Catholic Schools and Jews and Protestants

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Because Catholic schools tend to be superior academically to public schools and usually aren’t as expensive as the secular private schools. If the parents are ok with their children learning about Catholicism, and there is room for them after Catholic children get first priority, then everyone wins. Catholic schools are also more common than Jewish or Protestant religious schools. At my school I had a Muslim and a Buddhist in my class. The Buddhist was the son of a Vietnamese man and a Cambodian woman who emigrated to the US to escape the Khmer Rouge, not of white hippies, which is probably why his parents were ok with sending him to Catholic school.
 
Ladygem said:
Because Catholic schools tend to be superior academically to public schools and usually aren’t as expensive as the secular private schools. If the parents are ok with their children learning about Catholicism, and there is room for them after Catholic children get first priority, then everyone wins. Catholic schools are also more common than Jewish or Protestant religious schools. At my school I had a Muslim and a Buddhist in my class. The Buddhist was the son of a Vietnamese man and a Cambodian woman who emigrated to the US to escape the Khmer Rouge, not of white hippies, which is probably why his parents were ok with sending him to Catholic school.
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Parents wanting to send and school acceptance are two different things.
 
teeboy said:
It seems it often leads to a weakening of the faith. The religion teachers must be careful not to offend the Jewish and Protestant kids.
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Rubbish. Religion teachers have a curriculum that they must follow; they don’t soften anything because of non Catholics in the class. In fact, non Catholics may not even be required to take religion class.

It is a good and charitable act to supply those who qualify with a good education. You don’t mean to suggest that Catholic schools should not employ non Catholics as science, math or english teachers, either, do you? Those pesky protestant and Jewish people will probably weaken those subjects, too. :rolleyes:
 
Timothysis said:
Rubbish. Religion teachers have a curriculum that they must follow; they don’t soften anything because of non Catholics in the class. In fact, non Catholics may not even be required to take religion class.

It is a good and charitable act to supply those who qualify with a good education. You don’t mean to suggest that Catholic schools should not employ non Catholics as science, math or english teachers, either, do you? Those pesky protestant and Jewish people will probably weaken those subjects, too. :rolleyes:
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I just recall Jewish kids in our Religion classes complaining how they don’t believe that pre-marital sex is a sin and that the Episcopal School was a better school.

I recall Catholic students asking questions about Jewish Law just to upset the Jewish student because the Jewish Student wasn’t following the Jewish Law.
 
teeboy said:
I just recall Jewish kids in our Religion classes complaining how they don’t believe that pre-marital sex is a sin and that the Episcopal School was a better school.

I recall Catholic students asking questions about Jewish Law just to upset the Jewish student because the Jewish Student wasn’t following the Jewish Law.
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With respect, what you are talking about has nothing to do with the teachings of the Catholic Church–or of the Jewish faith.

They are based solely on individual students and what you think (perhaps based on what they said to you later, but can you really know everything they were thinking?) they were doing to another individual.

Teasing or even bullying behavior has nothing to do with the teachings of a religious faith.

Sounds like typical teenage ‘pushing the envelope’ behavior.

If the school had been "catholics only’ do you really think that nobody would have picked on a Catholic student who mistakenly ate beef on a Lenten friday, in **exactly the same way that they picked on the jewish student who wasn’t --or was THOUGHT NOT TO BE–following Jewish law?/B

So the problem isn’t that Catholic schools admit non Catholic students. . .the problem is with INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS who try to use something either about their faith or another’s faith to bully, tease, or upset. That behavior won’t stop if the nonCatholics aren’t admitted; it will go on (and it goes on in nonCatholic schools just as much) until the individuals themselves stop it.**
 
teeboy said:
I just recall Jewish kids in our Religion classes complaining how they don’t believe that pre-marital sex is a sin and that the Episcopal School was a better school.

I recall Catholic students asking questions about Jewish Law just to upset the Jewish student because the Jewish Student wasn’t following the Jewish Law.
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I found your question in the OP very interesting. And your post here shows some of the problems that can arise, because unfortunately we are not all perfect. I really feel bad about Catholic students taunting the Jewish students. They need a few more lessons about what the Church teaches regarding love for neighbor!

In theory perhaps, there should be no problems; but in fact, considering our lack of perfection, problems will arise that are specifically related to the differences in religion. (There would still be problems in the school, even if all were Catholic, but they wouldn’t include the ones that stem from different denominational backgrounds.)

Having taught CCD, I would have found it much more difficult to teach the Catholic faith if there were children present who were not Catholic. I agree with your statement, “The religion teachers must be careful not to offend the Jewish and Protestant kids” and that it could lead to holding back on teaching the faith in its fullness. In addition to just teaching the truths of our Faith, I recall the students asking about specific denominations; what’s the difference between denominations; … Such questions especially would have been difficult to handle – if the students had even felt free enough to ask them in a class with students who were not Catholic.

If the non-Catholic students are not accepted into the religion classes, then I think there would be less of a problem. Possibly it could even help in learning how to defend one’s faith. Eg. If they challenge some Catholic teaching (eg. the example you mentioned concerning pre-marital sex), then bring that topic up in the religion class; ask the teacher to explain the teaching and how you can defend it to those who challenge it.
 
