That's because when she asks volunteers to help at the school, she gets as many as 70 people. Sister Mary Jean says she believes parents long for a Catholic education for their children. At St. Mary, teachers integrate religion in subject areas by annually entering Catholic Daughters of the America contests, according to the principal.
Religion plays a very big part in our classroom.
It teaches them they are part of the church. Sister Mary Jean said students perform charity work in the community by visiting and making cards for nursing home residents. During the holidays, they went caroling to area nursing homes. She said the sixth-graders have been corresponding in letter form to diocesan seminarians, as well as Internet pen pals set up with another teacher in the area. The students seem to really like that and, when the seminarians write back, they get really excited.