu- 
 dents, the conclusion would appear to be justified 
 that about one-half of our young men who go to 
 college attend non-Catholic institutions. This 
 proportion is no larger than might be expected, 
 in view of the special circumstances that so often 
 influence young men in choosing a particular 
 college. Proximity and expensiveness are, neces- 
 sarily, determining factors in the case of very 
 many. However, with the continuance of the pro- 
 gressive movements that are so evident at present 
 in Catholic institutions of higher learning, it is not 
 unlikely that a still larger proportion of our youth 
 may be gradually drawn to them. 
 
 Including preparatory seminaries, the enroll- 
 ment in Catholic colleges and universities in 1916 
 amounted to 18,767 students in high school grades 
 and 16,775 students in higher grades — a total of 
 
 35,542. 
 
 Colleges for Women 
 
 Conspicuous among recent Catholic educational 
 movements has been the progress of higher edu- 
 cation for women. Several Catholic colleges for 
 women have existed for a long time. But the 
 opening of Trinity College, at Washington, in 1901, 
 with its high standards for entrance and gradua- 
 tion, gave a new impulse to the Catholic education 
 of women. Since then, several of the larger acad- 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 133 
 
 emies have established collegiate departments; 
 other institutions, which already had such depart- 
 ments, have strengthened and developed them. 
 There is an evident disposition, too, to make a 
 sharper distinction between the academy and the 
 college for women, as well as between their respective 
 graduates. It is likely that the traditional term 
 " academy," which was long used indiscriminately 
 to designate a Catholic school for women, whether 
 of secondary or collegiate grade, will come to be 
 applied only to institutions inferior to the college. 
 Efforts to unite Catholic women's colleges in an 
 association, for the furtherance of their common 
 interests, successfully culminated in their admit- 
 tance into the Catholic Educational Association 
 at the Baltimore meeting, in 191 6, as a special 
 section of the College Department. 1 
 
 University Development 
 
 The progress of American higher education dur- 
 ing the past half century has been marked by 
 the transformation of many of the larger colleges 
 into universities, the change consisting chiefly in 
 the establishment of professional and postgraduate 
 departments. Catholic colleges have had part 
 in this movement, although only a few of them have 
 
 1 In regard to the number of Catholic colleges for women 
 and their student enrollment, cf. note on p. 3. 
 
134 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 succeeded thus far in establishing well organized 
 post-graduate departments, or in attracting post- 
 graduate students in any considerable number. 
 But the aggregate number of candidates for the 
 higher academic degrees in non-Catholic univer- 
 sities in the United States is likewise relatively 
 small, and it is not surprising that Catholic univer- 
 sities should find it difficult to attract such stu- 
 dents. At places like Harvard, which has a con- 
 siderable body of post-graduates, a large number 
 of scholarships and fellowships are open to them. 
 Of the one hundred or more post-graduates at 
 the Catholic University, a large proportion hold 
 scholarships. The Knights of Columbus Endow- 
 ment at this latter institution provides for fifty 
 scholarships, to be reserved exclusively for those 
 doing post-graduate academic work. 
 
 These circumstances are mentioned merely to 
 exemplify the causes that have hitherto prevented 
 some of our universities from developing more 
 fully their post-graduate departments. Many 
 post-graduate students are unable to pay their 
 own way, and they can usually obtain scholar- 
 ships or their equivalent at endowed universities. 
 Experience has shown that the offering of post- 
 graduate courses, with competent teachers, will 
 not of itself attract Students, and that the further 
 development of this feature of our institutions of 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 135 
 
 higher education will depend mainly upon the 
 establishment of endowments. 
 
 As was noted above, the number of professional 
 students in our colleges and universities has been 
 increasing very rapidly. Thirty-nine institutions 
 have at least one professional department. In 
 many of these the professional students are con- 
 fined to theology, and such institutions might, 
 perhaps, best be classed as colleges with an attached 
 theological seminary. But quite a number of insti- 
 tutions have schools of law, and several have also 
 schools of medicine. The larger cities naturally 
 afford the best conditions for the successful devel- 
 opment of these departments. A law school may 
 be made almost self-supporting, if the attendance 
 is large and other circumstances are favorable. A 
 medical school, however, cannot be made self- 
 supporting even under the most favorable circum- 
 stances, if it is to be properly provided for in 
 respect of teaching staff, equipment, and general 
 appointments. An endowment of at least a million 
 dollars would appear to be requisite for the proper 
 support of a modern medical school, after provision 
 has been made for buildings and equipment. 
 These conditions render the establishment of a 
 medical school extremely difficult if not imprac- 
 tical at most of our universities at present. 
 
136 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 Preparatory Departments and Junior 
 Colleges 
 
 It has been noted that the increase of prepara- 
 tory students at Catholic colleges has not, in the 
 aggregate, kept pace with the increase of collegiate 
 students. Where the university development just 
 referred to has been going on, the attendance of 
 preparatory students has relatively fallen off. 
 Our universities have evidently come to see that a 
 preparatory department is no longer necessary 
 for them, for they are drawing students in ever 
 larger numbers, not only from Catholic high 
 schools, but also from the public high schools. 
 Trinity College has never had a preparatory 
 department, and has never, apparently, felt the 
 need of one. The same is true of the Catholic 
 University, its undergraduate department having 
 grown very rapidly by drawing students from sec- 
 ondary schools and smaller colleges. Several of 
 our larger institutions are now removing their 
 preparatory departments, and locating them at 
 some distance from the college proper. It is likely 
 that this will be done, sooner or later, by all uni- 
 versities and large colleges. 
 
 The removal of the preparatory departments, 
 while it will accelerate the development of the 
 larger institutions, will increase very notably the 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 1S7 
 
 differences already existing between them and the 
 smaller colleges. Most of the latter will probably 
 retain their preparatory departments, to offset 
 the drift of their collegiate students to other 
 institutions, especially after the Freshman or 
 Sophomore Year. Comparatively few preparatory 
 students stay at the same college until they obtain 
 a college degree. Many of them do not intend more 
 than a high-school education. Many, after com- 
 pleting the preparatory courses, begin collegiate 
 work, but only with the view of preparing them- 
 selves, by a year or two of this work, for the 
 upper collegiate years or professional courses in 
 some university. 
 
 There are several Catholic colleges that do not 
 carry students beyond the Sophomore Year. 
 Their curriculum includes six years of study — four 
 of secondary and two of collegiate grade. Such in- 
 stitutions are Junior Colleges, in the technical sense 
 the term has come to bear. There are other col- 
 leges which, while offering a full collegiate curricu- 
 lum, have very few students in the Junior and 
 Senior Years, being unable to retain their students, 
 in competition with the larger and stronger col- 
 leges around them. Would it not be better for 
 these smaller institutions to drop the last two years 
 of college work, and range themselves among the 
 Junior Colleges? The Junior College has a field 
 
138 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 of its own, and within this it need have little fear 
 of competition. Such a change would be of ad- 
 vantage to the universities and larger colleges, 
 by increasing their enrollment in the upper col- 
 legiate years, and it would greatly benefit the 
 smaller colleges themselves. The energies which 
 they are now devoting to the maintenance of the 
 Junior and Senior Years, and which are so largely 
 wasted, could then be turned to better account in 
 strengthening their work. Improvement of the 
 teaching and equipment could not fail to bring 
 them an increase of students; and a condition 
 of genuine prosperity and progress would thus 
 replace the struggle for existence that character- 
 izes the history of so many of the colleges of 
 this class. 
 
 The Curriculum — Standardization 
 
 It has become more and more difficult for the 
 small and struggling college to maintain a full col- 
 legiate curriculum up to the standard that obtains 
 at reputable institutions of higher learning. The 
 old uniform college curriculum is becoming a 
 thing of the past. There are Catholic colleges 
 which, almost from their very beginning, adopted 
 the principle of allowing the student a certain choice 
 in the studies to be pursued. However opposed 
 to the elective system some Catholic educators 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 139 
 
 may have been in days gone by, and however 
 firmly some of our colleges may still stand for the 
 classical curriculum, it is, nevertheless, generally 
 conceded that some option must be allowed the 
 student in respect to courses and studies. Elec- 
 tives necessitate an increase of classes and teachers 
 as well as equipment — a condition that severely 
 handicaps the small college in attempting to carry 
 on the work of the upper collegiate years. It is 
 all-important for the Catholic college that the 
 Catholic public should be convinced that its courses 
 and equipment are fully as good and modern as 
 those of non-Catholic colleges. Our stronger col- 
 leges have taken the obvious steps to attain this 
 end, by adopting substantially the same standards 
 that have come to obtain among the larger and 
 better non-Catholic colleges and the state uni- 
 versities in regard to entrance and graduation 
 requirements, teaching and equipment. Not only 
 has this been done by individual colleges, but 
 efforts have been made to have a uniform standard 
 adopted by the College Department of the Cath- 
 olic Educational Association. 
 
 These efforts have been fairly successful. The 
 
 College Department has agreed that sixteen units 
 
 should be required for entrance to college, 1 and 
 
 one hundred and twenty-eight hours as a minimum 
 
 1 Chicago Meeting, 191 1. 
 
140 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 for graduation. 1 In addition, the standing com- 
 mittee of the Department has recommended the 
 adoption of the following provisions: That a 
 college should have at least seven departments, 
 with seven professors giving their entire time to 
 college work; that the professors should have a 
 college degree or its equivalent, and should instruct 
 in that department for which they have had spe- 
 cial preparation; that the college library should 
 contain at least 5000 volumes; that the labora- 
 tory equipment should be sufficient to carry on 
 work in physics, chemistry and biology, and 
 should represent at least $5000; that the student 
 should be required to take at least sixteen, and 
 ordinarily not more than twenty, hours of class 
 work a week; and that no professor should be 
 required to teach for more than sixteen hours a 
 week. 2 
 
 The next step was to secure the adoption by 
 the College Department of some effective sanction 
 for the practical observance of the above con- 
 ditions by the colleges, or to provide for the classi- 
 fication of our colleges in such a way that those 
 that meet the standard requirements would be 
 readily distinguishable from those that do not 
 meet them. At the Buffalo meeting of the Cath- 
 
 1 New Orleans Meeting, 1913. 
 
 * Circular Letter of Pres. of College Dept., Feb. 15, 1915. 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 141 
 
 olic Educational Association, in 1917, a plan of 
 this kind was agreed to, a committee being ap- 
 pointed to carry out the work of standardization 
 and classification. 1 
 
 Standardization and classification of the colleges 
 is imperatively needed, in fairness to both the 
 stronger and the weaker colleges. Institutions 
 that do not at present meet the moderate and 
 reasonable requirements mentioned above, should 
 either raise their standards to conform to these 
 requirements, or assume the status of Junior 
 Colleges. No one who has at heart the progress of 
 higher education, and who is fully conversant 
 with educational conditions within our country — 
 not to mention the demands made by foreign uni- 
 versities — can fail to sympathize with this move- 
 ment, the main object of which is, simply, to en- 
 able one to appraise college degrees at their true 
 value. It will be far better for Catholic colleges 
 to be standardized and classified by their own 
 representatives, rather than by those who are 
 unfamiliar with the Catholic college, and unable 
 rightly to evaluate or appreciate some of its most 
 essential features. 
 
