History of Catholic education in the United States

The History of Catholic Education in the United States extends from the early colonial era in Louisiana and Maryland to the parochial school system set up in most parishes in the 19th century, to hundreds of colleges, all down to the present.

Specifically, they brought literacy and training in job skills to both free and enslaved black girls, especially through St. Mary's Academy (founded during the Civil War and still operating).

[3] Catholic universities were also founded during this era, and grew exponentially alongside parochial schools in the late 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries.

The universities remained strong even after the parochial schools went into decline during the national religious upheaval of the 70s and 80s, and many continue to this day.

Knowledge of the subject matter was a minor concern, and in the late 19th century few of the teachers in parochial schools had gone beyond the 8th grade themselves.

By 1920, the number of elementary schools had reached 6,551, enrolling 1.8 million pupils taught by 42,000 teachers, the great majority of whom were nuns.

[13] In the mid-19th century standard textbooks used in the public schools had a distinctive Protestant tone, with occasional attacks on the Catholic Church in Europe.

Professor Eugene F. Provenzo argues that by the 1890s Catholic educators had selected and adapted non-religious textbook content such that parochial students learned mainstream American political and cultural values without compromising their religious beliefs.

Beyond the textbook matter parochial schools copied the new pedagogical techniques being introduced by the mainstream educational system.

In Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), the United States Supreme Court declared the Oregon's Compulsory Education Act unconstitutional in a ruling that has been called "the Magna Carta of the parochial school system.

"[16] Pierce is also an example of "Substantive due process," a legal principle condemned by Justice Clarence Thomas in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

The Irish and other Catholic ethnic groups looked to parochial schools not only to protect their religion, but to enhance their culture and language.

[18][19] Polish Americans arrived in large numbers, 1890–1914, concentrating in industrial and mining districts in the Northeast and Great Lakes areas.

Many schools closed, others replaced the nuns with much better paid lay teachers and started charging higher tuition.

[25] Catholic parochial schools continue to operate, though with fewer students than in previous eras and with predominantly lay faculty.

With minimal access to government funds, and a shortage of rich Catholic philanthropists, the financing of parochial schools was a major problem.

"[30] The Statement was repudiated by Pope John Paul II in 1990 in Ex corde Ecclesiae, the apostolic constitution for Catholic universities.

Nevertheless the Vatican and the bishops were powerless to reverse the change in legal status that made a school independent of the Church.

He brought the school up to national standards by adopting the elective system and starting the abandonment of the traditional scholastic and classical emphasis.

St. Mary's University is now a nationally recognized liberal arts institution with a diverse student population of nearly 4,000 of all faiths and backgrounds.

[41] In 1882 Bishop John Lancaster Spalding went to Rome to obtain Pope Leo XIII's support for the University and persuaded family friend Mary Gwendoline Caldwell to pledge $300,000 to establish it.

On March 7, 1889, the Pope issued the encyclical "Magni Nobis", granting the university its charter and establishing its mission as the instruction of Catholicism and human nature together at the graduate level.

They sought to develop an institution like a national university that would promote the Faith in a context of religious freedom, spiritual pluralism, and intellectual rigor.

[42] When the University first opened for classes in the fall of 1888, the curriculum consisted of lectures in mental and moral philosophy, English literature, the Sacred Scriptures, and the various branches of theology.