Why Catholic and Christian schools need students with disabilities more than ever.

Religiously-affiliated schools are suffering from a silent crisis which many are unwilling to tackle or even acknowledge publically. The work that these schools provide is fundamental to the tapestry of the education provided in the U.S. For generations, religiously affiliated schools have educated millions of students and as of the 2013-2014 school year, saw 8.9% of all students in the US being educated in religiously-affiliated schools (4.8 million).[8]

The Primary Purpose of Religiously-Affiliated Education

The fundamental and primary purpose of religiously-affiliated schools is the passing on of the religious and faith-based values connected to with the school. All other academic and social developments of the students flow first from that of the values. Many Catholic/Christian schools will be very clear in saying that faith formation is not only limited to theology, religious studies or such classes. There is an explicit declaration that all other academic subjects are infused with the spirit of the school's denominational faith.

Students who don't hold the faith

There is an increasing number of Christian/Catholic schools that are including more and more students who do not adhere to the school's faith tradition. This acceptance has even been included in their philosophies and marketing materials. Terms like: "We are open to schools of all faiths" and "We welcome all faiths" are examples of this trend. There is, of course, an understanding that the students who do not share the faith would attend religious service with their counterparts, and take part in the religious education classes like any other student. An example is Blessed Sacrament School, a Catholic school in Burlington, NC mentions this clearly on their website "Families from other faith backgrounds are a welcome?part of our school community." [2]

Religious decline in the US

There has been an steady decrease of overall church attendance over the last 20 years (62% in 1994 to 52% in 2014), a decline in religious identity (94% in 1994 to 85% in 2014), a decline in church membership (70% in 1994 to 69% in 2014), a decline in religion's importance in life (88% to 78%), and a decline in religion's importance in the day-to-day life (79% in 1994 to 70% in 2014) [3]. This overall decline in religiosity has been met with similar statistics in numbers of religious teaching in the classroom[4]. In the 1960's there were many Catholic religious sisters teaching in Catholic schools. The number has not only dwindled but the interest in joining the religious life as almost completely disappeared (only 8% of Millenial women have considered joining the religious life, compared to 26% in 1965)[5]. This has led Catholic Schools to hire more expensive lay teachers who may not necessarily be Catholic or hold the same level of piety.

An identity crisis

Fewer Catholic/Christian students, fewer Catholic/Christian teachers, and fewer religious in a community environment where there is less adhesion to religiosity have led to a crisis in identity. The Catholic/Christian school as a private school will look to grow its student population, broaden its financial footing, and offer academic programs in line with other non-sectarian private schools so that it can compete in the educational market. But the Catholic/Christian school as a ministry will look to continue to promote its faith into the lives of the young people that they touch through a number of different means such as faith formation, religious instruction, character formation and sacramental initiation. Catholic/Christian schools have been balancing these two identities for a while now and the results have shown a slow but present shift away from their original mission both in letter and in spirit. End-stage examples of such a phenomenon include the YMCA and Harvard University whose Christian foundational origins are mostly forgotten.

Towards a mission revival

Keeping a positive balance requires a new focus: a dedicated shift towards the recruitment of students with disabilities.The student with a developmental or physical disability is a living example of the Catholic/Christian theology of disability. This claim is a continuation of the theology of disability which is expressed by Kelby Carlson [7]. From this theological/spiritual basis, Carlson continues by saying that "[d]isability responds in graphic physical form to the idea of approaching God based on merit." In the Catholic/Christian understanding of the value of individuals, all are equally valid in the eyes of God. He continues by saying that "[e]ach disabled person with their twisted legs, nonfunctional eyes, or [whatever] visible or invisible disability they have, directly attacks the presumption of human glory. Disability is a symbol or metonymy of the larger experience before God." It is a visual representation of the Christian concept of Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, or the idea that the "glory of the world" is fleeting, and that permanence comes from the glory of the transcendent. [7] In a sense, "God’s grace is manifested, paradoxically, in that which appears weak and nonsensical", as Carlson puts it[7], and we must work to avoid the "anemic view of suffering" which is often to associate disability with "something that is meant only to be patiently endured in the hope that perhaps someday things will get better."

The Great Transformation

This approach to the theology of disability is not only a strong philosophical and spiritual framework upon which schools can base their formation of students with a disability, but it also is meant to be incorporated into the school's overall philosophy and mission. This is because it is meant to transform all students, faculty and other stakeholders in the school. This view, properly placed into discourse and practice, can reinvigorate the mission drifts and declines which were discussed above. Catholic/Christian schools are places of instruction, academic/social/spiritual development, but this is no longer sufficient. There must be a way for the schools to meet the deeper needs of students and families and the opening of their doors wide open to those with disabilities can help revolutionize Catholic/Christian school missions by focusing less on ability and more on being. The increasingly merit-based approach model has diminished the role of the transcendent in Catholic/Christian schools.

8.Students with physical and developmental disabilities may be quietly seen as difficult to handle and educate by the adults around them. A teacher's commitment to educating all and providing an equal experience to all helps many educators accomplish their jobs/vocations. Many schools provide supports for those students out of the need to follow district guidelines or to be more inclusive.

Catholic/Christian schools will be chosen by parents not because of what they are as schools, but why they are.

9. Catholic/Christian schools will be chosen by parents not because of what they are as schools, but why they are. Why are these schools there? Why do they exist? The crisis of mission in these religiously-affiliated schools, along with the decline in general religiosity could benefit from a refocus.

10. Catholic/Christian school administrators should take every opportunity to open up their programs and continue their inclusion of students with a disability (e.g. auction fund-an-item to open up special education programs, etc.). Not only will it increase enrollment and help schools meet requirements of inclusion mandated by many school districts, but it will also save them from a vicious cultural shift which threatens to derail why Catholic/Christian schools are in existence.

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References:

[1] nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgc.asp

[2] bssknights.org/welcoming-all-faiths-faith-environment

[3] religionnews.com/2014/08/05/the-great-decline-61-years-of-religion-religiosity-in-one-graph-2013-hits-a-new-low/

[4] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sisters_and_nuns_in_the_United_States

[5] vice.com/en_us/article/ppq7v8/the-sad-state-of-americas-aging-sisters

[6] James W. Sanders,?Education of an Urban Minority: Catholics in Chicago, 1833-1965?(1977) pp. 203-4

[7] https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/01/the-theology-of-disability

[8] https://www.capenet.org/facts.html