THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 24, 1994 TAG: 9410240069
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
Through the long, hot summer, 14-year-old Tara Cook agonized about what she'd find when she walked through the doors of Peninsula Catholic High School in downtown Newport News.
She was leaving her friends at public school behind, but expected to get the cold shoulder from private-school students. She worried that her grades would drop while the homework piled up.
After two months, she's left her worries behind. Says her dad, Kevin Cook: ``I couldn't pay her to go back to public school.''
Tara doesn't even mind the stricter discipline at Peninsula Catholic. ``In public school, they say they'll give you detention, they say it over and over, and it doesn't happen,'' she said. ``Here, if they say something, it will happen. The students don't act up in class, so you learn a lot more.''
Tara Cook is one of a growing number of students leaving public school for a Catholic education, where classwork includes a daily dose of religion, and discipline often comes with a moral message.
Catholic school enrollment in the Richmond diocese rose by 4.6 percent last year to about 9,300 students. Peninsula Catholic High School, where Cook attends with 266 other students, led the pack with an increase of 22.5 percent.
This year caps a steady five-year march upward in the enrollment at schools across the diocese, which stretches from Chincoteague to Cumberland Gap at the Virginia-Kentucky border. There are an estimated 150,000 Catholics in the diocese, more than half of whom live east of Williamsburg.
During the 1980s, Catholic school enrollment fell dramatically, both in Hampton Roads and nationwide. That decline, coupled with the shrinking number of priests and nuns who once gave Catholic schools their educational distinction, left many worrying whether schools would be forced to close.
But in the 1990s - as talk of ``family values'' peppers the speech of politicians as well as pastors - Catholic schools are on the comeback trail. Nationwide, Catholic school enrollment is 2.6 million, creeping up by about 9,000 students this year, according to the National Catholic Education Association.
Business is booming at Catholic schools in Hampton Roads, a surge that mirrors the growing popularity of other private religious schools in the area. Many have long waiting lists. Some are adding portable classrooms to handle new students.
Peninsula Catholic, which attracts students from Gloucester to Suffolk, is spending $5 million to build a larger school which will open next fall.
Why are some parents in Hampton Roads willing to spend thousands a year to send their kids to a Catholic school? The explanations are as unique as the students themselves, but parents' reasoning seems driven by some basic concerns.
Religion isn't always atop their lists. In fact, about 30 percent of the Catholic school students in the diocese are not Catholic. While parents say they like the daily religion classes - suggesting that the moral influence improves discipline and contributes to a cozy atmosphere - it's not the first thing they mention.
Rigorous academics is a key to the decision for many parents. They said they are impressed by the small classes at Catholic schools, which allow teachers to spend more time working with each student. The course work is mainly college prep, often including elective courses in college-level material.
Robert Samuel Jr., an Episcopalian who lives in Chesapeake, switched his 12-year-old son, Robbie, from public school to Catholic school this year. He says that he and his wife felt their son would get a tougher academic challenge in the smaller classes at St. Matthews School in Virginia Beach.
``We were particularly impressed with the homey atmosphere, the hands-on approach of the teachers,'' Samuel said. ``It was strict. The environment was purely academic - we don't put up with tomfoolery.''
Principals at several local Catholic schools said that discipline - meted out with a moral message - creates an environment where kids keep their minds on learning. Barbara White, principal of St. Matthews, says her discipline policy is more stringent than many public schools: Children are sent to the office for missing assignments and excessive talking in class.
Lessons on behavior often come wrapped in a Biblical example. At Christ the King School in Norfolk, the theme for the year is based on the Peace Prayer of St. Francis, said Principal Patricia Suraci. The life of St. Francis, who lived during the Middle Ages and devoted himself to serving the poor, is used as an example, she said.
And when two kids in a seventh-grade class at St. Matthew's got into a spat, the entire class went to the church next door to talk about how the kids were treating each other. White says teachers use religion to frame their questions, such as, ``Do you think this is how God would want you to act on earth? Do you think God would want you to make fun of other people?''
Many of the parents who send their kids to Catholic school got their own education in public school. Some have mixed feelings about abandoning the public school system that prepared them to meet the world.
``I was a proponent of public schools, because maybe private schools make things worse,'' said Samuel, who attended public schools until college. ``If you have an affluent segment going to private school, that pulls a certain group out of public school. How can they do well without the best and brightest?''
But when it came to his son, Samuel said, personal concerns overrode abstract principles: ``I don't like the prospect of teachers having to worry about kids bringing guns to school.''
Pat Willis sends her 11-year-old son to Catholic school, but still worries about what she sees in the public schools. She says teachers really care about the students, but fears that many ``burn out'' trying to cope with students' problems, from family upheavals to drug abuse.
``It isn't the schools' fault. I blame the families,'' she said. ``Unless the parents get their act together, I don't know what will happen. The parents are the first teachers.''
For many of these parents, the Catholic schools are a throwback to public schools as they remember them. The problems in the schools seem to fit another era, when teachers were respected and kids toed the line.
Karen Munson, of Smithfield, says that's precisely why she wanted to send her 13-year-old daughter to Catholic school. ``We deal with 1950s problems versus the 1990s problems - whether a kid's skirt is too short, whether they're chewing gum in the halls or talking back in class, rather than who is bringing guns in, or drugs in.
``Teachers are empowered. Schools can ask kids to leave if they act up, so you don't have bad kids there.'' ILLUSTRATION: CATHOLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
[For a copy of the chart, see microfilm for this date.]
SOURCE: Catholic Diocese of Richmond. Enrollment based on attendance
in September 1994.
KEYWORDS: PRIVATE SCHOOLS CATHOLIC SCHOOLS ENROLLMENT by CNB