Get your kids out of government schools

[Padres1969]

I think that’s the one thing to take from this thread… its entire premise is flawed. There are bad public schools and there are equally bad Catholic/private schools. Just as there are excellent public and Catholic/private schools.

 

[Augustinian]

There are bad public schools and their are equally bad Catholic/private schools.

Private schools that are bad are a lot less like to survive for a long time than a public school.

After all, parents will start to wise up and quit paying tuition.

I think the real problem with the Catholic high school particularly, is the fact that so many were so small, they really didn’t have the ability to offer as much as the much large public institutions.

 

[Padres1969]

That and they tend to end up the bastion of the more well heeled from what I’ve seen. Which creates a sort of bubble insulating the kids from some of the realities of the world. Some may see that as a good thing, but having gone through it myself, it leaves children and young adults somewhat unprepared for aspects of real life.

 

[adgloriam]

I think people REALLY underestimate how expertly this stuff is marketed to our schools. Tech companies (and text book companies for that matter) spend fortunes on flying administrators, school boards, parent advisory committies, etc to be “wined and dined” and given presentations by professional sales people who all claim to be former teachers on how their technology is the cutting edge in education and how students will be failures in the “real world” if they don’t get their stuff.

STEP RIGHT UP

 

[adgloriam]

Something for the @TheLittleLady
Something for the @TheLittleLady
Something for the @TheLittleLady

(…)

Don’t settle for less

(…)

See you later alligator
See you later alligator
And it steals your car

in ‘Step Right Up’ by Tom Waits

 

[TULIPed]

"Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Do our kids get a pass? How do they comply with our King’s command if they’re cloistered? Who’s stronger - our King, or the world? My bet is on Jesus - all day, every day.

 

[jeannetherese]

Sometimes it helps to have access to the sacraments, adoration, chatechesis, prayer throughout the day, and curriculum which will support what parents are teaching at home.
It sets the foundation for evangelization.
The only cloister in my area, of which I am aware, houses a group of Carmelites who live lives of prayer and contemplation. Our students are taking the Good News with them to their sports teams, the homeless shelters in which they volunteer, the food banks and baby corners at which they volunteer, and in their neighborhoods.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Do our kids get a pass? How do they comply with our King’s command if they’re cloistered?

How can kids evangelize if they don’t know what they’re supposed to be proclaiming?
I think it’s reasonable for kids to have protection around them while their faith grows before throwing them out into our toxic culture.

 

[tschleker]

My little sister just left her school that she’d been attending for about 4 years. It’s not a public school, but still government run and is supposed to specialize in making the students “global citizens”, which in fact turned out to be nothing but propaganda pumped into these kids heads. If it wasn’t for my sister being raised strongly in her faith and knowing better, she may have ended up believing what the other kids now do because of what the school system has taught them. She decided to leave because of her friends’ changes in beliefs, as now most of them are atheist, pro-choice, and have a “victim mentality” where they hate the world since it is trying to “oppress them”. When she told me of everything that the teachers would blatantly say directly attacking the Catholic faith I was shocked. One teacher went as far as to teach the children that Catholics practice “human sacrifice” as part of their beliefs, and distorting scripture about Abraham and Isaac as an example. Tired of being the only one to stand against this, my sister has since left the school to go to the town public school, which is a drastic improvement. TIP: Avoid these “global”, one-world government-run schools!!

 

[1cthlctrth]

The main reason Democrats oppose school vouchers is because they want to maintain control over the kids minds into opposing religion and to support Socialism (as in Venezuela). School vouchers would give kids in bad school systems better opportunity to get out of bad schools and choose better ones.

 

[pnewton]

Do our kids get a pass? How do they comply with our King’s command if they’re cloistered?

Catholic schools are not cloisters, and yes, children get a pass to having to go out as foreign missionaries.

Are you a foreign missionary?

 

[Godfollower]

Or . . . .