 1 Cf. Address of Rev. M. A. Schumacher, C.S.C., Pres. of 
 the College Dept., What Next? in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. 
 Assn., 1916, p. 91. 
 
142 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 Endowment and Support 
 
 One of the features of the Catholic college that 
 outsiders find it difficult to understand is the man- 
 ner of its support. As a rule, all successful non- 
 Catholic colleges and universities are, to a great 
 extent, maintained by funds derived either from 
 the state or from individual benefactors. It is 
 regarded as an axiom, outside the sphere of Cath- 
 olic education, that a college or university cannot 
 be self-supporting. On the other hand, Cath- 
 olic colleges are generally self-supporting; only a 
 few are even partially endowed, with the excep- 
 tion of the Catholic University. 
 
 To understand how this can be, it is necessary 
 to know that all but eight of the eighty-four Cath- 
 olic colleges and universities for men are con- 
 ducted by religious orders. Most of the profes- 
 sors in these institutions are religious, and receive 
 no salary, their services being entirely gratuitous. 
 Now, professors' salaries are, as is well known, 
 the chief source of expense in the non-Catholic 
 college or university. Hence, the Catholic col- 
 lege, being largely free from this heavy outlay, is 
 able to meet its general expenses from the tuition 
 fees and other student revenue. Although the 
 college faculty usually includes some lay or clerical 
 salaried professors, the number of these, except 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 143 
 
 at a few institutions, is comparatively small. At 
 the eight colleges conducted by the secular 
 clergy — among these, the Catholic University is 
 an endowed institution — all the professors are 
 salaried; but many of them are clergymen, and 
 the salaries of clerical professors are generally 
 much less than those that laymen of equal ability 
 would expect. 
 
 It would not be difficult to estimate the financial 
 value of the gratuitously rendered services of the 
 religious professors at any particular college. This 
 has, in fact, been done in a number of instances. 
 Some associations of colleges require, as a condi- 
 tion for admission, that an institution possess 
 endowment funds to a certain amount. Catholic 
 colleges have been able to satisfy this requirement 
 by showing that they possess in these gratuitous 
 services the equivalent of a permanent endowment, 
 its value being shown by the sum of the salaries 
 that the religious professors would, under other 
 circumstances, be apt to receive. 1 Some of the 
 States also require that the college shall possess a 
 certain minimum endowment-fund, as a condition 
 necessary to its granting degrees. Colleges that 
 are doing real college work have nothing to fear 
 from such restrictions, if they are fairly applied. 
 
 1 Rev. H. S. Spalding, S.J., Endowment of Men and 
 Endowment of Money, in Ed. Rev., LII, p. 392. 
 
144 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 At any of our larger colleges, if laymen were to 
 replace the religious teachers and officials, the 
 change would involve an increased salary expense 
 ranging from fifty to one hundred thousand dollars 
 a year. This would represent a capital, or en- 
 dowment fund, between one and two million 
 dollars. If the same change were made at all 
 Catholic colleges, the increased expense would 
 amount to at least three million dollars annually, 
 which would represent endowment funds amount- 
 ing to some sixty millions. 
 
 The fact that a Catholic college depends for its 
 support mainly upon student fees, does not argue 
 that its economic foundation is unstable or inse- 
 cure. A notable falling off in the attendance 
 would, it is true, cause serious financial difficulties; 
 but the same condition would cause equal finan- 
 cial difficulties at any of the large and richly en- 
 dowed institutions. Tuition fees make up a 
 large part — rarely less than one-half — of the rev- 
 enues of endowed colleges and universities; and a 
 marked decrease in the amount of tuition fees at 
 such institutions would necessarily give rise to a 
 deficit, which could be met only by an immediate 
 appeal to the generosity of friends and bene- 
 factors. Instances of this have been frequent 
 enough in the history of American education. 
 Catholic colleges are really better able to bear 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 145 
 
 such a financial strain than are endowed institu- 
 tions, for they are better able to economize with- 
 out substantial detriment to their regular work, 
 and in case of urgent need they can rely, to some 
 extent, upon the general resources of their respec- 
 tive religious orders. 
 
 Still, although most of our colleges have received 
 little or no aid from the outside thus far in the 
 form of gifts or endowments, it need scarcely be 
 said that such benefactions are greatly to be 
 desired. The introduction of the elective system, 
 even to a limited extent, has multiplied classes and 
 added to the general expense. University devel- 
 opment has increased the number of lay pro- 
 fessors at many institutions, besides making ex- 
 pensive demands in the way of buildings and equip- 
 ment. More lay professors will be needed in 
 the future, and it will also be necessary to increase 
 their salaries, which are now far below the salaries 
 of those occupying corresponding positions in 
 endowed institutions. The time appears to have 
 arrived when gifts and endowments are absolutely 
 necessary to our colleges and universities, if they 
 are to continue along the ways of progress upon 
 which they have entered. 
 
 Fortunately, signs are not wanting that the 
 Catholic public is beginning to appreciate properly 
 these conditions. The success of the Catholic 
 
146 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 University in raising a large endowment fund, 
 shows that wealthy Catholics may be counted on 
 to aid in the upbuilding of worthy institutions of 
 the higher learning. Creighton University stands 
 as a monument to a noble Catholic philanthropist. 
 In the year 1916, Marquette University collected 
 half a million dollars within a few weeks, largely 
 from the citizens of Milwaukee, for the develop- 
 ment of the work of its departments. These and 
 other notable benefactions that might be men- 
 tioned show that a new period in the development 
 of Catholic higher education has begun, a period 
 that is to be characterized by a more successful 
 appeal to the generosity of the Catholic public, 
 and especially of Catholic men of wealth. Our 
 colleges will still have to depend upon the religious 
 orders, and to some extent upon those secular 
 clergymen who, out of love for the cause of Chris- 
 tian education, are content with a salary that is 
 barely sufficient for their individual support. 
 But endowments will provide for more lay pro- 
 fessors, and at better salaries than the colleges 
 can now afford to pay them; scholarships and fel- 
 lowships will afford more and better opportunities 
 for poor boys and promising young teachers of lim- 
 ited means; while the erection of libraries, labora- 
 tories, dormitories and other buildings by gen- 
 erous-minded men and women of wealth will 
 
COLLEGE GROWTH AND TENDENCIES 147 
 
 relieve our colleges and universities of one of 
 their heaviest financial burdens, and enable them 
 to devote their energies more exclusively to the 
 perfecting of their work in the intellectual and 
 spiritual orders. 
 
 Freedom of Teaching 
 
 Of the seventy-six Catholic colleges which are 
 conducted by the religious orders, twenty-five 
 belong to the Jesuits, fourteen to the Benedictines, 
 and six to the Christian Brothers. Professors who 
 are religious are removable at the will of their 
 superiors, and their teaching is, therefore, com- 
 letely under the control of the religious authori- 
 ties. From this, however, it is not to be inferred 
 that a religious professor is not allowed a reasonable 
 freedom in his work. It is recognized that there 
 must be a certain unity of teaching in regard to 
 subjects like theology and philosophy; as to the 
 rest, religious professors enjoy as much freedom as 
 do professors in American colleges generally. The 
 unity of teaching that obtains in Catholic colleges 
 and universities does not forbid research and 
 progress even in theology and philosophy; it is 
 rather a guarantee that progress, however gradual, 
 will be sure and permanent; and its influence upon 
 the mind of the Catholic student must be cor- 
 respondingly wholesome. The body of sound 
 
148 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 religious, philosophical and moral principles he 
 holds forms a correlating center for all his other 
 knowledge; and he is conscious that these prin- 
 ciples are taught by Catholic professors every- 
 where throughout the world to-day, as they have 
 been through all the past ages. 1 
 
 1 Cf. Chapter III, discussion of " Correlation." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 INNER COLLEGE PROBLEMS 
 
 Discipline 
 
 It was shown in the preceding Chapter that 
 great changes have taken place in many Catholic 
 colleges. Along with the changes referred to, 
 however, which relate chiefly to the outer form and 
 organization of the college, other developments 
 have been going on, involving problems more fun- 
 damental in character, which relate to the inner 
 life and work of the college. These problems may 
 conveniently be considered under the heads of 
 discipline, religion, and teaching. 1 
 
 The general features of student life and the gen- 
 eral disciplinary regulations in the Catholic college 
 to-day, especially the boarding college, are very 
 different from what they were a generation or so 
 ago. Our colleges formerly were, to a great extent, 
 secluded from the world. Seldom, and then only 
 for a good reason, was a student allowed to go 
 even to the neighboring town. Athletic games and 
 
 ^he substance of this Chapter was published in the 
 Catholic World for Jan., 191 7. 
 
 149 
 
150 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 contests, while never lacking, were restricted to the 
 college and to those who lived at the college. The 
 general aim was to render the college self-sufficient, 
 so that the life, the work, the recreations and the 
 interests of the students would be centered and 
 so far as possible confined within its bounds. 
 Besides seclusion from the world, simplicity and 
 uniformity were aimed at in the daily regimen. 
 The students sat at table in a common dining- 
 room, studied together in the study halls, slept in 
 large dormitory-rooms that were absolutely alike 
 as regards conveniences, and made use of common 
 wash-rooms, trunk-rooms and recreation " yards "; 
 and all students, as a rule, whether young or old, 
 rich or poor, fell under this severely democratic 
 regime. The system had its advantages, and they 
 were many and clear. It probably had its dis- 
 advantages, too, whatever may have been their 
 relative importance. 
 
 But this traditional Catholic college system, 
 which goes back to the Middle Ages, and perhaps 
 much farther, is no more. For many years, 
 changes have been going on. One cause of change 
 was the establishment of dormitories with private 
 rooms. Previously, a few of the older students 
 here and there may have been allowed to live in 
 private rooms; but when, in the year 1888, Sorin 
 Hall was erected at Notre Dame University, for 
 
INNER COLLEGE PROBLEMS 161 
 
 the express purpose of providing private rooms for 
 a large body of students, a break was made with 
 the traditional discipline. Sorin Hall, in spite of 
 temporary difficulties, proved to be a success, and 
 other private-room dormitories followed in time 
 at Notre Dame as well as at other institutions. 
 The private room was fatal to both the theory and 
 the practice of uniform college life and discipline. 
 It did away, for its occupant, with the common 
 sleeping-room and study hall, the wash-room, 
 trunk-room, and the " yard," and a special code 
 of disciplinary regulations had to be formulated 
 for the " roomers." Many of the changes involved 
 were feared and opposed by the more conservative 
 members of college faculties; but the room system 
 proved to be extremely popular with the students, 
 and brought an increase in the college enrollment. 
 Once it was given a fair trial, it became forever 
 impossible to go back to the old system. As 
 private-room life was more expensive, a consid- 
 erable body of students in each institution con- 
 tinued to live and work in the common rooms 
 under the old discipline, now become less strict; 
 but the number of these has been relatively decreas- 
 ing. The demand is ever for more rooms, and it is 
 evidently only a question of time until all the larger 
 boys at Catholic colleges will be living in private 
 rooms. Even the smaller colleges have joined in 
 
152 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 this movement. In many institutions, more than 
 one-half of the student body is now housed in 
 private-room dormitories. 
 
