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

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LongingSoul said:
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.
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True that.
 
z_0101 said:
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!
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“Be a voice for change”.
Uh-huh. Who’s going to listen?
 
Lek said:
The public schools operate today with an agenda not just to educate children in the traditional subjects, but to educate them socially in ways that instill ideas and values that are adverse to the christian beliefs that we are working to instill in them. They will necessarily be exposed to these things later in their adult lives when they are able to view things more objectively, but as children they tend to soak up whatever is presented to them by people in authority. I believe the value and foundation of a good education in a Christian environment can’t be overestimated. While we’re on the subject, I’d like to say that if my kids were in public schools now, I’d be very active in discussing what they’ve learned in class, so that they may be exposed to different ideas and viewpoints. Raising our children well is probably a parent’s primary task in life.
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I agree with everything you said, Lek.

I don’t have any children yet, but I often think about what kind of education they will get.

The main issue with the “academics” of public schools is the “social education” of the students. I agree that there IS an agenda that definitely runs counter to Christian doctrine and belief; and our children are spoon-fed all kinds of non-Christian things.

Somewhere along the line; math, english, history, science, and even phys-ed have taken a backseat to sex-ed, learning about gay marriage, and all kinds of other “progressive” social issues.

I just want my children to get an education. Doesn’t have to be fancy, but I think EVERY public high school graduate should know the difference between:

Two, too, and to.
There, their, and they’re.
Tow and toe.
Ad and add.
Pare, pair, and pear.
Plain and plane.
Your and you’re.
Effect and affect.
And so on…

A quick survey of facebook shows that most folks don’t know how to use most of these words.

Our kids should also know what rights are protected under the First Amendment. Do public high school graduates know that our freedoms of SPEACH, PRESS, ASSEMBLY, and RELIGION are all protections afforded us under the First Amendment?

Can most public high school students solve this?:

(4x4)+84=?

Do most public high school students know what year we first landed on the moon? Or what the most common element in the known universe is?

I would send my kids to Catholic school if I could afford it; so that they might learn some of these things.

I’ll be a busy man if I have to educate them myself…
 
Our parochial school isn’t too terribly expensive- we have tuition payments at around $800 a month now that both our kids are in school. A sacrifice, yes. But the atmosphere in our school is completely Christ centered. There are prayers before and after all activities. Religion class every day. Mass every Wednesday. Recognition of Virtues. Service hours. The whole school, from preK to 8th, is less than 300 students. The principal is out helping with carpool, knows the kids’ names, most of the parents by sight, pops in and out of the classrooms constantly.

When we visited our local neighborhood public school, I was shocked. 900 kids K-5. A zoo from one end to another. Common Core. fundraising to get the next level of math software. High ceilings, fluorescent bulbs, endless halls with matching doorways. I would have gotten lost in there, let alone my five year old. It was no contest.

I drive an old car. We make it work. Period. When high school comes, we will need to make another choice, possibly. but for now, we are thrilled.
 
Just a few of our reasons:

Our public school district is one of the three worst in the state. When our son entered school, the percentage of kids who passed the annual standardized tests in the public schools was less than the percentage of kids who failed in the local Catholic schools.

Our kids pray and say the Pledge of Allegiance every day and go to Mass every week.

At our school, that two week break centered around December 25th is still called Christmas break, and spring break coincides with Holy Week.

Sex ed in our school doesn’t promote abortion, feature presentations by Planned Parenthood, teach kids the ins and outs of oral and anal sex, or explain condom use to third graders.

Our seventh grade nephew is in one of the top ten school districts in the state and takes mostly honors classes but reads at a 3rd-4th grade level. Our kids’ reading level has always been at least 1-2 levels above their actual grade level.
 
Discerning13 said:
The way to ensure that your child will cease to practice his Catholic faith is to send him to a Catholic school.
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This is so true for my social circle it’s not even funny. None of my friends who went to Catholic school are Catholic, not a single one. Please pray for them.
 
Some Catholic schools are actually quite decent.

