Is Catholic School worth the sacrifice

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I just wanted to make a poll to see if folks here on the Traditional forum thought Catholic Education was worth the sacrifice if the family is having trouble making ends meet. I am sending my son next year because of his calling to religious vocations! It will be quite a financial struggle for us but upon me visiting and meeting with the school staff I feel it will be quite worth it.
 
As a product of Catholic Schooling…and the sons of parents who worked exrtremely hard and did without (Thank you Mom and Dad!! I love you so much and owe everything to you and God!) in order to send me to Catholic School…I enjoyed it very much and value everything I learned there. I say yes…however, not all Catholic Schools are created equally…make sure it is an orthodox school that is actually going to teach your son authentically Catholic beliefs and Doctrine…otherwise, what is the point? God Bless and Good Luck
CatholicChick said:
I just wanted to make a poll to see if folks here on the Traditional forum thought Catholic Education was worth the sacrifice if the family is having trouble making ends meet. I am sending my son next year because of his calling to religious vocations! It will be quite a financial struggle for us but upon me visiting and meeting with the school staff I feel it will be quite worth it.
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I went to a public school, but because the CCD in our parish was excellent, I knew more about the faith than most of my counterparts who went to a parochial school. Mind you, the public school was mostly other Catholic kids from my parish, which did not have a parochial grade school. So that is an unusual case.

I went to a Catholic high school and was pleased to have gone there.

Usually, it is worth the sacrifice, but it depends on the school and the alternatives available. There are Catholic schools that are not teaching the faith, but are more concentrated on being prep schools…fine, as far as it goes, but not the same as a Catholic education. I am not so sure that spending one’s formative years with other Catholics who are essentially non-observant is such a good thing. At least public schools have an excuse for not teaching faith or morals.
 
My parents sacrificed to send all 5 of us to Catholic Schools. I believe it was worth the
sacrifice, even though 2 of my siblings have left the church. The one brother did not go
to Catholic High School (he rebelled and wanted to go with his friends) and my sister
was the youngest and received some very unorthodox teaching. They are still Christians
though and I’m praying that they will return to the faith.
I am having a hard time trying to decide if I should contribute to the tuition fund at my
alma mater because they are so liberal now. But some good kids come out of there, too,
despite the liberal teachers so I am torn.
As a poster mentioned, check the school thoroughly and find out if they are teaching the
faith properly.
 
Only if they give an orthodox Catholic education. Sadly not that many do now days. I’d rather homeschool
 
There has been a quote attributed to Bishop Sheen, to the effect of: “If you want your children to fight for the Faith than send them to a public school. If you want them to lose their faith send them to a Catholic school.”

That’s not to say there aren’t good Catholic schools out there, but, as others have said, there’s a lot of research and homework that needs to be done before making the decision.
 
Really it depends on what the individual Catholic school looks like- and what the local government schools look like as well.

Even if the Catholic school isn’t that traditional- it could still be light years ahead of the competition. Here in Pittsburgh, there was a story in the local paper about local Catholic grade schools and the fact that several of them are 90% + non-catholic as far as attendance. But the parents are still pleased, and the kids are probably doing better than they would in the alternative.
 
We have 8 kids and tried it all.
Public school in our area was a joke and our CCd program was so bad I ended up volunteering and finally running it.
The Catholic grade school, the one I and my 6 brothers and sister all went to was expensive (and raising every year) but academically, it was aces. So we sent them all there.
Unfortunately, we began having disagreements over some liberal methods and then sex-education, which they insisited on shoving down the parents thoats. A bunch of us formed a group and even went to the bishop etc… I remember the principal (a nun) saying, “Don’t you trust us?”

When the tuition jumped to ten grand and we heard of homeschooling we decided to give it a try. I homeschooled seven of them with phenomenal results. Our third daughter is a Sisiter of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor MI. One of our twins in a recon Marine, special forces in CA. Another two just finished college often making the deans list while working full time.

Homeschooling isn’t perfect either, but you have total control and peace of mind.

We used Seton Home Study, an accredited program and perfectly Catholic. Homeschooled kids (at least in Seton) become self-propelled and in the highschool years practically teach themselves. Seton has a slew of professionals all great and always available to help. Materials are plentiful and easy to use.

Good luck in your decision.

BTW - if it’s college you are sacrificing for and it’s Steubenville - it’s worth it. I’d give my right arm to send mine there, but I’m only one vote here.😃 Every priest I’ve ever met or heard who was educated there knows his stuff and has a lively faith.
 