 After private rooms, intercollegiate athletics 
 has been, perhaps, the most important factor in 
 the transformation that has been effected in the 
 life and discipline of the Catholic college. Inter- 
 collegiate athletics necessarily brought the college 
 into closer touch with the outer world. The col- 
 lege athletes went out to play, accompanied at 
 times by crowds of other students; and crowds 
 from outside, made up of the students and alumni 
 of rival colleges and other athletic enthusiasts, 
 came in to witness games on the college campus. 
 Money for athletic expenses had to be raised from 
 business men of the neighboring town or city, and 
 the students were naturally expected to patronize 
 them in return. The press, too, both local and 
 metropolitan, found that athletic events at the 
 college made interesting news-matter for its sport- 
 ing pages, and its sporting pages, in turn, helped 
 to popularize the daily newspaper at the college. 
 Many other circumstances of like import might be 
 mentioned. 
 
 Another important influence in the same general 
 direction has been the increasing tendency towards 
 luxury and extravagance in American life. In a 
 hundred little ways this spirit has crept into the 
 
INNER COLLEGE PROBLEMS 153 
 
 college from the great world outside, and has 
 helped to break down the old-time simplicity and 
 plainness of college life as well as its seclusion from 
 the world. It is unnecessary to cite evidence of 
 this. Suffice it to say that the social inequalities 
 brought about by wealth have their reflection, to 
 some extent, in student life in the Catholic college, 
 as they have in all other American colleges. 
 
 It is not for the purpose of fault-finding that 
 these changes in the life and discipline of the Cath- 
 olic college are adverted to. They were, in a certain 
 measure, inevitable. Nevertheless, they involve 
 some serious problems for the college, and these 
 problems have not as yet been completely solved. 
 How far are such changes to be allowed to go? 
 In the matter of intercollegiate athletics, for 
 instance, is it safe for Catholic colleges to adopt the 
 same attitude as those non-Catholic institutions 
 that are known to be most liberal in this respect? 
 Can the absence of groups of students from the 
 college, with their neglect of classes and study, 
 during athletic trips of a week or several days at a 
 time, be a wholesome thing for the absentees, 
 whatever may be the effect upon the general body 
 ofstudents? 
 
 "It is, indeed, a serious question as to how far 
 cnanges and relaxations in the general discipline 
 of the Catholic college may be allowed, in view of 
 
154 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 the responsibility of the college for the morals of 
 its students. Certainly, our colleges can never 
 accept the theory of discipline which the president 
 of a large non-Catholic college in the East pro- 
 claimed — to require no more from his students, in 
 matters of conduct, than is required by the ordinary 
 police jurisdiction. The inculcation of Christian 
 morality is an inalienable religious duty of the 
 Catholic parent. When the boy goes to college, 
 the parent's responsibility is transferred to the 
 president of the college, but only temporarily and 
 conditionally. Should the college fail in its duty 
 in this respect, the parent would be bound in con- 
 science to repair the defect, which could only 
 mean, practically, to send the boy somewhere 
 else. Such is the unquestioned teaching of Cath- 
 olic theology^ 
 
 The responsibility of the college for the moral 
 education of the student necessarily involves the 
 obligation ol control and supervision in matters of 
 conduct. But how much control and supervision 
 should there be? This is not an easy question to 
 decide. Undoubtedly, college discipline must take 
 into account changed conditions of life in the world 
 outside and the spirit of the age. This much 
 may be safely said, however, that our general policy 
 in regard to discipline ought to be based upon our 
 own educational traditions, rather than upon mere 
 
INNER COLLEGE PROBLEMS 155 
 
 expediency or the example of non-Catholic insti- 
 tutions. The cardinal principle of our traditional 
 discipline has been the concentration of all the 
 student's active interests at the college, in books 
 and study, in necessary duties and wholesome 
 recreations. It may not, perhaps, be possible to 
 accomplish this as fully and effectively to-day as 
 formerly, but the principle itself is sound, and is, 
 in fact, only a practical expression of the funda- 
 mental purpose of the college. This principle 
 ought, therefore, to be maintained as a general 
 norm in the regulation of discipline, whatever 
 modifications of particular disciplinary rules and 
 customs it may be thought necessary or wise to 
 introduce. 
 
 Religion 
 
 The most effective agency that can be invoked 
 for the maintenance of sound Catholic discipline 
 in the college is religion. Religion has always 
 been relied on to keep students in the path of duty; 
 in the future, it will have to be relied on more than 
 ever. The traditional disciplinary restraints have 
 been largely outworn, and the student is now 
 thrown more upon his honor, which must mean — 
 in the Catholic college at least — his conscience. 
 Hence, with the enlargement of individual liberty 
 at the college, it became necessary that there 
 should be a corresponding enlargement, or at least 
 
156 CATHOLIC "EDUCATION 
 
 realignment, of the existing religious influences, 
 in the life of the individual student as well as in 
 the college as a whole. For this the new discipline 
 offered both the opportunity and the need. 
 
 Has this been fully realized by college authori- 
 ties? Have religious influences been quickened, 
 and brought into closer touch with the needs or 
 aspirations of the individual student? Has reli- 
 gion maintained her place of primacy among the 
 educative forces at work to form mind and char- 
 acter? It is easier to ask such questions than to 
 answer them. If they are raised here, it is chiefly 
 for the purpose of emphasizing the necessity of 
 maintaining religion in her traditional place of 
 first importance in the work of the Catholic college. 
 
 It may be — as we hear it said — that common 
 chapel services are not as frequent at many of 
 the colleges as they used to be, outside of Sun- 
 days and holy-days; that the annual retreat is 
 not made as much of, in outward observance, as it 
 formerly was; and that the religious societies 
 elicit comparatively less interest than they once 
 did. But such changes would not, of themselves, 
 necessarily indicate any real lessening of religious 
 life or influences. On the other hand, it is certain 
 that the appeal for frequent and daily communion 
 has nowhere had a more generous response than 
 in the colleges. The students who daily throng 
 
INNER COLLEGE PROBLEMS 157 
 
 the altar rail in the college chapels are a living 
 proof that religion has lost nothing of its power 
 to sway the minds and hearts of our young men. 
 The great question is, are we doing our utmost to 
 increase its power and efficacy? Are we planning 
 and striving in the earnest, anxious way we plan 
 and strive for improved curriculum and class- 
 work, to enlarge the place of religion in the college 
 life as a whole and in the life of each individual 
 student? 
 
 The most important office in the college is, in 
 some respects, that of the prefect of religion. The 
 priest who is assigned to this position should be 
 not only distinguished by his piety and zeal, but 
 also possessed of those natural qualities of heart 
 which attract the young and invite their confi- 
 dence. He need not be a learned man. Like the 
 prefect of studies, the prefect of religion should be 
 free to devote himself entirely to the duties of his 
 office. He has a general responsibility for the 
 spiritual welfare of hundreds of young men, who 
 are at the very turning point of their moral lives; 
 and, in addition to his daily spiritual ministrations 
 and conferences, and the regular chapel services, 
 he has many other things to look after, such as 
 the work of the religious societies and those spe 
 cial exercises and devotions that are needed from 
 time to time to quicken the religious life of the 
 
158 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 college student. To assign such an office to a 
 busy teacher, in the expectation that, somehow, 
 his zeal will enable him to look after the all- 
 important interests of religion during his scanty 
 free hours, is to go far towards relegating religion 
 to an inferior place in the life and work of the insti- 
 tution. 
 
 Much of the time and attention of the prefect 
 of religion might profitably be devoted to the care 
 of priestly and religious vocations. In every 
 Catholic college there are a certain number of 
 students whose piety and fervor, if rightly directed, 
 will lead them to the priestly or religious life. Our 
 colleges and universities have noble religious tra- 
 ditions to sustain. They have had part in the 
 training of many of the greatest priests of the 
 Church — scholastic philosophers and theologians, 
 founders of religious orders and reformers, contem- 
 platives and missionaries. From them have come 
 most of the teachers who are carrying on the work 
 of Christianity to-day in our institutions of higher 
 education, as well as many of the priests who are 
 engaged in spreading the Christian Faith in pagan 
 lands. More than ever before, the development of 
 such vocations in the college is important at the 
 present time. In missionary work, especially, a 
 great opportunity has arisen for the American 
 Catholic college. American priests are needed 
 
INNER COLLEGE PROBLEMS 159 
 
 everywhere throughout the mission world, and our 
 colleges are called upon, by their own traditions 
 no less than by the exigencies of the general situa- 
 tion, to take the lead in meeting this demand. 
 
 College students who are looking towards the 
 priesthood form the finest material for the mis- 
 sionary vocation. Their college training is cal- 
 culated to develop not only high intellectual 
 ability, but also the most generous religious sym- 
 pathies; and — unlike students in the diocesan 
 seminaries — they are generally free to devote 
 themselves to religious work in any part of the 
 world. It would be easy to establish a missionary 
 society at every Catholic college. The purpose of 
 such a society would be, to arouse interest in the 
 missions, both home and foreign, to develop mis- 
 sionary vocations, and to collect material means 
 for the work. The dues would need to be no more 
 than a mere trifle, say, five or ten cents a month; 
 but considerable money might be raised at times in 
 other ways. Certain college organizations, such 
 as the glee club, might be asked once in a while to 
 devote the proceeds of a benefit entertainment to 
 the cause, for many students besides those expect- 
 ing to enter the sacred ministry would take an 
 interest in such a society. Catholic colleges in 
 France have long contributed regularly to the col- 
 lections of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 
160 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 Faith, and their students have much less pocket 
 money than our students. But the amount of 
 money collected would not matter so much; 
 the main object would be, to call attention to the 
 missions and their needs and to develop the spirit 
 of generosity and self-sacrifice. The establish- 
 ment of such societies at the colleges would nat- 
 urally lead to some kind of a general association of 
 the local organizations, with an annual conven- 
 tion, where there would be papers and discussions 
 on the missions, and addresses by priests and 
 bishops having experience of real missionary life. 
 Such a movement could not fail to produce most 
 important results in furtherance of Catholic mis- 
 sionary activity throughout the world, while, at 
 the same time, it would have a most wholesome 
 religious influence upon the colleges themselves. 
 
 There are other features of religious work in the 
 colleges that call for development. I shall men- 
 tion only one of these — the encouragement of total 
 abstinence from intoxicating liquors. The Cath- 
 olic total abstinence society should be regarded as 
 a religious society, and it should be under the 
 direction of the prefect of religion. The form of 
 pledge commonly employed involves a religious 
 act, the motive proposed being the sublime self- 
 sacrifice of Christ. The strength of such an organ- 
 ization lies, not in numbers, but in its religious 
 
INNER COLLEGE PROBLEMS 161 
 
 spirit, in the examples it furnishes of noble Chris- 
 tian self-restraint, and in its assured support and 
 encouragement by the college authorities. There 
 are plenty of students in every Catholic college 
 who are willing to join such a society. 
 
