Attending Catholic Schools Helps Keep Children Catholic As Adults
What if I told you there is a proven way to keep a child Catholic? What if I told you that by simply attending Catholic schools a child receives a solid education, is well prepared for college, and receives spiritual and human formation that provides a foundation for him or her to remain Catholic into adult life?
Sounds hard to believe, doesn’t it? But consider this. One study from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate demonstrates that children who attended Catholic schools were as much as 50% more likely to remain Catholic into their adult years than their public school Catholic peers.
Of course, there could be a number of reasons for this. But three reasons stand out in particular:
1) Part of the Day-to-Day
When a child attends a Catholic school they’re immersed in a Catholic environment day in and day out. Catholic values and ideals are a part of the very air they breathe. Not only do they have a set time for religious education, but every subject taught at a Catholic school is taught from a Catholic perspective, through a Catholic lens. Talk about total immersion.
2) Positive Peer Pressure
At a Catholic school, the majority of a child’s peers are other Catholic children. Together they mature in a Catholic environment and create social ties with one another based off of that environment. These ties, particularly when they are formed in high school, are carried into adult life and will influence the people and organizations a child chooses to associate with.
3) Take Me To Your Leader
An often-overlooked benefit of attending Catholic school is the opportunity children have to form healthy relationships with religious leaders. Teachers, youth ministers, religious brothers and sisters, and priests who minister in the schools help these children see the true joy that comes from living the Faith. These encounters have also been shown to foster religious and priestly vocations!
And it’s an additional plus if a child also attends weekly religious education classes at the local parish! This not only reinforces what they learn at school, but will further increase their likelihood of remaining practicing Catholics throughout their life.