Thursday, October 10, 2019
Catholic Church In Ireland Essay
The role of Catholic Church in the development of the education system in the nineteenth century Ireland.            The Catholic Church in Ireland was known as Romans Catholic Churches. The church was headed by a pope. In Ireland the Catholic Church was organised in dioceses and parishes, which was headed by the archbishops, bishops and priests. The catholic church of Ireland had various religious orders among which were fathers of the Holy Ghost, Vincentians Capuchins, and Augustinians among others and all of their either participated in offering missions or teaching. In Ireland, there were priests’ societies and they were in various countries, with missionary society of St. Columbia being located in country math, and St. Patrick’s missionary sociated situated in country Wicklow.[1] In Ireland there was the freedom of religion, and this was after the redrafting of the Ireland constitution in 1937 and it was then when the special position which was kept aside specifically for religion was abolished. During this period, there were many churches in Ireland, and thus by considering catholic church, it does not mean that this was the only church. Other churches in Ireland included the Presbyterian, Eastern Orthodox, and Salvation Army among others. Ireland is one of the places with oldest history of churches and Christianity in general. Ireland had the first missionary from France in year 431 and he was known as palladius, because the Irish believed in Christ, the pope saw it necessary to send this missionary to the Ireland in order to continue spreading the gospel. The achievement of palladius was termed by some people as a failure but due to his ability to come up with some churches in laigin, others see that the palladius visit was a success because he was able to start his mission. EDUCATION IN IRELAND In Ireland, religion as well as the practices associated with religion are considered very important and are adhered to the dot. Ireland having the various Christian groups, the majority of the Irish population are known to be Catholics from Rome.[2] The Irish people are united and respect everyone’s religion. This is a very good consideration that promotes education, and lack of the respect can cause a lot of negative impact in the education system. In Ireland, and apart from Christians, there are also Bahais Islamic, Hindus, Buddhists, and people who had the Jewish faith, but all these people lived together as a society united by the respect they had for each other’s religion. This contributed a lot to the provision of education to the Irish people.[3]            The Irish people liked being education, and traditionally the adored and honoured education. Despite their differences in terms of religion, they ensured that their children had access to education while still in his or her early childhood. This was enforced by all people and to facilitate education to all children, this was indicated in their constitution. To further enhance this, many education institutions provided free education to the Irish children in various education levels. The Irish education was divided into levels and to facilitate graduation from one level to another, the children were expected to have passed in their previous level. These levels started from the primary level, which admitted young children of about six years and then the secondary level which came as a result of passing the primary level. The third level was the level of higher education where the education attained in the first two levels was furthered, courses and technical training was offered in this level as well as the degrees and post graduate levels of education.  Ireland thus was among the countries which are recognised to have participated fully in education and with a high number of students enrolling and completing their education to even the higher education level. This has made their graduates to be recognised internationally with many countries and companies employing the graduates in their organisations and companies. This shows that the country produces high qualified and competent graduates. Catholic Church in the development of the education system in the nineteenth century. Catholic Church was of great implication in the development of education system in Ireland in the nineteenth century. Bearing in mind that in Ireland education is compulsory the Catholic Church played a big role in ensuring that this education was compulsory to al children despite their family’s financial status. The catholic churches came up with mass education system in Ireland. This was as a result of the contribution of the catholic missionaries in the valuing of the mass education. [4]They knew with this, many children could have access to the education with an equal provision of this education to all children considering nothing else, but just the need for the education to all.            The Catholics constructed schools which were headed by Catholics leaders and teachers. Among these schools were the elementary schools where the head inspector was a catholic dean and local inspector a priest. The school also have committee and teachers who were Catholics. These types of schools never mixed students in terms of sexes and the children thus could be easily protected. The normal schools were headed by priest as the president and teachers had to be Catholics. These schools were involved with teaching and training teachers. These schools were very important in the development of the Irish education because they enhance qualified teachers available to educate the small children and the youths in their other schools.            