Our Parish has a school attached and it’s a really good Catholic school. The kids attend daily Mass every week and adoration. They learn Latin and they learn about the faith as well.

I’m looking forward to my children attend this school. It’s somewhat expensive but manageable.

I will never put my children into a Public school. They are awful where I live and the state I live in has no issues teaching these children things I would never want my kids to be exposed to.
 
Only the rich, poor, and birth controllers can afford Catholic school. If we had one around that I actually thought was better than a public school in any regard I might bother considering it, though I’m sure we couldn’t afford it.
 
Being in public school my entire life, I can pretty much sum up that in my own private studying I learned four times as much as I did in school.

I’d say the best way to fix the problem is stop treating religion class like am easy A or gym class. Have clergy teach please.
 
TheWiseMan said:
True, but you have to remember, that there was in fact a time when there were actual Catholic Schools in this country, which did not charge the families of the students monthly tuition payments. Nowadays it’s not the case, thanks to the lack of sisters, and what have you.

Not only that, there are also other people who simply cannot send their children to schools such as the one that I have attended. I’ve met people around my age who really wanted to go to a Catholic School, but couldn’t because their families couldn’t make the expenses meet. And no, these aren’t people who cannot homeschool their children, due to the fact that both parents have jobs to do.
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“…and what have you.” Without sisters, brothers or priests who live in poverty and have no children of their own to support, how is a Catholic school going to offer a Catholic education to more students of limited means than they do?

As for your main question, one only has to look at the number of non-Catholics who sacrifice to give their children educations at Catholic schools. LOTS of people wish they could give their child the advantages your Catholic education gives you.
 
pianistclare said:
“Be a voice for change”.
Uh-huh. Who’s going to listen?
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hey… look… you just did 😃
I’m not saying it is easy.
As part of my parish, there is this old guard… love to death (no pun). They like the way things are… why do we need change? Because the Church has a younger congregation with children and both parents working, they can’t come to a 1pm or a 2pm bible study and they don’t have the time during school to bake 17 dozen cookies for the church’s sewing guild… some things need to be changed.
  • Our change in the Faith Formation Program… we lost a lot of the older PRE teachers… which is a real shame, they’re good teachers and this program even reduces the work load on us teachers! They will come back, I hope, once they see the success. We thought we’d lose 20% of the families too… only 1 has dropped out… and these families know what is coming - but they wanted this change too because they want to be involved.
  • When I started lecturing… mind you, I don’t go jumping up and down, I don’t use voices, I didn’t turn on my inner charismatic-baptist, etc… What I do use, when it is God or our Lord speaking, I stand just a tad closer to the mike, not much, just enough, I use the punctuation, where there is a coma, a slight pause, a longer one at periods… there are times in a listing that these are said just a tad slower… just as it says to do in the work book approved by the archdioceses and purchased by us thru the parish US-Edition, Workbook for Lectors, Gospel Readers and Proclaimers of the Word…
    I bring this up because, when I first started attending this church, the readings… oh my, the readings… mono-tone and as fast as one could read without back feed (those were a mercy) or as slow as a turtle in the middle of a cold snap on a highway covered in ice.
    I never said a thing to anyone… I asked to be a lector and was sponsored by one of our oldest Deacons.
    I simply stand at the ambo, take a deep breath, and pray quietly to myself, takes just that deep breath to do, “Lord let them hear you thru me, let your will be done for I am your servant”
    I have had some of the older, more experienced readers, ask me to show them what I am doing.
    It’s a very quiet movement, and the readings are slowing changing from merely reading the word, to proclaiming the word as a mandated and installed lector should and Father approves and I have had people come to me after Mass and tell me how much they are enjoying the readings now… they just seem to get more out of them.
Who will listen:
The pastor,
the congregation,
and it may take time.

too many instagram people…

the church isn’t a jet-ski, she’s a cargo-tanker… turn hard to port and call for full-speed and she just ignores you… turn her 15-degrees and reduce to 3/4ths, she’ll turn, just be patient and be ready to bring about to course.
 
