Two Black high school students proved the Pythagoras Theorem using trigonometry — an approach previously considered impossible. Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson, students at St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans, presented their achievement at the American Mathematical Society’s meeting last year — they solved the theorem using the law of sines. Pythagoras Theorem states that: the sum of the squares on the legs of a right triangle equals the square of the hypotenuse — the side opposite the right angle of the triangle; expressed algebraically: a2+b2 = c2. These students prove that, given the chance, most children’s potential is limitless.

The pillars that a good education rests upon include supportive families, a student’s enthusiasm and willingness to be challenged, and good teachers, in good schools. Catholic school education, with its meticulous attention to the individual student, continues to be the gold standard.

The family is at the center of a child’s academic and other endeavors. Calcea’s and Ne’Kiya’s supportive parents accompanied them along their academic adventure. To present the up-to-then impossible trigonometric proof of Pythagoras Theorem, their teachers had great confidence in their ability. Once challenged, the students embarked on the proof that took months.

Teachers and pupils live within a universe of scholarly excellence, something the Catholic tradition has honed to a perfect pitch. It was no small matter for the two students to be the ones to contradict Elisha Loomis, the mathematician and educator who in his 1927 book The Pythagorean Proposition said: “no trigonometric proof could be correct.” Before giving them the challenging opportunity their math teacher saw the glow of an ember of possibility in them. This sort of teacher helps kids’ minds to grow and flower. St. Mary’s Academy, a private K-12 Catholic school, has the motto, “No excellence without hard labor.” Founded in 1867, it’s one of the oldest Black catholic schools in the country.

Excellence exists in many private and public schools, though, in general, public schools in wealthier districts tend to stand out more, compared to poor districts’ schools. Wealth and excellence as comfortable twins is an American phenomenon.

Denver School of Science and technology, DSST Public school, describes itself as a public charter STEM network comprising of 16 schools in Denver and Aurora, in partnership with Denver Public schools. Founded in 2004 by David Ethan Greenberg and Bill Kurtz, it’s ranked among the top 200 public schools in the US. Student admission is by lottery. Students of color comprise 80% of the student body; 68% qualify for free lunch. Nearly 100% of graduating students go to four-year university.

St. Mary’s Academy, Regis Jesuit High, DSST and others are committed to personal and educational excellence. Parents, teachers, administrators all work together toward one objective: for students to soar, per ardua ad astra — Latin for, “through struggle to the stars.” Catholic schools on an average do better than others. They have a history of academic competence teaching elite as well as poor children.

Historically Catholic schools were leaders in the education of Black children. A Baltimore school for girls was founded in 1828, 40 years before other public schools for Black children. Schools established to cater to Catholic immigrants from Ireland, south and Eastern Europe continued to teach Black children of the Great Migration after the White Catholics migrated to the suburbs.

Post-COVID pandemic, 6.4% of Catholic schools have closed nationwide because poor, unemployed parents can’t afford private school tuition, and the controversy about teaching Algebra to eighth-graders rages on. Their alternative, public schools, have many problems of their own. Schools like the DSST and other elite public schools with STEM education focus do an admirable job.

It is the shuttering of urban Catholic schools that concerns me. My wish: mount efforts by local authorities, philanthropists and parent groups to find ways to support them through their financial shortfall. To preserve the few nooks of excellence and light we are still blessed to have is the wisest choice for our children.

That large number of non-Catholic families — Protestants, Muslims, Jews or atheists — who send their children to Catholic schools is a testament to a Catholic education’s superiority. These students usually carry with them the tradition of hard work and a degree of academic honesty. It is to them and others that we call upon to do all that can be done to avoid more school closures resulting from the lack of small amounts of tuition and fees. Imagine the genius left wandering in the urban jungle because a school is closed.

Pius Kamau, M.D., a retired general surgeon, is president of the Aurora-based Africa America Higher Education Partnerships; co-founder of the Africa Enterprise Group and an activist for minority students’ STEM education. He is a National Public Radio commentator, a Huffington Post blogger, a past columnist for Denver dailies and is featured on the podcast, “Never Again.”