The Catholic Church saw the great need of religious education to both children and youth who live in the community[5]. They believed that children who get the religious education are at a better position in their society since the education guides the maturing child mind in a way which a child can know what is expected from him or her, in relating with other people in the society, and in the moral understanding. The catholic schools for children ensure that the children are taught and learn on how to have devotion and how to work. This is enhanced by creating time for devotions and time for communal work, thus ensuring that all children participates in these work and learning on how to do various works, in various situations and within a limited time. This helps the children to be able to have devotions in their future lives and also to fit in the society which requires industrious or rather hard and actively working individuals. The school’s equipped children with the knowledge and understanding inculcating obedience to parents and people in authority. This helped the children to understand the roles of the authority and what is expected from them by the parents and the people in authority. This enhanced respect to all people in the society in which the children lived. Children grew up being honest to all people in the society and intelligently. From this we can see that the catholic churches contributed a lot in the education during the nineteenth century since their schools were foundations which not only provided education which was compulsory, to all children, but also had the best for the children, facilitating easy relationship among the children, and also with other people in the society.            The catholic churches had various teaching orders. They could use school, or even arrange for camps. All these were targeting at providing religious education and other form of education of children and youths. The catholic churches provided training for the youth concerning the religion principles. These principles gave the youth the best in regard to the religion. This helped the youth to have clear vision on what they are expected do in the society, and also training them to how to be morally upright. Ireland just like any other society had moral values and there was the standard which every Irish was expected to live in. The Catholic Church thus took the initiative to prepare the youths with these expectations, and this helped the youth to cope with life. The catholic churches gave this to the youth, by holding youth seminars, and youth discussions where many youths, were assembled and the catholic teachers and other catholic individuals were used to teach the youths.[6] This had great impact in the society, because the youth could learn a lot from these training on top of their classroom. The education which these catholic churches gave to children and youths also inhibited differentism, and Ireland being a large country with many people and of different religion, these children and youths could use the knowledge acquired from this training take each other in the society in a similar manner, and this helped a lot in maintaining unity and peace among the people.            The catholic churches had a different way of contributing to the education of their country’s people. With this I mean the catholic churches ensured that education was free to all children by paying taxes. The tax income was used to manage and maintain the needs and requirements of the free education. This was because many children were getting their education in public schools as compared to the catholic schools, and with this high number of the children thus promoting the children’s education.            For the catholic schools, the catholic churches gave volunteer was as part of their contribution to their schools. By doing this, the financial requirements of the catholic schools were minimised and the money which they saved from the minimised use of finances was used to help the public schools. The volunteer work in their church schools was given to specifically approved schools, and these schools had a better chance of enrolling more students thus ensuring education to all children.            The catholic churches ensured that the books which were used by the catholic teachers to educate children were selected by the priest and also ensured that the books have what was good and right for the children. This was done to ensure that the children engaged in reading books which could enable them to develop good morals, and achieve the best knowledge. The catholic churches, volunteers were also willing to provide their personnel, materials and time for the sake of education of the children.