REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HIGH

SCHOOLS*

At the eighth annual. meeting of the Catholic Educational Association the committee previously appointed to prepare a report upon Catholic High Schools for boys submitted the following report:

SCOPE AND METHOD OF INQUIRY

During the fall of 1910 a list of the schools which were to be the object of the committee's investigation was made out. This took much time, as the schools had to be carefully selected. Inasmuch as the primary purpose of the study was to ascertain the strength of the Catholic high school movement, in so far as this was an outgrowth of, or at least connected with, the parish schools, preparatory departments of colleges were excluded from the inquiry, as were also academies and schools for girls only. It was felt, moreover, that the subject of our Catholic academies and schools for girls was so large and important as to demand a special study by a committee specially selected and qualified for the task. The scope of the inquiry included, therefore, only those secondary schools which are for boys only, or which are for boys as well as girls, but it was not intended to include college preparatory departments.

A preliminary list of schools was made out by the Secretary with the aid of the Catholic Directory so as to include all parish schools which had six teachers or more, as experience had shown that a parish school which was

*Presented at the Chicago meeting of the Catholic Educational Association by the Chairman. The committee appointed at the Boston meeting of the Association, in 1909, consisted of Rev. James A. Burns, C. S. C., Chairman; Rev. Walter Stehle, O. S. B.; Rev. James J. Dean, O. S. A.; Bro. John S. Waldron, S. M., and Rev. Francis W. Howard, Secretary.

so large as to require six teachers was likely to have more than the eight elementary grades. The list, as made out, included 1,474 schools. To these, about January 1st a letter of inquiry was sent.

THE RESULTS

As was expected, it was found that a very large proportion of these parish schools had high-school grades and were doing high-school work, in addition to the work of the eight elementary grades. Of the 1,474 schools to which the letter was sent, 886 responded. Two hundred and ninety-five of these, or 33 per cent, have high-school grades. If this proportion were to hold for the 588 schools that did not reply, the figures would mean that one-third of all our large parish schools have high-school grades. It is certain that a very large number of schools with high-school grades did not reply to the letter of the committee. Thus, in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, the latest report of the Superintendent of Schools shows that 29 of the parish schools have high-school grades, while only 8 of these answered the inquiry. In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, 7 such schools reported to the committee, but the Superintendent's report shows the existence of 11. It may be said with certainty that there are from 100 to 200 parish schools with high-school grades from which the committee has as yet received no report. The total number of our parish schools that have high-school grades may, therefore, be safely set down as between four and five hundred.

It is evident that we are here face to face with a movement of the most profound significance for the future of Catholic education in the United States. This large number of Catholic parish high schools actually in existence— between four and five hundred, representing every section of the country and almost every diocese, is a spontaneous growth resulting from the silent maturing development of

the parish school system. It is not due to personal influence, it has not sprung from local conditions. It is simply the outcome of our general educational attitude. The parish school stands, after a hundred years of effort and sacrifice, as the necessary expression of that attitude with regard to the child. The Catholic college stands as its expression with regard to the young men. The parish high school is rising between the two as its inevitable expression in the case of the boy. It is the creation of the logic of the situation. The sons of the Irish and German immigrants of a half century ago, no longer dwell, as did their fathers, on the lowest economic levels. They can afford to give to their children at least a middle-class education, and, soundly Catholic as they are, they would prefer to obtain this education under Catholic auspices. It is in answer to this condition and this appeal that parish priests and teaching communities have been seeking to build up, grade by grade, the Catholic local high school, as the crowning and perfection, as well as the necessary complement, of the parish school. The parish priest sees better than any one else that he cannot hold the boys of the coming generation to his parish school, if he permits indiscriminately the boys of the present to get the most important part of their education from non-Catholic hands.

This is the situation, this the condition. It is surely a matter of vital concern to this Association to know that this condition exists, and to understand thoroughly the efforts which are being put forth by the organized Catholic conscience of the community to meet it. The detailed statistics of this report will, the committee feels sure, be of interest to every member of the Association. While commending these to your earnest study, however, it will be useful here to consider certain phases of this highschool movement that have a special significance, as well as to point out certain problems and difficulties that stand in its way.

COMPLETE AND INCOMPLETE HIGH SCHOOLS

The total number of boys and girls doing work above the elementary grades in these 295 high schools, is 14,062. The number of boys is 7,902. One-half of the high schools have four grades. Of the remaining half, 64 have three grades; 57 have two grades, and 27 have only one grade.

It is plain that our growing system of high schools is passing through a stage of development which is easily discernible in studying the history of the public high schools. Many cities and towns were able at once to start full-fledged four-year public high schools. In many places, however, the public high school came into being only grade by grade. In fact, a condition analagous to that which we are considering exists, even in the public high school system of today. Of the 10,213 public high schools given in the Report of the Bureau of Education for the year ending June, 1910, 3,792, or over one-third, had courses of only from one to three years. In view of the comparatively recent origin of the Catholic high-school movement, it is, therefore, highly creditable as well as significant that fully one-half of these high schools have at present a full course of four years.

TEACHERS

Not quite so creditable a showing is made in the matter of teachers. The 148 schools with four grades average a little less than four teachers to the school. But these schools engage 174 teachers for part of the time; so that if the time given by these latter to high-school work were counted in, there would probably be an average of four teachers to a school. For the 147 schools with less than four grades, having a total of 333 grades, there are only 214 teachers giving their whole time to high school work, which means an average of about two teachers to every three grades. There are also, in these 147 schools, 97

teachers who give part of their time to high-school work. Here, then, in the matter of the number of teachers, there is undoubtedly a weak spot. Yet, if comparison be made with the public schools, the weakness may not appear so great, for if the 9,375 public high schools outside the cities of 8,000 population and over are considered, the averages for this large number of schools-constituting, in fact, nine-tenths of all our public high schools-show a little less than three teachers to the school.1

Nearly all the Catholic high schools are conducted by religious. Brothers teach in 68 schools, and Sisters in 220. Without entering into the question as to whether it would not be best to have men rather than women as teachers for boys of high-school age-a question that most Catholic educators would answer in a decided affirmative- it may simply be noted that the leading sisterhoods are extensively engaging in the work of the parish high schools. Men teachers may be preferable, but men teachers cannot in most cases be had. The parish priest finds himself confronted by a practical dilemma. He cannot get Brothers, and he cannot afford to hire laymen. On the other hand, if his boys go to the public high school, most of their teachers will probably be women.2 No one can blame him for drawing the practical conclusion that, if women are competent to furnish efficient secondary instruction in the public schools, Catholic Sisters are not less competent for this work in the Catholic high schools. The sisterhoods, moreover, with their steady advance in educational efficiency, are undeniably prepared, so far as intellectual equipment is concerned, to take charge of the work of secondary schools.

While all this is true, the fact remains, nevertheless, that men teachers are, by general consent, preferable for boys

'Rep. Commissioner of Ed. for 1910, p. 1131.

"The majority of the teachers in the public high schools today are women. Cf. Rep. Commissioner of Ed., 1910, p. 1131.