Education Notebook

Footballers’ Faith Boots Them Past 100

USA TODAY, Dec. 3—The Concord, Calif., De La Salle Catholic High School already has the longest winning streak in high school history. Two years ago, they passed the old mark of 72 games held by Hudson High in Michigan.

The Dec. 3 USA Today reported that they were looking to pass another threshold: the first football team to break the century barrier (as this story went to press, newspapers reported that the school did break the record on Dec. 4, with a 38-14 victory over San Leandro High School).

USA Today reported some secrets to the school's success: Players take only three weeks off a year from conditioning. They rededicate themselves during daily chapel sessions and before their large pre-game spaghetti dinners.

The numbers De La Salle has tallied are remarkable. They have lost only one game during the ‘90s, with a 124-1 win-loss record. Coach Bob Ladoucear has won an astounding 94% of his games with a 235-14-1 record. During their 99-game winning streak, De La Salle has outscored their opponents 2,071 to 464.

But “Coach Lad,” as the boys call him, won't take the credit. “What is so incredible about the streak is that I'm not that talented and I'm not that smart.”

Ever humble, he told the USA Today, “But it's a real testimony to what kids can accomplish because we hear so many bad things about what kids can do and how kids are turning bad and what's wrong with our youth today.”

Georgetown Prof. Joins ‘Assisted Dying’ Group

PRNEWSWIRE, Nov. 30—Georgetown professor Tom L. Beauchamp has joined the board of Compassion in Dying Federation.

Compassion in Dying's Web site details their mission. “[U]nlike every other mainstream organization, we insist meaningful reform must include legalization of assisted dying,” it says.

The group recently lambasted the U.S. bishops’ stance on assisted suicide, and Congressional attempts to curtail the practice in Oregon. “Dangerous legislation has reemerged from Rep. Henry Hyde and Sen. Don Nickles. Ghostwritten by National Right to Life and National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Hyde/Nickles 1999 seeks to overturn Oregon's twice voter-approved Death With Dignity Act and squash all patient choice debate in the rest of the United States.”

B. Kirk Robinson, chairman of the Compassion in Dying Federation board, said in a statement, “It speaks well of the importance and integrity of our mission that we have attracted a scholar of Professor Beauchamp's stature and accomplishment.”

Beauchamp is Professor of Philosophy and Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, a Jesuit school in Washington.

Church-State Issue Returns to Court

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Dec. 2—The precise church-state question before the Supreme Court Dec. 1 was whether the Constitution permits the use of public money to put computers and other “instructional equipment” in parochial school classrooms, reported The New York Times.

“But throughout the argument, the justices were quite clearly feeling their way toward a more far-reaching debate over the relationship between government and religious schools, if not between government and religion generally,” wrote the Times.

Using federal money for anything other than the textbooks has long been considered acceptable by Supreme Court precedents. According to the Times, “The law's original focus was on projectors, filmstrips and other equipment that now sounds old-fashioned. More recently, with the federal government's encouragement, a major goal of the program has been making computers available to as many students as possible.”

The program is not well-known but the Times writes, “The case has received substantial attention as a harbinger of how justices might approach other church-state cases, including the question of publicly financed vouchers for parochial school tuition.”