Catholic school effect
n.— «If it makes sense you learn democracy by being randomly thrown together with a classroom of strangers, what could explain why chosen schools do better at it? It could be that parents are more involved, says Wolf, or teachers are freer to discuss moral values. It could be what’s called the “Catholic school effect,” as when Catholic schools responded to nativist suspicion by bending over backwards to instill patriotism: Private schools know they must try harder.» —“The unity that we choose” by Patrick McIlheran Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin) May 26, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
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