z_0101 said:
hey… look… you just did 😃
I’m not saying it is easy.
As part of my parish, there is this old guard… love to death (no pun). They like the way things are… why do we need change? Because the Church has a younger congregation with children and both parents working, they can’t come to a 1pm or a 2pm bible study and they don’t have the time during school to bake 17 dozen cookies for the church’s sewing guild… some things need to be changed.
  • Our change in the Faith Formation Program… we lost a lot of the older PRE teachers… which is a real shame, they’re good teachers and this program even reduces the work load on us teachers! They will come back, I hope, once they see the success. We thought we’d lose 20% of the families too… only 1 has dropped out… and these families know what is coming - but they wanted this change too because they want to be involved.
  • When I started lecturing… mind you, I don’t go jumping up and down, I don’t use voices, I didn’t turn on my inner charismatic-baptist, etc… What I do use, when it is God or our Lord speaking, I stand just a tad closer to the mike, not much, just enough, I use the punctuation, where there is a coma, a slight pause, a longer one at periods… there are times in a listing that these are said just a tad slower… just as it says to do in the work book approved by the archdioceses and purchased by us thru the parish US-Edition, Workbook for Lectors, Gospel Readers and Proclaimers of the Word…
    I bring this up because, when I first started attending this church, the readings… oh my, the readings… mono-tone and as fast as one could read without back feed (those were a mercy) or as slow as a turtle in the middle of a cold snap on a highway covered in ice.
    I never said a thing to anyone… I asked to be a lector and was sponsored by one of our oldest Deacons.
    I simply stand at the ambo, take a deep breath, and pray quietly to myself, takes just that deep breath to do, “Lord let them hear you thru me, let your will be done for I am your servant”
    I have had some of the older, more experienced readers, ask me to show them what I am doing.
    It’s a very quiet movement, and the readings are slowing changing from merely reading the word, to proclaiming the word as a mandated and installed lector should and Father approves and I have had people come to me after Mass and tell me how much they are enjoying the readings now… they just seem to get more out of them.
Who will listen:
The pastor,
the congregation,
and it may take time.

too many instagram people…

the church isn’t a jet-ski, she’s a cargo-tanker… turn hard to port and call for full-speed and she just ignores you… turn her 15-degrees and reduce to 3/4ths, she’ll turn, just be patient and be ready to bring about to course.
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Well, good for you, all the people who still have parish schools. Many of us have Regional schools, which are run by a Superintendent, the pastors have NO say in the running of the schools, and there are no chaplains. I was the DRE at one of these schools and taught religion classes to kids who were thirsty for the faith. Then, the principal decided that I was “too religious”. She cut my hours and forced me out…no bad performance review, no complaints…and put in place a man with no experience, and began instructing the teachers to have the kids read the textbooks silently, and simply outline the chapters and call it done. No offending the non-Catholic people, no talk about morality, or sin, or Saints, or Mass. I used to take a poll on Mondays…what was the Gospel about? Or the homily, even. Never had more than 2 or 3 kids even went to church…even other churches.
All of you who have legitimate Catholic schools…with real teachers that make a living wage, with priests on the Board of Directors, and people who will listen…
Get on your knees and thank God. Some people have none of it. And pay a hefty price.
They populate these places because of the “good old days” and fear of the public school system.
 
Oh, so now I’m a hater for stating the stark reality.

We looked into ours. Fact is most Catholic schools follow the same curriculum as public schools and don’t do much of a better job of educating your children, if any. I doubt there’s much difference in that regard between our local public schools and the Catholic school.

Then there’s religious education. Most parishes are fairly squishy these days and I doubt their religious education classes are worth a hoot.

Then there are the values and atmosphere. I doubt it is much better there either. If your public schools are that terrible you should move.

