http://catholicstand.com/confessions-of-a-wanna-be-orthodox-catholic-high-school-teacher/
Yes, it is true, and this New York Article proves it as well. Since we aren't able to bring in grown through enrollments of actual Americans, we are now enrolling people from foreign nations. China is one of them, but then there's also enrollments from other nations like South Korea. Now, I don't mind other people coming from other countries to learn about our faith, and be enlightened by it. However, there is something that needs to be addressed.
Now what does this mean? My fellow Catholic School students, it is important to note that the some of the people coming over are not here to be enlightened by our Catholic faith, but are here for academics. According to an article that is entitled, "Confessions of a Wanna-Be Orthodox Catholic High School Teacher", the author (who refers to himself as 'Francis') states that Catholic Education is a gateway to American Universities. The reason why this is so is because in Chinese universities, there are placement tests that need to be done once and only once. There are no second chances. Since the American Catholic School System is the greatest school system in America from the viewpoint of the Chinese, it would seem that getting into an American university would be far more easier, as opposed to applying for a university in their own nation.
The author of the latter article agrees that this could be a potential attempt at evangelization, an idea that I idea would agree 100% on. However, he asserts that the teaching standards of the religion classes within our schools are 'lukewarm', and believes that it won't be effective enough in evangelizing these foreign students. Of course, he also mentioned that there was no serious attempt at evangelization either. As a Catholic High School student who is in the 11th grade, I can't be for sure if his case applies to all of the Catholic High Schools in the United States. To be honest, I don't people making a point through constructive criticism, but I really do mind people not doing anything to address these problems.
Indeed, Catholic Education in America is at a crossroads. Now that the National Catholic Educational Association has reported that for first time in what would appear to be in years, we have now achieved a total population of less than 2,000,000 students from pre K, all the way to 12th grade seniors. Common Core, Charter Schools, high tuition, low enrollments, faithless teachers, ordained clergymen being accused of committing vile acts, a lack of methods and tactics on bringing the word out, a lack of innovation, and hardly any action to stop all this, you could say that Catholic Education is besieged by problems, and on the way to literal, physical extinction. But you know, we have not achieved midnight yet; there is still time to fix all this. The question that we must be asking is, who is going fix all this?
How about we Catholic School students? It doesn't hurt to find the will to save Catholic Education, and search for a solution that will end all of these problems. The American Catholic School System can still be around when you have children and grandchildren, or it can be a distant memory from a bygone era. The answer to solve all this begins with us, my fellow Catholic School students.
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