Teach Me to Be Generous

Founded in 1914 by an anonymous donor, Regis High School has been the only Jesuit school in the United States which has been tuition-free for its entire history. Established as a school for Catholic boys whose families could not otherwise afford a Catholic education, its admissions qualifications were set high from the very start and have remained so making Regis one of the most prestigious secondary schools in the country. The school opened offering a solid Classical education, but over the decades this has changed now with a stronger emphasis on math and science. At the time of its foundation, Regis offered a spiritual formation to its students very much rooted in a Tridentine style of Catholicism which was largely true in the other Jesuit schools around the country. Eventually this also began to change as the school, like the other Catholic educational institutions, responded to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council as well as the social forces and changes in educational philosophy that swept the U.S. in the late 1960s and 70s. This study chronicles these developments while also offering glimpses into the lives and daily experience of the students and faculty through the use of both anecdote and statistical analysis in looking comparative trends. During the school's first few decades, Regis admitted thousands of Catholic boys mostly from poor or lower middle class families helping prepare them for college and success and leadership positions in the professions as well as entrance into the middle class. which also helped propel them and their families into the middle class. Because of the closing of dozens of urban Catholic schools and the general decline of the quality of the city's public schools, in more recent years the school has faced the challenge of remaining true to its mission in offering an education to Catholic boys "who otherwise would not be able to afford a Catholic education."