Catholic Schools Week – Teaching Discipline

President Theodore Roosevelt once said “With self-discipline, most anything is possible.”

One of the most important characteristics of a Catholic school is that it is a safe and disciplined environment, a place where real education can thrive because all there are centered on the same goal: to learn through faith. In fact, Proverbs 12 says “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge” and that is a fact … knowledge requires both focus and discipline.

We live in a society that loves freedom, that revolves around the "me", that too often celebrates undisciplined lives, whether in celebrities, television shows, sports figures. Too many people are entranced by the spectacle of life on the edge. Too many kids drop out of school. Too many adults take on vices that do them no lasting good. The danger can be palpable and infectious, but the dragon of Revelation is there.

Self-discipline is a learned art, one that is taught every day in Catholic schools. Our children are our future, and that future is brightest when it is focused, when children and young adults see that a disciplined life builds more value for the self and for the community. It is the way that God wants us to take, rather than succumb to the worst that life has to offer. He showed that from the beginning, in the Garden of Eden … and he sent his only Son to show us, too.

Proverbs 15 says “Stern discipline awaits him who leaves the path” … I pray that my children have seen that self-discipline is the way to a blessed and righteous path.