Looking back at Catholic education twenty years ago

Catholic New Times, May 9, 2004 by John Borst

For many veteran Canadian Catholic educators, June 12th 1984, stands out in their memory with some of the same power as that accompanying such historic events as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 or Paul Henderson's historic winning goal in game eight of the first Canada-Russia summit hockey series in 1971.

Just as September 11, 2001 has become unforgettable for today's generation, there are events for which we recall where we were and when we heard.

June 12th, 1984, was the day Ontario's Premier William G. Davis, announced in the Ontario legislature, the extension of funding for Grades 11, 12 and 13 for Catholic high schools.

Now twenty years later, I still recall, being stopped in the hall on the second floor of old St. Stanislaw's School in Thunder Bay, then operating as the Board Office for the Lakehead District Catholic School Board, and being told the news.

This spring marks the 20th anniversary of that announcement and the year 2005 marks the anniversary of the public financing of what has become known as the "completion" of Catholic education in Ontario.

This is a good time to consider if "completion" is in fact, a reality in the province. It is likely that the vast majority believe the answer is yes. Yet in some very important ways the answer is 'No.'

Even though the 2003 edition of Catholic Schools Across Canada: Into the New Millennium, describes the existence of 29 English-language boards responsible for a "full range of educational opportunities," two, Northwest Catholic and Superior North Catholic, do not yet offer a full Catholic education to the end of Grade 12. Communities such as Sioux Lookout, Dryden and Fort Frances, in the Northwest and Marathon, Manitouwadge, Schreiber/Terrace Bay, Nipigon/Red Rock and Geraldton/ Longlac north of Lake Superior still only have JK-8 separate schools.

Catholic celebrations of "completion" during 2004-2005 should include a commitment on the part of the entire Catholic community of Ontario to find ways to extend Catholic education to all teenaged Catholic youth and not just those in large urban communities. After all, public high-schools of 100-200 pupils do exist in the province.

Although our large urban boards have developed extensive adult education programs ,they are to date little more than carbon copies of their secular public counterparts. If completion is to have a truly Catholic character, Catholics boards must provide adult programs in catechesis, theology, papal encyclicals, church history and biblical studies, to name but a few areas. Preferably, such programs should be offered in the parishes of a Board rather than the schools. In this way the parish, school and home triad can become more than rhetoric and apply to all Catholic adults.

Finally, we will not be a truly completed system until we have accepted the challenge of educating our own teachers and future educational leaders. At present, our pre-service teachers receive only one course in preparation to teach in our Catholic schools and there is no opportunity to receive a Master's or Doctor's degree in Catholic education. To have a truly complete system, we must develop an intellectual and research tradition equivalent to that Of our public school counterparts.

Until these areas are addressed, the promise of 1984 is incomplete and any celebration is premature.

John Borst is a Catholic school trustee in Dryden, Ont.