 There should be a total abstinence society in 
 every college. A great moral movement, directed 
 against intoxicating liquor and the liquor interests, 
 is stirring the country. The agitation may not be 
 free from excesses; but it evidences the concern 
 of vast numbers of thinking men and women about 
 the undoubtable dangers of drink, especially to the 
 young. Are these dangers ever greater than they 
 are in the life of the college student? Should not 
 every legitimate means be employed, in order to 
 reinforce the rule of conduct which the college seeks 
 to inculcate in this respect? For, total abstinence 
 is one of the traditional rules of American Catholic 
 colleges. How much more effective will be this 
 rule, especially under the present system of en- 
 larged personal freedom, if the principle of religious 
 self-sacrifice is given prominence among the prac- 
 tical motives for its observance! This is what a 
 religious total abstinence society does. The mem- 
 bership may be small or it may be great; but, in 
 either case, such a society represents a clear moral 
 asset for the college, in its supreme work of pro- 
 moting high-minded Christian life. 
 
162 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 The Teacher 
 
 Some of the most vital problems involved in the 
 development of the Catholic college or university 
 at the present time have to do with the teacher. 
 As most of our institutions of higher education are 
 conducted by religious orders, we may confine our 
 attention here to teachers who are religious. 
 
 In the preparation of the young religious for his 
 work in the college, methods and standards that 
 are entirely different from those that once obtained 
 appear to be now requisite. Formerly, a professor 
 was called upon to teach branches of knowledge 
 that have little or no direct relation to each other. 
 He might have charge of all the classes that went 
 to make up a year of the classical course. His 
 daily work might thus have to do with subjects 
 as diverse as history and mathematics, or Greek 
 and chemistry. This system still obtains in some 
 places, especially in the preparatory department. 
 It possesses certain advantages, and there could 
 be little objection to it if the teaching of each 
 branch could be made thorough. Whatever may 
 be thought, however, of the employment of this 
 system in the preparatory department, its suc- 
 cessful employment in the college proper has be- 
 come increasingly difficult, if not practically im- 
 possible. 
 
INNER COLLEGE PROBLEMS 163 
 
 It has never been questioned that, in college work 
 at least, the teacher must have acquired a thorough 
 mastery of whatever he teaches, if he is to achieve 
 the highest success. But to master any impor- 
 tant branch of knowledge nowadays, it is neces- 
 sary to make a life study of it. This applies even 
 to the dead languages, Latin and Greek. The 
 fruits of scholarly research have become so 
 abundant that it is ordinarily impossible for one 
 who spreads his attention over several fields of 
 knowledge to become thoroughly acquainted with 
 any one of them. Hence, the college teacher must 
 be a specialist, which means that he must have 
 made a thorough, comprehensive study of some 
 one branch of knowledge, as well as some study of 
 the cognate branches. Only through such a prep- 
 aration can he bring to his classes a scholarship 
 that will satisfy his students, and an enthusiasm 
 that may enkindle in them a living interest in the 
 work. The training of specialists is a function 
 of the university, and only in the university, as a 
 rule, can the college teacher be properly prepared 
 for his work. The equivalent of university train- 
 ing may, of course, be furnished by the special sys- 
 tems of post-graduate instruction that obtain in 
 certain religious orders for the preparation of their 
 teachers, in so far as accepted university methods 
 and standards are employed. 
 
164 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 Catholic colleges possess a most important 
 advantage in respect to their teachers. Every 
 year, numbers of the brightest and best students 
 in our schools and colleges join the religious orders, 
 and devote their lives to college work. Many of 
 these young men are capable of attaining to the 
 highest scholarship, and need only to be properly 
 educated, to be the equal of the best professors in 
 the great endowed or state universities. And 
 once they are educated, whatever may be the 
 expense involved, their scholarship is entirely at 
 the service of the institution or order to which 
 they belong, and this for the term of their lives. 
 In non-Catholic colleges and universities the most 
 talented students may be picked out and educated 
 for professorships in their alma mater; but they 
 may afterwards be attracted to other institutions, 
 by the offer of a higher salary or some other ad- 
 vantage, just when their services have become of 
 special value. 
 
 The best investment that the college or religious 
 order can make, to further its educational aims, 
 is the expenditure involved in the thorough training 
 of those young religious who are destined to be 
 professors. Every college teacher should have had 
 a university training. A college degree can no 
 longer be regarded as sufficient evidence that the 
 recipient is competent to teach subjects included 
 
INNER COLLEGE PROBLEMS 165 
 
 in the college curriculum; nor can the study of 
 philosophy and theology in Latin, after the college 
 work in the classics, be regarded as sufficient 
 preparation even for the teacher of Latin. Such 
 views were common enough formerly, and some 
 excuse for them could be found in the pioneer 
 condition of many of the colleges. But to-day 
 they are wholly untenable, in view of the generally 
 accepted standards. This is not less true of 
 teaching in colleges for women than of teaching 
 in colleges and universities for men. 
 
 The assertion that every college teacher should 
 have had a university training, does not neces- 
 sarily mean that every college teacher should have 
 received a. full university education, or should have 
 a university degree. This would be to demand the 
 impossible. Various circumstances may prevent 
 the completion of university work, especially ill 
 health. But every one destined to teach in a col- 
 lege should pass at least a year or two at a uni- 
 versity, in order to acquire, in addition to an 
 advanced knowledge of his specialty, a knowledge 
 of the methods of critical study and original 
 research. A year or two thus spent will open the 
 way to further advanced study, and make it pos- 
 sible for him, with the aid of time and books, to 
 attain to riper scholarship by himself. So far as 
 possible, however, a complete university training 
 
166 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 should be given to all who are destined for college 
 teaching. 
 
 But the work at the university is not all. Even 
 after this has been completed, the institution or 
 order to which the young religious belongs has 
 something more to do, before its task of preparing 
 him for his life work can be properly regarded as 
 ended. It is of the essence of the training afforded 
 by the modern university that the student should 
 regard his work there as but his initiation in schol- 
 arship; and he will be untrue to the university 
 ideal if he is not led on, by what he has already done, 
 to further and more mature research work. For 
 this, time and opportunity are requisite. Many 
 a young teacher, fresh from the university, and 
 eager to continue his studies, finds himself so 
 heavily burdened by classes that he can scarcely 
 get time to prepare sufficiently for each class. 
 Administration work, assigned to young teachers, is 
 no less fatal to intellectual growth. Prefecting, 
 which is indispensable in the Catholic college, is 
 another duty that is apt to interfere seriously with 
 scholarly ambition. 
 
 No doubt, it is exceedingly difficult if not im- 
 possible, under present conditions, for college 
 authorities to avoid the assignment of such duties 
 to those who have been trained for the work of 
 teaching. However, conditions will be brought 
 
INNER COLLEGE PROBLEMS 167 
 
 about in time, it may be hoped, which will render 
 such exemption possible, and allow teachers more 
 time for private study and research. An increase 
 of priestly and religious vocations, which was 
 shown above to be so desirable for other reasons, 
 would add more men to the college faculties, and 
 thus diminish the amount of class work assigned 
 to each member. It would also furnish a larger 
 supply of men with special capacity for adminis- 
 trative work. Furthermore, some of the students 
 who are destined for the sacred ministry are ca- 
 pable of making excellent prefects, and, with a 
 larger number of such students to select from, 
 teachers might be entirely relieved of prefecting 
 by the institution of a system of student prefects or 
 proctors. These possibilities show how intimately 
 related the problem of the intellectual develop- 
 ment of the college is with the even more important 
 problem of its religious development. 
 
 One of the best means of inducing young teach- 
 ers to continue their advanced studies is to sur- 
 round them with an atmosphere of scholarship. 
 Even those who are heavily burdened by classes 
 can do something in the way of advanced study, if 
 they have a real desire to do so, or are urged on by 
 the example of others. At every college there are 
 a few men whose passionate devotion to knowl- 
 edge is proof against almost any amount of time- 
 
168 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 consuming duties. Such men, especially, should 
 be allowed all the opportunities that can be given 
 them for private study. Their scholarly achieve- 
 ments, by their influence upon the other members 
 of the faculty and the students, wall be worth far 
 more to the institution than direct teaching. It is 
 through such men that an atmosphere of intellectu- 
 ality is created, and lasting traditions of scholarship 
 are established, within an institution. A few 
 great scholars are enough to make the academic 
 reputation of any college or university. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 SEMINARIES 
 
 Diocesan and Religious Seminaries 
 
 Ecclesiastical seminaries have always been an 
 object of special concern to bishops and religious 
 superiors in the United States, and in no other 
 department of Catholic educational work has 
 greater progress been effected. 1 Following the 
 legislation of the Council of Trent, which laid the 
 foundations of the modern seminary system, our 
 plenary and provincial councils have labored to 
 perfect the American seminary, and to adjust its 
 work to the special conditions of clerical life in the 
 New World. By the decrees of Pius X higher 
 standards were prescribed for religious establish- 
 ments in respect to entrance into the seminary 
 and ordination. 
 
 Catholic seminaries in the United States may 
 be divided into two classes, the secular and the 
 religious. The former are destined for the training 
 of the secular or diocesan clergy; the latter, for 
 
 1 The greater part of this chapter appeared in the Amer. 
 Eccl. Review for Nov., 1916. 
 
 169 
 
170 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 the training of the clergy of the various religious 
 orders. Secular seminaries are usually conducted 
 by diocesan priests, under the direction of the 
 Ordinary, although several of them are in charge 
 of religious congregations. The religious seminaries 
 are conducted by members of the religious bodies 
 to which such institutions belong. If an order 
 has several provinces, each province usually has 
 its seminary; and in those orders in which the 
 individual houses are independent, each of the 
 larger establishments may have its own seminary. 
 The diocesan seminaries, although greatly out- 
 numbered by those of the religious orders, have, 
 in the aggregate, almost twice as many students 
 as the latter. St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, 
 the largest and oldest of the diocesan seminaries, 
 is conducted by the Sulpicians, and has over three 
 hundred students. The largest religious seminary, 
 and also the oldest, is the Jesuit establishment at 
 Woodstock, Md., with nearly two hundred stu- 
 dents. 1 
 
 Preparatory Seminaries 
 
 Of late years, there has been a great increase in 
 the number of preparatory seminaries, both dio- 
 cesan and religious. Cathedral colleges have been 
 
 1 For the number of seminaries, professors, and students, 
 see p. 172. 
 
SEMINARIES 171 
 
 established in New York, Chicago, and several 
 other cities. The preparatory seminaries, what- 
 ever title they may bear, are classical colleges, and 
 their curriculum, so far as it goes, does not differ 
 substantially from the classical curriculum of the 
 ordinary college or university. The chief differ- 
 ence between the preparatory seminary and the 
 regular college lies in the distinctly ecclesiastical 
 purpose of the former, which, as a rule, admits 
 only those who intend to enter the sacred minis- 
 try. The curriculum of the preparatory seminary 
 usually covers four years of high-school work 
 and the two lower years of the college classical 
 course. 
 
 In establishing preparatory seminaries, where the 
 formation of candidates for the sacred ministry 
 may be begun at the age of twelve to fourteen, the 
 Church in America is but carrying out one of the 
 most important educational decrees of the Council 
 of Trent. 1 Conditions in this country long ham- 
 pered the development of this feature of the semi- 
 nary system, although a few of our preparatory 
 seminaries date from a very early period. 2 Doubt- 
 less, the future will witness a further increase in 
 the number of these institutions, which are so well 
 
 1 Cf. Session XXIII, c. 18; Cf. Cone. Bait. Plen., Ill, n. 
 
 153- 
 
 2 Burns, Estab. of Cath. Sch, Sys. in U. S., p. 168 seq. 
 
172 
 
 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 calculated to develop vocations to the priesthood, 
 and to foster the true ecclesiastical spirit. 
 
