Education: An Alternative to Chaos

See everything,

Overlook a great deal,

Improve a little.

So runs a saying of Pope John XXIII's, affixed to a wall at Cardinal Hayes Catholic High School in New York's tough South Bronx. The school tries to live up to the prescription. No hats can be worn inside Cardinal Hayes school, nor is there any room for blue jeans or sneakers, beards or mustaches, profanity, alcohol or "bad attitudes." Bad attitudes involve anything that contradicts the school's motto: "For God and country."

For many years Cardinal Hayes was, like most of the nation's Catholic schools, a training ground for the offspring...

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