The Educational Crisis in the United States

Abstract

Dr. Donald A. Doyle, who was a charter member of the SCSS, first President of the SCSS New York Metropolitan Chapter, and former school administrator and political science professor, wrote this personal assessment about current American education in light of the teaching of the Church before his death in 2005. The CSSR proudly presents it here as his last published writing. The Church is first and foremost a teacher. Consequently her views on education have been important and influential throughout history. Indeed, the Magisterium or official teaching authority of the Church has anticipated the educational crisis that is widespread in America today. The Church has always defined education as the multifaceted development of individuals, spiritually, morally, aesthetically, physically, psychologically and intellectually. The Church distinguishes between the affective and the cognitive domain in education. In addition, she recognizes that there are many agencies of education in society such as the Church herself, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, sports programs, organizations, social groups, after school clubs and the family. Contemporary secular thinking is at variance with this view. Dr. Robert Hutchins, the famed President of the University of Chicago, referred to the educationist notion that the school should teach the whole child as the most meaningless, anti-intellectual concept in educational discussion. The view that the school is the primary educational agency in society is one major reason why the public schools over the last several decades have expanded their responsibilities into so many nonacademic areas. The Church looks on the school as one of many agencies in society, but one that must always be a complement to and never in opposition to the primary educational agency, i.e., the family—with parents having the final say in the role of their education of their children. This brings us to the role of the state in the educational activity. The modern educator would clearly give primary responsibility for the education of youth to the state, whereas the Church maintains that the parents have this fundamental natural right. From the Catholic position, the state’s task is to protect and defend this natural right or, as the Declaration on Christian Education from the Second Vatican