I am blessed to be the father of a beautiful young woman who just began university after graduating from St. Mary’s Academy, an all-girls Catholic school in Portland, Ore. I’ve always been surrounded by strong and faithful women—my mother, my two elder sisters, my many nieces, and of course my wife. In addition to rearing children, they have followed many vocations, some as doctors, engineers, attorneys, investors and the like. But reflecting on the state of my daughter’s high school, I’m concerned that girls today are being offered radically limited ideas of how to live meaningful lives.
Like all Catholic schools, St. Mary’s was pressured during the past decade to get woke with equity teams, affinity groups, Black Lives Matter movements, Native American land acknowledgments, transgender affirmations, climate-change hysteria and all the rest. I found myself counting the days until my daughter was out.
Like all prudent parents, I kept my peace for the most part. But after my daughter graduated, I had an opportunity to reflect on the school’s direction when I received the first alumni donor appeal. The school president defined St. Mary’s mission as preparing girls “to bridge equity gaps, explore careers in STEM, and advocate for change in every element in society.”
Every element in society? This appeal for girls to become mindless agitators without any contemplation of the need, direction and consequences of change should scare the living daylights out of any parent. Yes, your daughter can grow up to be Jane Fonda.
As a handy reference, the fundraising letter included a header with suggested future roles for your daughter. “Girls as . . .” was the repeated phrase followed by a series of suggestions: global citizen, social activist, environmental champion, political leader, scientist, entrepreneur.