ABSTRACT
Toward the latter part of the 1960’s the lay teacher had become a visible, vocal part of Catholic education. There has been a sharper increase in the ratio of lay teachers in the past ten years than in the preceding forty. Many reasons are cited for this trend: the decline in applicants to religious communities, the increased numbers leaving religious life, the attractiveness of apostolic activities other than the classroom. Knowledge of the history of the lay teacher in the American Catholic school system is indispensable to understanding and solving our present predicament. This chapter shows that a complex combination of factors—religious, economic, cultural and academic—has operated to produce existing attitudes toward lay teachers. Although the salaries of lay teachers have risen, the attitude of many significant people within the Catholic community toward the lay teacher has not changed appreciably over the years.
