The values system of inner city Catholic parochial education: Historical and contemporary development

Michael Thomas Risku, Marquette University

Abstract

This study examined the values-based education which is foundational to the education offered in one private system, the Central City Catholic School System of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and compared it with traditional Catholic educational values. This examination and the comparison were done in relation to the system's redefinition of those values as applied in the new consortium serving mainly non-Catholic minority children. To evaluate the historical and contemporary development of values within the Central City Catholic School System, the American Catholic values model developed from the survey of the literature based on such documents as the encyclicals on Catholic education, pastoral letters, and other significant documents and writings were compared with the values model devised by the CCCSS. The study concluded that despite the increase in non-Catholic minority populations in inner city Catholic parochial schools, the traditional Catholic value-system of those schools has not been significantly affected. Further, even though these schools are staffed primarily by laity, the values that the students receive are similiar to those imparted in surburban Catholic schools and other Catholic schools throughout the country. Therefore, what is being imparted to the students is not modified because the students are black or non-Catholic, or inner city residents.

This paper has been withdrawn.