How would education expert Father Joseph O'Keefe, S.J. reboot Catholic schools if he could start from scratch? In a time and place not so far away, O'Keefe has imagined a Catholic school utopia where everyone is plugged into the same mission.

For many years, Nearfutureville was a just small desert town with very few Catholics. Today, it is emblematic of the Catholic Church in the United States, with migrants from the Northeast and Midwest and immigrants from every part of the globe. Its Catholic population includes a few extremely wealthy entrepreneurs, a significant number of middle-class professionals, and many lower-income people who mostly work in the service industry.

Three years ago, the bishop of the newly established Diocese of Nearfutureville, convinced that Catholic education is the best way to foster faith, established an innovative network of schools. When diocesan leaders reflected on how well their Catholic education had prepared them for leadership today, they realized that they had to prepare young people for leadership in 2050. "What will the world be like then?" they wondered. "How can we prepare young people today for what they will face tomorrow?"

Diocesan leaders knew that they had a golden opportunity to be visionary pioneers; they wanted to complement the best of the past with cutting-edge innovations to prepare for the future. They identified three distinctive elements of their educational enterprise: fostering 21st-century thinking skills, sustaining vibrant faith communities, and being anchored in and anchoring the greater community.

Yesterday's schools cannot provide the knowledge and skills that will be needed by those who will be society's leaders in the mid-21st century. In the past, schools transmitted knowledge in routine and often fragmented pieces through courses and written materials five days per week for 180 days in an academic calendar created to accommodate an agricultural society.

Over the past decade, discoveries in neuroscience and cognitive psychology reveal that traditional ways of organizing curriculum and instruction fail to provide optimal learning experiences. Schools today need to foster creativity over rote memorization, differentiated learning rather than one-size-fits-all, problem solving over quick right-and-wrong answers.

Along with advances in our understanding of the way the brain processes knowledge are dramatic changes in the way knowledge is passed on. Information about anything is just a Google search away, and heavy encyclopedias and newspapers are being replaced by Wikipedia, news websites, and blogs. School libraries are not so much physical places that own books and journals; they are virtual sites that provide access to e-books and e-journals.

More than transmitting knowledge, schools must give students the ability to sort, to evaluate, and to synthesize the knowledge that is constantly at their fingertips.

Schools must be nimble and creative if they are to meet the needs of the 21st-century workplace. Sadly, public school systems-with teachers' unions, highly politicized school boards, and centralized bureaucracies-too often stifle creativity. The stagnancy of public education has given rise to charter schools, which are more responsive to contemporary needs. But they too are often straitjacketed by high-stakes tests based on state-mandated curriculum frameworks.

Catholic schools certainly have challenges but they are relatively free from bureaucracy, and unlike charter schools they have a long track record of academic integrity. In other words, Catholic schools are uniquely poised to meet the needs of 21st-century learners.

Catholic schools today must be more than a building. Through government grants, corporate contributions, and private donors, Nearfutureville Catholic Schools expand the "walls" of the school by providing every student a laptop, and they ensure that every home has wireless capabilities. Courses for all students, from kindergarten through grade 12, are a blend of in-class and online activities, and the divide between schoolwork and homework gradually has disappeared. Home is as much of a learning space as the school building but, paradoxically, the need for the school building has never been as great.

Public schools and charter schools can well afford to buy the infrastructure and human resources required to build such 21st-century educational institutions, but they lack the faith-based grounding to teach young people to discern what is worth knowing in a vast ocean of information and unlimited virtual possibilities.

While reading the signs of the times, educational leaders must remain faithful to the primary goal of a Catholic school: passing on the joy of a Catholic way of life to the next generation, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. At the heart of the Catholic way of life is community, and while much relationship-building can happen online, there is no substitute for being physically present to each other.

The Catholic leaders of Nearfutureville are pleased that they have focused most of their attention on the spiritual development of the adults who work in the schools. They were careful to hire for mission. Even though they hired some non-Catholics, every person, from principal to custodian, is enthusiastic about the religious character of the schools.

The schools promote a Catholicism that brings the tradition to life in a joyful and vibrant way. The religious art depicts heroes of the tradition, contemporary and ancient, and intentionally reflects the multicultural reality of the Catholic Church. The atmosphere echoes the rhythms of Catholic life, its stories and seasons.

Laypeople have a central ministerial role, having been prepared to lead public prayer, reflect publicly on scripture, and offer spiritual counsel to peers, parents, and pupils. Local clergy, freed from management, have more time and energy to minister in frequent sacramental celebrations. High school students work on catechetical programs for younger children  as well as acting as peer ministers.

All of the staff members do annual retreats to reflect on their own vocation and the collective vocation of the school community. Are they people of hope? Are they passionate about what they teach, and is that passion rooted in their experience of God? Do they respect and care for each other as adults in the school? Is their community marked by forgiveness, mutual concern, and tough love when needed? Do they love those who aren't very lovable? Do their priorities reflect solidarity with the poor, the oppressed, or anyone in need? Does their behavior witness to a belief in God?

Of course, no one on this side of heaven could give an unequivocal yes to any of these questions. But these are the building blocks for the kind of vibrant religious community that the next generation will find attractive and compelling.

It has often been said that knowledge without virtue is dangerous, and virtue without knowledge is ineffectual. Nearfutureville Catholic Schools endeavor to provide young people with a sophisticated understanding of scientific and technological developments that will have an impact on how we define human life. Those who will be leaders in 2050 will face a number of pivotal questions-about the beginning and end of life, genetic engineering, cloning, ecology, economics, and politics-that will demand both knowledge and virtue.

In seeking to provide a strong moral compass, the educational leaders take as their guiding principle the dictum often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, "Preach the gospel always; use words when necessary." In the Nearfutureville Catholic Schools, teachers and staff don't just talk the talk; they walk the walk.

It takes an entire village to educate a child. Catholic schools have an incomparable strength in their ability to build and sustain a strong multifaceted community. Sociologist James Coleman found that students do well in Catholic schools because they experience a sense of belonging, cohesiveness, and connection. This is the legacy of the traditional parish school. Catholic schools still excel at building community.