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TheLittleLady
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I literally 
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pnewton
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I do not correlate sin, or criminal activity, with race. The point I was making is that having a diversity of people among the spectrum of morality is not desirable to all. That type of diversity is the problem for most parents who do not use the public school system. It has zilch to do with race or ethnicity. A public school in a mostly white town with almost all white students is just as likely to have drugs, bullying, and sexual immorality. On the other hand, a diversely attended Catholic school with multiple ethnicity, is just as likely to be free of most of this stuff as an all white school. The two issues are entirely separate.
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Angel_Gabriel
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That hasn’t been my experience at all, nor my kids’. Bullying exists everywhere…it’s worse when it happens at religious schools since they typically preach against such behavior. Drugs, parties, alcohol, sex…these things exist everywhere and Catholic schools are NOT immune.
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pnewton
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My experience is quite different. There have been zero drugs, alcohol or sex there, and the “bullying” would not even hit the radar of what the public schools call bullying.
Surely, a parent needs to know the school to see if it is really Catholic, and really different.
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Angel_Gabriel
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Most of these things don’t happen at the school (with the exception of the bullying), but rather, happen outside at home. I agree that parents should be vigilant but honestly I don’t think that kids should be kept in an elite bubble.
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Augustinian
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I went to public school, there was definitely more violence in the public facility than in the local Catholic institutions. But as far drugs and alcohol, the Catholic school students did it just as much.
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Angel_Gabriel
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I agree with that…I think the reason for it is that the public schools have to take everyone…Catholic schools can expel people more easily.
In all honesty though, I think that it’s unfair to paint ALL public or ALL catholic schools a certain way. There are good and bad schools. Sometimes you don’t know how bad it is till you are already in too deep. And then you have to weigh the option of pulling your kids out mid year which can be stressful for everyone…it’s a complicated situation.
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TC3033
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This is a BINGO. I went to public school and worked at a Catholic HS where I grew up. There really wasn’t much of a difference between the two. The kids did the same stuff, big difference was at any potential thought or accusation of bullying or assult, the Catholic school could expel imediatly. Even the kids at the two schools knew that they both had the exact same problems, the kids from the Catholic HS laughed because their parents just ignored it, or were blind to it.
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pnewton
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I guess where you go has a lot to do with this then. It is not that way here, not by a long shot.
There is nothing elite about morality. The poor are not more immoral than the rich, not by a long shot. If you are speaking of “elite” as in those whom God sees as elite, that is, those who strive to follow him, I would just have to disagree, not that Catholic schools are a “bubble.” There are still moral challenges everywhere.
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Angel_Gabriel
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I’m referring to elite as in the sense that only people of certain socioeconomic classes attend there. The expensive uniforms, school supplies, extracurricular activities and lack of lunch programs see to that. Morality exists in the poor and the rich just as does immorality. The Catholic schools in my area are nearly all filled with higher income families. The rural schools are more likely to have lower income families as are the catholic schools found in the poorer parts of our city. However, those schools have been steadily closing over the past few decades. Everyone is migrating to the suburbs.
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JimG
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I recall a talk once given by a woman who worked closely with both public and parochial elementary schools in our area. The public schools she dealt with were quite good acadmically and were known as good schools. But in her talk she discussed some differences she noted with the Catholic schools.
She went into a public school carrying some oversized boxes. One student said “Hey lady, watch where you’re going!” In the hall she passed a student who was being escorted to the principal’s office by a resource officer, spewing some bad language along the way.
At the Catholic school, a student opened the door for her; another said, “let me help with those boxes,” and carried them for her. The halls were quiet. It wasn’t so much a difference that would be noted on a school’s rating, but a difference in the general atmosphere and in the civility of the students.
She went into a public school carrying some oversized boxes. One student said “Hey lady, watch where you’re going!” In the hall she passed a student who was being escorted to the principal’s office by a resource officer, spewing some bad language along the way.
At the Catholic school, a student opened the door for her; another said, “let me help with those boxes,” and carried them for her. The halls were quiet. It wasn’t so much a difference that would be noted on a school’s rating, but a difference in the general atmosphere and in the civility of the students.
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Augustinian
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Exactly.
In the Catholic schools you don’t have children carrying shivs and taking other kids lunch money. Just doesn’t happen. Their parents wouldn’t tolerate, neither would the priests or the nuns, not for a second. I really had to watch where I was going in high school. It was a large old building, and there were also trailers outside with classrooms in it. Just a lot more orderly- than at the parish high school just two blocks away.
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TC3033
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Ya… I don’t know about that. Like I said, the Catholic school I worked at had the same problems that the public school did. They were really good at covering it up and at the hint of trouble could expel. I had a good friend kicked out of Catholic school over an accusation.
I’m not sure which hood your public school was in, but where I went I never worried about being shived or having my lunch money taken.
I’m not sure which hood your public school was in, but where I went I never worried about being shived or having my lunch money taken.
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Gertabelle
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Well, if we’re just sharing personal anecdotes, we had to pull our son out of his very orthodox Catholic school because of bullying. Sadly, the public school at which I teach had stricter rules on discipline than the Catholic school.
And there certainly were drugs, parties, alcohol, and sex at my Catholic high school. One girl who was in a couple classes with me was a drug dealer who shared with me her fear that she was pregnant. Not sure why she thought I was safe to talk to – I was super innocent, but I guess I was a good listener?
Anyway, I was the one who reported her drug dealing, and she got expelled our junior year. Always wonder if she ever got her life worked out.
And I remember stories of cleaning vomit out of cars after parties, and at least two girls in my class got pregnant – one kept the baby, the other gave it up for adoption. No idea how many abortions we never knew about, or how many girls just left our school to complete their pregnancies and then went to another school.
The bad stuff doesn’t happen at school. And it doesn’t happen where parents and teachers are gonna find out – unless things go terribly wrong. I think it’s naive to believe that just because we adults don’t see it that it doesn’t exist.
BUT, I will absolutely agree that the extent to which drugs and violence exist in my district’s high school is probably exponentially higher than the Catholic high school most of my son’s 8th grade class went to. My district’s main high school is in an area that has been plagued by gangs, generational poverty, violence, and drugs for decades.
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JulianN
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Can you give some specific examples?
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crenfro
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So true. I was pushed and all I ever wanted was to be a secretary… too late now.
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RCIAGraduate
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Is there anything that can be done to help make public schools more courteous (and kindly?) and community-minded like your latter mention? Not everyone is fortunate to be able to get to a private or parochial school like that. What is to happen to them? What is their fate?
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Augustinian
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I went to public school and so did my siblings.
Turned out fine, learned how to watch my p’s and q’s and avoid troublesome characters. Learned the power of community and how to stick with the kids from my own neighborhood.
During my junior and senior years in high school, I was a bigger guy and I was spending more of my time working than at school and graduated with the minimal involvement in the school. I just showed a good look that there would be problems if someone messed with me, so no one did.
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JimG
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I have no kids in school, so I am only speaking from observation and what I observe of the parochial school children in my diocese. My impression is that from kindergarten or even pre-K forward, they are taught to be kind and thoughtful to others. It’s just old fashioned manners. When I see them at a school Mass or in a large group setting, I am pretty impressed with their behavior. I think to myself, “I went to Catholic school, decades ago, and we were not that well behaved.” So I assume that they are being taught. how to behave. Any school could teach acceptable behavior, but the cooperation of parents is also needed.
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Quis_UtDeus
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Being constantly told about the Black Legend, about how the Church hated scientific advancement, how it’s regressive and oppressive and Luther was a hero, etc.
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