Nowadays, why would anyone want to send their children to a Catholic School?

[TARRAT]

In the USA, why would anybody want to send their child to the government indoctrination centers?

 

[TheWiseMan]

This has been the case with my experience. I am a senior at a Catholic school and they have the most watered-down religion courses. Basically, my school only emphasizes the social justice aspect of Catholicism. But any school can teach students that they ought to help the poor or that racism is wrong, but it takes a Catholic school to teach personal morality, about respecting the body and human life. But I never hear any of that. My religion teacher even once said that the original sin of humanity is excluding other people. And on top of that, since it is an all-girls school, I see a lot of the ugly side of feminism.

But it is not just the feminism. The local co-ed Catholic high school in my area has recently started administering breathalyzer tests on campus. I can only imagine what must go on with the students to get to that point.

To the OP, one reason that no one has mentioned yet is safety. I also live in an area where public education is also a joke, but another reason why parents might send their kid to a Catholic school is because a lot of the public schools in the area are full of gang members. And, perhaps another reason is to cut off access to drugs. I know there is a small, traditional all-girls Catholic school in my area that a family friend went to. She knew one girl who transferred there who was a recovering cocaine addict.

A lot of Catholic schools give financial aide and scholarships, but I think parishes should provide religious education programs for high schoolers, both for those who cannot afford Catholic schooling and for those whose religion classes are terrible.

I have to agree with you there, Redbetta. But in the case of the bad quality of religion classes in some Catholic Schools today, I’d wished that it wasn’t the case.

 

[TheWiseMan]

In the USA, why would anybody want to send their child to the government indoctrination centers?

How exactly is the American Catholic School System a part of the Government?

 

[z_0101]

:doh2:

Riiiiiiight. I’m thinking that, if you go to just about any parish, and look at the folks who are active in that parish, you’re going to find quite a few who are the beneficiaries of a Catholic school education.

Nice try, though.

Oh… and my condolences that your Catholic school education wasn’t all you might have hoped it would be. (That doesn’t mean that it extrapolates to everyone, though.)

 

[z_0101]

But it is not just the feminism. The local co-ed Catholic high school in my area has recently started administering breathalyzer tests on campus. I can only imagine what must go on with the students to get to that point.

And inner city school have been administering drug tests and have had metal detectors and pat-downs at the entry ways for almost 20 years… wonder what led to that.

RedBetta:
Not every Catholic School is perfect. It takes a very active participation of the parents to make sure that the academic and spiritual aspects of a Catholic School are kept strong.
Too many parents pay for a baby-sitter for ages 8 thru 18 either in the public schools or in the private schools.
You have a bad program… tell your parents.
Get your friends to tell their parents.
Get the adults involved and be a voice for change!

This is what we teach our students are our Catholic Schools… and the parents are expected to be involved with the curriculum - these are no drive-by daycares!

 

[z_0101]

And if so, what could make more people to send their children to a Catholic School, in times like this, when having even only one child enrolled in a school is a financial sacrifice in of itself?

Your youth shows here:
Because we want our children to be able to say grace before lunch.
Because we want our children to understand their faith.
Because we want our children to be held to higher academic standards.
Because we want to be involved with the academic and spiritual aspects of the school.

Public schools toss us parents in the trash can when the child enters the school grounds. We are usually told to stay the “” away from the school grounds and to be good little idiots and allow the public schools to teach our children that it is OK to negotiate bedtimes and other rules with their parents.
On the other hand, Our Catholic schools send out a form to the parents asking them to be a part of the education process - and I suspect that many other Catholic Schools do the same… as to whether or not the parents in other parishes commit the time, talent, and treasure… IDK

Please do not let one poorly designed and implemented program colour your entire perception of what a Catholic Education is supposed to be about.

 

[Cricket123]

In the USA, why would anybody want to send their child to the government indoctrination centers?

Easy there. Just take some slow deep breaths and relax. Hannity will be on soon.

 

[TheWiseMan]

Your youth shows here:
Because we want our children to be able to say grace before lunch.
Because we want our children to understand their faith.
Because we want our children to be held to higher academic standards.
Because we want to be involved with the academic and spiritual aspects of the school.

Public schools toss us parents in the trash can when the child enters the school grounds. We are usually told to stay the “” away from the school grounds and to be good little idiots and allow the public schools to teach our children that it is OK to negotiate bedtimes and other rules with their parents.
On the other hand, Our Catholic schools send out a form to the parents asking them to be a part of the education process - and I suspect that many other Catholic Schools do the same… as to whether or not the parents in other parishes comment the time, talent, and treasure… IDK

Please do not let one poorly designed and implemented program colour your entire perception of what a Catholic Education is supposed to be about.

