ABSTRACT
The educational revolution in the Catholic community centered at Catholic University in Washington. Concern for professionalism equal to the public schools but tempered with Catholic truth was expressed in a warning given by the rector of Catholic University. The call for professionalism, for meeting the challenge of American secular education on the common grounds of method, child study, school hygiene, is fascinating because it required considerable courage on the part of some Catholic educators to acknowledge secular knowledge and science in the area of education. The acknowledged leader of the movement for Sister training was Thomas Edward Shields. If Shields was in advance of Catholic thinking in education generally, he was also in advance of general secular thinking on societal roles. The religious women Shields was concerned about had an unusual advocate on their side.
