Lay teachers changing face of Catholic education

Oakland Tribune, Aug 30, 2007 by Rachelle Gines

BURLINGAME

SISTER AMELITA ADAO starts every morning with a prayer in her religion class at St. Catherine of Siena School.

The nun, who belongs to the Order of Sacro Costato Missionary Sisters, cares for her students deeply.

"Love is very important," Adao said. "If children feel that teachers love them, they will repay that love, and there is a real relationship between the teacher and the student."

Adao considers herself very strict when it comes to respect and manners in the classroom, a trait often associated with Catholic school education.

But times have changed, and only about 4 to 5 percent of teachers in Catholic classrooms belong toreligious orders, according to Brian Gray, spokesman for the National Catholic Education Association in Washington, D.C.

San Mateo County's Catholic schools are no exception. A survey of faculty rosters on the county's 27 Catholic elementary and high school Web sites shows that only about 30 teachers belong to religious orders.

But Catholic school administrators insist the dominance of lay teachers has not changed the dedication and mission of their schools.

"Lay teachers have not diluted the quality of Catholic education," said Gail Jackson, associate alumni director of Notre Dame High School in Belmont. "The hallmarks and guiding principles of Catholic schools have not changed; they remain the same for all staff, whose purpose is to uphold the school's mission, no matter who is teaching."

Sister Pat Hunt, a pastoral associate at Our Lady of Angels Parish in Burlingame, said there are cost impacts as a result of the decline of sisters and brothers teaching in the classroom.

Catholic schools, which do not receive government aid, now have to pay competitive salaries to lay teachers. Sisters and brothers, on the other hand, are usually paid only small amounts of money for self-maintenance.

Jackson said in spite of tuition issues -- and arguments that parents should send their children to public schools because most Catholic schools are staffed by lay teachers anyway -- she chose to enroll her son at Sacred Heart Preparatory High School in Atherton in 1996.

"We were paying for being in a classroom with similarly motivated students and extremely qualified teachers, where strong ethics are imparted, and religion is not shoved down your throat," Jackson said.

Though Catholic schools have continued to make great strides despite the lack of brothers or sisters, Sister Antonella Manca, principal of St. Catherine of Siena, said there is something intangible and spiritual about their presence in the classroom that even qualified lay teachers cannot provide to students.

"The presence of sisters helps bring spirituality to the classroom," Manca said. "It's not just two plus two is four and oxygen is made up of this and this. It's sad that there aren't as many religious persons in the classroom, because we have to think of the continuation or the presence in our schools 10, 20 or 30 years from now."

Role of sisters

Second-grade teacher Sister Corinna Catalano at St. Catherine's said that sisters focus on things that other teachers might not.

"Even when I write a note to parents about their child, I say, 'Jesus, how do I do this?'" said Catalano, while looking up toward the ceiling.

As far as discipline, kindergarten teacher Sister Alessandra Lentino said she is not a mean person. Teachers just want to minimize distractions in class and maximize learning time, especially given the tuition parents pay to send their children to Catholic schools.

"Sisters have to be strict sometimes. I tell the kids, your parents sacrificed themselves to send you here, so why do we have to waste time?" Lentino said.

Today, nuns also approach discipline differently. There is no yardstick, and hands do not get bruised.

Adao herself said she noticed a shift among teaching sisters' disciplinary styles in Catholic classrooms from the 1970s into the mid-1980s.

"They were strict in everything," she said. "And then I noticed there was this kind of shift towards relaxing a little bit."

Catalano believes the decline of nuns in the classroom is tied directly to declining family values. Children are not encouraged to pray or learn about God, and therefore are not inclined to enter religious vocations.

"The new cathedral is the gym, and the new God is sport." Catalano said, adding that materialistic values encourage children to pursue high-profile careers and promote success in only themselves.

"Children say, 'I want to be rich, to be a millionaire,'" she said. "I don't hear them say, 'I want to make a difference by opening a hospital that doesn't have to take insurance.'"

School flourishes without sisters

The last time a sister taught a class at Notre Dame in Belmont was in 1990, school officials said.

But even if none of her teachers are nuns, senior Stephanie O'Dowd said her experience at the high school has still been rewarding and enriching.

"The teachers here are really passionate," said O'Dowd, who plans to study nursing. "Connecting with them has really helped me to grow up."