I went to a Catholic elementary school that only admitted Catholic students. That was because the school was filled, so there wasn’t room for others. The area I live in had pretty bad public schools. I remember at the time anything nonCatholic seemed so mysterious to me…

The school at my current parish admits students of any religion. All students are required to participate in all classes, including religion classes. They are also all required to participate in all religious practices, including class prayers, and Mass. They are not required to pray, necessarily, but they must stand, sit, etc. at the appropriate times. A teacher told me that her 6th grade class has 50% Catholic students. I don’t know what the percentage is for the whole school.
 
The admission papers for religious schools which parents have to sign usually state very clearly that they will be taught from a specific body of doctrine.

The parish school which my children attend has a form which the parents sign which acknowledges the parent’s understanding that the kids will not only be taught acording to the catholic faith, but that they are expected to behave and act occording to the Catholic faith.

Pryaing the rosary, Eucharistic adoration, monthly confession (for Catholics), Mass, vocations retreats and chastity training are all explicitly stated as activities the children will participate in.

My experience is exactly the opposite of what the OP proposes. The non-denominational Christian schools here in the Atlanta suburbs teach mostly Baptist doctrine and anyone who knows Baptists knows that they are not timid about stating what they believe. I know a Catholic family who send’s their son to a very well respected non-denominational Christians school and the boy recieved an infraction for arguing with the fifth grade religion teacher about whether we still get punished for our sins even though they are forgiven.

Down here in the south, what each school teaches is made clear and if the parents don’t want to send their children then they have that choice. The big letters “CATHOLIC” on the front of the school right above the mural of Mary make it clear what we teach.

-Tim-
 
TimothyH,
I have to agree. Here in NC there are so many different private faith based schools that one could attend. I wonder if the OP is from an area of the country that Catholic schools are the predominant type of private school. The majority of the children in my son’s class are catholic but about 10-15% are not. These children participate in the prayers, mass, and are expected to pass religion class with the others, even during sacramental preparation. I believe, since the parents signed the admission papers, they are fine with this.
 
teeboy said:
Why do Catholic schools admit Jews and Protestants as students?
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I think a better question might be

“Why are our Catholic Schools/Universities in such a bad state?”

Most of these institutions might be passing on academic knowledge but they are not doing even a remotely good job at passing down the faith.

If there are good religion teachers who actually know and practice their faith, the presence of Protestants or Jews is not going to be a problem for them to teach the faith. If the Principle and everyone around are good practicing Catholics, they would build a prayer life and faith life around the school regardless of Protestants or Jews.

If you go to Catholic School in the past which were run by priests and nuns, they had chapels, and had daily mass that students can attend (both before school and during the break). They celebrated feasts of saints so that the students got in to the habit of doing it too and the whole school would attend and the non-Catholics would simply be exempted from having to go the chapel. They held Rosary in periodically allocated times for the entire school in months of May and September to encourage devotion to our Lady.

Compared to that, what we have today are not Catholic schools but Public schools, posing to be something they are not. They just say a few prayers and teach about all the religions on the planet but do a pretty bad job teaching its own.
 
A lot of non-Catholics here send their kids to Catholic schools. The two main reasons seem to be:
  1. Catholic schools expect more from the students in terms of morality and proper behaviour than public schools.
  2. Our Catholic schools offer some specialty programs for disadvantaged students that are not available in the public school system. For example, there is a high school exclusively for teenage mothers with onsite daycare - although the public school board also funds this school, it is technically a Catholic school, and it accepts students of ANY religion.
Although, I should mention that the non-specialty schools do give precedence to Catholics over non-Catholics, anyone of any religion can send their kids as long as they agree to the rules and regulations of the schools.
 
***Those pesky protestant and Jewish people will probably weaken those subjects, too. *** 👍
 
There are a number of different arguments you could make as to why. One of the biggest, I think, would be that the Catholic school system is not a service/luxury that the Church provides for Catholic families but that education is a corporal work of mercy that is incumbent on the Church to perform, that there is a duty to educate.

That would preclude excluding people based solely on their religion (although it is fair to require anyone to acknowledge that the rules they are expected to follow will be based in Catholicism).
 
Sounds like Catholic schools in the US are having the same problems as here in the UK.
They are being watered down.

As has been pointed out by Lujack the Church considers itself to have a civilising mission to the world. Some schools are there to provide a Catholic education to Catholic families in a strongly Catholic area (like the area of England I live in where there are vast amounts of Irish and their descendants) others are to provide a good, Catholic education to anybody.

Take the Catholic schools in the Middle-East for example. I remember reading that they have an average Catholic pupil role of 2% and the rest are Muslims and others. Is this a bad thing? If those Muslims were not going to a Catholic school and having a good Catholic Western style education then where else would they get educated? Madrassas? Do we want that?

Even in the UK we have ‘mission schools’ (usually set up by religious organisations such as Don Bosco) that deliberately set up schools in tough, poverty stricken areas in order to give children there a Christ centred education. I have worked in schools like this and can see the success for non-Catholic children who have thrived at our Catholic school but would have (probably) sank to hell-knows-where in the more more aggressive, frightening non-Catholic school down the road.

My issue at the moment is that Catholic Heads/Principals are filling their schools with non-Catholics purely to get funding and advance their own careers. I have not come across a single Head-Teacher who I believed was genuinely concerned about the Catholicness of the school rather than their own career.

These comments may not be very relevant to the American experience where Catholic schools are private and fee paying but there are definite questions about what the roles should be of Catholic schools and how much independence they should have to act on their own without diocese permission that need to be answered.

PS

Lujack

Enjoying watching Rangers slide.
Long live Liverpool.
May St Michael the Archangel cast down the evil Man U out of the paradise of the Premiership.
 
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