Letter About 'Lay Educators' in Catholic Elementary Schools

Courtesy of ACUA

Catholic people and the clergy long discussed how to educate the youth and young adults to become members of the American Catholic community. The National Catholic Education Association provides leadership in representing Catholic educational interests in public life. This letter, written in response to a school principal, who was concerned about the term 'lay educators' in a book "Why Choose a Catholic Elementary School," represents a larger issue of lay people's role in the Catholic Church.

As you read the document, address the following questions:

• With the development of lay men and women's roles in the Catholic Church after Vatican II, why might the term 'lay educator' be controversial?
• Keeping in mind the issues of Catholics in early America, why was education for Catholics so important that they needed to create the NCEA?
• Discuss why the National Catholic Education Association might need to promote Catholic education in American society.