The Greatest Investment ...

The Greatest Investment . . .
On average, each year Americans spend over $5,000 on interest for non-mortgage debt, $2,500 on entertainment; $1,900 on coffee and soda; $1,700 for tobacco, alcohol, and gambling; and $500 on thrown away food. The common denominator among all of these expenses is that they are unnecessary expenses, or expenses that we choose – notice taxes are not among them.
All in all, the average American spends more than $11,600 on these types of expenses each year. Yet, the average American spends only approximately $1200 on education each year.
This comparison is not a condemnation on enjoying the fruits of our labor. It is a reflection on how most of us view education. With the constitutional right each child has to a free K-12 public education, most of us see any other type of education as just another expense in the monthly ledger.
However, St. Francis College Prep understands that such a paradigm for education is insufficient. Education is an investment, and there is no greater financial investment in a child’s future than an education that supports and reinforces all that a parent is doing at home to raise a child.
In choosing St. Francis parents are investing in their student’s spiritual and developmental skills needed for a truly (Biblical definition) of success. St. Francis understands that for such success, it must participate in the on-going formation and the development of each student’s God-given gifts.
St. Francis students will be trained to use their unique gifts as servant leaders and this will occur in a safe and nurturing environment that supports academic excellence as they prepare for higher education, the marketplace, and servant leadership in the community. And, such an environment is an extremely important consideration.
Let me explain why. Several years ago I was sitting with two parents distraught over the condition of their 17-year old son. They were a Christian family who had raised their son to be a young man of faith, which he had recently denied. In talking with the son I learned that it had started with a class in his sophomore year in which he was ridiculed for his beliefs and could not defend them well.
Granted, this is not the story of every student or class. It is, however, a poignant reminder of the risk we take with our children when we send them into a space that does not – and public education cannot – support the faith-based formation of our children.
And, to be very honest, I could relay dozens of stories from families I have worked with over the past 30 years of children gone awry due to the atmosphere of their schools.
That is why I understand – first hand – St. Francis’ belief that education is not simply an expense. It is truly an investment in our children’s future, the greatest investment of all, especially today . . .
“The process of secularization tends to re­duce the faith and the Church to the sphere of the private and personal . . . it has produced a growing deterioration of ethics, a weakening of the sense of personal and collective sin, and a steady increase in relativism. These have led to a general sense of disorientation, especially in the periods of adolescence and young adulthood which are so vulnerable to change. We are living in an information-driven society which bombards us indiscriminately with data—all treated as being of equal importance—and which leads to remarkable superficiality in the area of moral discernment. In response, we need to provide an education which teaches crit­ical thinking and encourages the development of mature moral values.” — Pope Francis