Thekla:
I guess I just get tired of the incessant whining; I hear it all the time about more prayer in the schools and I wonder why they don’t set up a school system like the Catholic schools.
My grandparents paid for Catholic school for 5 kids and they all sent their kids to Catholic school (including a family with 9 children.) If it’s important, you’ll pay for it. Public schools are fine, but it’s always been a priority in our family to go the Catholic school route.
Thekla,
It was much easier (though not easy) to keep your kids in Catholic School when your parents were young. When I attended Catholic school in the seventies, tuition was $8 per family per month. That’s right: $8 per family, regardless of the number of children in the family.
My husband and I paid almost $800 per month for three children. This does not include uniforms and student fees.
When I was young, almost every parish in town had a school. Today, most don’t. Many cities have almost no Catholic Schools.
More and more parents are turning to homeschooling, but this is not feasible for many.
Although it may seem as whining, many of us are concerned with the trend that penalizes students for expressing their faith in even non-disruptive ways. In many places, students are not permitted to wear crosses lest they offend someone. We used to live in a school district which banned candy canes during December. Many choirs and orchestras have banned many of the classical songs because they were viewed as religious.
Sorry if it sounds like whining. But, we’ve decided that if we are required to pay thousands of dollars each year to support the public schools, whether or not we use them, we will insist they meet our standards and do not actively teach our children that Christianity is antiquated and offensive.