 These two aims of the preparatory seminary are 
 of special importance for the religious orders. 
 Coming less in contact with the people than the 
 
 Seminaries l 
 
 
 Seminaries. 
 
 Professors. 
 
 Students. 
 
 
 21 
 
 46 2 
 
 178 
 291 
 
 2282 
 1394 
 
 Total 
 
 67 
 
 469 
 
 3676 
 
 
 
 Preparatory Seminaries 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 23 " 
 
 141 
 186 
 
 1727 3 
 1734 
 
 Total 
 
 34 
 
 327 
 
 346i 
 
 1 These figures are taken from the Catholic Directory for 1913. 
 
 2 Representing 21 religious orders. 
 
 3 Not including the preparatory seminary at Grand Rapids, Mich. 
 
 4 Representing 16 religious orders. A number of these institutions receive 
 students preparing for diocesan seminaries. 
 
 diocesan clergy, the former are at a certain disad- 
 vantage in securing vocations. It might seem that 
 this disadvantage would be offset by the fact that 
 they have charge of most of the colleges. But the 
 colleges, if we except those conducted by the Jes- 
 uits, do not supply vocations enough for the re- 
 spective novitiates, and most of the religious orders 
 
SEMINARIES 173 
 
 have, therefore, found it necessary to establish 
 preparatory seminaries. Some of the larger orders 
 have two, and several of them have three, prepara- 
 tory seminaries. 
 
 Some of the smaller colleges are practically pre- 
 paratory seminaries, as most of their students are 
 candidates for the priesthood. However, when 
 such institutions are listed as regular colleges, they 
 are not included in the preceding table, which 
 shows the number of seminaries and preparatory 
 seminaries, both diocesan and religious, together 
 with the number of their professors and students, 
 in the United States in the year 191 5. 
 
 Government and Discipline 
 
 Religious seminaries are governed according to 
 the discipline and spirit of their respective orders; 
 professors and students, being members of the same 
 religious family, are thrown together a great deal, 
 outside of what might be called their professional 
 relations. Much the same family spirit prevails 
 in the diocesan seminaries. The importance of 
 this feature of seminary life, for the formation of 
 priestly and religious character, needs no emphasis. 
 In the seminary, as in the college, the professors 
 share in the government of the institution, as re- 
 gards classes and instruction. The discipline is 
 in charge of the rector and his assistants. 
 
174 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 The specific aim of seminary discipline is the 
 thorough spiritual formation of the candidate for 
 the priesthood, and to this end, besides the recep- 
 tion of the Sacraments, there are appropriate 
 ascetical exercises for the seminarian — daily med- 
 itation and prayer, daily spiritual reading or in- 
 struction, spiritual direction, special devotions, the 
 practice of silence at certain times, and other 
 acts of mortification and virtue. It is unneces- 
 sary to enlarge upon the work of the seminary 
 along these fines, for it is substantially the same 
 in all well-regulated institutions, and is grounded 
 upon the laws and traditions of the Church. 1 
 
 Length of the Curriculum 
 
 The entrance requirements for admission to 
 seminaries in the United States were prescribed 
 by the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, and 
 involve the completion of the work of the pre- 
 paratory seminary. This, as has been noted, covers 
 four years of high school work and the two lower 
 years of the college. Unfortunately, it is often 
 found difficult to adhere to this standard in prac- 
 tice, especially in the case of those who begin their 
 
 1 Cf. Rev. P. Dissez, S.S., On the Formation in Seminaries 
 of Candidates to the Holy Priesthood; and Rev. W. F. Likly, 
 CM., Aim and Method of Spirtinal Training in the Seminary 
 {Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., 1906). 
 
SEMINARIES 175 
 
 preparatory studies rather late in life, and yet 
 afford evidence of a true vocation to the priesthood. 
 Such vocations are not infrequent. 1 
 
 The length of the curriculum of the diocesan 
 seminary was definitely fixed by the Third Plenary 
 Council of Baltimore: "In all seminaries the 
 course of study shall embrace not fewer than six 
 years, two of which shall be devoted to the study 
 of philosophy and four to that of theology." 2 
 In the recent legislation enacted at Rome for 
 seminaries of religious orders throughout the 
 world, practically the same length of time was 
 prescribed. Thus, in the decree " Auctis Ad- 
 modum" Nov. 4, 1893, it was declared that the 
 study of theology should occupy four full years, 
 after the completion of the regular curriculum of 
 " other studies." These " other studies " were 
 denned by the Congregation for Religious in the 
 " Declarationes circa Articulum Sextum Decreti 
 ' Auctis Admodum? " dated Sept. 7, 1909: 
 
 The theological student does not fulfill the legal require- 
 ments if he has not previously gone through a full course 
 of philosophical studies or studies of the lyceum; the same 
 
 1 Cf. Very Rev. E. R. Dyer, S.S., The Intellectual Require- 
 ments for Entrance into the Seminary, in Ann. Rep. Cath. 
 Ed. Assn., VI, p. 449 seq.; also, Secretary's Report on same 
 in ib. p. 447. 
 
 2 Cone. Plen. Bait., Ill, n. 166. 
 
176 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 is true of the philosophical student, if he has not completed 
 the regular curriculum of humanities or studies of the 
 gymnasium; nor will the student of humanities be qualified 
 legally if he has not had a primary education. Therefore, 
 in order to pass legitimately from the primary schools to 
 the gymnasium, from the gymnasium to the Lyceum, and 
 from the lyceum to the theological seminary, certificates 
 are required which testify to successful tests or examina- 
 tions. 1 
 
 In testimonial letters for the ordination of 
 religious, superiors are bound to testify to the 
 completion of the studies of the theological semi- 
 nary, and the years of study covered by this cer- 
 tificate must be full academic years. Doubling up 
 or shortening of courses is forbidden, and vacation 
 study is not to count. 
 
 Several questions suggest themselves in regard 
 to the meaning and scope of this legislation. First 
 of all, how would the academic standards that are 
 enjoined be formulated in terms of our American 
 educational system? The " gymnasium " and 
 the " lyceum " do not exist among us. We may 
 know something of the German gymnasium and the 
 French lycee, but Americans are, with few excep- 
 tions, unfamiliar with the Italian system of edu- 
 cation. At the end of this Chapter, there will be 
 found a diagram, showing in detail the relations 
 between the American and the Italian educational 
 1 Cf. Amer. Eccl. Rev., Vol. 41, 729 seq. 
 
SEMINARIES 177 
 
 systems. It will suffice, for our present purpose, 
 to outline briefly these relations. 
 
 Let it be supposed that an Italian boy and an 
 American boy commence primary school work at 
 the beginning of their seventh year. After five 
 years of study, or at the beginning of his twelfth 
 year, the Italian boy passes into the gymnasium, 
 where he takes up the study of Latin. Only three 
 years later, or at the age of fifteen, does the Amer- 
 ican boy enter the high school and take up Latin. 
 The latter is thus three years behind the former, 
 in beginning Latin and other secondary studies. 
 This is the most striking feature of the differences 
 between the two systems, so far as we are now 
 concerned. After spending five years in the gym- 
 nasium, the Italian boy begins the three-year 
 course of the lyceum or of the philosophical depart- 
 ment of the seminary. The graduate of the 
 lyceum, if he is to be a priest, is then expected to 
 devote a year to " propedeutics," or special prep- 
 ation for theology. He would thus finish the 
 four years' course of theology at the end of his 
 twenty-fourth year. The American seminarian, 
 after passing through high school and college, is 
 generally obliged, if he goes to a diocesan seminary, 
 to spend a year in the philosophical department 
 of the seminary in preparing for theology, which he 
 would, therefore, finish only at the end of his 
 
178 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 twenty-seventh year. If he were to attend a 
 preparatory seminary instead of a college, he 
 would save this extra year of preparation for 
 theology. It may be noted that the obligation of 
 military service usually postpones ordination in 
 Italy for a year. 
 
 The Italian boy studies Latin during the five 
 years of the gymnasium and the three years that 
 follow in the lyceum, making eight years of Latin 
 in all; the American boy studies Latin during 
 seven or eight years — four in the high school and 
 three or four in the college, but, in the aggregate, 
 he has not as many class hours in Latin as the 
 former has. On the other hand, the American 
 student devotes more time to Greek than does the 
 Italian. In Italy, Greek is begun in the fourth 
 year of the gymnasium, and is continued through 
 the lyceum and the year of " propedeutics " (if 
 the latter is taken). This makes five or six years 
 of Greek in all. The American student usually 
 begins Greek in the first or second year of the high 
 school, and continues it until towards the end of the 
 college course, thus giving from six to eight years 
 to this study. As for philosophy, it is begun by 
 the Italian student in the first year of the lyceum, 
 at the age of seventeen, and continued for three or 
 four years, while in the American college philos- 
 ophy is usually taken during the three upper years 
 
SEMINARIES 179 
 
 of the college course. In Italian state Lyceums, 
 only two hours a week are allotted to philosophy; 
 but students who are to go to a seminary are 
 expected to have two or three hours a week more 
 in philosophy during their lyceum course; and 
 besides this, five hours a week are to be devoted 
 to philosophy during the year of " propedeutics." 
 On the whole, much more time is given to the 
 study of philosophy in Italy than here. 1 
 
 Suppose, now, that a candidate for a religious 
 order in this country is considerably above the 
 ordinary age when he begins secondary studies — 
 and this, as has been said, is very often the case; 
 may the curriculum in high school or college be 
 lawfully abbreviated in his behalf? This ques- 
 tion does not appear to be definitely decided by 
 the " Declarationes." As quoted above, the Decree 
 evidently implies that the entire pre-theological 
 course of studies in other countries — including 
 elementary branches, humanities and philosophy 
 — will be practically equivalent to the entire 
 pre-theological course in Italy. But this does 
 not necessarily mean that the one must cover 
 exactly the same length of time as the other. As 
 a matter of fact, this period is three years longer 
 here than it is in Italy, because we give three 
 years more to the elementary branches. 
 1 See diagram at the end of Chapter. 
 
180 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 Again, many of our preparatory seminaries 
 devote but six years to the classics, after which the 
 student passes to the philosophical department of 
 the seminary, where there is no formal study of 
 either Latin or Greek. Is this in accordance with 
 the requirements of the new lav/? or, is it requisite 
 that Latin be studied for eight years, as in Italy? 
 The " Declarationes " does not explicitly prescribe 
 eight years' study of Latin, nor does such an 
 obligation appear to be necessarily implied. The 
 Decree clearly requires that the candidate for the 
 priesthood complete the entire regular curriculum. 
 But in this country we have two regular classical 
 curricula, so far as Latin is concerned. The 
 classical curriculum of the preparatory seminaries 
 requires but six years of Latin, while that of the 
 colleges requires seven or eight years of Latin. 
 There is good reason for maintaining that, as 
 regards Latin at least, the six years' curriculum 
 is fully equivalent to the eight years' curriculum, 
 because of the special attention given to the study 
 of this language during the shorter period. 
 
