"""A sturdy native plant"": The American Catholic education system, the American Catholic philosophy of education, and American Catholic identity, 1919-1972"

For much of its existence, the American Catholic Church labored against native Protestant beliefs that its Roman connections hampered Catholic assimilation into American life. Millions of ethnic Catholics lived in a culture dominated by white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants who expected conformity to their ideals of the American way of life. This hostility varied in tenor over the years, yet it profoundly shaped resistance to the dominant culture. American Catholics founded hospitals, newspapers, devotional societies, charitable organizations, and fraternal organizations to shelter themselves from Protestant hostility and to preserve their beliefs. They also built an extensive educational system to meet these needs, one that instructed millions of Catholic youths in both secular and religious subjects. While the American Catholic school accepted most of the structures of public schools and American society, the Catholic faith remained its defining dimension. Catholics saw the need to adjust their faith to American society while retaining the essentials of their religion. American pluralism forced Catholics to interact with non-Catholics but did not force them to give up the faith. The Catholic school, by teaching about American institutions, by adopting American pedagogical practices and organizational structure, and by accepting the state's role in education, taught millions of Catholic children about American society--with a Catholic perspective. The Catholic faith and organizational structure enlivened a school that was both American and Catholic, loyal to both and yet different from the educational institutions in which other Americans studied.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Kennedy, Patrick Daniel

Contributors dc:contributor

• Solberg, Winton U.

• Religion, History of
• History, United States
• Education, History of
• Education, Philosophy of

Identifier

(UMI)AAI9503230

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/72333