Abstract
This study describes the experiences of a group of individuals who attended a southern California Catholic boys’ high school, and the men who taught them. The goal of this study was to relate a narrative that explained how an education, steeped in the Christian Brothers’ mission provided a quality education for the poor, and shaped the lives, perspectives, and values of the graduates. The narrative, reported through a social perspective inspired by Catholic Social Teaching (CST), the philosophical writings of Jacques Maritain and Alisdair MacIntyre, showed how the graduates received a quality education from the Brothers, and absorbed a strong sense of Catholic virtue, including a commitment toward social justice, an understanding of role of building and sustaining community, and an appreciation for giving back to society. Cathedral High, a small Catholic high school in Los Angeles, is an embodiment of MacIntyre’s belief that small communities, dedicated to upholding moral virtue and civility offer the possibility of reforming a society currently mired in individualistic and materialistic pursuits. A further implication is that Catholic schools, with their well-documented record for providing effective education for the poor, should remain an educational option for inner-city families.
Highlights
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ce Part of the Other Education Commons, and the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons
The narrative, reported through a social perspective inspired by Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and the philosophical writings of Jacques Maritain and Alasdair MacIntyre, showed how the graduates received a quality education from the Brothers and absorbed a strong sense of Catholic virtue, including a commitment toward social justice, an understanding of role of building and sustaining community, and an appreciation for giving back to society
Journal of Catholic Education / Fall 2019 is incumbent upon Catholic school officials to reach out to Hispanic families, otherwise their relatively low participation in Catholic education places the future of the “ generation of American Catholics in peril” (2016a, p. 7)
Summary
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ce Part of the Other Education Commons, and the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons. This study describes the experiences of a group of individuals who attended a southern California Catholic boys’ high school, and the men who taught them. As of 2015, Hispanics comprised 34% of the country’s Catholics, up from 29% in 2007 (Pew Research Center, 2015). I begin to address Aldana’s concern by investigating the relationship of a single Catholic school within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and its Hispanic community. The series of events I report here is emblematic of the longstanding tension between Hispanics and the Church, and places emphasis on the struggle for preserving and maintaining a Catholic high school in a large urban area serving primarily working class Hispanic students. The guiding questions I pursued to construct this narrative were: (a) Why should Catholic schools serving working-class Hispanic communities remain open? The guiding questions I pursued to construct this narrative were: (a) Why should Catholic schools serving working-class Hispanic communities remain open? (b) What role do Catholic schools play in the moral and ethical development of the men who attended them?
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