(L to R) St. Helen's Principal, Dr. Christine Zerillo with Forum 2013 Catholic Schools Week Essay Contest winner, Anthony Bak with proud parents Robert and Agnes.Forum Newsgroup Photo by Patricia Adams.
This week The Forum offers congratulations to the winner of The Forum’s 2013 Catholic Schools Week Essay Contest.
Anthony Bak is a 6th Grader at St. Helen’s School where he has been in attendance since he was 3 years old.
Anthony loves basketball and has been playing St. Helen CYO basketball for the past six years.
He also enjoys playing the trumpet in the school’s band. Among Anthony’s other interests are a love of nature and sports like skiing and biking.
His favorite subjects in school are science and social studies. He is a participant in both science and basketball camp at St. Francis Prep School during the summers.
Anthony’s essay was chosen out of more than a hundred entrees from participating schools throughout the readership areas of The Forum. He was presented with a certificate of excellence from The Forum Newsgroup and also a $200 cash prize. The winning essay can be read in its entirety below.
Why is Catholic School Education So Important?
By Anthony Bak
Catholic school education is so important because we learn about God in school. When we follow God’s commandments we are closer to God. It also teaches us how to be respectful to teachers and each other. In my school we all go to Mass on every first Friday. This gives us a chance to pray together. We pray for the sick people and for everyone to be safe. In public school children don’t go to church. They don’t learn about God and they can’t even talk about God in class.
This week our school is having Catholic School’s Week. This is a fun week because we learn about God by doing fun activities like Bible searches. We play sport games and contests. We read the Bible together and wrote the message of the Bible story. Then we decorated the door of our classroom with the theme of the story. Our theme was Jesus walks on water. All kids and teachers really like Catholic School’s Week because it gives us a chance to be even closer to God.
In my school we always start our day with a prayer. When a student has a special intention, like someone sick in the family, he can ask the class to pray together for that person. In public schools no one is allowed to pray. Only when something bad happens, like a shooting at school, then people pray to God for help. I heard on the television that when the public school was attacked the teachers who were hiding with the children in the classrooms started to pray. Those children should be allowed to pray everyday not only when something bad is about to happen. Therefore, I am very thankful to my parents that they send me to Catholic school where I can pray every day and learn about God.
