St. Rita Great Text Canon

St. Rita Great Text Canon

Future Goals and Policy Stances

At St. Rita Catholic School, we believe that technology is a powerful educational tool when used intentionally to enhance learning, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. Technology should support, not replace, meaningful teacher instruction, authentic student engagement, and rich interpersonal relationships. Guided by research and our mission to develop servant leaders through faith, hope, love, and the joyful pursuit of knowledge, we are committed to creating learning environments where technology is purposeful, balanced, and developmentally appropriate.

We are equally committed to cultivating a schoolwide culture of independent reading. Reading is the foundation of lifelong learning, curiosity, empathy, and academic success. Students should regularly experience sustained, uninterrupted time with high-quality books, allowing them to develop stamina, deepen comprehension, expand vocabulary, and discover the joy of reading. Technology will never replace the value of a student immersed in a meaningful text or the relationships that grow from discussing literature with teachers and peers. By balancing thoughtful technology integration with intentional opportunities for independent reading, we seek to form thoughtful, literate, and reflective learners who are prepared to flourish academically, spiritually, and personally.

St. Rita Great Text Canon-First Edition (2026)

To support this vision, St. Rita Catholic School has developed the St. Rita Great Text Canon, a thoughtfully curated collection of enduring works of literature, poetry, biographies, and other exemplary writings that have shaped culture, inspired virtue, and stood the test of time. A literary canon represents a body of works widely recognized for their lasting intellectual, artistic, moral, and cultural significance. These texts challenge students to think deeply, engage with timeless questions, develop empathy, strengthen critical thinking, and grow in wisdom and character. While teachers may supplement instruction with contemporary and informational texts that support curricular goals, the Great Text Canon serves as the primary foundation for independent reading, shared classroom reading, and literary study. We seek to direct both teacher planning and student reading toward these enduring works so that every St. Rita graduate develops a shared literary and cultural foundation that reflects both academic excellence and our Catholic mission.