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Authentic Catholic Schools, Part 1

ELEVEN IN CALIFORNIA, ONE IN ARIZONA

By Christopher Zehnder

One interesting phenomenon of the post-Vatican II Church has been the founding of grammar schools, high schools and colleges by Catholic laymen. While these institutions are not under the auspices of dioceses, and cannot include "Catholic" in their names, they are fully Catholic in curriculum and administration.

What follows is a survey of eleven such schools in California, and one in Arizona. This survey was of interest to me, since I have been teaching at such an "independent Catholic" school in Tehachapi, California for the past four years.

Vianney Academy in Tehachapi

Four years ago Vianney opened with twenty students in grades nine through twelve and but one teacher. I was that teacher. I taught math (arithmetic and geometry), English (literature and grammar), European history, science, the Catholic faith, and Latin.

Three homeschooling families founded Vianney Academy because they wanted a rigorous and Catholic academic formation for their teenage children. Tehachapi, astride the southernmost pass in the Sierra Nevada, has no Catholic school; the closest diocesan high school is forty miles distant, in Bakersfield.

Being a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, I brought to Vianney the academic vision of that college. From its very inception, Vianney's goal has been to form students to be more than mere productive members of society; neither has it sought simply to inculcate piety, a task belonging to parents; the school's purpose is to form the whole man so that he may be fitted to know the truth, to desire what is good, and take pleasure in what is beautiful.

Thus, at Vianney, we see even non-religious knowledge as good in itself, since it perfects the intellect. We think that the perfection of a student's intellect and will is the surest foundation for the life of faith. We have worked to form a curriculum based upon the seven liberal arts, the trivium of grammar, rhetoric and logic, and the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, the empirical sciences and music.

Vianney Academy has grown to include grades seven and eight. Besides myself, we have a teacher of math and science, a Spanish instructor, and an instructor for seventh- and eighth-grade religion. We have a fixed curriculum, requiring math, English (grammar and literature), science, history, and religion for the lower school (seventh and eighth grades), and for the four years of high school. In high school we also require the student to take two years of Latin, with an option, in the final two years, of continuing in Latin or studying Spanish. We require all students to participate in choir and to have weekly physical education.

Seventh- and eighth-grade math consists of arithmetic and pre-algebra. In the high school years students study the first six books of Euclid's Elements of Geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. Our English classes, in both the lower and high schools, emphasize a mastery of grammar, composition, and great literature. Our course in the Catholic religion seeks to ground the student in an understanding of his faith.

At the academy we have tried to keep our education as affordable a possible; we have several families with five or more children (and one family of eleven!). Our tuition this year is $1,750. The school's address is 20617 South Street, Tehachapi, CA 93561; phone (805) 823-8433.

St. Augustine Academy in Ventura

A school with an educational philosophy similar to ours is St. Augustine Academy. The headmaster, Martin O'Hara, a 1988 graduate of Thomas Aquinas College, says the "purpose of a Catholic education is to help families form their children according to the perennial wisdom of the Catholic Church."

Families founded St. Augustine Academy in 1994, said O'Hara, because they wanted a school that would help them give their children the "same formation and custom and culture" they receive at home. Parents, he said, could not find this in existing institutions.

O'Hara believes education has to be rigorous. St. Augustine offers no elective classes. The fifth through twelfth grade curriculum requires students to study, every year, math, English, natural science, history, art and the Catholic religion. In high school, students must study Latin all four years, though, says O'Hara, "in the future, we're going to open the last two years to Spanish."

The Baltimore Catechism, along with the Faith and Life series, form the basis for the fifth- and sixth-grade religion curriculum. In the seventh and eighth grades, the Baltimore Catechism is replaced by Sacred Scripture. In high school, the students, says O'Hara, "read sufficient portions of the Old and New Testaments" to get a sense of the "divine plan of salvation." Moral theology follows scripture in the sophomore year, and students study sacred theology in the junior year. Seniors tackle the Catechism of the Catholic Church, along with apologetics, using Father John Laux's text Catholic Apologetics, first published in 1928.

In high school, the students study Euclid's geometry, advanced algebra, pre-calculus (including selections from the works of Apollonius, Ptolemy, and Copernicus) and calculus. O'Hara has authored a text that renders the first six books of Euclid's Elements of Geometry into modern mathematical language. He is working on texts, as well, for algebra, pre-calculus, and calculus.

Tuition at St. Augustine Academy is $3000 per year. Financial aid is available, based on need. The school's address is 1711 Wood Place, Ventura 93003; phone (805) 658-8161.

Ville de Marie Academy in Scottsdale

Another Thomas Aquinas College graduate heads Ville de Marie in Scottsdale, Arizona. Michael Van Hecke says the academy's high school offers a "classical pre-liberal arts" curriculum as a complement to the academy's kindergarten through eighth-grade lower school which he styles a "classical back-to-basics" education.

"Here's what I tell parents of prospective students," said Van Hecke. "I point to the crucifix above my desk, and say, "if we are a Catholic school, we must follow Christ. He demands excellence in everything we do, and for a school, this demands excellence in education, for each student according to his ability. We will give students the best advantages we can give them."

Van Hecke said that while a liberal arts curriculum is somewhat above the capacity of most high school students, it is important that they begin studying liberal arts. "It's like walking," said Van Hecke. "You become a good walker by walking. In the same way, if students, with their lack of real human experience, do a round or two of liberal arts in middle school and high school, by the time they get to college there's much more likelihood that they'll be able to do a liberal arts program."

For kindergarten through sixth grade, Ville de Marie emphasizes the most basic elements of all learning-- vocabulary, reading skills, and arithmetic. Science is "hands on"-- from grades one to four the students perform experiments, accompanied by a booklet explaining each experiment. No theory is given. "In the fifth grade," said Van Hecke, "we add a textbook to the experiments. By the seventh and eighth grades we emphasize textbook reading, accompanied by experimentation." Religion in the lower school centers around the Faith and Life series.