Exactly! I wholeheartedly agree with you. I just think that there are some people my age who just won’t have the opportunities that I had, including the fact that some cannot afford it, and the fact that some of them have not so great religion curriculums.

On top of that, I also do think that parents should play an extensive part in a child’s education.

 

[Miss_Felicity]

I probably would not send my child (I don’t have any yet) to a Catholic elementary or middle school, I would consider high school if the academics are much superior. I went to may different schools in my life, public, private, Catholic… honestly I think the main teaching on faith and morals should come from the parents and family. I can tell you from experience just because a school practices the same faith in name does not mean that everything told to your child will be something with which you agree. Although I went to different schools most public my mother and grandmother heavily supplemented my education with a curriculum of their own. The closest they could do because mom had to work. I probably will do the same for my kids.

 

[Usige]

You have to pay for children to attend a catholic school?

In most parts of the United States, yes. In my area it is around $5000 per year per student for the first 8 years. When they enter high school it’s around $14,500 per year for each student. To put that in perspective, for all 6 of my kids to be in Catholic schools we’d be looking at just shy of $50,000 per year.

Not that we could have had our oldest kids in catholic schools. Since they have learning disabilities they were not “academically fit” for Catholic school. We ensured they had a catholic education by homeschooling them. Most large catholic families in my area do the same.

 

[z_0101]

Exactly! I wholeheartedly agree with you. I just think that there are some people my age who just won’t have the opportunities that I had, including the fact that some cannot afford it, and the fact that some of them have not so great religion curriculums.

On top of that, I also do think that parents should play an extensive part in a child’s education.

ah… you show wisdom a tad beyond your age.

Let me support you with the above…

Tuition and opportunity:
As for cost, for those families that truly cannot afford the tuition, arrangements can be made, there are limited reduced tuition, scholarships, and optional payment schedules ( I pay year year round… even when the kids are not in school - it just works out that way), sponsorships, fund raisers, and we often ask these parents to donate time and talent… rooms need to be cleaned and painted over the summer, the lawn needs to be mowed, side walks cleared of snow… ever seen 10 Dads show up with shovels and snowblowers… 15 minutes we had the walks AND THE STREET cleared before the city even got there! The money we didn’t spend on having a profesional service come and clean the streets paid for two students tuition and allowed us to do some very much needed repairs to the building, which the labor for the repairs was donated by a local general contractor that has had children enrolled (although not for the past 15 years!) we only paid for materials… which let us use more money to reduce tuition for a family by a little bit.
What we have found is that parents place self imposed roadblocks, they will not ask for help or they will not donate time and talent. We simply cannot help those that will not help themselves.

As for parental involvement.
I’ll repeat: What we have found is that parents place self imposed roadblocks, they will not ask for help or they will not donate time and talent. We simply cannot help those that will not help themselves.
With that said, we can make it easier, and the Pastor that oversees the High School ( it is my Parish) has a very strong sense that faith formation starts at home. So much so, that we’re changing our entire program from the ground up from the Elementary thru High School and CCD/PRE programs. Parents will be strongly involved with the faith formation in this program and how it is integrated within the academics of the school… no more just driving up and dropping off… there’s a program to do too

and the Parents asked for this change

Honestly, I am (we are) blessed… we have three parishes that work very closely with each other to involve the families supported by three very good Pastors, assistant Pastors, Deacons and we even have a Priest assigned as Chaplin to our High School.

We’re seeing this happen slowly in other areas too… but I think the culture of death has a very strong grip and it will take time to get it lose from our families.

 

[on_the_hill]

Your youth shows here:
Because we want our children to be able to say grace before lunch.
Because we want our children to understand their faith.
Because we want our children to be held to higher academic standards.
Because we want to be involved with the academic and spiritual aspects of the school.

Public schools toss us parents in the trash can when the child enters the school grounds. We are usually told to stay the “” away from the school grounds and to be good little idiots and allow the public schools to teach our children that it is OK to negotiate bedtimes and other rules with their parents.
On the other hand, Our Catholic schools send out a form to the parents asking them to be a part of the education process - and I suspect that many other Catholic Schools do the same… as to whether or not the parents in other parishes commit the time, talent, and treasure… IDK

Please do not let one poorly designed and implemented program colour your entire perception of what a Catholic Education is supposed to be about.

I think it varies depending on where you live.

I attended Catholic school for 6th and 7th grades back in the 70s. I don’t recall that we said grace before lunch, and don’t recall that there was much actual Catholic education. Certainly the environment was Catholic, and the priest would come to talk to the classes. But there were a lot of goofballs in my classes, so the academics weren’t much better than I’d have gotten anywhere else, and the quality of the teachers was pretty poor. I personally know of a horrible situation where a friend on the basketball team was sexually bullied by a teammate, and nothing was ever done about it.

