ABSTRACT
The contributions of Catholic schools to the country, as well as to the Catholic Church itself, surpass mere quantitative measurement. This chapter attempts to tell the story of American Catholic schools. The drive toward the establishment of the free, universal public school system, spearheaded by Horace Mann in Massachusetts, begun in the 1830s. Catholic children frequently encountered bigotry and prejudice in these schools, manifested in a number of ways. Provincial and Plenary Councils alike, as well as a number of individual Catholic bishops, berated the public school system on the one hand, and proposed Catholic schools on the other. The relationship of Catholicism to American life manifested itself in a controversy during this period—the alleged heresy of Americanism. Two hard-fought battles in 1890 in Wisconsin illustrate late nineteenth and early twentieth century Catholic educational policy as it relates to the relative rights of parent, church, and civil authority in schooling.
