Catholic School Thoughts?

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Hello!

There has been a committee which has been formed in my state which is looking at opening up a private Catholic school in my area. Currently, there is no option for catholic schooling any where near where I live - in actual fact, there is only one private school in our area, which is a Baptist run school.

So, the question I would like to pose to you is this:
What are the qualities or characteristics which you (as a parent or a student) would like to see in a Catholic school? What makes a school ‘Catholic’? What are some things which you would not like to see?

Do you have any other thoughts/comments to share?
Thanks!
 
Availability of the sacraments.

Teachers who are faithful Catholics.

Solid religion program.

Emphasis on charity in speech and actions (discourage gossip among students, teachers and parents).

See the soul first and the brain second.
 
I think one of the best attributes of a Catholic school is the option for daily morning mass. Though I think this is only typical for parish schools, so it may not be feasible for your particular situation. Still, Mass at least once a month for the community is ideal (First Friday or some such).

Something else very important and often lacking in the larger, more liberal Catholic schools (of which I attended ten of my twelve school years), is a well-formed religious education program. Elementry schools are usually pretty basic, since the children are learning the outline of our faith, but when it comes to middle and high school, you should really see if the parents could have a say in what the curriculum will be like. My high school had an apologetics course, and the textbook used didn’t have the word ‘apologetics’ in it even once, and we spent more time learning about how ‘God loves you!’ than how to defend our faith against anti-Catholics.

Try to determine how ‘Catholic’ the people putting this school together really are. If they cringe at the names of Scott Hahn, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, and Mother Angelica, I’d question how qualified they are to be doing this, and I’d seriously question whether or not I’d send my kids there.

Is this going to be an elementry, elementry/middle, or high school?
 
hi,

My child attentds a Catholic school. I will be the first to admit that it is more liberal than I like, but public school is not really an option I would consider. If I had to say the things that I do like about my child’s school it is:

prayer together in the morning
1 decade of the rosary everyday
prayer before lunch
monthly mass’
nursing home visits with the priest
uniforms/an insistance on looking neat and orderly
devout teachers who tend to know their stuff
they also try to promote respect among the students

best wishes;)
 
(I am entering my 13th year in Catholic schools)

In late middle school, a lot of students left my Catholic grade school for public school so that they could take advanced courses, foreign languages, etc. My school, like most Catholic ones, did not offer much curriculum variety and did not have any “honors” courses. I think that having those options in English, Math, and/or Science classes would have left me less bored in school, and more prepared for high school work.

I would also have liked to participate in more extracurriculars in grade school…i.e. yearbook, pro-life club, etc. Of course, since Catholic schools tend to be smaller than public schools, they often have less resources, which is understandable.

Don’t get me wrong; my Catholic school experiences have been overwhelmingly positive, especially in high school. 🙂 These 2 items ^ are the changes I would have most appreciated.
 
Father Corapi has said, “if you want your child to lose their faith, send them to a Catholic school. If you want them to fight for their faith, then teach them at home and send them to a public school.”

I believe the essence of his statement is too many parents delegate the handing on of the faith to catholic schools. Further, many catholic schools do not teach the “real” faith. Children end up with an almost-catholic faith. This is hard to reverse.

On the plus side, I agree with daily mass as a benefit. Presence before the eucharist cannot be substituted. It has a great impact.

Have you ever thought of attending daily mass early in the morning as a family? Do you pray the rosary as a family?

You can save a lot of money by buying home reading material and practicing the faith as a family. This is the domestic church after all.
 
To: rskempf

I do not have a family. I’m simply a member of the community who is participating in some research which is looking at what aspects make a Catholic school attractive and successful.

If one such school was to be created in our community, it would be very small, and would NOT act as a substitute for teaching the faith at home.

I can’t help but feel as though your post was a bit of an attack on me and how our community is looking at educating our ‘children’.

Thank you for your comments, but I would as that all those who reply to this post stick to the original topic, and refrain from criticizing our community. Personal stories and witnesses regarding Catholic schools are welcomed, don’t get me wrong. But asking direct questions, such as “Do you pray the rosary as a family?” does not help our cause.

Thank you to all who have posted in response, thus far. You have been incredibly helpful.

Blessings.
 