 There are two changes that might be made in 
 our educational system, in order to smooth the 
 way that leads to the seminary. The first would 
 be, to increase the amount of time devoted to 
 Latin during the earlier years of its study, with a 
 corresponding diminution of the time given to it 
 
SEMINARIES 181 
 
 later on. The Italian boy, even in the govern- 
 ment schools, gives seven class hours a week to 
 Latin during the first three years of the gym- 
 nasium, and only three hours a week to it in the 
 lyceum. This arrangement would allow more 
 time in our colleges for the all-important study of 
 philosophy. The change could easily be made by 
 giving an extra Latin class, during the earlier 
 preparatory years, to boys who expect to enter the 
 seminary. 
 
 Another helpful change would be, the introduc- 
 tion of Latin into the seventh or even the sixth 
 grade of the parish schools. Distinguished non- 
 Catholic educators have long been urging the 
 advisability of pupils beginning the study of the 
 languages at an early age, and in many public 
 schools they are now taught in the seventh and 
 eighth grades. It would be easy to introduce a 
 class of Latin into the seventh grade of every large 
 parish school, for there are always pupils in such 
 a school who would be willing to study Latin. 
 In this way, the time now required for the com- 
 pletion of high school and college work might be 
 cut down by two full years. 1 
 
 1 For a discussion of the curriculum in American sem- 
 inaries as compared with that in Italian seminaries, cf. 
 the paper by Rev. H. J. Heuser, in Ann. Report Cath. Ed. 
 Assn., X, p. 455. 
 
182 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 New Studies 
 
 There is a tendency, in the larger and more 
 progressive seminaries, to shift certain studies 
 back to the two years of philosophy, whenever this 
 can be done without prejudice to the theological 
 curriculum. For instance, a preliminary outline 
 study of Sacred Scripture is now made in some 
 institutions before theology is begun, with the 
 view of rendering the course of Scripture in the 
 department of theology more advanced and thor- 
 ough. The same is true of Church history, as 
 well as Hebrew and Biblical Greek. In some 
 seminaries, the study of English is continued in 
 the department of philosophy. 1 
 
 This policy prevents the theological curriculum 
 from becoming overcrowded, and, at the same time, 
 makes room in it for new studies that may be 
 needed in the seminary. Among these may be 
 mentioned pedagogy, and social and political 
 science. It is clear that every priest who stands 
 
 1 Cf. Very Rev. P. R. Heffron, The Four Years' Course in 
 Theology, in Ann. Report Cath. Ed. Assn. for 1906, p. 211 seq.; 
 also, Rev. F. P. Siegfried, The Department of Philosophy in 
 the Seminary, in ibid., X, p. 481 seq.; Very Rev. E. R. Dyer, 
 S.S., The Intellectual Requirements for Entrance into the 
 Seminary, in ib., VI, p. 449; and papers by Rev. J. C. 
 Herrick and Rev. G. V. Leahy, on Science in the Seminary, 
 ib., VI, p. 455 seq. 
 
SEMINARIES 183 
 
 at the head of a parish school ought to know some- 
 thing of the science and the art of teaching. 1 It is 
 equally clear that the pastor who labors in the 
 city needs to have some knowledge of social and 
 political science — a knowledge " which will be 
 sufficiently extensive to make him acquainted with 
 the vital facts of current social and economic con- 
 ditions, tendencies and doctrines; which will be 
 sufficiently stimulating to give him a lasting inter- 
 est in these phenomena; and which will be suf- 
 ficiently thorough to enable him to deal intelli- 
 gently, justly, and charitably with the practical 
 situations that he will be compelled to face." 2 
 In the larger seminaries, it would not be difficult 
 to arrange for a course of weekly lectures on ped- 
 agogy, as well as a course of lectures on social and 
 political science, by competent professional men 
 from outside. In several seminaries, something 
 has already been done in this way. Such lectures, 
 if followed up, in the class of moral or pastoral 
 theology, by a further study and application of 
 
 1 Cf. Rev. E. P. Duffy, The Teaching of Pedagogy in the 
 Seminary, in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., II, p. 238; also 
 papers by Very Rev. E. A. Pace, Rev. F. J. Von Antwerp 
 and Rev. F. V. Corcoran, CM., on The Seminary and the 
 Educational Problem, in ibid., VIII, p. 470 seq.; Cf. also 
 Resolutions of Seminary Dept. in ib., p. 468. 
 
 2 Rev. John A. Ryan, The Study of Social Problems in the 
 Seminary, in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., V., p. 450. 
 
184 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 the principles set forth, should add scarcely any- 
 thing to the burden of regular seminary work, 
 while they would be of direct value for the future 
 work of the priest, and would probably lead to 
 much fuller knowledge of these subjects later on. 
 
 In every diocese there should be at least one 
 priest who can write Latin fluently and correctly, 
 if not elegantly. There is necessary correspond- 
 ence between the diocesan chanceries and Rome; 
 and much of this, being of an official character, has 
 to be in the official language of the Church. The 
 courses of Latin in our colleges and preparatory 
 seminaries do not afford this facility in Latin 
 writing, even in the case of the more clever stu- 
 dents; hence the need for some supplementary 
 training in Latin during the years of philosophy or 
 theology. It has been suggested that this need 
 could best be met by having a special class in the 
 seminary for a year or two — to be attended by 
 select students — for advanced study of Latin 
 style and for practice in Latin composition. 
 
 Seminary and College 
 
 A very important question has arisen with regard 
 to the relations of the seminary and the college. 
 It might be thought that their work would be so 
 coordinated that the college student who desires 
 to be a priest would be able to pass into the sem- 
 
SEMINARIES 185 
 
 inary after getting the degree of A. B., and begin 
 the study of theology at once. This is not, how- 
 ever, the case. The college graduate, after study- 
 ing philosophy for two years or two years and a 
 half in the college, is obliged to spend at least one 
 year more in the philosophical department of the 
 seminary, before being admitted to theology. 
 A year is thus lost by the candidate for the sacred 
 ministry who makes his collegiate studies in a 
 regular college, rather than in a preparatory sem- 
 inary and the philosophical department of a major 
 seminary. This condition constitutes a serious 
 disadvantage to the college, all the more so because 
 many believe that the four-year college course itself 
 is too long, and unduly retards the entrance of the 
 young man upon his professional career, whether it 
 be that of lawyer, physician or clergyman. 
 
 The effect of this condition will be, to keep many 
 prospective clerical students from attending the 
 college, and to cause others to leave it after the 
 Sophomore Year and enter the philosophical 
 department of the seminary. But would this be a 
 bad thing? Might it not be better, for both college 
 and seminary, if this were generally done? College 
 men do not think so. They are anxious to enroll 
 as many candidates for the seminary as possible, 
 not only because such young men make excellent 
 students, but also because their influence and 
 
186 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 example tend to elevate the moral and religious 
 life of the entire student body. The diversion of 
 such students to other institutions would, there- 
 fore, involve a serious loss to the colleges. More- 
 over, there are some young men who remain more 
 or less in doubt about their vocation until towards 
 the end of the college course; and there are some 
 who do not appear to be able to make up their 
 minds definitely about the matter until after they 
 have graduated and left the college. It is likely 
 that the colleges will always contain a certain 
 number of future seminarians, whatever may be 
 the requirements of the seminary. 
 
 On the other hand, there are strong reasons for 
 the attitude that has been assumed by the semina- 
 ries. The college courses in philosophy, being in- 
 tended mainly for students who are to be laymen, 
 are not usually as comprehensive and thorough as 
 the courses in philosophy in the seminary. Further- 
 more, there are certain pre- theological studies given 
 in the seminary which the college student misses 
 entirely, notably, Scripture and Church history. 
 Finally, there is the spiritual training necessary 
 for the seminarian, and for this, it is maintained, 
 the four years of theological studies are not suf- 
 ficient. Many seminary authorities hold that, 
 even apart from the question of studies, the neces- 
 sity of this thorough spiritual training would alone 
 
SEMINARIES 187 
 
 constitute sufficient reason for requiring college 
 graduates to spend at least one year more in the 
 seminary, before they begin the study of theology. 1 
 In the executive and advisory boards of the 
 Catholic Educational Association, this lack of 
 coordination between the work of the seminary 
 and the work of the college has been frequently 
 discussed. A representative committee, which had 
 been appointed to consider the problem, met dur- 
 ing the annual convention of the Association at 
 St. Paul, in the summer of 1915, but was unable 
 to agree upon any plan that would eliminate the 
 difficulties involved. After the discussions of this 
 joint committee, the Seminary Department unan- 
 imously adopted a resolution to the effect that 
 college graduates should not be admitted to first- 
 year theology without their making at least one 
 year more of philosophy in the seminary, even 
 though they had already made two years of phil- 
 
 1 Cf. the discussion of this question at the meeting of the 
 Cath. Ed. Assn. at St. Paul in 191 5, in Ann. Rep. C. E. A., 
 including papers by Rev. J. P. O'Mahoney, C.S.V. and 
 Rt. Rev. Mgr. J. B. Peterson, on Relations between Cath. 
 Seminaries and Cath. Colleges, from the respective stand- 
 points of the college and the seminary; also, papers by Rev. 
 Bernard Feeney, Where Clerics are to Study Philosophy, 
 and Rev. F. V. Corcoran, CM., The Need of a peculiarly 
 Ecclesiastical Intellectual Training covering a Longer Period 
 than the Course of Theology in the Seminary. 
 
188 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 osophy in the college. 1 From this it is evident 
 that further progress in the settlement of the 
 question will depend upon the colleges. The 
 position of the seminaries is fixed, and their con- 
 tention appears to be, in substance at least, en- 
 tirely reasonable. To meet their legitimate de- 
 mands, the colleges must provide special courses in 
 philosophy and certain other studies, and a special 
 system of discipline and spiritual training, for 
 those students who are looking forward to the 
 priesthood. 
 
 It is unnecessary to consider in detail how these 
 changes might best be made; but they are evi- 
 dently not impossible. Why, for instance, should 
 not young men who have a vocation to the priest- 
 hood be placed together in a separate hall, under 
 seminary rules? This is done at some European 
 universities. Why should not the college or uni- 
 versity offer for their special benefit — without 
 excluding other students — courses in scholastic 
 philosophy and Hebrew, and outline courses in 
 Church history and Scripture? These courses 
 would strengthen the college curricula. The 
 courses in scholastic philosophy, if given in Latin, 
 would render it unnecessary for these students to 
 
 1 Cf. Summary of joint discussion, and Resolutions of 
 Seminary Dept., at St. Paul, in Ann. Rep. Cath. Ed. Assn., 
 i9i5> P- 5^ seq. 
 
SEMINARIES 189 
 
 continue the Latin classics, and they would thereby 
 gain more time for philosophy. With such pro- 
 visions for the special care of prospective clerical 
 students, the colleges could probably arrange to 
 have them admitted at once, after graduation, 
 into the theological department of the seminaries. 
 And such provisions would be very likely to attract 
 prospective clerics in larger number to the colleges. 
 