Maybe we could just improve the bad schools?

 

[LeafByNiggle]

"Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Do our kids get a pass?

This command by Jesus was to the community at large. Not everyone is called to personally travel. Those of us not so called can fulfill this command by supporting those who do go to foreign missions. It does not require that everyone leave home. However everyone should be mindful of this mission whether or not we are called to that work personally.

 

[Augustinian]

Or . . . .

Maybe we could just improve the bad schools?

There is really no political will to do that. It wouldn’t be difficult to have the children submit to metal detectors to keep firearms and shivs out of their hands, and enforce discipline to keep these institutions orderly.

But I don’t think a lot of the parents want to see it either.

 

[TULIPed]

Our Lord has called all believers to be missionaries. Our mission field could be a foreign country, but it could also be our office, the golf course, the hospital, our dinner table and yes, even a public school:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Furthermore - we’re all commanded to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” And who’s our neighbor? Jesus picked a Samaritan to illustrate the point. In other words, our neighbors include those who aren’t like us, maybe even those we distrust and dislike.

It’s faith in Christ that ultimately protects, preserves and allows us to be Good Samaritans. Teaching faith to our kids starts around the dinner table. It starts on our knees with our kids before they go to bed. It starts talking about the Good Samaritan and the Lost Sheep and the rugged cross on road trips and walking to the bus stop. In other words, it begins and ends with parents, not teachers. As Moses told the people of Israel in Deuteronomy:

“Take to heart these words which I command you today. Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up”

I’ve got nothing against Catholic private schools. Maybe though - for some folks - public schools are their only option. Maybe - for some folks - public schools expose their kids to other people, not like them, but made in God’s image nevertheless. For those folks, I have confidence that their kids can find Jesus even in public schools:

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

 

[pnewton]

Our Lord has called all believers to be missionaries. Our mission field could be a foreign country, but it could also be our office, the golf course, the hospital, our dinner table and yes, even a public school:

…or even a Catholic school. The point is, the verse you used cannot be meant to say something about children that it does not also say about adults. It was the commission, not to individuals, but to the Church as a whole to go into all nations, not your dinner table. You can apply some of this principle to individuals like you did, but it won’t be an exact match, like saying you have to go to foreign missions, or that children need to be in public schools.

An interesting side note, that in addition to the daily exposure to spiritual development, the school here does take children out into the world for ministry in various ways. The little ones may do so in a safer way, but the older ones get put out there pretty far. I remember last year my son spent one day tearing out dry wall for a flood victim, and an afternoon moving sandbags.

 

[TC3033]

I think I’ve asked this once already but I’ve gotta know; where did you go to school? It seems like shivs come up in almost every other post and now guns…

There are bad schools, but the ones you describe or use as examples seem to be way over the top. Maybe the worse 5%? My wife teaches at what I would consider a “rough” public school and it’s not even in the ballpark of some of the examples I’ve seen here.

 

[1cthlctrth]

Giving the parents and kids other options, like Catholic schools, would go a long way to motivating improvement in the bad schools.

 

[Godfollower]

Giving the parents and kids other options, like Catholic schools, would go a long way to motivating improvement in the bad schools.

Teachers are the worst-paid profession out there; they’re the worst-treated profession out there; they’re the worst-respected profession out there; everyone treats teachers like dirt but demands the impossible from them but with no resources and no hope of improvement. The only reason anyone is willing to be a teacher is because they want to help the kids and are willing to accept all the hassles of being a teacher in order to do it.

And you think the problem is lack of motivation?

Clearly you know nothing about teachers. The only reason our educational system is as good as it is is because of the motivation of the teachers in the trenches.

 

[1cthlctrth]

Public schools are currently brainwashing the kids into desiring socialism, and also corrupting their minds regarding sexual oddities at early ages. There should be other options for parents (most) who can’t afford private schools. School vouchers (which are opposed by Democrats) would be good.