A new study finds that graduates of Protestant Christian schools have different traits than those who attend Catholic and non-religious private schools:
More Catholic school administrators ranked the university as the top priority, while more Protestant school administrators ranked family as the top emphasis of the school, researchers say.
The research team also surveyed more than 150 Catholic and Protestant school administrators in Canada and the United States to assess the aspirations.
The study found Protestant Christian school graduates:
– Divorced less and had more children than their Catholic and private school peers.
– Participated in more relief and development service trips.
– Have lower incomes, but were more thankful for what they have in life.
– Attended less competitive colleges and attended fewer years of college.
– Talked less about politics, participated less in political campaigns and donated less to political causes.
UPDATE: In the original title I mistakenly added “College” graduates. This research was on secondary schools. I apologize for the error.
May 31st, 2011 | 2:12 pm
Hmmm. I think this comparison rather unfair. Many Catholic schools are barely Catholic nowadays, and they aren’t going to put Harvard and a number of other schools that were founded with religious affiliations as Protestant schools.
May 31st, 2011 | 2:21 pm
Following up on Alexander’s point, there is a clear difference between Catholic schools on the whole and Protestant schools on the whole regarding how highly regarded the school is by secular elites. As such, your “Catholic school grads” are going to include all kinds of barely/never religious people who went to a decent-to-prestigious school. With the exception of Baylor, I have never known anyone to attend a Protestant school who didn’t do it for faith reasons.
May 31st, 2011 | 2:58 pm
Outclassed again.
Shucks.
May 31st, 2011 | 3:04 pm
Wait, is this about college graduates, or private high school graduates? The line about “Attended less competitive colleges and attended fewer years of college” confuses me.
May 31st, 2011 | 3:09 pm
Ethan,
In the original title of the post I mistakenly added “College” graduates. This research was on secondary schools. I apologize for the error.
May 31st, 2011 | 3:30 pm
I also have a hankering that Protestants do not have the grip on classical logic that Catholics do. Catholics tend to advocate the Great Books approach and have many Great Books colleges. Some Protestants attempt this but do not dedicate themselves to it.
May 31st, 2011 | 3:56 pm
A possible explanation: Protestants tend to consider education a means not an end more than Catholics do (?)
May 31st, 2011 | 6:21 pm
Quite a switch from the trends of not so many years ago. Catholic school grads divorcing more and having fewer kids — what a kick in the gut!
May 31st, 2011 | 6:49 pm
There is within Protestantism a suspicion of the intelligentsia, and who can blame them? It was the egg-heads who brought us most of the evils in the last century or so. As the man said, “The greatest minds come up with the worst ideas.” Biblical Criticism, untempered by orthodox faith, the continuous rejection of Biblical concepts by those of its members who remain in the cultural current of secularization, (how long ago did Robinson publish, “Honest to God”?) these have left some normal folk uncomfortable by ideas that require a dozen qualifiers and allusions.
I don’t feel that way myself, but I see that it’s not without justification. When the doctor is the one who aborts your daughter’s baby, the Pastor is the one who tells your son that there is no God, and the professor is the one who tells them both that there is no Truth, at all, anywhere, you know you’ve been betrayed.
June 1st, 2011 | 8:39 am
The recurring pattern goes like this.
1. Some statistic comes out that shows Protestants are better than Catholics in some tangible, measurable way.
2. Rather than face the facts, praise the Protestants for their faithfulness and try to learn from them, Catholics make excuses.
3. Catholics fall back on something like “but we have the Eucharist.”
June 1st, 2011 | 9:01 am
“the Pastor is the one who tells your son that there is no God”
This is another topic onto itself, but there are a lot of people asking questions about what percentage of pastors are unbelievers. If a pastor loses his faith, is he really going to abandon the only profession he knows? Not to mention cut off every friend, family, and professional associate?
June 1st, 2011 | 9:23 am
Pastor Spomer
Time to re-read Benda – La Trahison des Clercs
June 1st, 2011 | 10:21 am
Jeremy, I think Sir Humphrey Appleby explains things quite nicely:
Yes, Prime Minister
June 1st, 2011 | 1:31 pm
@Jeremy: “If a pastor loses his faith, is he really going to abandon the only profession he knows? ”
If he is honorable and honest, then yes, that’s exactly what I would expect. And I expect all pastors to be both honorable and honest as a prerequisite to having the position in the first place.
@Crowhill: You say “1. Some statistic comes out that shows Protestants are better than Catholics in some tangible, measurable way….”
For the record, I’m not Catholic. But I do take issue with your 1, 2, 3—well, not take issue so much as think it’s beside the point since, as St. John’s gospel records, “Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world….”
June 2nd, 2011 | 2:53 pm
It seems to me this says less about Protestants vs. Catholics than it does about Protestant schools vs. Catholic ones.
The problem, though, is it is not clear what causes the difference. It would be worth knowing. If the Protestant schools are doing a better job teaching values, that is worth knowing. But if the Protestant schools are just more likely to attract a certain type of student, then it doesn’t mean as much.
I think maybe there is a difference in core values, and this may be affecting the study. I have always understood Catholic schools as having the reputation of being a good place to send your kids – whether you’re Catholic or not – if you don’t have enough money for a rich kid’s school but you do want higher academic and/or behavioral standards. But I never heard of anyone sending a non-Protestant kid to a Protestant school.
The Catholic schools would therefore be making a priority out of providing academic and moral education to those who need it, while the Protestant school would be providing strong grounding for “the faithful” – the children of their own community. I don’t know if there’s any truth or not to this speculation, but if there is, it might explain the gaps – the Catholic school would be “wider” and the Protestant one “deeper”. (Both approaches seem valuable to me)
June 2nd, 2011 | 10:15 pm
I think Blake has a good point. And Catholic schools are long-established, and come in all kinds, while Protestant schools tend to be built for one reason and serve one kind of person. I live in Cincinnati, which has the fifth-largest Catholic school system in the country, and we’ve got everythign from inner-city schools with no Catholics in them to super-expensive independent Catholic academies. Families choose them for all sorts of reasons. In other areas of the country, Catholic schools are exclusive and only for the rich. In other areas, they are mostly neighborhood schools. On the other hand, Protestant schools tend to be far more serious about teaching religion than many Catholic schools are these days. More information is needed.
June 5th, 2011 | 4:31 pm
– Talked less about politics, participated less in political campaigns and donated less to political causes.
=========
This is terrible, but, for many people, so typical.
They stick their head in the sand as far as it goes.
Links
Blogs
Find Us
Contact