THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION Andrew M. Greeley Peter H. Rossi Leonard J. Pinto This survey was made possible by funds granted by The Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and views ex- pressed are solely the responsibility of the authors. NATIONAL OPINION RESEARCH CENTER University of Chicago Preliminary Report No. 99-A September, 1964 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study was made possible by a grant from the Carnegie . Corp or at ion. The national advisory committee that helped in the design of the questionnaire was composed of Anthony Downs, Joseph Fichter, Charles Glock, Bernard Lazerwitz , Gerhard Lenski , John Hotchkin , William McManus , Robert McNamara , Lloyd Morrisett James O' Gara, Michael Schlitz, George Shuster, and Marshal Sklare. Sampling was directed by Seymour Sudman, field work by Galen Gockel coding by Carol Bowman, and data processing by Harold Levy and Patrick Page. Richard Jaffe, assistant director of NORC, super- vised the budgeting o the survey, and Fansayde Calloway acted as office manager. Among our colleagues at NORC who provided special assistance were Jaoob J. Feldman , James A Davis, Norman M. Bradburn, Seymour Warkov, John W. C. Johnstone, and Joe Spaeth. Research assist- ance at various times was provided by James Squyres, James Vanecko John Denvir, and Daniel FarrelL. The final draft was edited by Eleanor Nicholson, -iii';" .. .. .. .... ... ..... .... ... ..... ....'. ..... ..... ... '? ..... ..... ...... ..... .. ..... ... .... ..... ..... ....... ......... ....... .. ...... TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES vii INTRODUCT ION Chapter I. WHO WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOLS? . II. RELIGIOUS BEHAVIOR III. RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES IV. WERE CATHOLIC . SCHOOLS t DIVISIVE' CONCLUSION APPENDICES A. SW'PLEMENTARY TABLES ON RELIGIOUS BEHAVIOR A METHODOLOGICAL NOTE ON STANDARDIZATION A METHODOLOGICAL NOTE ON SAMLING AND FIELD WORK 103 THE QUESTIONNAIRE LO;9. v'; .. .. .. .. .... .... .... ..... ... .... .... .. ..... .. ....... ........ .... LIST OF TABLES Tab le Page Sex and School Attendance 1.. Age and School Attendance of Respondent Size of Hometown and School Attendance of Respondent L 4 Place of Birth and School .Attendance Ethnicity of Father and Mother and School Attendance 1: 6 Father s Occupation and School Attendance Education of Father and Mother and School Attendance 1. 8 Church Attendance of Father and Mother and School Attendance of Respondent Correlates of Exclusive Attendance at Catholic Schools 1.10 School Attendance and Respondent' s Occupation 1.11 Mean Occupation Rating (Duncan Scale) and School Attendance for Respondent and Father 1.12 TheAttainment Influence of Catholic Education on Educational 1.13 Selected Background Variables and Educational Experience. 1.14 School Attendance by Religiousness of Parents, City Size, Hometown, Sex, and Respondent' s Education 1.15 Ethnicity and Educational Background II. 1 Religious Devotion and Educational Background II. 2 Agreement That Their Church Has the Right to Teach What Stand Members Should Take on Certain Issues II. - Involvement in the Catholic Community and Educational Background II. 4 Charity and Educational Background III. 1 Religious Knowledge and Educational Background III. 2 Doctrinal Orthodoxy and Educational Background III. 3 Ethical Orthodoxy and Educational Background III. 4 Social Attitude and Educational Background 11:. Attitudes Toward Catholic Education by Educational Background -:vi,i.; . .. .. .. .. .... ..... ...... ...... ........ ...... ........ .. viii- LIST . OF TABLES--CONTINUED Tabl Page IV. ReligionBackground of Friends During Adolescence and Educational IV. Religion of Friends and Educational Background .. D IV. Involvement in Secular Affairs and Educational Background IV. Open..Mindedness " and Educational Background IV. Attitude on Public Issues and Educational Background IV. Prejudice and Educational Background IV. The Protestant Ethic " and Educational Background Social Class by Religion and Age A. I Educational Background and Mass Attendance A. 2 Educational Background and Communion Reception A. 3 Educational Back round and Frequency of Confession A. 4 Educational Background and Frequency of Visits to Church to Pray A: , Educational Background and Frequency of Private Prayer A: . Educational Background and Membership in Religious Organizations A. 7 Educational Background and Number of Religious Organizations to which Respondent Belongs A: 8 Financial Contribution and Educational Background . A.. Educational Background and Priests ' Visits to Respondents Homes Educational Background and Value Choices Educational Background and Helpfulness Educational Background and Self-Description B. 1 Per cent of Demographic