St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School among seven selected for Newman Guide

Barbara Plaisted, center, who teaches 5th and 6th grade religion worships with students, teachers and parents at Mass celebrated by Fr. Austin Hoodenpyle on the first day of school for Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School, in Keller, Wednesday August 16, 2023. (NTC/Rodger Mallison)

KELLER —Barbara Plaisted and her husband relied on the Newman Guide to help their own children discern where to attend college.

The Cardinal Newman Society, since 2007, has researched and published a list of “model Catholic colleges … with strong policies and standards that uphold Catholic identity,” as the organization states on its website.

Because Plaisted, a St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School teacher, was familiar with the Newman Guide, she was “thrilled to pieces” when she learned the organization selected the Keller school for its first listing of K-12 schools. Only seven elementary, middle, or high schools nationwide are currently recognized in the Newman Guide.

The Cardinal Newman Society stated the recognition affirms that the school “strives for the very best of Catholic education … and stands as an exemplar of faithful Catholic education for other schools nationwide.”

Plaisted, who teaches fifth and sixth-grade religion, said that the Newman Guide does thorough research into its selections to give assurance that the school “lives by the teachings of the Magisterium and the Church, and [that] we will offer children something true and beautiful and solid in their formation.”

She credits the commitment and faithfulness of the teachers, parents, and school leadership in their collaboration to raise faithful children.

Plaisted said that “Catholicism permeates just about everything that we do” in the pre-K – 8 grade school. Lessons about God and His Church are woven into every subject.

Sharon Barmore has taught at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School for almost 20 years.

Being selected as a Newman Guide school, she said, reassures prospective families that teachers “don’t just teach about virtue, but live and practice the virtue. We want to proclaim the Catholic faith as it should be, to do our best to live it.”

Barmore currently teaches religion to Pre-K3 through third grade pupils using the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd curriculum.

The program incorporates lessons about Jesus’ parables and hands-on experiences with child-sized Mass articles to help students understand the faith and become more attentive at Mass, she observed.

It’s never too early to teach children the faith, explained Barmore, who said, “They understand it better than we could ever even imagine.”