My father was a protestant (then) and worked two jobs to put my brother, sister, and myself through 13 years of Catholic education. I would not trade the education I received from the Religious Sisters of Mary or the Brothers of the Sacred Heart for all the tea in China.

I made sure that both of my sons received a Catholic education as well. Catholic schools here in south Louisiana are head and shoulders above any public school. DW teaches freshman English and World Lit. at a local state university. The difference in essays between those written by public school kids and Catholic school kids is phenomenal.

For all the fact that I went to a “religious” school, I was exposed to far more than my public school counterparts. We read our first Shakespeare play and sonnet in the 8th grade. And it didn’t end there. I laugh every night at Bill O’Reilly with his 'word of the day". From 8th to 12th grade we had to memorize words and definitions (etc.) There have been very, very few words I did not know.

Our local newspaper publishes pictures of the National Merit Scholarship candidates from our area. Lots of Catholic kids. The kids from the magnet public high school…the kids from the Episcopalian high school.

Yes, it was a sacrifice but DW and I could see no other alternative. Our kids were just too smart to have them twiddling thumbs in public school.
 
I think it depends on how much better your local catholic school is vs. the public schools. I happen to live somewhere that has very high achieving public school that provides an excellent education. The catholic schools around here don’t seem to be too terribly orthodox, and often they throw new teachers who have little knowledge of the faith into religion classes just to cover them. The secular education they provide, however, is very good.

That being the case, I would go public, and then do my faith teaching in the home and through church.

To determine “if it’s worth it” depends a lot on location and your family financial situation.
 
Yes to Polycarp. It really depends on your area. From a strictly academic point of view, If you live in a more urban area, and the public schools aren’t so hot, then it’s often worth it. If you happen to be in a more affluent suburban area, I think that rarely is it worth it.

You say your boy may have a vocation, so it’s nice to set him up in that tight Catholic community/environment. But don’t count on them to teach him everything he needs to know about the Faith. They may even teach him incorrectly at times. The materials they use are likely to tell you a lot about how good the instruction is going to be. This is just my personal experience, but I don’t think it’s too uncommon that majority of Catholic kids I went to parochial school with in the 60’s and 70’s ended up leaving the Faith. Get some really good home school religion books, like Seton Home Study and teach your kid yourself, even if you do send him the Catholic school.

Best of luck and God bless you and your family! 🙂
 
I am a financially struggling single mother and yes I believe that it is worth the burden. I feel very stongly about in in my school district. My son started Catholic School in high school. I see a huge difference in attitude and the people he hangs around with. The school works with the families to make sure that we get grants to make it affordable. Of course, we parents give back to our school volunteering 30 hours a year and the kids, whether they are there on a grant or not, give back to our community with 30 of their own such as feeding the homeless, or helping with special olympics, etc. I highly recommend it. It has been worth every penny to us.
 
Thanks so much for all your responses! I honor all you parents who make the sacrifice to send your kids to Catholic School 👍
 
I didn’t answer the poll because there is possibly a third option: The Catholic schools in our diocese have a scholarship fund. Have you looked into that?
 
My granddaughter,who attends the local parish school,recently made her First Communion, and was confirmed on the same day. I asked her if she could remember the Gifts of the Holy Spirit at confirmation - she didn’t have a clue what I was talking about! She said she had never heard of them, and they weren’t discussed in the Confirmation class.
I told my daughter to stop paying school fees, which they can’t afford on one income, and to think about sending my granddaughter to a State primary School. There, she will receive “proper” instruction in Catholic Doctrine from visiting cathechists every week.

I was appalled.

My youngest daughter teaches at one of the large Catholic Boys’ Colleges here, and she said that the students are not taught about the Catholic Religion there either. Religious knowledge lessons are purely about morals, and “how to live your Life”.
 
As far as our local Catholic schools go, I agree with Bluecake.

It was never so apparent as when my homeschooled kids had to join the Catholic School kids and CCD kids for sacrament preparation, especially Confirmation. Every time the teachers asked a question (very simple questions I might add) on the faith, my kids were the only ones who knew the answers. They were the only ones who scored 100’s on all the faith quizzes. Now keep in mind these quizzes were so basic - like the differece between mortal and venial sin, or how many sacraments are there.