"Life isn't overly full of electives," said Van Hecke. "So, we're getting the students ready for what's put before them." In accordance with this maxim, Ville de Marie requires high school students to study four years of mathematics, English, natural science, and religion. Students must also study two years of Latin and two years of French. In religion, students study the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Bible, and use Father Laux's works on scripture and morality, along with Charles Rice's Fifty Questions on the Natural Law. In the senior year, students study apologetics using Karl Keating's Fundamentalism and Catholicism.

Teachers at Ville de Marie represent many colleges, including Thomas Aquinas College, the Franciscan University of Steubenville, the Ignatius Institute at the University of San Francisco, and the University of Dublin.

Tuition for the lower school is $2,700 per year, and for the high school, $3,300 per year. Ville de Marie is located at 6535 E. Osborn Rd., #404, Scottsdale, Arizona. The school's phone number is (602) 947-9441.

Sierra Madre Academy in San Marcos

In San Marcos, near San Diego, Sierra Madre opened in 1995 with 25 students. This year, the academy, which offers grades one through eleven, numbers 127 students (the academy plans to add a grade per year).

Affiliated with Regnum Christi, the lay movement of the Legionnaires of Christ, Sierra Madre offers a curriculum that emphasizes traditional disciplines of literature, science, history and geography. Memorization is stressed in the curriculum, as well as public oral presentations. The study of Spanish begins in first grade and continues through high school, while Latin is taught, beginning in ninth grade. In high school students read the works of Shakespeare, William Faulkner, Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, and others.

"The Catholic education is to ground the child in the Faith, to teach the children what Christ taught his apostles," said principal Patricia Hansen. In accordance with this purpose, Sierra Madre emphasizes the importance of prayer, self-denial, and the corporal works of mercy. Academy students help supply the Missionaries of Charity orphanage in Tijuana with medicine, food, clothing and toys. Unlike most independent Catholic schools, Sierra Madre has received approval of their religion program from their local diocese, San Diego.

Sierra Madre's tuition is $2,200 per year for the lower school and $3,600 per year for the high school. The school may be reached at (760) 744-8505.

San Jose Academy in Anza

For twenty-five years San Jose Academy has served Anza, a small community south of Lake Hemet in Riverside County. "Of all the schools that started when we did," said Nancy McCoy, the school's principal, "we're the only one that survived." Mrs. McCoy and her late husband Jack opened the school in 1972 with twelve students. Today, the academy has thirty-six students in grades one through twelve. "By keeping it small," said Mrs.McCoy, we're still able to survive and keep the same curriculum."

San Jose may seem a family-run school. "One of my daughters teaches here," said Mrs. McCoy, "and I'll have another one here who is graduating from Magdalen in May. We have one teacher who has been with us for fifteen years." The school's curriculum, said Mrs. McCoy, "is made up of some fundamental Baptist [materials] from Abeka. I use history books available through TAN: Dr. Anne Carroll's history book, some old Father Faber history books that have been reprinted by TAN, "things like that." San Jose also uses the Abeka math program through high school. Two years, each, of Latin and Spanish are required of students in high school.

Because about half of the student body is non-Catholic, religious doctrine is not taught, except on a private basis to families who request it. "Frankly, I could not run it just on Catholic students, alone," said Mrs. McCoy.

Tuition this year at San Jose is $2,400 a year. The academy, located at 57085 Horton Hills Road in Anza, may be reached at (909) 763-0146.

Our Lady of the Desert in Yucca Valley

Not far from San Jose Academy, in Yucca Valley, Our Lady of the Desert has been educating grammar and high school students since 1982. "We are here primarily," said Clara Newell, the school's principal, "for saving souls. That is the bottom line. We are very high academically since, because we are here to save souls, we are naturally going to have the highest academic standards possible."

Like San Jose Academy, Our Lady of the Desert uses the Abeka series in the younger grades. "We use Catholic texts," said Newell, "in some of our spellers and in some other subjects, such as history and science, because the Abeka does have some Protestantism in them, especially when it gets to the higher grade texts." The school requires two years of Latin, and two of Spanish.

Curriculum director Sue Twaddle said that, for religion, the school uses the Baltimore Catechism in the younger grades. "We are using the Baltimore Catechism Explained," she said, "in the high school, and we're also using various books of Father Francis: The Catholic Child, Saints and the Eucharist, and others. We also have the Father Lovasik books, the picture bible, the ones on the saints. It's all traditional Catholicism."

Our Lady of the Desert currently has ten teachers. In recent years the school has drawn its teachers from the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

The school owns its own facility, which includes a 180-occupancy chapel and tennis courts, on five acres of land. On this land, said Newell, "we have just recently built a 15-bed residential care facility for the elderly. We feel that this will be wonderful for both the students and the elderly, to have that contact."

The school's tuition this year stands at $125 a month for the first child, $200 for two, and a family rate of $275. Our Lady of the Desert, said Newell, can offer such a low rate because they have "worked very hard on fundraising. Not that we fundraise our families to death. We don't. We have a candy sale once a year, and that brings in $10,000. We have had bingo in the past, which we've given up because we didn't care for the bingo fundraiser. We have a thrift store which we hope will make the same revenue as the bingo. This has helped us immensely to help with our overhead and teacher's salaries."

Our Lady of the Desert is located at 55765 Mountain View Trail, Yucca Valley. The phone number is (760) 365-4676.

Next month: Authentic Catholic Schools, Part 2, Kolbe and Trinity of Napa, Goretti in Rocklin, Woodrose in Concord, Thomas Aquinas in Ceres, and Orange County's St. Michael's.

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