“I would rather send my child to a secular school than to a Catholic school where unsound doctrine is promoted.” Do you agree?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Maximian
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Maximian

Guest
Increasingly one hears of supposedly Catholic educational establishments where unCatholic moral and doctrinal teaching is tolerated or even fostered. This can ruin a child’s faith and I think it’s better to have the subject neglected than badly taught.
 
Is the public school as bad as a terrible Catholic school?

If you google experiences in Catholic schools in Europe/US, you’d see that they tend to create resentment for the faith for both Catholics and non Catholics. So imo it is allll about family and their faith formation at home.

My Catholic school wasn’t that Catholic. Only one nun, teachers trained/educated by the government, curriculum set by the government etc. Only difference is that we have prayers and Masses for everything, haha. We were taught about contraception and we didn’t really learn about Catholic theology in general. I don’t think it caused resentment in anyone (apparently Catholic schools overseas are very…Catholic?), but i dont think it helped in faith formation at all.

Gun to my head, I would probably choose Catholic school over public schools. Imo, there’s little to no difference about the type of experiences your kids will get into anyway (sex, alcohol etc) aside from curriculum.
 
Maximian said:
This can ruin a child’s faith and I think it’s better to have the subject neglected than badly taught.
Click to expand...
Since you asked (in the title, “Do you agree?”), no, I don’t agree.

I am reminded of the saying written long ago by Charles Babbage: “The errors which arise from the absence of facts are far more numerous and more durable than those which result from unsound reasoning respecting true data.”

Also I think we must make a distinction between faith and knowledge. A child or young adult could have learned some errors and yet love God.
 
Don’t know where your from, but the trend for 2 decades around here has been in the positive direction. Catholic schools perhaps went through a bad patch back in the 80s and early 99s, but they have gotten better and better.
I have been quite pleased with them teaching sound doctrine.
 
How do you know you would be unable to find a school that would provide a Catholic education?

Can. 798 Parents are to entrust their children to those schools which provide a Catholic education. If they are unable to do this, they are obliged to take care that suitable Catholic education is provided for their children outside the schools.
 
In many states including my own, a homeschool is considered a private school. Over my dead body would my child be handed off to those gremlins.
 
Last edited:
The gremlins are the opposite. I was homeschooled, the teachers at traditional schools are what I’m saying I wouldn’t have my child over to.
 
Homeschooling is an admirable thing to do in many circumstances, it’s a great choice when you are unable to send your child tons school that provides a Catholic education. However, if there is a Catholic school available to you (geographically, financially, etc), then it seems to violate Church law.
 
Last edited:
tafan2 said:
However, if there is a Catholic school available to you (geographical my, financially, etc), then it seems to violate Church law.
Click to expand...
I would take into consideration more than simply the soundness or lack thereof of doctrine, myself.
 
Dude totally. As a Catholic, God forbid my kids ever attend Catholic schools. I’ll teach them to avoid Catholic schools for their children as well.

Horrible. They give way to liberal doctrine, or are insanely conservative that they overlook science. It’s not science OR religion, its science AND religion.

Plus, these schools are expensive. No one gets a crown for attending a Catholic school, nor do you get “heaven points.” Who cares?

Not everyone’s mommy or daddy is filthy rich to send their kids to Catholic schools. People from Catholic schools don’t deserve special treatment, and sometimes, the real world punches them in the gut. The real world is rough - sheltering kids doesn’t help.

Finally, why waste tax dollars? If you’re paying, might as well make use of it! Public schools are amazingly equipped with technology too! Also, kids don’t have to wear a stupid uniform - they can wear whatever they want.

I hate uniforms because I’ve been told they demonstrate “equality.” Basically, a poor kid won’t feel hurt that he or she can’t afford the new fad. Bull. That’s not how life works! In real life, there are haves and have-nots. And that’s fine. Maybe the kid get’s a little incentive to work harder to achieve great things! Can you imagine a world where everybody was monetarily equal? That would suck! We need some people to be better off than others, by the merits of their own hard work. As an example, if everyone owned a Lamborghini, then Lambos aren’t special anymore.

TL;DR: Catholic schools ideally are good, but in reality they aren’t. They provide a dangerously false utopia for kids in a dystopian world. Fight me.
My only worry is that if people followed my advice, churches would lose money. This is something that I don’t want 😦
 
Last edited:
tafan2 said:
However, if there is a Catholic school available to you (geographical my, financially, etc), then it seems to violate Church law.
Click to expand...
I think you’re interpreting it erroneously. “Parents are to entrust their children to those schools which provide a Catholic education” is not limited to Catholic private schools.
 
I would love to homeschool my children but unfortunately it will not be possible. Catholic schools are also very few in my area so we will probably chose a multi-denominational christian school.
 
In my limited experience, which might not reflect the wider reality, Catholic schools still have ongoing issues with elitism and arrogance. The ones I’ve worked at, the teachers and staff seem to be very sharp with student who don’t immediately fit into the culture, and these expectations aren’t merely strict but sometimes outright clueless and callous, because many of the students don’t come from an environment that share those values. I feel very sorry for these kids who enter this new environment and quickly have to adapt to the culture without ever being immersed in that culture at home to experience the love and solidarity, and frankly, I don’t blame them if they grow up having resentment towards the Catholic religion. I think that resentment is completely rational and the moral failure is upon the people who gave them that experience.

Basically, I’m not overly impressed with the staff culture.
 
Last edited:
lmaooo. I don’t think the church forces anyone to have a “Catholic” education. imo, It is foolish to bankrupt yourself paying for one.

You’re right.
 
OurGodIsWithUs said:
I hate uniforms because I’ve been told they demonstrate “Equality.” Basically, a poor kid won’t feel hurt that he or she can’t afford the new fad. Bull. That’s not how life works losers!
Click to expand...
Well…that’s very Catholic of you…
 
lmao. Hey I’m sorry, but that’s reality. Okay I’ll remove “losers.” I just want people to know the reality out there, so I tried sounding forceful. I’ll be nice. Thanks for calling me out 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top