Some homeschooling families in our community opened an independent Catholic school several years ago. They wanted a school environment for their kids, but weren’t satisfied with the parish schools.

Some things they brought into their program:

daily Mass–they arranged to lease space at a downtown parish which no longer housed a school, but had the space available. So, the kids go to Mass at the adjacent parish–it’s a noon Mass.

Religious teaching: they recruited several habited nuns and a brother to teach part time in the school

a Catholic curriculum. They use Catholic publishers: several which are popular with homeschoolers.

an affordable tuition: made possible by several parents volunteering as teachers.

It’s a really neat program. We tried it for a year, but decided that we really are just homeschoolers at heart.

I don’t think it would have been possible for them though if they hadn’t had the support of the Vicar General who was very interested in supporting a more intensely Catholic school.

lumenchristischool.org/

napcis.org/
 
rskempf said:
Father Corapi has said, “if you want your child to lose their faith, send them to a Catholic school. If you want them to fight for their faith, then teach them at home and send them to a public school.”

I believe the essence of his statement is too many parents delegate the handing on of the faith to catholic schools. Further, many catholic schools do not teach the “real” faith. Children end up with an almost-catholic faith. This is hard to reverse.

On the plus side, I agree with daily mass as a benefit. Presence before the eucharist cannot be substituted. It has a great impact.

Have you ever thought of attending daily mass early in the morning as a family? Do you pray the rosary as a family?

You can save a lot of money by buying home reading material and practicing the faith as a family. This is the domestic church after all.
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I so agree with this.

OP As a parent who has taken her children OUT of Catholic school I would first and foremost say it should be orthodox and teach the real deal Catholic Faith unapologetically and be centered around the Eucharist. If you don’t have that you ain’t got nothin that public schools don’t already have.

KCT said it perfectly
Availability of the sacraments.
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Teachers who are faithful Catholics.
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Solid religion program.
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Emphasis on charity in speech and actions (discourage gossip among students, teachers and parents).
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See the soul first and the brain second.
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If you can accomplish this you will be above and beyond most Catholic schools.👍
 
raes said:
Hello!

There has been a committee which has been formed in my state which is looking at opening up a private Catholic school in my area. Currently, there is no option for catholic schooling any where near where I live - in actual fact, there is only one private school in our area, which is a Baptist run school.

So, the question I would like to pose to you is this:
What are the qualities or characteristics which you (as a parent or a student) would like to see in a Catholic school? What makes a school ‘Catholic’? What are some things which you would not like to see?

Do you have any other thoughts/comments to share?
Thanks!
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We love our Catholic School and here are the reasons why:

All School Mass every Wednesday
Confession regularly (especially during Advent and Lent)
Adoration Weekly
Prayers throughout the day
Religion every day
All Teachers are Catholic and sign a commitment to faithful practice and teaching of the Faith
Our Pastor and our Associate Pastor are heavily involved
Catholic Faith is woven into all subjects…not relegated only to religion class

There is so much more, but specifically and off the top of my head…these are the reasons we have our children in our Parish’s school.

ETA: Saw KCT’s post and I agree also. our handbook has specific policies speaking to the Actions of all involvedi n the school (parents, students, teachers, etc) behaving in a Christian Manner in word and deed.
 
KCT said:
Availability of the sacraments.

Teachers who are faithful Catholics.

Solid religion program.

Emphasis on charity in speech and actions (discourage gossip among students, teachers and parents).

See the soul first and the brain second.
Click to expand...
This list - it breaks my heart to see how many non-Catholics or nominal Catholics teach in Catholic schools.

Daily Mass is also on the list.
 
Just a quick message-
I went to Catholic Schools from 6-12, and at the end of my schooling there (I am convinced it is just the school, and it being Catholic has nothing to do with it) I rebelled quite a bit, and started losing/gaining/coming back to/ my Catholic faith.

Please understand that for some children, and not just me, Catholic schooling can be a bit overwhelming. I got straight A’s, all that stuff, but some of the teachers would just yell at you instead of telling you why you were wrong-they would try to stifle my questions rather than answer them.

After College I had a very hard time being Catholic. I rebelled, grew my hair out, got an eearing, and generally rebelled big time.

Just remember if you see some of this in your children-it could be a phase, but it could be something else. I know alot of kids who went ot Catholic schools who never go to church at all.I try to go every week!

