Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/647

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SCHOOLS


585


SCHOOLS


they may be without direct connexion with the parish schools, although intended to complete and round out their work. A report made to the Cathohc Educational Association in 1908 showed the existence of 85 CathoUc colleges for boys, having pupils in collegiate as well as secondary courses. The number of students pursuing collegiate courses was 4232, the number in the secondary or high school departments was 10,137. There is a growing sentiment among Catholic college men in favour of at least a wider separation of the high school department from the college proper.

In the "CathoHc Directory" for 1910, 709 institu- tions are classed as academies for girls, with an at- tendance approximating 90,000. The larger number of these institutions have no collegiate departments, and are to be regarded as secondary schools. All the academies have, in fact, high school departments which are generally denominated the 'academic course", with the exception of Trinity College, Wash- ington; and nearly all have also elementary schools, divided into the "primary" and "preparatory" departments. Probably over one-half of the above total attendance is in these elementary departments. The greater part of the remaining half is in the academic or high school departments. Many of the larger institutions have developed collegiate depart- ments that compare favourably with those of the best-equipped colleges for boys. The number of these colleges for girls as well as the number of their collegiate students is at present growing rapidly. The curriculum in the larger institutions thus con- sists of three main divisions, the elementary depart- ment, the academic or high school department, and the collegiate department, the latter two covering each four years. The smaller institutions have, as a rule, only the elementary and high school courses, although their high school or "academic" department is sometimes made to include a year or two of col- legiate work. Besides these departments, the acad- emies generally have well-graded and thorough courses in art and music, both vocal and instrumental, leading to corresponding honours or diplomas. The ideals of culture represented by these latter features are, in fact, a distinguishing feature of the work of the Catholic academy, and constitute one of its strongest appeals for popular favour and support.

Within the past quarter of a century, many Catholic secondary schools or high schools have been developed in close connexion with the parish schools. Most often these high schools are directly attached to single parish schools. In some cases, however, they are "central" high schools, affiliated with a num- ber of inferior schools. Sometimes, too, they stand alone, although receiving their pupils from the upper grades of the parish schools. Some of those which are attached to single parish schools have only one high school grade, but most of them have from two to four grades. The number of schools with four full grades is rapidly increasing, and there is also a notable ten- dency towards the establishment of central high schools. A committee of the Catholic Educational Association reported, in the year 1911, the existence of 304 Catholic high schools for boys only or for both boys and girls, apart from the academies for girls and the preparatory departments of colleges for boys, with a total attendance of 7902 boys of high school standing and 6160 girls. About one-half of these schools have four full high school grades, and 215 of them have courses in Latin. The total number of high school teachers was 1006: 157 of the schools derive their support from tuition-fees, 164 from parish revenues, and 5 are endowed. The investiga^ tions of the committee revealed the existence of a wide-spread movement for the development of facili- ties for secondary education in connexion with the parish school system. The movement springs. from


a popular demand, and is based on the fundamental idea of CathoUc education. It is evident that the further progress of this movement is destined to have a highly important influence upon the parish schools as well as the academies and colleges. (See also Educational Association, Catholic.)

Burns, The Cath. School System in the United States (New York, 1908) ; Catholic Directory (annual issues) ; Reports of the Cath. Educational Association (annual) ; Reports of the Superin- tendents of Schools, especially of the Dioceses of Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, and Pittsburg; Amer. Eccl. Review, III, and passim; Cath. World (New York), passim; Amer. Cath. Quart. Rev., passim; Educational Briefs, published by the Rev. Supt. of Schools, Philadelphia; Amer. Cath. Quarterly Researches, passim; Shea, Hist, of the Cath. Church in the United States (Akron, Ohio, 1886-9.3); Benavidbs, Memorial to the King of Spain {1630); The Cath. Church in the United States of America: I, The Religious Communities (New York, 1908) ; Brownson, Literary, Scientific and Political Views (New York, 1893) ; Concilii plenarii Bnlti- morensis tertii, acta et decreta (Baltimore, 1886) ; Cone, provin. et plen. Baltimorensis decreta (Baltimore, 1853) ; Bouquillon, Edu- cation: To WhomDoes it Belong? (Baltimore, 1891); Holaind, The Parent First (New York, 1891); Conway, The State Last (New York, 1892) ; Maes, The Life of Rev. Charles Nerinckx (Cincin- nati, 1880); Sadlier, Elizabeth Seton (New York, 1905); The Story of Father Samuel ( Mazxuchelli) and Saint Clara (Chicago, 1904); Mannix, Memoirs of Sister Louise (Boston, 1907); Sisters OP Mercy, Rev. Mother M. Xavier Warde, The Story of Her Life (Boston, 1902) ; Abbelen, Mother Caroline Friess (St. Louis, 1893) ; Life and Life-work of Mother Theodore Guerin, by a mem- ber of the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence (New York, 1904) ; A Story of Fifty Years, from the Annals of the Cong, of the Sisters of the Holy Cross (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1905) ; Gleanings of Fifty Years — The Sisters of the Holy Nam.es in the Northwest (1909); Kruszka, Historya Polska w Ameryce (Milwaukee, 1905).

J. A. Burns.

Schools, Apostolic. — Where the Church is nor- mally organized the recruitment of the secular clergy is provided for by means of ecclesiastical seminaries. The Uttle, or junior, seminaries com- mence the work, the theological seminaries complete it. Missionary countries are dependent for a supply of clergy on foreign missionary colleges and on apostolic schools. The object of apostolic schools is to cultivate vocations for the foreign missions. Apostolic schools, as distinct from junior ecclesiastical seminaries, owe their origin to Father Alberic de Foresta, S.J. (b. 1818; d. 1876). That zealous priest found in existence many works of zeal for the spread of the Gospel — "The Apostleship of Prayer", "The Society for the Propagation of the Faith", "The Holy Childhood" — but, excellent as these associations are, Father de Foresta felt that they were doomed to be inefficient unless there could be found a supply of apostolic men to preach the Gospel and to administer the sacraments. Taught by experience in the guidance of souls, he felt convinced that many pious youths, prevented by want of means or other circumstances from entering the ranks of the secular clergy, possessed a true vocation to the ecclesiastical state. He felt a desire to cultivate such vocations, and to utilize them for the advantage of the foreign missions. He knew that the Church in her legisla- tion (Council of Trent, Sess. XXIII, cap. xviii, de Ref.) had expressed a wish that the children of the poor should be admitted to the sacred ministry, and should receive a gratuitous and exclusively ec- clesiastical education to prepare them for it. He therefore formed the design of opening a school where youths who gave promise of an ecclesiastical vocation, and who were disposed to go and labour on foreign missions, might be properly trained.

With the approval of his superiors, Father de Foresta opened the first apostolic school at Avignon in 1865. The conditions of admission were of two kinds: those which regarded the pupils and those which regarded their parents. As regards the former the conditions were: (a) that the pupil should be at least twelve years of age; (b) possess a sufficient ele- mentary education; (c) have good health; (d) present a certificate of good conduct and piety from his parish priest; (e) have a sincere desire to serve God either, as a priest in a missionary country, or as a