What Do You Really Want for Your Children? The Deeper Purpose of Catholic Education
Every parent wants their children to be happy. But authentic happiness requires more than good grades, a successful career or financial security. Here's how Catholic education helps prepare children for a truly flourishing life.
By Michael Edghill
Associate Superintendent for Mission
Think about each of your children as they are right now. Think of all of the struggles and joys of parenthood.
Now, imagine them at 38 years old.
What do you want for them?
If you are like most parents, your thoughts likely conclude with “I want them to be happy.”
That is a totally logical conclusion. This is something that human beings have been thinking about for centuries. As far back as the ancient Greeks, Aristotle devoted an entire portion of his work, Nicomachean Ethics, to a consideration of the purpose of life and the highest good. His conclusion was that the ultimate good in life is eudaimonia, which roughly translates as “happiness” or “human flourishing.”
I would invite you to consider this a little more deeply, though. What does this really look like? If I want my child, at 38, to be happy, what kind of life are they living?
Again, if you are like most of us, I can assume that the image in your mind is something like this. They are in a happy marriage. They have a couple of children. They have a joy-filled house. They have enough money that they don’t have to worry about paying their bills and have some left over to enjoy things like an annual vacation. They still practice their faith and go to Mass every Sunday. Maybe there is even a dog.
So what will help them get there? What can you do as a parent to prepare the way so that this can become a reality for them?
First and foremost, you can model these ideals and values in your own home. You can invest time in strengthening your marriage. You can work to create a home that is peaceful and filled with joy rather than one that is chaotic and anxiety-ridden. You can ensure that you engage in the Catholic faith as a family daily through simple acts such as saying the table blessing before meals, praying together, celebrating special feast days, and, of course, going to Mass as a family every Sunday.
But what about the more formal education that you provide for your children? Can it help support and direct them towards that desire for a happy life?
In short, this is why formal Catholic education in the form of Catholic primary and secondary schools was created. It is to support parents in their role of forming and educating their children so that they can achieve human flourishing in this world and be prepared for the ultimate happiness, which is unity with our Lord in the next. It is why St. Iranaeus of Lyon said that “the glory of God is man fully alive.” Human flourishing. Authentic happiness.
Great standardized test scores, good grades in school, and even admission to a great college will never fully prepare your child to achieve that authentic happiness that you want for them. Our society is littered with people who got good grades, went to the “right” college and have achieved tremendous financial success but are definitely not happy or flourishing. And even this traditional formula for material success is increasingly challenged by the rapid pace of technological innovation. The current advent of AI could well lead to the dissolution of many tech-skilled jobs, which have been a driver of education-for-career-readiness for the last twenty years.
But even if there were a formula for financial and material success from education, it would still fall short of the real desire that parents have for their children. No parent wants to imagine their child at 38 with a full bank account and investment portfolio but lonely and struggling to find meaning in their life.
Authentic, quality Catholic education not only equips its students with the fundamental knowledge and skills needed for the modern world but also with an understanding of the ultimate purpose of our lives. Catholic school graduates are prepared to enter the workforce and to pay their bills each month, of course. But they do so with an education in fundamental skills, with an understanding of what those skills can and should be used for, with an understanding of truth, an appreciation of beauty, and, of course, with an understanding of what life itself is for.
If you want to be happy in this world, learn to identify and hold onto things that are authentically true. Learn to seek out and appreciate things that are beautiful. Learn to enjoy the good things of this world in whatever form they present themselves to you.
All of us can get distracted by trying to “keep up with the Joneses.” But when we are honest with ourselves, we all know that these are not the things that matter. We don’t want our kids to get good grades or test scores because of the numbers themselves. We don’t want our kids to get into specific schools because of their great reputations. We desire these things because we want them to be happy, really happy, with more than just good grades, jobs and bank accounts.
This is the gift of Catholic education. To surround our kids with an environment and with people who can help them to see and understand the world in this way on a daily basis. People who see the whole world in the light of the Catholic faith. People who know that material success will only get you so far and will never be the key to authentic human happiness. People who know that, as St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
Authentic, quality Catholic education helps us as parents to form and educate our children so that they are as prepared as they can be to be that truly happy, flourishing 38-year-old.
