(Joseph Pronechen/National Catholic Register) — In 2020, enrollment at Saint Theresa School in Trumbull, Connecticut, had dwindled to 167 students in grades K-8. But by 2024, enrollment increased — by 58.68% — to 265 students. The answer to the turnaround is elementary: Saint Theresa’s transitioned to a Catholic classical-education curriculum.
“It all begins with the Holy Spirit,” Father Brian Gannon, pastor of St. Theresa Church, explained when he began looking for an answer to rebuild the parish school, which originally opened in 1957. Then he learned about the amazing turnaround of Sacred Heart Academy in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from his nephew who was teaching there at the time. In the few years after that K-12 school had changed to a classical Catholic curriculum, its enrollment skyrocketed from less than 100 students to nearly 400 today.
Pointing out that the Church speaks of parents as primary educators, Sacred Heart Academy Headmaster Sean Nolan said that today’s disordered culture needs a Catholic counter. “Our original conviction was that we want to help these families do what they’re trying to do, which is raise their kids to be Catholic, to know and love and serve Jesus Christ. One of the pieces of that puzzle became culture. And one of the essential elements of culture is that there’s a living tradition that you’re handing on.”
“One of the reasons we went classical is because we believe that it, best of all, shared the tradition of the Church in a way that enlivened the culture of the school and enlivened and helped to enliven the culture of the families,” he explained.
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