Principals, teachers and even a few students were asked this question recently. While the Church and schools have changed over the decades, Catholic schools are still focused on passing on the faith, requiring daily religion classes and providing opportunities to attend Mass and the sacrament of reconciliation. These responses are other examples of how the Catholic faith permeates schools in Arkansas.
St. Joseph High School, Conway
“As a non-Catholic and former public school teacher, I am blessed to say the uniqueness of the Catholic school environment is the attitude of each parent and student. Each student, though given a wonderful learning school experience, is still taught that no matter what your life’s vocation you still must prepare to meet God.
“I find that everyone is involved in the child’s future and I find this a refreshing concept; I also love the idea that each student is encouraged to talk about God daily, not just in a unit on comparative cultures as a part of a world history class.
“Many Christian school teachers feel that when God was excluded from the classroom, it allowed in many of the discipline problems seen in today’s schools.”
— Betsy Beacham, social studies teacher
St. Joseph Elementary School, Conway
“We learn about Jesus and listen to God’s words.”
“Father comes to visit us.”
“We’re nice to one another.”
— Students in Carie Schichtl’s third grade class
Christ the King, Little Rock
“We pray throughout the day, especially before school starts, before every class begins, before lunch and before we go home at the end of the day.”
“Our bullying policies show that there is no tolerance for mistreating others. As a Catholic school, we believe in treating others as Jesus would treat them. If we see that others are being mistreated, we stand up for them.”
“The respect for others is taught, especially for the unborn child.”
“We understand how important it is to be a role model for others. For example, the eighth graders are Guardian Angels for the second graders.”
— Mary Katherine Keller, eighth grader
Christ the King, Fort Smith
“One of our parents (anonymously) donated a glow-in-the-dark rosary and prayer booklet for every child in the school to keep at home to pray the rosary in bed before falling asleep.”
“Each day of the week during the morning announcements we recite our weekly Bible verse. The new Bible verse is introduced each Monday morning. On Wednesdays, all of the children in the school locate the Bible verse in their classroom Bibles. Last year, our PTO bought enough Bibles for every child in our school to have a classroom Bible to use at school.”
“Every Tuesday, one of our students prays the Our Father or Hail Mary in Vietnamese. Every Thursday, one of our students prays the Our Father or Hail Mary in Spanish. We have even had children recite these prayers in Italian and German.”
— Marna Boltuc, principal
“The church, crucifix and statues are simply reminders of our Catholicism. The hearts and actions coupled with the morals of the CTK family make us Catholic. … Through his body and blood, we receive him and worship him as he gives us the grace to be Catholic.”
— Janie Roe, eighth grader
St. Edward, Little Rock
“By definition the word ’catholic’ means universal. In our schools we have broken down the barriers that often separate students in other academic settings. Children are treated equally by fellow students, teachers and administrators. We are able to pray for each other and worship God and embrace our beliefs. Our parish and school works together as a community. And as we all know it takes a village to raise a child and St. Edward’s is that village.”
— Theresa Hall, principal
St. Theresa, Little Rock
“Our religious identity is expressed through our mission statement and philosophy statements. It is evident as soon as someone walks through the doors through our statues, crucifixes and other religious symbols.”
“Students attend Mass every Friday. They serve as lectors, altar servers and bring up offertory gifts. Each week a class from first to fourth grade is selected to prepare a poster for Mass which displays the responsorial psalm for the Friday readings.”
“Daily prayer is offered through morning offering, before and after meal prayers, a decade of the rosary is prayed daily, and prayer requests are collected monthly by the kindergarten and placed in basket by our St. Theresa statue. Students also pray for others during their daily religion class.”
“We have a new supplemental religion program developed by one of our teachers, Kristy Dunn, as part of her graduate program. The goal of this program is to teach our students about St. Theresa, about her life, and her ’Little Way’ to Jesus. It involves curriculum lessons at each grade level, as well as service projects at each grade level.”
“The seventh grade has a puppet ministry and presents religious-themed puppet shows for the younger students on a regular basis.”
— Marguerite Olberts, principal
Immaculate Conception, North Little Rock
“In October, we always have the annual blessing of the pets and rosary on Thursdays.”
“We have identified our six core values inspired by our faith in Christ: spiritual growth, integrity, compassion, responsibility, respect and knowledge.”
“In October, we learned about our saintly heroes and ’Heroes of Faith.’ On All Saints Day we dressed up like our hero saint and processed into Mass.”
“We celebrate a special Father’s Day in October. It is called Priesthood Sunday. But as a school, each grade recites and offers up a special prayer for our priests.”
— Diane Wolfe, principal
Immaculate Heart of Mary, North Little Rock (Marche)
“We get to pray to God and Jesus and Mary and we sing holy songs in God’s house. Everybody loves God up to 8th grade at IHM.”
— Daniel Cockman, second grader
