Thursday, April 24, 2008

Common Sense Meets the"Experts"

While during a bit of surfing I came across an item posted by the Holy Family Catholic Community, based in Wayland, NY. It seems that they were looking for some guidance from the diocese regarding the formulation of a strategic plan for their school and so had met with three diocesan officials last October. According to the meeting notes,

The diocese representatives noted that there are three primary factors which need to be assessed regarding the health of any Catholic school: 1) how many parents are ready and willing to enroll their children in the school, 2) the educational viability of the school, 3) the financial viability of the school.

Now that just seems to be plain common sense.

One can only wonder how the Bishop's panel of "experts" could take something so simple and obvious and transform it into the Mother of All Reorganizations that we are now dealing with.

Maybe its something only another "expert" could understand.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Mike Shea said...

Dr. K.,

From the Code of Canon Law, No. 796, Section 2:

"There must be the closest cooperation between parents and the teachers to whom they entrust their children to be educated. In fulfilling their task, teachers are to collaborate closely with the parents and willingly listen to them; associations and meetings of parents are to be set up and held in high esteem." (emphasis added)

IMHO, holding parent groups "in high esteem" means, at the least, getting their input when major changes are contemplated. And it really should mean giving them a seat at the table during all deliberations.

But that would have meant including common folk - along with their common sense - and no "expert" wants to be shown up in that way.