Catholic Schooling
January 26, 2025
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever ~
Beginning this Sunday, January 26, the Church will observe Catholic Schools Week. This weekend and the weekend of February 2, we’ll have representatives in the narthex after Mass from Regina Caeli Academy, and Columbia River Catholic Preschool & Kindergarten to talk to any prospective parents or grandparents about a couple of local options for Catholic schooling. In a couple weeks’ time, we might have representatives from other local Catholic schools in the narthex too.
I take an “all of the above” approach when it comes to supporting parents in their educational choices for their children. Parents enroll their children in public, Catholic, hybrid, or homeschools for different reasons. Those reasons are too myriad to justify supporting one or two to the detriment of others. This parish family and I try to help parents to raise their children in the practice of the Catholic faith regardless of where or how they attend school. With that said, there is clear empirical evidence that good Catholic schools produce a much higher probability of producing good practicing Catholic adults than non-Catholic schooling.
Consider Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” It is human nature to become part of what we are around. Children who spend time with thieves usually become one. Children who spend time with athletes aspire to become one. Children who spend time with virtuous people are likely to aspire to a virtuous life too. Children who attend school with non-Catholic children from 8am-3pm Monday through Friday take on non-Catholic values. Children who attend school with other Catholic children and teachers, teaching and living the Catholic faith, are much more likely to be a practicing Catholic as an adult. Education is indoctrination.
We need to be honest and clear eyed about the public school system in Washington and what it means for our kids. There is: 1) Mandated LGBTQ indoctrination from kindergarten on up, where kids are encouraged by their teachers and especially their peers to question their sexual orientation and even gender; 2) A public school system where profanity and sex-laced language and conversations are happening without censor; 3) A place where most kids have smart phones without filters and share pornography with other kids at lunch, on the playground, or on the school bus; 4) A public school system that is militantly agnostic and has nothing to say about God or even the virtues. Question: what good does an education do for anyone when the beholder is of poor character i.e., lazy, dishonest, greedy, a quitter, accusatory, impure, et-cetera? Without personal virtue, knowledge is wasted or used for evil ends. If this is the state of our public schools, why do the majority of Catholic kids not attend a Catholic school?
For a majority of Catholic parents, the automatic disqualifier is cost, choosing a “free” public school over a Catholic school where they may have to pay something, even if it is something they can manage. That’s so sad. Children are our greatest investment. Failing to invest in them is a failure to invest in their future on earth and in eternity too. It’s a failure for the parent’s future too, including eternity. A decision of this magnitude demands that parents set aside the time to research their options. Fortunately, there is help and a lot of it.
I’m speaking now to Catholic parents or grandparents, whose kids or grandkids are in public school. We can help you afford a Catholic education for your kids (or grandkids) if money is truly the reason they are not there already. Between tuition that is specific to your income and expenses, your children’s grandparent’s income, parish subsidies and benefactors, between all this – no child will be turned away from a Catholic education through the 8th grade because of money. It is my hope that in time, the Archdiocese of Seattle will be able to address affordability of Catholic high schooling too. In the meantime, if there is a will there is a way.
Because it is still misunderstood by many, a word about Catholic homeschooling. We support it. Some people still think homeschooling is unhealthy, but the statistics bear out the success of children, now adults, who were homeschooled. Homeschooling, Catholic or not, was growing steadily before Covid. Since then, it has taken off. Whether you are open to trying homeschooling alone or with others in a consortium like Regina Caeli Academy, we support you. Homeschooling isn’t for everyone, as more factors have to be present for it to succeed (both parents on board, single income household so one parent can teach, a parent who can actually teach, children who will respond to their parent as a teacher), yet for those for whom it can succeed, I encourage you to look into it. It might be the most consequential decision of your children’s lives.
As I stated in my opening sentence, this weekend and next, there will be representatives in the narthex after Mass to speak to you about two of your options, Regina Caeli Academy and Columbia River Catholic preschool and Kindergarten. Grandparents, you can stop by these tables to see how you might be able to help get your grandchildren in a Catholic school.
Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) Academy is a Catholic hybrid where children meet in a school building on Mondays and Thursdays where they pray, are taught, take tests, submit homework, give presentations, and make friends. On the other days of the week, they do their homework at home with a parent’s tutelage. This is a combination of traditional brick and mortar schooling and homeschooling. It is an excellent school with over 80 kids from preschool through high school. There is tuition assistance for children of Columbia River Catholic. They meet twice a week in Washougal, next year hopefully in Camas. The principal and vice principal are parishioners of Holy Redeemer Parish. They’d love to hear from you. Here’s the principal’s contact information: Linda Anderson at landerson.por@rcahybrid.org or 971-238-9249. Here’s their website https://www.rcahybrid.org/portland-oregon.
Columbia River Catholic Preschool and Kindergarten, meets at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish campus in Camas. While we hope to grow it in the future into a parish school through the 8th grade, we are not permitted to at this time. We don’t know if or when we will be able to add first grade and above, as that needs the permission of the Archbishop of Seattle, who is not giving it at this time. For the time being though, it is an excellent option for Catholic Preschool and Kindergarten. Here’s the website and phone number https://www.stthomascamas.org/st-thomas-preschool or 360-360-2787. Here's the website to our nearest brick and mortar parish school at St. Joseph Parish www.stjoevanschool.org, and our local brick and mortar Catholic High School – Seton – www.setonhigh.org. There are many local options.
I opened this pastor’s column with a passage from the book of Proverbs. I will close with a passage from the book of Deuteronomy 6:4-7: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
In Christ, I Love You,
Father Thomas Nathe
