Missionaries of the Sacred

President Obama in his first address to Congress on February 24, 2009 noted, “Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma. And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest dropout rates of any industrial nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish.” While not attempting to enter into the politics of education, it is essential to realize the  importance of  education for the human community.

From a Catholic perspective, education “on all levels seeks to draw out the potential good in all of us, to replace error with truth to move from ignorance and incompetence to knowledge and competence. Beyond knowledge, education should lead to wisdom, which is the foundation of human good and happiness.”¹ Both vocational and technological education must be integrated with the moral dimension for proper human development. When moral education plays an integral part of the whole of education, it reveals how all the arts and sciences reflect on who we are as human beings and how we need to act as human beings. For Pope John Paul II, “becoming a human being is precisely the main purpose of the whole process of education.”²

Education is a basic human right which cannot be denied to any person. Parents are the first and prime educators of children, especially in matters of faith and morals. Through word and example, parents have the responsibility and obligation to “lead their children to authentic freedom. . . and cultivate in them respect for others, a sense of justice, cordial openness, dialogue, generous service, solidarity and all other values which help people to live life as a gift.”³ It is in the family where children are to first learn the lessons of virtues related to “practical wisdom.”⁴ Additionally, parents have a right to expect our schools to provide top quality education for their children. They have a right to have a voice in their children’s educational upbringing.