and Social Factors Among Men and Women 101 INTRODUCTION Background How does one generation hand on its norms and values to the generation which follows it? The continuity of cultural traditions is an inescapable fact , but the mechanisms by which these traditions are maintained are still not fuilly understood. For not only are knowledge and skills and values transmitted, but so also are modes of viewing reality, expectations of interpersonal behavior, and styles of adjustment to life prob 1 ems . Even though the ways of transmitting do not always work as well as they might and are not usually strong enough to inh:jbitspci.aL' cnange ,complEote.l;y, their efficiency is still one of the striking aspects of human social behavior. Sooialization is not a unitary j)rocess, nor is it confined to the very young; on the cOhtrary, there are various sac ialization processes beginning at different times in the life cycle of the in- dividual and terminating at different ages. Since many of these processes run concomitantly, it is quite possible that there may be conflict among the socialization processes through which a young person is passing. Thus there are different and possibly conflict- ing processes at work in the family, the work group, and the civic society. Even though little is known about the meshing of these var- ious processes, it seems evident that in modern western society, formal education is expected .to playa major harmonizing role. The school is expected to preside over the transition from the diffuse, ascriptive, particularistic atmosphere of the home to the specific, achievement- oriented, universalistic atmosphere of economic and civil society. Presumably the school is charged with seeing that the transition is accomplished with a minimum of confusion and per- sonality strain by developing a respect for the underlying values of a society which transcend the potential conflicts among its var- ious institutions. As Eisenstadt has pointed out, it is only in a society where the role expectations of family and work groups are s o diverse that a system of universal education is either necessary or possible. From this viewpoint, the school may be seen as an attempt to counter- act the discontinuity of the various socialization experiences. In American society the school is expected to take on an additional socialization process. America was, and to a cons ider~ able extent still is, a nation composed of diverse ethnic immigrant groups. The styles of socialization of the various groups are pre- sumed to be considerably different from each other and from those of the older American traditions; therefore, the universal school sys- tem must be expected to provide a socialization experience that win inculcate the styles and the values of a basic cultural synthesis If this common socialization experience in the universal school sys- tem were absent, the diversities among the various American cultural groups might lead to a chaotic and even disintegrating social system. It is not clear to social scientists , however, that institu- tions of formal education are capable of accomplishing such a mam- moth task. The classroom may wen be a place where formal skills are learned; it may also contribute to the transition from family- oriented patterns of behavior to universalistic patterns of behav~ ior; it finally may contribute marginally to the creation of a cul- tural synthesis. But whether formal instruction really has much S. N. Eisenstadt From Generation to Generation (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1957). inf uence on either cultural values or value-oriented behavior not evident. Most sociological inquiry suggests that informal SO" cialization as it occurs in the face to- face context of people in intimate settings is a more significant mode of socialization than formal indoctrination. Social scientists of this school of thought are ready to concede that a considerable amount of socialization occurs in the school milfu" but they suggest that it takes place not as a result of the formal instruction of the classroom but rather in the informal groups which grow up among the students. Often this type of socialization is in opposition to the values and ideology of the school administration. Recent studies of IIcarpus culture, " for example, would suggest that informal groups of college students regulate academic "production" in a fashion not dissimilar from the workings of informal groups in the factory environment. The question of whether the school is primarily an insti- tution for imparting skills or whether it can impart skills in- culcate values is not an easy one to resolve since there seems to be no way to develop an experimental situation. If a group of American students could be exposed to all of the other cultural in- fluences in American society except the