 Equipment and Support 
 
 The improvement of buildings and equipment, 
 which has been so important a feature of the 
 progress of Catholic education during the past 
 two decades, has been especially marked in the 
 case of the seminaries. The new Kenrick Semi- 
 nary at St. Louis, and the archdiocesan seminaries 
 of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, St. Paul and 
 San Francisco are worthy of particular mention in 
 this connection, as are also the new religious estab- 
 lishments that are so impressively grouped about 
 the Catholic University at Washington. In many 
 other instances, where there has not been a com- 
 plete reconstruction of the seminary plant, notable 
 changes have been effected, including the erection 
 of new buildings or the extension of old ones, 
 improved sanitary and cuisine arrangements, and 
 additions to the library and its equipment. Sim- 
 ilar reconstructions or improvements have been 
 
190 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 made at the preparatory seminaries. The con- 
 veniences and comparative comforts enjoyed by 
 the seminarian to-day, contrasted with his con- 
 dition a generation or two ago, when there was an 
 almost complete absence of anything ministering 
 to comfort, have raised a question, especially in 
 the minds of some of the older clergy, as to whether 
 the tendency towards material improvement is not 
 being carried too far. Their fear is that the newly 
 ordained priest, coming out from these fine modern 
 establishments, may not have had sufficient oppor- 
 tunity for the practice of self-sacrifice and morti- 
 fication, so essential to true priestly life and work. 
 There is, undoubtedly, a real danger here; but, 
 on the whole, it is plain that the improvement of 
 the seminaries on the material side represents 
 genuine — one might add, necessary — progress, and 
 that the danger apprehended may be effectively 
 met by means that are always readily at hand. 
 
 With the exception of St. Paul Seminary, which 
 was endowed by Mr. and Mrs. James J. Hill, the 
 seminaries are dependent upon the diocesan col- 
 lections for their support. Here and there burses 
 have been established, and special funds secured; 
 but, in general, the expenses are defrayed from the 
 yearly offerings of the faithful. Students from 
 other dioceses who attend a diocesan seminary are 
 supported by their respective bishops. The charge 
 
SEMINARIES 
 
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192 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 for such seminarians varies somewhat throughout 
 the country, but is usually about $200 per annum. 
 It need scarcely be said that this is barely sufficient 
 to cover the actual cost of the student's main- 
 tenance. In some seminaries it is not sufficient, 
 and the balance has to be gotten from other sources. 
 Religious seminaries are, of course, supported by 
 the respective religious orders. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Annual Reports of the Superintendent of Parish Schools of the 
 Diocese of Albany. 1913-1916. 
 
 Annual Reports of the Superintendent of Parish Schools of the 
 Diocese of Newark. 1910-1916. 
 
 Annual Reports of the Superintendent of Parish Schools of the 
 Archdiocese of Philadelphia. 1895-1916. 
 
 Burns, Rev. James A., Ph.D. The Principles, Origin, and 
 Establishment of the Catholic School System in the United 
 States. New York: Benziger Bros., 1908, pp. 416. 
 
 Burns, Rev. James A., Ph.D. The Growth and Develop- 
 ment of the Catholic School System in the United States. 
 New York: Benziger Bros., 191 2, pp. 421. 
 
 Catholic Citizens and Public Education. New York: Cath- 
 olic Book Exchange, 1902, pp. 32. 
 
 Catholic Directory. Annual. New York: P. J. Kenedy & 
 Sons. 
 
 Catholic Educational Association, Annual Reports of. 1904- 
 1916. 
 
 Catholic Educational Association, Quarterly Bulletins of . 
 1904-1916. 
 
 Coler, Bird S. Socialism in the Schools. New York: 
 The Eastern Press, 191 1, pp. 22. 
 
 Coler, Bird S. The Residuary Sect. New York: The 
 Eastern Press, 191 1, pp. 19. 
 
 Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. G, Annual 
 Reports. 
 
 193 
 
194 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Howard. Rev. Francis W., D.D. The Catholic Position in 
 Education, pp. 12. 
 
 An address delivered before the Protestant Ministers 
 of Columbus, O., Feb. 7, 1910. 
 
 Pace, Very Rev. Edward A., Ph.D. The Influence of 
 Religious Education on the Motives of Conduct. Re- 
 printed from Proceedings of the N. E. A., 1903, pp. 
 346-350. 
 
 Pace, Very Rev. Edward A., Ph.D. Modern Psychology 
 and Catholic Education. Reprinted from Cath. World, 
 Sept., 1905, in Educational Briefs, Phila., 1905, pp. 22. 
 
 Shields, Rev. Thomas Edward, Ph.D. The Education of 
 Our Girls. New York: Benziger Bros., 1907, pp. 299. 
 
 Shields, Rev. Thomas Edward, Ph.D. Philosophy of 
 Education. Washington: The Catholic Education 
 Press, 191 7, pp. 446. 
 
 Stuart, Janet Erskine. The Education of Catholic Girls. 
 New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1911, pp. 243. 
 
 Tierney, Rev. Richard H., S. J. Teacher and Teach- 
 ing. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 191 5, pp. 178. 
 
 Year Book of the Superintendent of Catholic Schools, Arch- 
 diocese of St. Louis. 1911, 1912. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Academic standards in Catholic education, 7, 8. 
 
 Administrative work in college, 166, 167. 
 
 Age of high school pupil, 105. 
 
 American and Italian schools compared, 1 77-181, 191 
 
 Ascetical exercises in seminaries, 1 74. 
 
 Assessments for maintenance of high schools, 100. 
 
 Athletics in Catholic colleges, 152. 
 
 Austerity in college life, 149, 150. 
 
 Belgians, Catholic education for, 1. 
 Benedictine colleges, 147. 
 Bible reading in public schools, 15, 16. 
 Biblical Greek, study of, 182. 
 Bibliography, 193-194. 
 Bishops, influence of the, 62, 63. 
 Bohemians, Catholic education for, 1. 
 Boys, high schools for, 58, 88, 89. 
 
 classification of high school, 108, 109. 
 
 teaching Brothers for, 88, 89. 
 Business, women in, 119. 
 
 Cahill, Thomas E., 58. 
 
 Carnegie Foundation, report of, 102. 
 
 Cathedral colleges, 170, 171. 
 
 Catholic College Conference, 58, 130. 
 
 Catholic education, academic standards in, 7, 8. 
 
 for foreigners, 1. 
 
 qualifications of, 6-12. 
 
 195 
 
196 INDEX 
 
 Catholic education, religious influence in, 6, 21-29, 3&-39> 45 _ 47> 
 155-166, 174. 
 
 statistics of, 2-6, 127, 130, 131, 172, 191. 
 
 teaching standards in, 10-12, 43, 44, 68-75. 
 
 unity in, 60-65. 
 Catholic Educational Association, admittance of college women 
 
 to, 133- 
 
 college investigation of, 126, 139, 187. 
 
 high school reforms of, 52, 124. 
 
 school time reforms of, 79, 80, 107, 108. 
 
 work of, 59, 60, 61. 
 Catholic educational problems, discussion of, 59. 
 Catholic ethics, simplicity of, 27, 28. 
 Catholic Girls' High School, 113, 114- 
 Catholic professors, service of, 142, 143, 162-164. 
 Catholic pupils in non-Catholic institutions, 3, 4, 75, 91, 92, 
 
 112, 114, 130-132. 
 Catholic textbooks, 38. 
 Catholic University, growth of, 136. 
 
 maintenance of, 142, 143, 146. 
 
 scholarships to, 134. 
 
 seminaries of, 189. 
 
 summer school at, 11, 12. 
 Cavanaugh, Rev. John W., C.S.C., 47 (note). 
 Central high schools, 58, 93, 94, 96. 
 
 cost of, 99-101. 
 Changes in Catholic college life, 149-155- 
 Character formation in Catholic schools, 43 - 47« 
 Christian Brothers' colleges, 147. 
 
 schools of, 1 01. 
 Christian symbols in school, 42, 43. 
 Christian teaching in schools, 18, 19, 21-25, 28, 29. 
 Church history study in seminaries, 182. 
 Classes, size of, 73, 74- 
 Classical college courses, 117, 171. 
 Classification of colleges, 141. 
 
INDEX 197 
 
 Classification of boys' schools, 108, 109. 
 
 of girls' schools, 115. 
 
 of seminaries, 169, 170. 
 College relations with seminary, 184-189. 
 College scholarships, 93, 134, 146. 
 Colleges, classification of, 141. 
 
 curriculum in, 138-141. 
 
 discipline in, 149-155. 
 
 dormitories for, 150-152. 
 
 endowments for, 142-144, 146. 
 
 enrollment in, 3, 5, 123, 124, 126-132. 
 
 entrance requirements for, 89, 90, 139, 140. 
 
 for women, 119, 120, 123, 124, 132, 133. 
 
 intellectual growth in, 166-168. 
 
 moral training in, 154, 155. 
 
 organization of, 48-50. 
 
 preparation of pupils for, 49, 51, 52, 89-93, 123, 124, 136-138. 
 
 religious influence in, 43-47, 155-161. 
 
 religious orders in, 43, 48, 49, 142, 147. 
 
 seminary courses in, 188, 189. 
 
 statistics of, 3, 127, 130, 131. 
 
 teaching standards in, 43, 147, 162-168. 
 
 total abstinence in, 160, 161. 
 
 vocations in, 158-160. 
 Community inspector of schools, 67. 
 Community training courses, 11, 70-73. 
 Commercial study for girls, 115, 121. 
 Compulsory education laws, 85. 
 Correlation of studies, 34, 35, 78. 
 Cost of Catholic colleges, 142-147. 
 
 of high schools, 97-101. 
 
 of parish schools, 12. 
 
 of professional schools, 135. 
 Council of Trent, decrees of, 169, 171. 
 Creeds, teaching of, 15. 
 Creighton University, endowment of, 146. 
 
198 INDEX 
 
 Crucifix in school, 42, 43, 45. 
 Cultural studies for girls, 11 5-1 17. 
 Curriculum, content of, 76-78. 
 
 correlation of studies in, 32-41, 78. 
 
 in boys' schools, 101-104. 
 
 in girls' schools, 115-117, 121-125. 
 
 length of, 78-80, 104-110. 
 
 of preparatory seminary, 171. 
 
 of seminary, 174-184. 
 
 reformation of, 104-110. 
 
 religious teaching in, 36, 37. 
 
 standardization of college, 138-141. 
 
 time problem in, 78-87. 
 
 Diocesan high schools, 58. 
 Diocesan school board, 67, 69, 70, 71. 
 Diocesan school system, 57, 66-68. 
 Diocesan seminaries, 170. 
 Discipline in colleges, 140-155. 
 
 in seminaries, 173, 174. 
 Domestic science in high schools, 121, 122. 
 Dormitories for colleges, 150-152. 
 Dwenger, Bishop Joseph, 57. 
 Dyer, Rev. E. R., S.S., 175 (note), 182 (note). 
 
 Elective courses, 138, 139, 145. 
 
 Elementary schools, relation of high schools to, 48-54, 93-97. 
 
 statistics of, 2. 
 Endowments of Catholic institutions, 141-144, 146, 190. 
 Engineering students in college, 127, 128. 
 English in high schools, 104. 
 
 in seminaries, 182. 
 Enrollment in colleges, 3, 5, 127-133. 
 
 in elementary schools, 2, 3, 83, 84. 
 
 in secondary schools, 2, 3, 4, in. 
 Enrollment statistics, 2-6, 83, 84, in, 127, 130, 131, 132. 
 
