I have spent my entire school career in Catholic schools, and it didn’t dawn on me until my final year that this has had a large role in shaping the person I am. Of the different life events that have formed me, a great deal of them have, in one way or another, been linked to my parents’ decision to send me to Catholic school. This isn’t to say I have no life outside of my education; it is instead a reality that I only noticed as it came to an end.

Perhaps my most enjoyable and self-fulfilling passion is music. While I may not be performing Gregorian Chant with the band I now play with, I do recognize my love for music started out in my earlier years as I attended St. Michael’s Choir School. This gave me the theory and musicianship I needed to write my own material, as well as a solid foundation in vocals, piano and performing.

More recently, a pair of retreats went a long way in defining who I am and provided me with a strong sense of self and faith. Some of the best moments of my life have been on the Salesian Leadership Retreat, a weekend encompassing about a dozen schools across the Toronto Catholic District School Board, as well as on the KAIROS Retreat, a Brebeuf-specific program. These episodes of my life have been some of the most memorable, enjoyable and formative.

Though many of these same experiences could have come if my parents had simply enrolled me in piano lessons and encouraged me to get involved in a parish youth group, there is more to Catholic education than these isolated events. In a Catholic school, there is a sense of community simply because we all know we share at least one common characteristic: our faith. Students may take for granted mandatory religion classes, school Masses and morning prayers, but these set Catholic schools apart. This, along with school ministries and an underlying Catholic morality in all teaching, helps transform students from a number into a human person worth knowing and investing in.

While I don’t ignore or pretend to know all the different political factors being presented in Ontario’s current Catholic school funding dilemma, it is disheartening to know that future generations may not have the opportunity to experience these same benefits. Amid the political correctness of the public system, there would be no potential for faith-based retreats, religious groups or ministries within schools. Whatever the argument posed against faith-based schools, I simply know I will be disappointed if my own children never have the same chance to enjoy the same privileges.

(Rinaldi, 18, is a recent graduate of Brebeuf College in Toronto.)