With where we live now, and having our kids enrolled in “government indoctrination centers,” my experience is a lot different from yours. Parent involvement is highly encouraged, and most (not all) of the teachers we’ve dealt with welcome (name removed by moderator)ut from parents. There many volunteers to help at our elementary school with everything from math support to office work.

 

[z_0101]

In most parts of the United States, yes. In my area it is around $5000 per year per student for the first 8 years. When they enter high school it’s around $14,500 per year for each student. To put that in perspective, for all 6 of my kids to be in Catholic schools we’d be looking at just shy of $50,000 per year.

Not that we could have had our oldest kids in catholic schools. Since they have learning disabilities they were not “academically fit” for Catholic school. We ensured they had a catholic education by homeschooling them. Most large catholic families in my area do the same.

WOW
Over all:
usccb.org/about/media-relations/statistics/catholic-education.cfm
Tuition fees paid by families constitute a portion of the actual per pupil expenses.19
The average per pupil tuition in parish elementary schools is $3,673, which is approximately 62.2% of actual costs per pupil of $5,387. 20
About 93.9% of elementary schools provide some form of tuition assistance. 21
The secondary school mean freshman tuition is $8,182, which is approximately 80% of actual costs per pupil of $10,228. 22

and where I would have thought the higher bills are:
sfdcs.org/dcs/mythbusting

]Catholic schools welcome all families regardless of economic status. The average cost to educate a student in a Catholic school is between $6,000-$8,000. The cost to educate a student in the public school is between $10,000-$14,000. Private school tuition ranges between $15,000-$25,000. Catholic education has a success rate of 89%-100% for graduation and college acceptance and does so at a fraction of the cost of both private and public schools. Many Catholic schools offer tuition assistance through 3rd party foundations or through Diocesan grants.

We pay towards that lower end here, what your talking about for one year would put all four of my kids thru from K thru 6 and we also accommodate so called “special needs” kids. Our high school just graduated one such young lady… took a lot of time and talent from parents thru teachers… but they did it and as a Parish, we’re all very proud of her… you should have seen the graduation party… people were bringing food because the parents didn’t anticipate having almost the entire Parish show up at their home! (Just a few phone calls, can you bring… 300 people showed up… great, call two more and have them bring something too) Great Catholic family in our church.

 

[TheWiseMan]

ah… you show wisdom a tad beyond your age.

Let me support you with the above…

Tuition and opportunity:
As for cost, for those families that truly cannot afford the tuition, arrangements can be made, there are limited reduced tuition, scholarships, and optional payment schedules ( I pay year year round… even when the kids are not in school - it just works out that way), sponsorships, fund raisers, and we often ask these parents to donate time and talent… rooms need to be cleaned and painted over the summer, the lawn needs to be mowed, side walks cleared of snow… ever seen 10 Dads show up with shovels and snowblowers… 15 minutes we had the walks AND THE STREET cleared before the city even got there! The money we didn’t spend on having a profesional service come and clean the streets paid for two students tuition and allowed us to do some very much needed repairs to the building, which the labor for the repairs was donated by a local general contractor that has had children enrolled (although not for the past 15 years!) we only paid for materials… which let us use more money to reduce tuition for a family by a little bit.
What we have found is that parents place self imposed roadblocks, they will not ask for help or they will not donate time and talent. We simply cannot help those that will not help themselves.

As for parental involvement.
I’ll repeat: What we have found is that parents place self imposed roadblocks, they will not ask for help or they will not donate time and talent. We simply cannot help those that will not help themselves.
With that said, we can make it easier, and the Pastor that oversees the High School ( it is my Parish) has a very strong sense that faith formation starts at home. So much so, that we’re changing our entire program from the ground up from the Elementary thru High School and CCD/PRE programs. Parents will be strongly involved with the faith formation in this program and how it is integrated within the academics of the school… no more just driving up and dropping off… there’s a program to do too

and the Parents asked for this change

Honestly, I am (we are) blessed… we have three parishes that work very closely with each other to involve the families supported by three very good Pastors, assistant Pastors, Deacons and we even have a Priest assigned as Chaplin to our High School.

We’re seeing this happen slowly in other areas too… but I think the culture of death has a very strong grip and it will take time to get it lose from our families.

Still, I will also have to agree with you on this as well. As a matter of a fact, I have mentioned something similar to what you’ve said before, in something I wrote a long time ago.

In case you’re wondering I do in fact believe that *both *a caring mother and a gainfully employed father are to be one of the first and most essential building blocks of healthy, thriving Catholic education.