[7] The manager of the catholic churches and catholic schools created a chance for interschool activities, whereby the pupils in the catholic schools could interact with pupils from protestant schools and other public schools. This played a big role in enhancing the pupils’ relationships and doing of field work in a joint manner. The pupils could be able to learn new ideas and get extra knowledge as a result of combining the new ideas with the ones they already had. From this joint fieldwork, the pupils were able to pick some challenges from other schools, and at the same time being in a state of learning their strength and weaknesses, which would help them in analysing and rectifying where they had the wrong move or ideas. This learning as a result of joint fieldwork was based on the pupils of both catholic schools and any other participating schools, thus from the wide range of participating schools, children got extra education. Catholic schools were looked upon by the society. The catholic churches were involved with practicing degree of control in civil society. The churches ensure that they practices what was up to their region and this is what they tried to put in the pupils minds. The catholic churches were one of the agents who participated in introduction of new integrated education, as they considered the involvement of children from different backgrounds in terms of religion to have impact on the learning of the pupils.            Later during the nineteenth century a philosophy requiring man to have equal supremacy with state was invented. This never discouraged the Catholic Church in its attempt to provide education to all children. Due to the development in industries, it happened that various machines were to be used in the industries.[8] To operate these machines, the operators were required to have training in all the machine operating procedures. This was based in the states’ side and this means the Catholic Church experienced challenges as quite large of the students had to shift in order to achieve this. The Catholic Church was the primary agent in provision of education and with this, the church aimed at providing the best not considering other factors. Many were times when the Catholic Church went short of funds to finance the education. This was usually a challenge but the Catholic Church never gave up, but rather went ahead to volunteering and offering whatever they could get. This was usually a challenge because other public schools used to get some funds from the government, unlike the Catholic Church, but they kept moving on in providing education despite all this.            The Catholic Church teachers operated in teaching children in seasons. This was because during winters, the pupils were not usually in sessions.[9] The Catholic Church teachers ensured they provided education, by moving from one place to another either within one parish, or across many of them, and sometimes even from place to place, searching for pupils to teach once they got enough number of pupils to teach, they taught as long as their strength, willingness and time was being utilised in a way to benefit a pupil.            Many of the pupils came from poor backgrounds and despite the lack of money and buildings to use as a place to call a school, the Catholic Church teachers ensured they went along teaching pupils and making Ireland to have more educated people as when comparing to the bordering countries.[10]When the churches gave free catholic schools, and mostly in urban areas the pupils and teachers used the churches as the venue for their education and the teachers got salary from funds generated from parochial, and this ensured that they taught pupils without being harassed by the government.            Later a national education system was introduced after a debate in parliament. This ensured that pupil from poor backgrounds. This education focused on providing separating religious education and enhancing literacy and morals. This wanted to abolish the favours related to religions and all Christians without considering their denomination were considered when making the application to the schools. However some funds were required for maintenance of school the teaching staff’s salary and in order to buy books.            The mode of teaching was different from the teaching done in the catholic churches, because for this national education system, a week was divided in order to facilitate the teaching of literacy and moral and this was done in the five days of a week, and the other two days the religion education was taught. This ensured separate teaching of both the religion education and the moral and literacy education they later considered to offer religion advices every day after the normal moral and literacy classes.            Several churches objected this form of education. The first to refuse were the Presbyterians who opted to have their children having their education based on their denomination. This brought some disputes and later it was passed that there was a freedom for the religious education to be taught on regular bases just like the moral and literacy education. For the children of the parents who felt their children needed it, and the freedom of parents who felt their children do not required the religious instructions to be picking their children before the instructions starts. The Catholic Church then joined in refusing and argued that their children needed religious education in equal proportions to moral and literacy education. The Catholics were not up to the claims which authorised established church to have the power to manage the schools, and the fact that bible scriptures were not to be included in the times when general instructions were being taught to children.            