Tim,
 
Thanks again for all of your feedback/comments/suggestions!

At this stage, we have no idea what our ‘school’ will look like, or what age levels it will encompass. It could be an elementary school, a K-12 school, or it could be an institution which offers credit courses for high school students to take towards their diploma.

I am very grateful for your contributions. 🙂
 
I went to two high schools, one Catholic and one secular. I wish I would have stayed at the Catholic school. I had such a higher education there. Plus, there was an emphasis on morality (as well as theology) in the Catholic school. We were held to high standards during school, which is the more important I believe. It makes it easier to pay attention in school. The uniforms made it easier to get ready in the morning, too. 😃
 
I am a product of the Catholic school system myself, so I’ll reflect on some of my experiences here. I’m moving on to Catholic college in a couple of weeks, so I must have have had an O.K. time there! 😃

Pros:
Weekly Mass
Group Prayer Daily
Stations of the Cross during Lent
When I was in gradeschool, we had weekly ceremonies during Advent with the Advent wreath which I really enjoyed.
Confession twice a year
We did the “Passion Play”- Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Community service hours that were required each quarter
Parish priest was awesome! He loved kids and was involved in our school 👍
Great highschool religion teachers! Gradeschool? Not so great. 😦
We had seminarians from our local seminary run youth activities after school in gradeschool, this BY FAR had the most profound effect on my faith life and made me the zealous Catholic I am today. If you can implement a program like this (even with some cool younger Catholics) by all means do so! I cannot recommend it enough
Many extracurricular activities to choose from, including Christian-based activities, like trips to Feed My Starving Children or Pro-life day at the capitol (part of pro-life club.)
Field Trips! Field Trips! Field Trips!
We had class outdoors on nice days A LOT. These are some of my fondest memories from gradeschool and highschool.

Cons:
Some of my teachers weren’t Catholic to the point where they were even so much as anti-Catholic, while I think that there is no problem in having non-Catholic teachers, at least get some who respect the faith!
Most of my classmates did not understand the basic teachings of the Catholic faith, through no fault of my teachers either. We learned it all, they just weren’t interested enough to retain the information. Make sure the religion teachers have a zeal for Catholicism and make it interesting!

Best of luck to you!
 
CatholicYouth said:
Some of my teachers weren’t Catholic to the point where they were even so much as anti-Catholic, while I think that there is no problem in having non-Catholic teachers, at least get some who respect the faith!
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I agree whole-heartedly with this. I was in my senior year of school when JPII died, and was in school during the eager wait for the new pope. One of the times smoke was spotted, all of the tvs in the school were turned on and pretty much everyone stopped what they were doing to watch and talk about what was going on. I had the ‘pleasure’ of being in a class with a substitute teacher - actually the husband of one of the teachers. He happened to be Jewish. And he threatened to turn the tv off if we didn’t get back to work. Luckily, us being seniors and him being a substitute and this being a pretty monumental moment in the lives of kids who’d never known another pope besides JPII, we successfully convinced him otherwise, but still. It’s definitely better to have good Catholics as teachers and subs, or at least people who respect and understand the faith.
 
I posted the list I did, because those are all attributes of the school where I teach 👍

Teachers began meetings today and the principal started out by saying, “We are a Catholic school and ‘Catholic’ comes first. Our first job is to teach the students to love Jesus Christ, and our second job is to teach reading, writing and arithmetic.”

I think if priorities are in order, a school will do fine!
 
rskempf said:
Father Corapi has said, “if you want your child to lose their faith, send them to a Catholic school. If you want them to fight for their faith, then teach them at home and send them to a public school.”
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Really? Could you please post a source for that quote? Thanks
 
Geremia said:
Really? Could you please post a source for that quote? Thanks
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He actually just repeated that quote at the talk he gave in Buffalo a couple of weekends ago. He even said that if you send your kids to Notre Dame, they’ll do great so long as they don’t go near the Theology department.
 
FanChan said:
He actually just repeated that quote at the talk he gave in Buffalo a couple of weekends ago. He even said that if you send your kids to Notre Dame, they’ll do great so long as they don’t go near the Theology department.
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Could you please provide the transcript for the speech?
 
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