Arguments for sending your child to a Catholic school

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I can’t resist replying, both as a former Catholic high school student (not long ago :), and as someone who’s in the public school system quite a bit.
Please send your kids to Catholic school! The worst thing that happened in my Catholic high school? We had a food fight once … and you should have seen those nuns stop that in its tracks. Admittedly, I was a dork, and I know that some students did use drugs and drink, but this was no where near how much public school kids did. We had no pregnancies, all the students were pro-life …
I spent a good amount of time working in public high schools right now - and in the South, where you can expect a greater degree of politeness than you do in the North (ma’am, sir, etc). Those kids I encounter can be shockingly rude and disrespectful - and these are the “best of the best”, including the best public high in the state. I’d never want my children in school there. The pregnancies, the rudeness, and the cursing is shocking.
A lot of people here are talking about weighing whether or not the Catholic school is “orthodox” … it’s YOUR job, Mom and Dad, to raise your kids in the faith - not leave it up to their school, Catholic or not. If you disagree with things Catholic schools do, discuss them the same way you would things you disagree with public schools teaching. My parents, and the vast majority of my friends’ parents, are all very Catholic - however, they left our faith formation up to Catholic school. Not surprising, then, that no matter how good the religious education was (and we learned how to argue apologetics!), I’m the only one who attends Mass - and that after several years away from the Church.
Send your kids to Catholic school - even the crucifix on the wall is still a crucifix on the wall! - but take responsibility, yourself, for your children’s faith formation.
 
Outin,

I searched a little too, and couldn’t find anything specific to his claims. I’ll ask him, though it’ll take some time to contact him.

Maybe somebody else can dig something up?

Just for the record, I vigorously disagreed with his ***untempered ***approval of Catholic school education. He vigorously disagreed in return.

In a perfect world where Catholic schools were really Catholic, affordable and local, my kids would be in Catholic school, despite how edifying homeschooling has been these past 19 years. But it’s a very imperfect world.
 
I think it’s a little presumptuous to automatically assume that a public high school provides for an immoral environment.

Teens will be teens, whether they are attending a Catholic or a Public school system.

The same problems exist in both systems and I would bet the percentages of those problems are also the same.

I was in a Catholic school from age 4 to age 13 and then in a Public system from age 14 to graduation.

The difference with the morality of the teachers or students…none that I could see.

Lastly, I’m not too sure what you are afraid of…so the public school doesn’t offer a religion class…enroll your kids in a private program or teach them yourself.
 
Yes, I need to teach religion and values at home, but it sure would be great to know that those values are being re-inforced in school.
 
chillyinohio said:
Yes, I need to teach religion and values at home, but it sure would be great to know that those values are being re-inforced in school.
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It is an immense help to my children to know they are not alone. Kids do things wrong (mine included!) because let’s face it, they are just as human as the kids at the public school, but what happens when they mess up is the important part. It is a great opportunity when my kids’ teachers can bring faith into the equation when dealing with kids’ problems. Then there, yet another person in this great big anti Catholic world who tells it like it is.
 
onetimeposter said:
I think it’s a little presumptuous to automatically assume that a public high school provides for an immoral environment.

Teens will be teens, whether they are attending a Catholic or a Public school system.

The same problems exist in both systems and I would bet the percentages of those problems are also the same.

I was in a Catholic school from age 4 to age 13 and then in a Public system from age 14 to graduation.

The difference with the morality of the teachers or students…none that I could see.

Lastly, I’m not too sure what you are afraid of…so the public school doesn’t offer a religion class…enroll your kids in a private program or teach them yourself.
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Take a cruise around the NEA website. A public school is not just a Catholic school without the prayers.
 
Take a cruise around the NEA website. A public school is not just a Catholic school without the prayers.
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this is a big site. can yopu send some links to specific pages?
 
monicatholic said:
this is a big site. can yopu send some links to specific pages?
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Wendy Weaver is a lesbian public school teacher in Salem, Utah, who chose to challenge her employer’s discrimination.37 In 1997, Ms. Weaver had been teaching psychology and physical education for nineteen years. During the period of her employment, Ms. Weaver’s reputation was “unblemished,” and she consistently received favorable evaluations. Ms. Weaver also served as the school’s volleyball coach, and led the girls’ volleyball team to four state championships.

Prior to the beginning of the 1997-98 school year, a prospective volleyball team member asked Ms. Weaver if she was a lesbian. Ms. Weaver responded, truthfully, “Yes.” The student informed Ms. Weaver that she would not play on the volleyball team, and the student and her parents then met with school district officials. They informed the officials that Ms. Weaver was a lesbian, and that the student had decided not to play on the volleyball team for that reason. In response, the school board removed Ms. Weaver as volleyball coach and ordered her “not to make any comments, announcements or statements to students, staff members, or parents of students regarding [her] lifestyle,” instructing her that if any “students, staff members, or parents of students ask about [her] sexual orientation or anything concerning the subject,” she was to answer that “the subject is private and personal and inappropriate to discuss with them.”

Ms. Weaver sued the school district and the officials that disciplined her on the ground that their actions violated her right under the United States Constitution to equal protection of the law. She eventually won reinstatement to her position as coach of the volleyball team and a lifting of the school district’s “gag order.”

The above is copied from the site. I believe she should answer “the subject is private and personal and inappropriate to discuss…” when asked such a question by a student.

There is more. I will find it.
 
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – The National Education Association is under fire again for promoting abortion – this time because it allowed late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller to have a speaking role at its building.

lifenews.com/nat3807.html

not from the website, but info on the NEA just the same…
 
Read the resolutions for 2007. Many topics the NEA takes a stand on, and professes the schools should teach, are not subjects I wish my children to learn about from a secular viewpoint. Also, the family planning resolution in section I is rather scary, seeing as the NEA states and I am paraphrasing here, is that all should not only have a right to reproductive freedom, but schools should provide “clinics” to do just that.

I am trying to get a look at at the book lists as well, but I cannot open the Teachers’ recommendations right now.
 
That sickens me. I feel like society is “desensitizing” our kids.

Pray for a change of heart in my hubby! THanks!
 
You’ve gotten some great advise here!

I second the poster who said that you shouldn’t send your children to a Catholic school because you want them sheltered from the “real world”. I went to a very exclusive all girls Catholic private school and a very wealthy, excellent public high school. I can assure you that the girls at my first school were doing just about everything that the girls at my second high school were doing. In looking back (it’s been 24 years) this is what I will do for my children:
  1. Visit both schools and sit in cafeteria during lunch time. Listen to the conversations. Watch the children interact with each other. You know your children and what they can handle. A nerd at an all boys Catholic jock school may get beaten up all day long. A nerd at a large public school may find a nerd group to hang out with and be left alone. A pretty girl may be tortured in an all girls school, an overweight girl may have a really hard time in a public school.
  2. Study the stats. How many go to 4 year colleges? What type of AP classes are offered? What is the student/teacher ratio? How about remedial classes or special ed? What type of specials are offered and after school clubs? Are parents involved in the school? Where do the children live? One of the problems with my first school was that I had no friends within 30 minutes drive from my house. It was very lonely.
I attended both parochial and private Catholic schools for most of my life. I graduated from a very prestigious Jesuit university. I abandoned my faith along with just about everyone I knew during my college years, and most of us did go to Catholic schools. Now, out of my core group of friends, we are happily married and raising our families as best as we can, but my love for the faith has come from my parents and family, not my alma maters. Give your children what they need at home and don’t worry so much about the outside. Faith is a gift from God. It can’t be taught so much as caught.
 
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