The Catholic Church continued to give trial to its mode of education despite the fact that providing the building for the children being education was limited and the government who were against the idea. The financial status of the Irish people also kept giving the Catholic Church challenges since it was always poor to support their children’s education. The Catholics objected the national education system because the commissioners ensured that they benefited from the states funds without really caring about the many places with the fund deficiency and which can be helped by providing these funds. The Catholics felt very bad because of this. However they had nothing better to do than objecting from the public side because even the ratio of the Catholics representing them was very low, and due to this, they always have not voice in the commission. The ration contrasted with the actual ration of the catholic in the total population, because Catholics were the majority in entire Ireland population.            The Catholics held their point that they needed their schools having the religious instructions available for their children. This was because some of the scriptures which appeared in text books used by the children and teachers in class were neither valid, nor recognised by the Catholics and their authorities and these books had a lot of the Ireland culture and tradition as the only reference.[11] The Catholics objected this arguing that a good education system need to provide knowledge and intelligence to a pupil, as well as giving the instruction concerning religion which enhanced moral development of children and better relationship of the children and other people in the society.            According to the proposal of the new education system, there was to be a school of teachers where training of the teachers who would teach the pupils was to be done. The proposal indicated that the institution would be the only recognised training institution, a teacher from any other training institution would be considered not qualified and not having competency in teaching, hence not allowed to teach in Ireland. This acted as a provocation to the Catholics who objected furiously and they were denied the request to have a catholic appointed to on behalf of the catholic teachers’ religious training. This resulted to very few Catholics enrolling in the training school, and the managers of the Catholic schools decided not to accept some few places which were being given to their teachers in the training college.            Most of the managers in the schools were not quality but the proposal insisted on training teachers specifically at the proposed training school, and most of the trainers of the trainees were not professionals, and they targeted on training about philosophy and theology since majority of them were priests. In Ireland the primary schools have higher population as compared to secondary schools and universities. Just as there are many issues left un sorted in primary education same case applies to secondary schools which have fewer population and thus less schools. Comparing the Catholic Church influence, there was a chance for Trinity College and two universities to be found, and this shows how the education system under the Catholic Church was more organised and with a focus compared to the National education system.[12] To conclude, the Catholic Church contributed a lot in the education development in Ireland in the nineteenth century and it’s good to credit the Catholics effort and devotion for the Irish people education. The catholic teachers and other Catholics individuals who committed themselves in generous provision of education to all children not considering their financial background. It’s through the hard struggle of the Catholic Church that the education of Irish people became a success.       References Bruce F., Biever, Religion Culture Values, Ayer United State 1976. Christ, L, Sherry, E, American Catholism, Appleton-century-croft, London, 1961. Coolahan, J, Irish Education History and Structure. Institute of Public Administration United State, 1981. Hansard, C, Parliamentary debates, T.C Hansard, Great Britain, 1824. Herbermann G, Catholic Encyclopaedia, Encyclopaedia Press, United State, 1913. Lowe,R,History of education,Routledge,United States,2000. Maguire, F, Nineteenth-century Catholic Education, Library Ireland, 1868, Retrieved on 15 March 2008,http://www.libraryireland.com/Maguire/XXVI-1.php. MCDowell, B, Ireland church in 1869-1969, Routlege, United States, 1975. Murphy D, History of Irish Emigrant and Missionary Education, Four Courts Press, Ireland, 2000. Thomas A, Catholic Church and Secondary School Curriculum in Ireland. Peter Land, New York, 1999 vol 5 William B, History of Western Education. Black, United State, 1947 Wiseman, N, Dubling review, Burns and Oates, London, 1961 [1] Thomas A, Catholic Church and Secondary School Curriculum in Ireland. Peter Land, New York, 1999 vol 5 [2] Lowe, R, History of education, Routledge, United States, 2000. [3] William B, History of Western Education. Black, United State, 1947. [4] Murphy D, History of Irish Emigrant and Missionary Education, Four Courts Press, Ireland, 2000. [5] Maguire, F, Nineteenth-century Catholic Education, Library Ireland, 1868, Retrieved on 15 March 2008,http://www.libraryireland.com/Maguire/XXVI-1.php [6] McDowell, B, Ireland church in 1869-1969, Routlege, United States, 1975 [7]Herbermann G, Catholic Encyclopaedia, Encyclopaedia Press, United State, 1913 [8] Hansard, C, Parliamentary debates, T.C Hansard, Great Britain, 1824. [9] Coolahan, J, Irish Education History and Structure. Institute of Public Administration United State, 1981. [10] Christ, L, Sherry, E, American Catholism, Appleton-century-croft, London, 1961 [11] Wiseman, N, Dubling review, Burns and Oates, London, 1961 [12] Bruce F., Biever, Religion Culture Values, Ayer United State 1976. Â
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