The kids in our diocese write to the Bishop to ask for Confirmation and explain their readiness etc. Because he gets hundreds at a time, he chooses only one or two to read from the altar for his homily. When it came time for the Bishop to choose a letter to read, he chose one of my kid’s letters two separate times. Both times he made comments about how they seemed to really understand what Confirmation was all about, instead of giving him a laundry-list of service projects.
 
michaeldaniels said:
however, not all Catholic Schools are created equally…make sure it is an orthodox school that is actually going to teach your son authentically Catholic beliefs and Doctrine…otherwise, what is the point?
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I would add that sending your child to a Catholic school that is not orthodox and authentically Catholic will likely do a lot more harm than good. I cannot count how many times I have heard people talk about how they went to a Catholic school (and so, it is implied, they really know what they are talking about) but then decided later, as mature adults, to leave the Faith (again, with the implication that their decision was informed by a full knowledge of what the Church teaches). Of course, they often have a superficial understanding of the Church, but they think that they are well informed because they “attended a Catholic School.”
 
Jacafamala said:
Yes to Polycarp. It really depends on your area. From a strictly academic point of view, If you live in a more urban area, and the public schools aren’t so hot, then it’s often worth it. If you happen to be in a more affluent suburban area, I think that rarely is it worth it.

You say your boy may have a vocation, so it’s nice to set him up in that tight Catholic community/environment. But don’t count on them to teach him everything he needs to know about the Faith. They may even teach him incorrectly at times. The materials they use are likely to tell you a lot about how good the instruction is going to be. This is just my personal experience, but I don’t think it’s too uncommon that majority of Catholic kids I went to parochial school with in the 60’s and 70’s ended up leaving the Faith. Get some really good home school religion books, like Seton Home Study and teach your kid yourself, even if you do send him the Catholic school.

Best of luck and God bless you and your family! 🙂
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Thanks for the words of wisdom!
I will look in to Seaton Home Study
The school I am looking at is pretty orthodox it seems…from what I know about it.
I am happy about my sons calling to Religious Vocations!
He has felt like he is called to the priesthood for about 2 years now he is 16 years old 👍
God bless you and your family also!
 
I give you much credit! How wonderful to be blessed with 8 children 👍
I have been blessed with 2 children but my daughter is so happy with the public middle school and thats ok with me. Hopefully it will work out for me to send my son though because he sooo wants this.
CarlaOLS said:
We have 8 kids and tried it all.
Public school in our area was a joke and our CCd program was so bad I ended up volunteering and finally running it.
The Catholic grade school, the one I and my 6 brothers and sister all went to was expensive (and raising every year) but academically, it was aces. So we sent them all there.
Unfortunately, we began having disagreements over some liberal methods and then sex-education, which they insisited on shoving down the parents thoats. A bunch of us formed a group and even went to the bishop etc… I remember the principal (a nun) saying, “Don’t you trust us?”

When the tuition jumped to ten grand and we heard of homeschooling we decided to give it a try. I homeschooled seven of them with phenomenal results. Our third daughter is a Sisiter of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor MI. One of our twins in a recon Marine, special forces in CA. Another two just finished college often making the deans list while working full time.

Homeschooling isn’t perfect either, but you have total control and peace of mind.

We used Seton Home Study, an accredited program and perfectly Catholic. Homeschooled kids (at least in Seton) become self-propelled and in the highschool years practically teach themselves. Seton has a slew of professionals all great and always available to help. Materials are plentiful and easy to use.

Good luck in your decision.

BTW - if it’s college you are sacrificing for and it’s Steubenville - it’s worth it. I’d give my right arm to send mine there, but I’m only one vote here.😃 Every priest I’ve ever met or heard who was educated there knows his stuff and has a lively faith.
Click to expand...
 
We live in a diocese with a lot of Catholic schools, but with varying levels of Catholicity. In our case, we ended up sending our kids to what I think is the most orthodox Catholic school in the area. Some of the schools seem to cater more to the secular folks who send their kids to Catholic schools for the academic rigor only. The nice thing about our kids’ school is that tuition decreases in proportion to the number of kids you have attending, so that from the fourth child, it is free. I went to all Catholic schools growing up, but that was in '70’s when there wasn’t a focus on teaching the catechism to the kids. There is no substitute for the faith education a child receives at home. As for the question on whether financially strapped families should send their kids to CAtholic schools, that depends on how strapped they are. If the school is a good Catholic school and the family can afford it, I would say yes.

Ishii
 
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