The following is from the St. Isidore School
Mission Statement:
The purpose of St. Isidore Catholic School is to provide the
Parish and local community with a program of Catholic religious instruction
along with the highest quality academic curriculum. This educational process
aims to integrate the Christian truths and values of our Catholic faith into
the total life of the student. The culmination of this educational process is
a well rounded person who is capable of becoming a responsible and contributing
member of the faith and civic communities.
The following are highlights of President Bush's address to the National Catholic Educational Association on the occasion of the NCEA's Centennial Conference and their attendance at the Whitehouse.
President Delivers Remarks to Catholic Educational
Association
January 9, 2004; The East Room; 2:10 P.M. EST
The last 100 years, the leadership of the National Catholic Education Association has been vital in advancing the work of Catholic schools around the nation, and therefore has been vital to the hopeful future of America. I'm honored to join you for celebrating your 100th anniversary. And this is a fitting place to celebrate the anniversary.
Catholic schools carry out a great mission, to serve God by building knowledge and character of our young people. It's a noble calling. It's an important part of the fabric of America. By teaching the Word of God, you prepare your students to follow a path of virtue and compassion and sacrifice for the rest of their lives. And by insisting on high standards for academic achievement, Catholic schools are a model for all schools around our country.
Catholic educators share the basic conviction that every child can learn, and every child can learn to lead a life of service. That's a pretty good mission statement, isn't it? Let us teach every child to read and write and add and subtract and, as we do so, let us teach every child to serve a cause greater than self. The whole nation benefits because of the good scholars and good citizens who graduate from Catholic schools. That is a fact.
Through your faith in every child -- and I emphasize "every child" -- Catholic schools have overcome challenges and experienced remarkable results. It is well known that Catholic schools operate on small budgets. The per-pupil cost in a Catholic school classroom is substantially below the per-pupil costs of many other schools -- public or private.
And, yet, the results are astonishing: 2.6 million students who attend Catholic schools will graduate -- that's 99 percent -- and almost all go to college. Even though the per-pupil expenditure per classroom is low, the results are extremely high. And it says something is going right starting with the fact that Catholic schools have high expectations. You challenge what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. You believe in the worth of every person and every child. You believe that inherent in every child is the capacity to learn. And you refuse to quit on any child.
The Catholic schools understand that love and discipline go hand-in-hand. The Catholic schools are willing to change curriculum if it doesn't work. The Catholic schools sometimes meet longer hours than some would expect is the norm.
An important part of the Catholic education is the commitment to serving what our society calls the disadvantaged student, regardless of religious affiliation. I appreciate that a lot. These are the students who sometimes in the public school system are deemed to be uneducable, and, therefore, are just moved through the system. The Catholic schools have done our country a great service by a special outreach to minority children, who make up 26 percent of the enrollment of our Catholic schools. This is a great service to those children and their parents and our country.
Catholic schools have a proven record of bringing out the best in every child, regardless of their background. And every school in America should live up to that standard. We want our public schools to live up to the standard you have set in Catholic schools.
Everyone involved in the National Catholic Education Association can look
back with pride over 100 years of excellence. And that's what we're here to
celebrate today, 100 years of excellence. You are serving God by serving our
children. You are making America a stronger and more compassionate country,
one child at a time. Congratulations and thank you.
President George W. Bush addresses The National Catholic Educational Association in the East Room Friday, Jan. 9, 2004. Pictured with the President are Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin, Texas, left and Michael Guerra, President of the NCEA. White House photo by Tina Hager.
For the full text of the President's address, please visit the Address Release at the Whitehouse at the website link; http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040109-10.html
St. Isidore Catholic School, your school for a close relationship with God and with one another that is consistent with the religious and educational values of our greater parish community.