 

[CatholicGuy31]

And if so, what could make more people to send their children to a Catholic School, in times like this, when having even only one child enrolled in a school is a financial sacrifice in of itself?

I think there is a special sense of discipline in a Catholic school that encourages learning. Another possible reason could be if you would like your child to consider a vocation to religious life.

Parents have to be careful though as one of the previous posters has already mentioned, there are indeed “watered-down” versions of Catholic schools. In this case it is really hard to say whether the child would actually grow more in faith from going to that school as opposed to going to a non-faith one and attending Sunday school once a week.

My parents really made a lot of sacrifices to send us to Catholic school and even though I didn’t realize it then, I am very thankful for this now.

 

[LongingSoul]

You have to pay for children to attend a catholic school?

I live in Australia where we pay for Catholic school education but have a number of really good friends who come from England through the English Catholic school system in the 70’s and 80’s. I hope you aren’t insulted but their Catholic education was virtually nil. By their own admission, their knowledge of basic Catholic teaching has morphed into the general societal standard of morality and philosophy. All of them say they are against abortion except for cases of rape and hardship. Things like that. Giving over the responsibility to fund education completely to the government is the death of Catholic education.

 

[felsguy]

The way to ensure that your child will cease to practice his Catholic faith is to send him to a Catholic school.

Apparently the “IMHO” button on your keyboard is out of order. However mine is working just fine. Therefore, IMHO your HO is nonsense. :yup:

 

[z_0101]

I think it varies depending on where you live.

Oh, I very much agree with you there!!!

I attended Catholic school for 6th and 7th grades back in the 70s. I don’t recall that we said grace before lunch, and don’t recall that there was much actual Catholic education.

and the 70’s is when the idiots went thru the Churches and pulled out the high alters, communion rails, stations of the cross… we almost had another iconoclastic movement in the church and a lot of schools and churches haven’t recovered. However, with Saint Pope John Paul 2nd there was a movement to restore what was lost in the 70’s. It wasn’t just our Catholic Schools that suffered, our seminaries suffered too, which has resulted in scandal and poorly catechized priests and religious.
Things are slowly changing; however, it takes the Holy Spirit working thru our hands to make it happen.

But there were a lot of goofballs in my classes, so the academics weren’t much better than I’d have gotten anywhere else, and the quality of the teachers was pretty poor.

Happens in public schools too.
In fact, in Chemistry classes, I was sat with the the proto-typical dumb-jocks (sorry, in this case it was true, they could not tie their own shoes… really, they couldn’t) and I did the work and they took the credit, and guess who the coach was… that’s right… the teacher. RARARARA… only reason they pound on my… I was in the Marching Band… and I was the goto guy when you were in trouble.

I personally know of a horrible situation where a friend on the basketball team was sexually bullied by a teammate, and nothing was ever done about it.

and that happened at least three or four times in 5 schools in the Unified Public School District I attended in each of my high school years in California either with a Basket ball team, a football team, a baseball team, a lacrosse team, a soccer team… or even just between teachers and students.

With where we live now, and having our kids enrolled in “government indoctrination centers,” my experience is a lot different from yours. Parent involvement is highly encouraged<<>>>.

YEA perhaps the pendulum is swinging back in some of the public schools.
Now Try to say grace before lunch in the public lunch room, let me know how that goes over.

 

[LongingSoul]

We have to at all costs, maintain a user pays system for funding Catholic schools. If we accept full government funding, we are done for. Morally and legally we would be obliged to defer to the societies priorities in education.

Catholic education should be available to every parent that wants it for their kids and that desire must include prioritising their general expenditure to contribute. The only people that are asked to withdraw thier children are those who believe that they are entitled to free education at “the Churchs” expense. They don’t themselves identify as “the Church”. They see it as something separate that owes them things.

People hear about someone who has been asked to leave Catholic school or aren’t accepted and think that Catholic philosophy is if you don’t pay you don’t get. That is far from the truth. We are all “the Church” and we have to be the change we want to see in the Church.

 

[on_the_hill]

Saint Pope John Paul 2nd there was a movement to restore what was lost in the 70’s.

Believe it or not, he was elected when I was in 7th grade. The talk at the time: If the Pope is Polish it means the world is coming to an end. Which I took a little personally, personally speaking.

and that happened at least three or four times in 5 schools in the Unified Public School District I attended in each of my high school years in California either with a Basket ball team, a football team, a baseball team, a lacrosse team, a soccer team… or even just between teachers and students.

Fair enough. It’s just that discipline isn’t necessarily better in a Catholic school. I would assume that it is better most of the time, but it’s not a guarantee.