Advent is a season of preparation.\u00a0 But I will\u00a0bet you anything that if you lead a Catholic school or a Christian school, you’re not just preparing for Christmas.\u00a0 You’re planning for at least three things: Christmas, the next school year, and the week when your school celebrates its distinguishing faith tradition.<\/p>\n
Chances are you’re consumed by Christmas since it’s less than two weeks away.\u00a0 The next school year receives lowest priority because it’s not “next” on the radar screen.\u00a0 And that’s okay – since when you start planning for the next school year, you enter a period of schizophrenic activity – that is, living in two different worlds at the same time.<\/p>\n
For now, though, let’s focus on Catholic Schools Week (at the end of January\/early February) and Christian Education Week (late February\/early March).\u00a0 I hope you’ll agree with me that the week is a time to, as the tag line states, “Celebrate Catholic Schools” or “Celebrate Christian Education.”\u00a0\u00a0 Many schools use this time to welcome parents of prospective students to open house events.<\/p>\n
But…it’s probably a little too late to do that effectively.<\/p>\n
Let’s use Catholic Schools Week as the example.<\/p>\n
The week begins at the end of January, the same month as the feast day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who is credited with originating the first free Catholic school in the United States.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the January into February timeframe is usually fraught with snow and ice in the Northeast and through the upper half of the United States, which has routinely cancelled many of the events planned to celebrate Catholic schools.\u00a0 It could be more than coincidence that Catholic Schools Week started in 1974 – which is the same year that the enrollment “slide” of Catholic schools began.<\/p>\n
While it has\u00a0been commendable to continue the national marketing campaign\u00a0for Catholic schools,\u00a0the marketing experts\u00a0seem to have overlooked three facts which are important to keep in mind: 1)\u00a0We are a “headline” society; 2)\u00a0Our media-savvy society enjoys\u00a0the double-entendre as a way to\u00a0catch attention, a technique which has trained consumers to make creative connections on their own; and 3) Marketing must happen constantly – not just for a week.<\/p>\n
Techniques that may have worked back in 1974 won’t necessarily work 51 years later.\u00a0 “Fly the friendly skies of United” and “Wouldn’t you really rather have a Buick,” two of the more popular marketing campaigns of that era aren’t heard anymore, and the cigarette ads of the day are no longer seen.\u00a0 Today, the shorter the slogan, the better.\u00a0 That’s because “short and powerful” is easier to remember.<\/p>\n
Back in 1974, there were only 3 television networks which broadcast commercials.\u00a0 Now, hundreds of video programming networks don’t even occupy the broadcast spectrum due to digital signals and cable networks.\u00a0\u00a0In print media, newspaper headlines usually place a subject first, followed by an action verb.\u00a0 Let’s see what images come to your mind when you read these headlines.\u00a0 Say them out loud so you really hear what you’re reading – “Biden Wins!”\u00a0 “Incumbents Ousted!”\u00a0 “Stocks Slide!” “Gold Soars!”\u00a0 “Catholic Schools Week!”\u00a0 See (or hear) what just happened there?<\/p>\n
Even though we see “Week,” we can hear “Weak.”<\/p>\n
Remember that Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month used to be only week-long events too, and became month-long events when a week just wasn’t enough – and a month really isn’t enough either!\u00a0 “Catholic Schools Month” would even be better to use since 1) The homonymic confusion doesn’t happen, 2) More time could be given for the school to celebrate its achievements, and 3) Event cancellation due to inclement weather may have the possibility of being rescheduled during the month.<\/p>\n
Marketing should be a constant and never-ending process, but setting aside only a week to celebrate the achievements and remarkable educational environment faith-based schools does NOTHING to raise awareness.<\/p>\n
Then what’s the purpose of it, if not marketing?<\/p>\n
Consider who we celebrate with!<\/p>\n
Earlier in this article, I mentioned that most schools use this time to begin their enrollment efforts for the school year that begins in the coming fall.\u00a0 This is time to solidify the commitment of parents that are considering enrolling their child in your school – not just start the process.<\/p>\n
Since these week-long events are weeks of celebration, and we usually celebrate milestone events with our family, friends, and members of the communities we’re a part of, the same holds true for these celebrations.\u00a0 This is the time to re-enroll<\/em> current families and celebrate with them!<\/p>\n Indeed, and especially in the new year, celebrate the fact that parents want to continue to be involved with the community that is your faith-based school.\u00a0 These are retention<\/em> events –\u00a0 re-enrollment events, if you will, and not necessarily admission\/enrollment events…and schools should prepare accordingly.<\/p>\n After all, good preparation is what Advent is all about!<\/p>\n \u00a9 Michael V. Ziemski, SchoolAdvancement, 2010-2025 (Original publication date: 20101213)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Advent is a season of preparation.\u00a0 But I will\u00a0bet you anything that if you lead a Catholic school or a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MM-Purple.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ggCS-Kd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2865"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8021,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions\/8021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}