INDEX 199 
 
 Entrance requirements for colleges, 89, 90, 139, 140. 
 
 for seminaries, 174-176, 185-189. 
 Equipment in Catholic schools, 7. 
 
 of seminaries, 180-192. 
 Ethical system, simplicity of Catholic, 27, 28. 
 Examination of teachers, 69, 70, 71. 
 
 Federal Bureau of Education, report of, 107. 
 
 Foreigners, Catholic education for, 1. 
 
 Formal studies, 76, 77. 
 
 Fourth Provincial Council of Cincinnati, 57. 
 
 Free high schools, 113, 114. 
 
 French, Catholic education for, 1. 
 
 Future life, instruction as to, 22, 23. 
 
 Germans, Catholic education for, 1. 
 Girls, diocesan schools for, 58. 
 
 high schools for, 111-115. 
 
 life work of, preparation for, 120, 124, 125. 
 Government of seminaries, 173. 
 Greek in high schools, 90, 104. 
 
 in seminaries, 178. 
 Greeks, Catholic education for, 1. 
 
 Habits, formation of, 17. 
 
 Hebrew, study of, in seminaries, 182. 
 
 Herbart, 35, 37. 
 
 High schools, assessments for, 100. 
 
 cost of, 97-101. 
 
 curriculum in, 101-104, 115-117, 120-125. 
 
 preparation for college in, 49, 51, 52, 89-93, 123, 124. 
 
 relations of, with parish schools, 51-54, 93-97. 
 
 religious orders in, 48, 52, 58, 88, 89, 94, 95, 115. 
 
 specialization in, 1 21-125. 
 
 statistics of, 2, 3, 5. 
 
 teachers in, 52, 58, 88, 89, 115. 
 
200 INDEX 
 
 High Schools, time problem in, 1 04-110. 
 
 Hill, James J., 190. 
 
 History in high schools, 104. 
 
 Holy Cross College, gift to, 63. 
 
 Howard, Rev. Francis W., 81 (note). 
 
 Hughes, Bishop, 15, 16. 
 
 Hungarians, Catholic education for, 1. 
 
 Indians, Catholic education for, 1. 
 
 Intellectual growth of teachers, 166-168. 
 
 Ireland, Archbishop, 18. 
 
 Italian and American schools compared, 177-181, 191. 
 
 Italians, Catholic education for, 1. 
 
 James, William, 34. 
 
 Jesuit colleges, 147. 
 
 Jesuit seminary, 1 70. 
 
 Junior colleges, 137, 138, 141. 
 
 Junior and senior high schools, 106, 107, 109, no. 
 
 Kenrick seminary, 189. 
 
 Knights of Columbus scholarships, 134. 
 
 Languages in high schools, 104. 
 
 in parish schools, 181. 
 Latin composition, study of, 184. 
 Latin in high schools, 89, 90, 104. 
 
 in parish schools, 181. 
 
 in seminaries, 177, 178, 180, 181. 
 Law schools, 135. 
 
 Lecture courses for Catholic educators, 61, 183. 
 Life work, preparation of girls for, 120, 124, 125. 
 Lithuanians, Catholic edication for, 1. 
 Luxury in college life> 152, 153. 
 
 McDevitt, Rt. Rev. Philip R., 14 (note), 58 (note), 68 (note) 
 80, 87 (note), 97 (note). 
 
INDEX 201 
 
 Maintenance of colleges, 142-147. 
 
 of high schools, 97-101, 113. 
 
 of parish schools, 12-14, 56. 
 
 of professional schools, 135. 
 
 of seminaries, 189-192 
 Manual training schools, 101. 
 Marquette University, endowment of, 146. 
 Mathematics in high schools, 104. 
 Medical schools, 135. 
 Milwaukee Convention, 59. 
 Missionary societies in colleges, 159, 160. 
 Missionary vocations in college, 158, 159. 
 Montessori, Maria, theory of, 31. 
 Moral training in colleges, 154, 155. 
 
 in Catholic schools, 17, 21-28. 
 
 in public schools, 16-19, 28, 29. 
 Morality and religion, unity of, 24, 25, 27-29. 
 
 Neumann, Bishop John Nepomucene, 57. 
 
 Non-Catholic colleges, Catholic enrollment in, 91, 92, 130-132. 
 
 Normal training for Catholic schools, n, 12, 69-73, I2 9- 
 
 Notre Dame, University, dormitory for, 150, 151. 
 
 Nuns as teachers, 58, 88, 89. 
 
 Overcrowding in parish schools, 73, 74. 
 
 Pace, Rev. Edward A., 40 (note), 183 (note). 
 Parish assessments for high schools, 100. 
 Parish high schools, 97, 98. 
 Parish schools, curriculum in, 75-83. 
 
 establishment of, 48. 
 
 Latin in, 181. 
 
 maintenance of, 12-14, 56. 
 
 overcrowding in, 73, 74. 
 
 relation of, to college, 60, 61. 
 to high schools, 48-54, 93~97- 
 
202 INDEX 
 
 Parish schools, religious orders in, 10-12, 74, 75. 
 
 teachers in, 68-75. 
 Pastor, influence of the, 60-62, 67. 
 Paternalism in public schools, 31, 32. 
 Pedagogy, study of, 61, 182, 183. 
 
 Philosophy, study of, in seminaries, 178, 179, 181, 185-189. 
 Pius X., Pope, decrees of, 169. 
 Poles, Catholic education for, 1. 
 Political science, study of, 182, 183. 
 Post-graduate courses in colleges, 134. 
 Prefect of religion in college, 157, 158. 
 Preparatory seminaries, 170-173. 
 Preparatory students in college, 127, 136, 137. 
 Priesthood, vocations to, 159, 172. 
 Pritchett, Dr. Henry S., 102. 
 Private rooms in Catholic colleges, 150-152. 
 Professional courses in colleges, 128, 135. 
 Professional students in college, 127. 
 Professions, women in the, 119. 
 Professors in Catholic colleges, 142, 143. 
 Propagation of the Faith, Society of, 159, 160. 
 Propedeutics, study of, 177, 178, 179. 
 Protestant influence in public schools, 15, 16. 
 Protestant religious instruction, 10-20. 
 Public high schools, curriculum of, 102, 103. 
 Public schools, Catholic pupils in, 3, 4, 75, 112, 114. 
 
 moral training in, 16-19, 28, 29. 
 
 religious instruction in, 15, 16, 29. 
 
 teaching standards in, 9, 10. 
 Pupils, influence of the, 44, 45. 
 
 Reading list, 193, 194. 
 
 Religion and morality, unity of, 24, 25, 27-29. 
 
 Religious communities in Catholic education, 1, 11, 58, 62, 7°-73> 
 
 88, 142, 169, 170. 
 Religious community in high schools, 94, 95. 
 
INDEX 203 
 
 Religious influence in Catholic education, 6, 21, 22, 36-38, 45-47, 
 
 155-161, 174. 
 Religious instruction in public schools, 15, 29. 
 
 omission of, from studies, 40, 41. 
 Religious orders in colleges, 43, 49, 142, 147. 
 
 in seminaries, 172, 173, 192. 
 Religious seminaries, 1 70. 
 
 spirit in, 173, 174. 
 
 St. Mary's Seminary, 170. 
 
 St. Paul's Seminary, 190. 
 
 Sage Foundation, investigation by, 83. 
 
 Salaries of college professors, 145, 146. 
 
 of high school teachers, 98, 99. 
 Scholarship in college life, 167, 168. 
 Scholarships in Catholic colleges, 93, 134, 146. 
 School attendance, problem of, 83-87. 
 Schumacher, Rev. Matthew A., C.S.C., 141 (note). 
 Science in high schools, 104. 
 Scriptural studies in seminaries, 182. 
 Secondary schools, see High Schools. 
 Sectional high schools, 96. 
 Secular seminaries, 1 70. 
 Seminaries, classification of, 169, 170. 
 
 curriculum in, length of, 175-181. 
 
 equipment of, 189-192. 
 
 government and discipline of, 173, 174. 
 
 maintenance of, 189-192. 
 
 new studies in, 182-184. 
 
 relation of, to colleges, 184-189. 
 
 statistics of, 172. 
 Seminary rules in colleges, 188, 189. 
 Senior high schools, 1 06-1 10. 
 Sex instruction, 25, 26, 31. 
 Shahan, Rt. Rev. Thomas J., 24. 
 Shields, Rev. Thomas E., 34 (note), 38 (note). 
 
204 INDEX 
 
 Six and six high school plan, 106. 
 
 Slovak Sisterhood, i. 
 
 Slovaks, Catholic education for, i. 
 
 Social science, study of, 182, 183. 
 
 Sorin Hall, 150, 151. 
 
 Spaniards, Catholic education for, 1. 
 
 Specialization in girls' education, 121-125. 
 
 Statistics of Catholic institutions, 2-6, 127, 130, 131, 172, 191. 
 
 Studies, correlation of, 32, 3$, 78. 
 
 in high schools, 101-104, 120-125. 
 
 in parish schools, 75-78. 
 
 in seminaries, 174-189. 
 Sulpicians' seminary, 170. 
 
 Summer courses for Catholic teachers, 11, 12, 129. 
 Sunday schools, 20, 21, 39. 
 
 Teachers, duties of college, 166, 167. 
 
 examination of, 70, 71. 
 
 influence of, 42-44, 147, 148, 162-165, 167, 168. 
 
 in colleges, 43, 147, 162-168. 
 
 in high schools, 88, 89, 115. 
 
 in parish schools, 68-75. 
 
 intellectual growth of, 166-168. 
 
 preparation of, 11, 69-72, 129, 162, 163. 
 
 salaries of high school, 98, 99. 
 
 statistics of, 2. 
 
 university training for, ir, 12, 129, 165, 166. 
 
 women as, 8, 9, 88, 89, 118. 
 Teaching Brothers for boys, 89. 
 Teaching communities, 1, n, 58, 62, 70-73, 88. 
 Teaching staff, 104. 
 Teaching standards in Catholic schools, 10-12, 43, 44, 68, 69. 
 
 in college, 43, 147, 162—168. 
 
 in public schools, 9, 10. 
 Theology in colleges, 135. 
 
 in seminaries, 177. 
 
INDEX 205 
 
 Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 56, 57, 66, 69, 70, 71, 174, 
 
 175- 
 Time problem in Catholic schools, 78-87. 
 
 in seminary curriculum, 1 76-181. 
 Total abstinence in colleges, 160, 161. 
 Trinity College, 132, 136. 
 Tuition fees in college, 144. 
 
 in girls' high schools, 113. 
 
 Unity in Catholic education, 60-65. 
 
 of morality and religion, 24, 25, 27-29. 
 University, development of, 133-135. 
 
 maintenance of, 142-147. 
 
 teaching in, 147, 148. 
 University training for teachers, n, 12, 129, 165, 166. 
 
 Vocations in college, 158. 
 in seminaries, 172. 
 to teaching communities, 62, 75, 89. 
 
 Waldron, Brother John, 68 (note), 70 (note), 79 (note), 82 (note). 
 Women as teachers, 8, 9, 88, 89, 118. 
 
 colleges for, 119, 120, 123, 124, 132, 133. 
 
 in the commercial world, 119. 
 
 in the professions, 119. 
 World's Sunday School Convention, 21. 
 
 Xaverian Brothers' School, 101. 
 
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