What is Catholic Schools Week?

Since 1974, Catholic Schools Week is the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. It starts the last Sunday in January and runs all week, which in 2018 is January 27 - February 2.  Schools typically observe the annual celebration week with Masses, open houses and other activities for students, families, parishioners and community members. Through these events, schools focus on the value Catholic education provides to young people and its contributions to our church, our communities and our nation. 

 

Why Consider a Catholic Education?

Catholic Education helps kids learn more internally about themselves and how they feel about God and religion. This helps them move past those questions and identity crises to focus on other issues.  It contributes enormously to the development of the young person’s literacy across a wide range of texts and resources and of challenges to the human psyche. The ability to express the big questions in words, story, art, song, ritual and prayer, for example, has an impact at a whole series of levels on the developing knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes of the young.

 

A Catholic Education contributes significantly to the education of the whole person. At the primary level, a Catholic Education provides a place in the younger child’s day to reflect on belonging and being cherished within a community of faith.  Inclusive of a curriculum that helps build on the foundations of knowledge, a Catholic Education also focuses on the experience of growing into the faith community and respect for others.  For teenagers, it creates a safe space to test one’s own identity, and reflect with others in a respectful manner on the search for meaning and values. 

 

Please consider visiting School of St. Mary during Catholic Schools Week.  Click on their logo below for a schedule of Open Houses during Catholic Schools Week.

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