Then there’s the cost, and this was the real deal breaker for us. It’s $6,000 per kid. If you are in the 6 figure income range maybe this is an option for you. Or if you contracept, maybe you can afford to put both the kids you allowed to live in Catholic school. Or if you are poor or cheat on your taxes and lie about your income they will let your kids in for free or for very little. If you are just regular faithful Catholics in the middle class, how are you going to afford to pay $3,000 a month to put your 6 kids in Catholic school? You aren’t. It’s that simple, the only people who can afford it are the rich, poor, liars, and birth controllers. Faithful, hard-working, middle class Catholics need not apply.

We’re the odd man out. No hard feelings. It doesn’t bother me. If it was free or much less I’d consider it, but would be very attentive to what they teach. I think it is just as good to send them to public school and teach them about avoiding evil in society. I don’t send my kids to their Catholic version of Protestant vacation Bible school and won’t be sending them there for CCD either. I’m not hating anyone, just making decisions. Maybe you disagree with my decisions or rationale, but that’s hardly an excuse for name calling.
 
These threads about education never end well.

Respect and compassion seem to fly out the door.

There are more than 14,000 public school districts in the US, and more than 6,500 Catholic schools in the US. Trying to compare any two and then extrapolating to create a generalization is not possible. Do not try.
 
TheWiseMan said:
After I finished writing a book about the renaissance of Catholic Education in the United States, earlier today, I had to ask myself “what is the value of a Catholic education in these times?”

Considering the fact that I am a Catholic High School student who will be attending school again next Monday, it was a question that I just had to ask myself about. Why would a Catholic family would want to send their children to a Catholic School, despite the high costs associated with it (tuition, uniforms, books, graduation fees, etc.)?

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?
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Yes, it’s a sacrifice. There are lots of things about raising children that involve sacrifice, financial and other. Education isn’t an area where we would consider going for the cheapest option regardless of content. For us, as long as we can financially afford to, we would need a very serious reason NOT to send out children to Catholic school.

We send our kids to Catholic school because we take seriously the Church’s instruction to provide out children with a Catholic education. Public school can’t do that and CCE is Religious Education - not Catholic education. It teaches about the faith but doesn’t weave the faith into any other part of the curriculum.

Public school isn’t an option where I live. If I couldn’t afford to send my children to Catholic school, I would homeschool and that would be a financial sacrifice since one of us would need to leave our job.
 
PaulinVA said:
These threads about education never end well.

Respect and compassion seem to fly out the door.

There are more than 14,000 public school districts in the US, and more than 6,500 Catholic schools in the US. Trying to compare any two and then extrapolating to create a generalization is not possible. Do not try.
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👍👍👍
 
Yes it is undeniable that the quality of education a high school student will receive at a catholic high school far surpasses the average public school. Catholic high schools generally emphasize this high quality of education in addition to promoting athletics. However, these are TEMPORAL values!! This secular environment does not propagate the faith and the teachings of the magesterium very well. If you want your children to grow in their faith during high school I would not suggest that you send them to a catholic school. Practicing Catholic’s are generally regarded as losers/outcasts. I left my catholic high school, recently, after my junior year and graduated from the local public high school. I found, in public school, that the religious kids, Catholic and other christian denominations, sort of blended in and were more generally accepted.
 
white_sheep said:
Then there’s the cost, and this was the real deal breaker for us. It’s $6,000 per kid. If you are in the 6 figure income range maybe this is an option for you. Or if you contracept, maybe you can afford to put both the kids you allowed to live in Catholic school. Or if you are poor or cheat on your taxes and lie about your income they will let your kids in for free or for very little. If you are just regular faithful Catholics in the middle class, how are you going to afford to pay $3,000 a month to put your 6 kids in Catholic school? You aren’t. It’s that simple, the only people who can afford it are the rich, poor, liars, and birth controllers. Faithful, hard-working, middle class Catholics need not apply.
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$6,000 per kid must be for elementary school. Where I live tuition for catholic high school is $20,000 a year per child with that is absolutely not negotiable. No academic or need based scholarships, no sliding scale, no discounts for additional children just a flat price.
 
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