St. Augustine High School is a Catholic, private all boys school run by the Josephite Priests and Brothers in New Orleans Louisiana. It began operations in 1951 and includes grades 8 through 12. From its inception the school was designed to educate young men from Black Catholic families in New Orleans. It is one of the top-ranked high schools in Louisiana. Its’ academic and sports programs are legendary, but most people know the school because of its world-renowned marching band. For Black Catholic families in New Orleans, the education and experience that has been part of a legacy of excellence is respected by anyone who has any knowledge of the institution. The Priests, Brothers, teachers, and coaches demand a commitment to excellence. They require attendance at weekly Mass. Respect for the students is the predicate for the high expectations that are expected in the classroom, the athletic fields, and the standards of behavior that are always expected of all students. From the very beginning, all students were always addressed as “Mr.”
The first principal wrote wisely: “Calling the students ‘mister’ would help offset the negative impact of whites calling every black male ‘boy’ no matter what his age, his education, his standing in the community. Likewise, and for stronger reasons, the use of ‘mister’ would serve to negate the deleterious impact of the hateful use of the ‘n’ word.” This was written in 1951 long before the Great Society or Civil Rights Acts of 1965.
I was again reminded of this “shining point of light” by a TV show that featured the band. The band director was interviewed at length. He was adamant about the fact that reverence for God, respect and discipline were the cornerstones of everything that went on at the school. There was no entitlement. There was no sense of victimhood. Accountability and responsibility are expected of faculty and students alike. The words “no excuse Sir”, are often heard throughout the school. There is no “bullying” or as one Brother puts it the “bully is soon “taken care of”. Students with disabilities are held in high esteem and respected. The number of engineers, lawyers, doctors, and professional musicians and athletes are far greater on a per capita basis than almost any other school in Louisiana.
THE MARCHING 100—”The best band in the land” has played for Popes, Presidents, Rose Bowl Parades, and in Super Bowls. They are going on a European tour this summer. They were featured on CBS’s 60mins several years ago in a less than flattering way. You see until about 10 years ago the school exercised judiciously a form of corporal punishment called “the school board” which was an oak plank applied to the back side of a student who was lacking in judgement or discipline. Former NBA Basketball star Hollis Price stated that he got paddled in the classroom and once in basketball practice for talking over his coach. When the Archdiocese of New Orleans abolished “paddling” in 2011 there was a mass uprising of over 1000 parents and former students—many of the parents were former students who sent their own kids to St. Augustine expressly for the discipline they knew their kids would be given. A spokesman for the group stated that “they weren’t for corporal punishment unless it was needed to create an atmosphere of discipline and respect” Even 500 students who were currently enrolled in the school objected to the ban saying the “archdiocese was trying to fix something that wasn’t broken”. In response to a statement by the archbishop that no other Catholic schools in New Orleans now employed corporal discipline, District Court Judge Kern Reese, an alumnus of the school, said, “we are not everyone else. We don’t care about everyone else. This (corporal punishment) works at St. Augustine”.
St. Augustine’s college admission rates to private and State Universities has always been higher than almost any other high school in Louisiana. I couldn’t find the 5-year graduation rates from college for St. Augustine graduates, but I bet it is higher than the 43% rate for Idaho students.
The reason I wanted to highlight St. Augustine is because it receives very little Federal Funds. It is mostly funded by the Diocese of New Orleans. The reason it is successful is not because of the $/ student, but because of the respect and discipline that are exercised routinely on campus. There is no tolerance for anything less. Holding students and faculty to high standards can be uncomfortable at times, but always the results will speak for themselves. Unfortunately, in Idaho where the educational establishment is more concerned with a curriculum of DEI instead of a pedagogy of dignity and respect, teaching STEM studies and the humanities becomes almost impossible for many teachers in some schools.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a high school in Idaho that insisted on such high standards and that created such high expectations for their students. Not everybody in our community comes from a perfect family. In places like St Augustine, most of the young men come from a place of poverty and from single parent homes. In those places, people who love their children and want to give them every opportunity to succeed know that discipline creates respect and only then can the learning begin. If it requires the old “school board” to create an atmosphere of discipline and respect so that learning can take place, I say things could be much worse—there could be no discipline at all, and in a few, certainly not all, of our classrooms that is the case. Our students are the ones who will suffer. There are things in life much worse than a “swat on the fanny”. Not learning and not being given the structure and opportunity to realize one’s potential is a far greater tragedy.
