The Administration of the Catholic Secondary School ed. by M. J. McKeough, The Philosophy of Catholic Higher Education ed. by R. J. Deferrari (review)

872 BOOK REVIEWS The Administration of the Catholic Secondary School. Ed. by M. J. McKEouGH. Washington: Catholic University Press, 1948. Pp. 180. $3.00. The Philosophy of Catholic Higher Education. Ed. by R. J. DEFERRARI. Washington: Catholic University Press, 1948. Pp. flOfl. $3.25. The task of reviewing the two volumes of proceedings of the Catholic University of America workshops on The Administration of the Catholic Secondary School and The Philosophy of Catholic Higher Education is indeed formidable. To evaluate the many authoritative articles adequately would require a panel of reviewers as large and as well qualified as are the original authors. Since this procedure is not feasible, a detailed review of every article will not be attempted. Rather a selection of certain key contributions will be made and these will be accorded a more or less extensive analysis and criticism. * * * The volume dealing with the manifold problems of Catholic secondary schools is marked by a high degree of practicality and deserves the attention of all who are concerned with the apostolate of teaching in the high schools. In an article on Staff Participation in Administration, Reverend Leonard McFee, S. M., describes and analyzes a regrettably common fault in Catholic secondary schools. That fault is the tendency of school administrators so to regulate the policies and practices of the school that the faculty is left without knowledge of or voice in the formulation and implementation of such policies and practices. While this fault is understandable , it remains inexcusable, because of the deleterious effects wrought in the faculty and ultimately visited upon the school as a whole. Several practical and forthright suggestions are made in the interest of solving the problem, and they are worthy of the attention of every school administrator. In addition to the solutions offered another is worthy of attention. Much of the failure to grant the faculty a real share in the responsibility of school administration could be avoided if more schools were run according to a precise set of regulations formulated by. a joint faculty and administration committee and ratified by the entire staff. This device has the beneficial effect of delegating real authority to faculty members, departmental heads, etc. and at the same time leaving the direction of over-all policies in the hands of administrators where it rightfully belongs. Most arresting is the article on The Catholic Secondary School and The Community, written in characteristically vigorous style by Reverend William E. McManus, Assistant Director of the Department of Education of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. Here the reader will discover a complete listing of contemporary endeavors to make the Catholic school BOOK REVIEWS 878·a vital and dynamic force in the community where it is located. Over and above these eminently practical devices for furthering Catholic influence, Father McManus' article contains many observations on the nature and function of the secondary school in terms of its existence and responsibility as a moral person. He clearly states, ." The real test of the essential Catholicism of a school is to be found in its curriculum. A school deserves to be called Catholic if the subject matter and school activities are organized for the purpose of inducing Christian understandings, attitudes and habits." (p. I~) He continues to explain that he would not judge the Catholicism of a school by the numbers at Communion before football games or examinations , nor by the membership of the Sodality or any other specifically religious projects. His standard of judgment would be the attitude of the students towards the FEPC, housing segregation and the Jim Crow Laws. " The hardest test of Catholicism today is the application of Christian charity to the Negro issue." (p. 18) Father McManus would test the student attitudes towards labor unions, price control, the moral principles involved in the decisions of the United Nations. He would seek to learn if the students had acquired a Catholic attitude towards history, literature and the sciences. If this eminently practical and valid evaluative criterion of the Catholicity of our schools is to be understood aright, it is necessary to recall certain basic facts about the nature of Catholic education and the position of the school in the total process of perfecting...