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IN THE CHURCH
June 19, 2018 | The Valley Catholic
How Catholic Schools Foster Self-Discipline Offers Lessons, Says Study
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new
study conducted by the Thomas B.
Fordham Institute found that children
in Catholic schools are less disruptive
and have more self-control than their
peers in non-Catholic or public schools.
The authors of the study said they
believe that examining students’ self-
discipline is particularly important
in light of the ongoing debate about
externally imposed discipline, such as
detention and suspension, and methods
of punishment used in public schools.
“Clearly, an approach that fosters
self-discipline is preferable to one that
relies on externally imposed discipline.
So if Catholic schools have succeeded in
developing such an approach, we ought
to pay more attention to what they are
doing and how they are doing it,” said
the report, released May 31.
A lack of research into this aspect
of Catholic schooling also motivated
the authors of the study. Many stud-
ies have been conducted to investi-
gate the academic effects of Catholic
schools–according to the report, their
general conclusion is that “students
in Catholic schools achieve at higher
levels”–but little research has been
done into other aspects of student de-
velopment at Catholic schools.
Since Catholic schools generally try
to both educate their students on an
intellectual level and try to form their
students so that they will be pious,
disciplined, and have good character,
the authors of the study believe that
understanding the effects and possible
benefits of a Catholic education requires
understanding both the intellectual ed-
ucation and personal formation Catholic
schools set out to provide.
• The study drew three conclu-
sions:
• Students in Catholic schools are
less likely to be disruptive than
those in other private schools or
public schools.
• Students in Catholic schools
exhibit more self-control than
those in other private schools
or public schools. “Specifically,
they were more likely to control
their temper, respect others’
property, accept their fellow
students’ ideas and handle peer
pressure,” it said.
• Students in Catholic schools
exhibit more self-discipline than
those in other public schools.
“There is at least some evidence
that attending Catholic school
may benefit all sorts of children,”
it said.
In many cases the gap between the
frequencies with which students at
Catholic schools and students at other
Students work together at Saint Catherine
of Siena School in Port Arthur, Texas. (CNS
photo/courtesy Catholic Extension)
schools either behaved well or avoided
behaving poorly increased over time,
hinting that the continued focus and
value Catholic schools place on self-
discipline continually reinforces its im-
portance and helps foster it in students.
The report also concludes that, if
the findings reflect a “Catholic schools
effect” of some kind, non-Catholic
schools would benefit from placing
explicit value on self-discipline, as
Catholic schools do, and implicitly try-
ing to promote it.
The authors also speculate that
Catholic schools benefit from the power
of religion to affect people’s behavior, al-
though they admit that the exact means
by which this happens is unclear.
They added, “We should not un-
derestimate the power of religion to
positively influence a child’s behavior
-- and shouldn’t restrict families’ choices
on the basis of religion.”
Michael Gottfried, associate profes-
sor at the University of California-Santa
Barbara, and Jacob Kirksey, a doctoral
student at the same university, ana-
lyzed the data and co-wrote the report.
They took the data from the Early
Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kin-
dergarten from 1999 and 2011. These
reports contain data on a nationally
representative sample of children en-
tering kindergarten in that year, and
it follows them throughout their edu-
cational careers. The data comes from
teachers, who record the frequency of
selected behaviors among the children.
This study used data on behaviors
beginning in kindergarten and con-
tinuing to fifth grade.
The institute said that as far as it
knows, Gottfried and Kirksey’s is the
first study “to explore the potential ef-
fects of Catholic schooling on elemen-
tary students’ self-discipline.”
“The clearest implication of our
results is that Catholic schools offer an
important alternative for families who
may be dissatisfied with their local
public schools -- particularly if they
are interested in cultivating a sense
of self-discipline and restraint,” the
authors said.
Pope Shares Childhood Memories with Italian Children
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis told
Italian schoolchildren that he grew up
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, “the most
beautiful city in the world,”