Another product of Catholic schools on the Supreme Court?

In an ironic twist, Catholics, who for most of our country’s history had been kept from positions of power, may add to their recent majority on the Supreme Court.  In what seems to be a testament to the ability of Catholic Schools to teach well, especially to the disadvantaged, we see a Cardinal Spellman High School graduate nominated to the Supreme Court today (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sotomayor).   When I was in grade school 8 out of 9 on the court were Protestant.  Quite a difference now … Catholic schools seem to win hands down in creating lawyers.

http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/the-catholic-court/

WSJ – “High-School Senior: I Took the SAT Again After 41 Years”

Fascinating article describing a Wall Street Journal writer (and mother) who retook the SAT on a dare from her high school age son.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124337711110856009.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

I too took the SAT practice exams, and found the Math section easier than I expected, but like the WSJ writer, was worried what the Writing test score would show

I also found the new SAT (at least the practice tests) surprisingly appropriate – testing skills that seem very well matched to what colleges would expect.

Catholic schools crucial in forming top judges

In reading about the upcoming retirement of David Souter, one of only 4 non-Catholics on the US Supreme Court, I came across an interesting article explaining why after little representation in positions of power for almost 200 years, Catholics are the majority on the Supreme Court, and why so many top lawyers and judges are Catholic.  Some interesting quotes:

“the number of highly qualified conservative Catholic lawyers is also a tribute to the strength of Catholic schools”

“beginning in the 1960s, many conservative Catholics went into the legal profession “because they felt the constitutional jurisprudence of the country was not reflecting their values,”

“Catholics are the intellectual pillars of social conservatism. Compared to their political allies in that movement, Catholics are heirs to a richer intellectual tradition and . . . are more inclined to believe that reason supplies good grounds for the moral and political positions.”

See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/06/AR2005110601134_2.html

Catholic schools continue to be crucial in forming the intellectual, and intellectually honest “servant leaders” of tomorrow, and with our rich intellectual tradition have inherent advantages over other schools.