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The Good, the Bad and Beautiful in Catholic schools
Dear Friends,
Isn't it wonderful to be part of any enterprise that actually seems to be going somewhere. Catholica is certainly like that at the moment with the constant growth in readership and the vibrancy of the discussions in the forum. In the background things are progressing very nicely with the development of the next big phase for Catholica — the online Spiritual Marketplace. (Hopefully that might eventually generate some mooley to be able to reimburse our commentators for all the effort they expend in making this initiative work as well as it is.) And the quality of the commentaries themselves just seems to get better and better. Today's is no exception. It's a beautiful, partly nostalgic piece, looking back at Catholic Education in Australia and how it has lived up to its charter of attempting to educate the poor.
I keep telling our commentators that unlike newspapers or many other online publications, the readership of the commentaries on Catholica doesn't start to show up for weeks and sometimes even months after the articles are first published. Sometimes it takes weeks or even months for a commentary to even start drawing significant discussion. That's all part of the "master plan" of course but it's hard to understand for people who are used to the newsprint wrapping up the rubbish the day after it was first published.
Today's commentary by Dr Graham English is a case in point. What he was written has in part been triggered by a commentary we published back in August last year by Dr Michael Furtado looking at the legacy of Dr Peter Tannock in the development of Catholic Education in this country. Apparently Michael has also written a thesis on the education of the poor. I've not been able to locate that for a link. Graham English though, from his own extensive involvement in Catholic Education over a lifetime presents us with much to reflect on. I've also managed to dig up from my archives a beautiful little nostalgic movie I made for Catholic Education in Western Australia in 1993 reflecting back on the legacy when they were celebrating their 150th Anniversary. I'm presently uploading that to YouTube and it's still a couple of hours away from completion. In the meantime I've extracted some still photos from the movie to accompany Graham's commentary. Even despite the inadequacies of the past I honestly think Catholic Education in this country is a magnificent achievement. It's an enormous tribute to the thousands of nuns and brothers who, often ill-educated themselves, effectively helped mould the very character of our nation through their work. It's an enormous tribute to the bishops of this country also.
<Link to Dr Graham English's reflection>
www.catholica.com.au/gc2/ge/007_ge_040909.php |
