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Designed to Fail: Catholic Education in America
Catholic education in America seems to have degenerated over the last few decades into a morass of modern humanism and secularism. How did we get to this point?This book provides the answers. By tying the relevant Magisterial documents into American history, we see how Catholic education began in America, why it suddenly changed in the late 1800s, and how those changes essentially guaranteed the failures we see in the 21st century.
244 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published October 4, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 18, 2008
Very good book that taught me quite a bit. Will purchase this book and reread making sure I take notes.
Great insight into just how our education (religious or otherwise) came into being. For 1500 years children were educated by adults in their family. As book printing became more prevalent in the 1500's, literacy skyrocketed where nearly 100% of children had learned how to read. Martin Luther became prominent and with the rewrite of the bible, began to push for compulsory education, thus taking education out of the parents hands and into the classroom. Later Prussia in the early 1800's helped usher in what we see today as our education system. This system was bolstered and aided by the other reformers in the protestant church which worked in lock-step with the King of Prussia to build people who could be taught how to act and do the things (manual labor) that needed to be done in some kind of great society.
Kellmeyer's basic thesis is that Catholic education is based on this compulsory form of structured education which then stifles the learning capacity of children to accept Catholic teachings. One comment he makes in regard to Protestantism is that since it is built on word only (sola scriptura), there is no discussion of the meaning of the bible. What is said is said. This correlates with the dumbing down of the children in the compulsory school system so that children cannot and will not be taught to learn anything but what is in a book. Thus, the child in a Catholic school which is based on this compulsory form of education is already at a disadvantage from learning the Catholic faith, where for 1500 years, the faith was taught not with books but by stories, tradition, etc.
It's a good read and worth rereading again. For those that are cafeteria style Catholics though, Kellmeyer doesn't mince words and thus these people can be put off by some of what he says.
Great insight into just how our education (religious or otherwise) came into being. For 1500 years children were educated by adults in their family. As book printing became more prevalent in the 1500's, literacy skyrocketed where nearly 100% of children had learned how to read. Martin Luther became prominent and with the rewrite of the bible, began to push for compulsory education, thus taking education out of the parents hands and into the classroom. Later Prussia in the early 1800's helped usher in what we see today as our education system. This system was bolstered and aided by the other reformers in the protestant church which worked in lock-step with the King of Prussia to build people who could be taught how to act and do the things (manual labor) that needed to be done in some kind of great society.
Kellmeyer's basic thesis is that Catholic education is based on this compulsory form of structured education which then stifles the learning capacity of children to accept Catholic teachings. One comment he makes in regard to Protestantism is that since it is built on word only (sola scriptura), there is no discussion of the meaning of the bible. What is said is said. This correlates with the dumbing down of the children in the compulsory school system so that children cannot and will not be taught to learn anything but what is in a book. Thus, the child in a Catholic school which is based on this compulsory form of education is already at a disadvantage from learning the Catholic faith, where for 1500 years, the faith was taught not with books but by stories, tradition, etc.
It's a good read and worth rereading again. For those that are cafeteria style Catholics though, Kellmeyer doesn't mince words and thus these people can be put off by some of what he says.
January 27, 2014
A must, must, must read for every Catholic pastor, DRE, teacher, and parent. Not a pretty picture for Catholic education in America, but if we don't accurately analyze our problems we won't move toward a solution.
I've started over on page one; going to read this one again immediately, which I've never done before with any book.
I've started over on page one; going to read this one again immediately, which I've never done before with any book.
October 20, 2018
It has been a while since I read this. It is interesting to read the other reviews because it brings back elements of the book which I had forgotten. I was encouraged in my conviction to home school when I read Designed to Fail. In retrospect, what made the deepest impression on my was the idea that religious, especially Jesuits, who ran schools were in some ways not doing parents a favor. The parents relinquished their role as primary educators, especially in the role of faith and morals, and the Jesuits encouraged this. In the process, parents stopped sharing the faith and became uncomfortable with fulfilling one of their primary responsibilities as parents. Instead, they saw their role as doing everything they could to earn enough so that they could send their children to Catholic schools so that the school would take care of all of that. This very much describes the position my own mother took. Thankfully, she relied heavily on prayer as well so all was not lost, but so many things she assumed we would learn in Catholic schools were never taught. When she noticed huge lapses, she felt completely inadequate in providing the missing information and guidance, and we thought she didn't know what she was talking about. What a mixed up world! This book points to this issue and other problems. I highly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews