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Non-Catholic families are finding Catholic schools a blessing
Monday, August 23, 1999 By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Raised on a rigorous blend of Jehovah's Witness and Baptist piety, Judith Cheatom never imagined sending her children to Catholic school until the day her daughter's public school teacher said the little girl's reading was "excellent."
Brandi had thrived during a year of school in Germany, where her father served in the Army. But the work she was now doing would have been considered mediocre in Germany.
"I wanted to get her a better education," said Cheatom, of East Liberty, who supports her husband and three children as a nursing assistant at Mercy Hospital.
The second article in "Back to School," an eight-part PG series examining a range of educational issues. Previous story: A shortage of principals.
Brandi graduated two years ago from eighth grade at St. Benedict the Moor in the Hill District and now attends Oakland Catholic High School. Cheatom's oldest son, Lloyd, is entering seventh grade at St. Benedict, where Cheatom plans to send her 8-month-old in due time.
About 10 percent of the students in schools affiliated with the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh are not Catholic. Usually, non-Catholics pay much higher tuition and rank at the bottom of waiting lists. At St. Louise de Marillac in Upper St. Clair, for instance, just eight of last year's 585 students were not Catholic.
But at three inner-city schools -- St. Benedict the Moor, St. Agnes in Oakland and Holy Rosary in Homewood -- more than 95 percent of the students are non-Catholic. While many dioceses have closed such schools, Bishop Donald Wuerl saw them as a ministry to families struggling to escape poverty. He created the Extra Mile Foundation to raise money from the wider community for those three schools.
Nearly 70 percent of the 668 Extra Mile students qualify for federally subsidized lunches, and 60 percent are from single-parent homes. So, at least two-thirds of the annual $3,090 cost of educating each child is covered through the foundation and other fund-raising. Ninety-six percent of the Extra Mile students graduate from high school and 86 percent continue their education through college, trade school or the military.
Despite the subsidy for her son and a scholarship for her daughter, Cheatom works many hours of overtime to keep her children in Catholic school.
"It's well worth it. My son is an honor student," she said.
Lloyd Cheatom, 12, says he wants to become a basketball player. But math is his favorite subject. "It tests me, shows how well I can count and put things together," he said.
He also says he enjoys being able to talk and write about his faith in God and the deeper meaning of life.
As a child, Judith Cheatom attended a Baptist church, but was tutored in faith by her Jehovah's Witness aunts. Both traditions have a strong aversion to statues, religious garb, and prayer to anyone who isn't named Jesus or Jehovah. Cheatom was taken aback when her children addressed a table grace to Mary.
But she was impressed at how well they answered her questions about the prayer and how much they were learning about the Bible. She then would pull out her old Baptist Bible and compare it to their Catholic Bible, and said she found the differences were minor.
She now takes them to St. Benedict on Sunday when she is able to get a day off. Recently she received a promotion and expects her new hours to allow her to get more involved at church.
"I always told my kids, if you want to become Catholic, that is fine," she said.
Donna Albert, who enrolled her three children at St. Louise de Marillac, was raised Catholic but became Antiochian Orthodox when she married. Albert, of Upper St. Clair, believes her children are more free to be Orthodox in a Catholic school than they were in a public school.
Her eldest, now in sixth grade, started out in public school. But Albert was uneasy. Their district was on the verge of adopting a controversial new teaching program called Outcomes Based Education. It reminded Albert of experiments she had been subject to in grade school, and she believed her own learning had suffered as a result.
Also, she said, she was shocked when her son told her that the Pilgrims held the first Thanksgiving to pay their respects to the Indians, rather than to God. The children weren't allowed to sing Christmas carols about the birth of Jesus, she said.
Now she has a sixth-grader, a fifth-grader and a second-grader at St. Louise.
Orthodox Christians usually celebrate Easter on a different date from Catholics, but St. Louise children can be excused for Orthodox Holy Week services. Albert said she has never felt discriminated against at the school. In fact, because Orthodox Christians administer the sacrament of communion differently from Catholics, a religion teacher encouraged the Albert children to give a report on Orthodox communion. For the class, Albert baked a loaf of the homemade bread used in Orthodox Liturgies.
"I think the way they teach religion enriches everybody," she said.
Like Albert, Linda Sam of McMurray is an Orthodox Christian who sends three children to St. Louise and volunteers enthusiastically.
When her eldest, now a sixth-grader, was in preschool, she and her husband decided to investigate all the educational options available. But -- based on her own early childhood experience -- she was against a Catholic school. Sam thought of parochial schools as restrictive, closed to creative thinking.
But, she said, "I have found that they have had an evolution within their school system."
She said she was thrilled to see teachers hugging their students. And she was excited to hear children talking about Jesus, prayer, and what it meant to be a child of God.
"They were carrying out what my family believes 24 hours a day," said Sam, who co-owns a restaurant with her husband and another couple.
"I wasn't against the public system. I think Peters [Area School District] has an excellent system. But it was restrictive in terms of what our family's everyday life is. We are a hugging family, a kissing family, a praying family. And that was reinforced in the Catholic school. School isn't just about reading, writing and arithmetic. You prepare children for everyday life. And they have to understand that life is more than math and history and science."
Except at the Extra Mile schools, tuition for non-Catholic students is much higher than for Catholic students. However, for non-Catholic families with parents who are dedicated volunteers, the pastor of St. Louise is often able to offer a tuition break, said Sister M. Naomi Suba, the principal.
Without such a break, non-Catholic families pay a flat rate of $3,125 per child at St. Louise. Catholic families pay $1,950 for the first child, with an additional child half-price.
Non-Catholic families are often at the bottom of a Catholic school's waiting list. At St. Louise de Marillac, for instance, highest preference goes to parishioners of St. Louise de Marillac who already have a child at the school. Parishioners enrolling their first child come next. Third place goes to Catholics from neighboring parishes who have a child enrolled already, then to those enrolling their first child.
Non-Catholics with children already enrolled are in fifth place and non-Catholics enrolling their first child rank last.
Sister Naomi said she gives all non-Catholic families certain instructions: Their children will not be excused from religious classes and activities. They are not required to pray and they aren't allowed to receive communion. But they must attend Mass, religion class and stand respectfully during prayer.
Over the years she has seen a few students and parents convert to the Catholic faith -- especially in families where one parent was Catholic and the other was not.
"It's because the child is coming home excited about religion and saying, 'Daddy, why don't you go to church?' It's almost like where the Bible says, 'A little child shall lead them,' " she said.
Tomorrow: Why high school freshman have the highest failure rates.
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