Kit at By The Brook is up in arms over a mandatory English assignment given her daughter at her "quasi-Catholic" high school:
Write a letter to President-Elect Obama congratulating him on his inauguration. It must be positive, and not exceed 250 words.
The letter is to be emailed to both the teacher and the local newspaper.
While I can think of a couple of positive things I might write given such an assignment, there is no way my overall tone would be anything but negative.
That is also Kit's problem - and her daughter's.
Kit concludes her take on the situation with
I cannot comprehend the goose-stepping mentality the Obamaniacs have...and the fact that said mentality has infiltrated a Catholic High School where I'm paying (a lot) for viral immorality to be downloaded into my child's head, well, it sickens me.
Kit filed this post under DOR Atrocities, where it joins well over a dozen others. They're all here and all worth a read.
5 comments:
Thanks for the heads up about this. As a principal (of a Christian school) I find the assignment offensive and if it happened at my school I'd have a meeting with the teacher and get some things changed.
I don't know what school it was. If it was a Catholic High School, they are not run by the diocese, by the way. They are run independently by the orders.
Lee,
It is a Catholic high school, or "quasi-Catholic" as Kit describes it.
And, while all the Catholic high schools in DOR are operated independently of the diocese, our bishop still has some responsibilities regarding them under Canon Law:
Can. 803 ß1 A catholic school is understood to be one which is under the control of the competent ecclesiastical authority or of a public ecclesiastical juridical person, or one which in a written document is acknowledged as catholic by the ecclesiastical authority.
ß2 Formation and education in a catholic school must be based on the principles of catholic doctrine, and the teachers must be outstanding in true doctrine and uprightness of life.
ß3 No school, even if it is in fact catholic, may bear the title 'catholic school' except by the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority.
Can. 804 ß1 The formation and education in the catholic religion provided in any school, and through various means of social communication is subject to the authority of the Church. It is for the Episcopal Conference to issue general norms concerning this field of activity and for the diocesan Bishop to regulate and watch over it.
ß2 The local Ordinary is to be careful that those who are appointed as teachers of religion in schools, even non-Catholic ones, are outstanding in true doctrine, in the witness of their Christian life, and in their teaching ability.
Can. 805 In his own diocese, the local Ordinary has the right to appoint or to approve teachers of religion and, if religious or moral considerations require it, the right to remove them or to demand that they be removed.
Can. 806 ß1 The diocesan Bishop has the right to watch over and inspect the catholic schools situated in his territory, even those established or directed by members of religious institutes. He has also the right to issue directives concerning the general regulation of catholic schools these directives apply also to schools conducted by members of a religious institute, although they retain their autonomy in the internal management of their schools.
ß2 Those who are in charge of catholic schools are to ensure, under the supervision of the local Ordinary, that the formation given in them is, in its academic standards, at least as outstanding as that in other schools in the area.
Wait a minute, Mike. As ridiculous as the assignment is, and as much as I am in fundamental disagreement with our Bishop on SO MANY issues, you can't blame him (Bishop Clark) for one misguided teacher. Hopefully, the principal will also see the problem and take steps to rectify the situation. Let's see how it plays out.
I think that the Obamaniacs are so giddy right now that they think everyone feels the same way as them. Give them a few months into this economic crisis, and they may feel differently.
HCMom
HCMom,
I don't see where I'm blaming the bishop - at least not this time.
I took Lee's comment as an assertion that the diocese has no control over the situation since it doesn't run this or any other high school.
I used the term "bishop," I believe, because relevant Canon Law mentions "bishop," "local ordinary" and "competent ecclesiastical authority" (all pretty much synonymous terms) much more often than it does "diocese" and I had just finished reading those sections when I responded to Lee.
My point - though now I see it was poorly expressed - was the any organization using the term "Catholic school" to identify itself is, to the extent described in the canons, under the control of the bishop.
Finally, I feel Kit was right in filing her post under DOR Atrocities. While we cannot lay this one directly at the feet of anyone at Buffalo Rd., it still happened in a diocese where far too many people think social programs trump opposition to abortion and where the bishop allows that confusion to thrive.
Yep. Where do Catholic schools get off requiring this sort of thing?
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