This country is founded upon the great belief that we, as Americans, are allotted freedoms to do with our life as we please.
The American dream is an idea that allows people to forge their own paths in this society and make of it what they will. Our unified belief in this dream is what makes us great, but our freedom of differences is what makes us the greatest.
Among the many freedoms Americans experience, two at the core of this dream are the freedoms to practice whatever religion you see fit and to have the capabilities to seek an education.
The idea of a parochial school in America is almost as old as the idea of education in America. In fact, the first parochial school in the New World came 170 years prior to the Founding Fathers ever stepping foot in Independence Hall when a group of Franciscan missionaries started a school in St. Augustine, Fla.
There is a division in this country drawn by the separation of religion and in the school system, but unlike the divides of racial segregation, the choice to decide which religion to practice is one that makes us who we are, and there is no better place to learn those pious doctrines than in a school setting.
If I wish for my child to receive a Catholic education, there’s a school for that. If I wish for my child to receive a Jewish education, there’s a school for that. Islamic, Buddhist, Methodist, Baptist, there’s a school for that. Even if I want my child to learn no religion in school, there are independent private schools and, of course, public education offers a learning environment outside of religious bounds, providing contact with people of all religions and beliefs.
The idea is that we have a choice in our education and that’s good — that is America.
Last week, President Barack Obama gave a speech to children in Northern Ireland where the divides between Catholics and Protestants have long been violent. Many children in Northern Ireland are sent to those schools to keep them with their own kind but, more importantly, away from the others. This has the familiar ring of “white-only” schools in the Jim Crow South.
I’m not going to be silly enough to pretend there aren’t people in America who are hostile to those who don’t believe the same thing they do, but the positive people who only seek a better education in the form they want it in far outweigh the dissenters.
Even in Louisiana, religious education is at the heart of our state’s history.
The all-girls Ursuline Academy in New Orleans is the oldest Catholic high school in the country, having been founded in 1727.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans lays claim to 22 Catholic high schools and numerous elementary schools, many of which boast some of the highest test scores in the state. This does not include the myriad of Catholic schools in other areas of Louisiana as well.
Parochial education around the country is a proud tradition for families of all denominations with generations of lineage attending the same school.
Religious schools should not be looked at as a separatist act that divides this country, but as a joyous celebration of the many freedoms we enjoy as Americans. It is in this advanced religious learning that Americans can exercise their freedoms to choose what religion they want to practice.
Abolishing parochial schools in America is to take away two of the founding principles of this country. Going to a parochial school — or in many cases not going to a parochial school — is one of the most American decisions that we as citizens can make.
Mike Gegenheimer is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Covington.