What makes a Catholic school unique?

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

MILLBURY – Test time: What’s the difference between a public school and a Catholic school?

This was among questions Bishop McManus asked – and answered – when “quizzing” Assumption Elementary School students Jan. 30 during a Catholic Schools Week visit.
A teacher also gave answers – from her own experiences – when talking with The Catholic Free Press.

Students study the same basic subjects in public and Catholic schools, Bishop McManus noted in his homily at Mass. But Catholic schools also have the privilege of passing on the Catholic faith, he said.

“You young people, I’m sure, are very computer savvy,” he told students, as he made a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. But, he said, the most important questions and their answers are: Where did I come from? (God), Where am I going? (back to God) and How do I get there? (by “keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus ... the way, the truth and the life.”)

In public school, “You can’t even ask those questions,” Bishop McManus said. He said those present were celebrating that these students can go to Assumption Elementary, which helps them know their purpose in life is to get to heaven and spend eternity with God.

Music teacher Carol Zabinski said she taught in public schools in different states for a total of 21 years – until her family could afford to have her stop doing so.

She was hired as music director of Good Shepherd Parish in Linwood, now closed, by Father Daniel R. Mulcahy Jr., she said. He brought her to Assumption Elementary to help with music after he came to Millbury. He is pastor of the school’s parish, St. Brigid and Our Lady of the Assumption.  

Mrs. Zabinski said a public school principal once told her to remove the “What would Jesus do?” sticker on her guitar case. She responded that the case was her property; if the school gave her a guitar and case, she would not put any stickers on their property.

“Music was very underfunded” in the school, she said. She was not given equipment, and she kept her own – with her sticker.

Another time, she said, a teacher told her she should not teach spirituals during Black History Month.

“Because I wasn’t allowed to teach about God ... I had to eliminate a section of Black history” – songs about going someplace better (heaven) – Mrs. Zabinski objected. She said she didn’t stop teaching these, and “nobody said another word” about it.

“For me, Jesus is life, and to be denied that part of me” in public school would be unacceptable to her, she said.

What does she like about teaching in a Catholic school?  

“Everything I do revolves around God,” she said. “God is here, so I want to be here too. This particular school (Assumption Elementary) supports the arts like I’ve never been supported in my life. ... Music’s important here.” She’s treated as important too.