Between Smith and Marx: Parochial Schools in a Progressive Society

Progressivism, unleashed in the American Revolution and the adoption of the Bill of Rights, created opportunities for Catholic education that were fraught with both promise and peril. In the nineteenth century, material progressives advanced the ideas of the Scottish economist Adam Smith. They fostered economic and religious competition and promoted a new tolerance that encouraged European immigration and the organization of a formidable parochial school network in the Protestant-dominated land. In the next century, the moral progressivism of socialists such as the German political theorist Karl Marx generated a powerful counterforce. His enthusiasts in the United States challenged the educational status quo by championing egalitarianism and secularism. The new ideas dovetailed with innovations from the Second Vatican Council and helped undermine traditional support for parish schools. An ever-strengthening progressive movement of both types has enfeebled a once-redoubtable system.