Catholic School Thoughts?

[KrazyKaiju]

I believe two things are essential to every Catholic school:

1. An apologetics oriented-class. Everyone should be able to defend his or her faith from criticism -Christian or non-Christian - and engage in dialogue with others.
2. A class on moral conduct/social teaching. Students should have a solid base for right + wrong. What is wrong? What is right? Why is it so? What should I be doing with my life? There should be a class that answers these as best and as honestly as possible. (Within the Catholic worldview, of course)

 

[FanChan]

Could you please provide the transcript for the speech?

It was only a couple of weeks ago >.< I was there, I didn’t write it down. He’s selling the talk on his website, so I doubt there’s a transcript anywhere.

 

[Geremia]

1. A class on moral conduct/social teaching. Students should have a solid base for right + wrong. What is wrong? What is right? Why is it so? What should I be doing with my life? There should be a class that answers these as best and as honestly as possible. (Within the Catholic worldview, of course)

Yeah, especially discussing abortion. This is one issue I do not remember my Catholic high school mentioning once.

 

[FanChan]

Yeah, especially discussing abortion. This is one issue I do not remember my Catholic high school mentioning once.

I think we actually talked about it more in government class than in any religion class I had in high school (was never mentioned before that; I didn’t even know what it was until high school, I think). Which is a shame, because when it comes up in government class, it was strictly from the legal sense, with us able to debate our own viewpoints on the subject - luckily, it was a class full of good Catholic kids, almost all of whom were opposed to abortion for various reasons, but the teacher, as much as I love the guy, was hardly going to step in and give the moral aspect of it in that sort of class.

 

[KrazyKaiju]

At my high school, the stuff that I mentioned was held off until 4th year. Until then, students were taught about Sacraments and Church history. These aren’t bad things to know, but the other stuff is essential.

 

[Geremia]

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 heard that it was Archbishop Fulton Sheen, not Fr. Corapi, who originally said this.

 

[puzzleannie]

academics that meet or exceed state standards,
administration and teachers competent to meet that goal

parents and surrounding parishes committed to the ideal of Catholic Education, including willingness to tithe to support it

school board compiled under guidance of the bishop composed of members who understand Catholic education, school governance in general, and are faithful in their own walk of life to the magesterium, competent to oversee religious education as well as academic, and administrative needs

Religion program that meets or exceeds diocesan guidelines, is in conformity with the CCC and is taught by teachers who meet the criteria for catechists: full catechetical formation, living in harmony with Catholic moral teaching including that on marriage, teach the Church doctrine, not their own opinion.

Consensus among parents, board, administration and diocese on policies and procedures including but not limited to discipline, hiring etc.

commitment to teaching the fullness of truth, not piecemeal (i.e. teaching social justice w/o mentioning fair wage for Catholic school teachers, or abortion) or (teaching morality as if abortion is the only issue, without the foundation in natural law and Christian moral teaching).

Administration and teachers who are not using the school project as a vehicle to push their own agendas.

Study the population of the area the school will serve and make sure all Catholics are identified and welcomed and their needs are served (new immigrants, special needs etc).

 

[AveMaria517]

Personally I have never totally understood why many parents see Catholic schooling as necessary. But, all the Catholic schools run by the diocese where I live don’t offer anything that I feel is important in my children’s education so I am probably a little biased. I love the idea of having my children’s faith be an integral part of their education, but in practice it seems schools have an amazingly hard time actually accomplishing that in a positive manner.

I would say a Catholic school would most importantly need the parents of the students to be very actively involved. The academics should be outstanding as it is supposed to be a school… and I would think the curriculum should be centered around teaching the students to see the world through a Catholic perspective. Making religion accessible to each age group would also be a must. At least weekly school mass, many priests will gladly make room in their schedule to do this. Offer school rosary recitations… my fiance went through an elementary, middle, and high school Catholic education and he never learned the rosary… I find that pathetic. My three year old knows the rosary and loves doing it with me and helping her 1 1/2 year old sister with it! Offering many different extracurricular activities and a wide range of classes once the students reach middle and high school is also very, very important! Catholicism is so important, interesting, and such a rewarding lifestyle I would think it would be easy to provide an exceptional education while teaching the students to love and respect their faith.

 

[magic_stick]

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!

I like the replies of the other posts. But I want to add that I think catholic school should be more affordable. It’s too expensive. I will have to send my son to public school because I can’t afford catholic school.

 

[FanChan]

I like the replies of the other posts. But I want to add that I think catholic school should be more affordable. It’s too expensive. I will have to send my son to public school because I can’t afford catholic school.

This is a good point. The more students in the school, the lower the tuition cost generally is. The elementry/middle school I went to had to increase their tuition each year because there were less and less students. When I first went in 2nd grade, there was a waiting list to get in, but by the time I graduated in 8th grade, you were lucky to have enough kids to constitute a class (then again, it was one of about four catholic schools in the general area).

But something to add to this train of thought is that they should offer discounts for people who send more than one child to the school. I think most Catholic schools do this, so it’s something to keep in mind.