But it is a fact *that there are no reminders of their faith in public school.
I know this is unusual, but one of my children goes to a public charter high school. (The rest are homeschooled.) He has a great group of Catholic friends who pray the Angelus every day at lunch. They are frequently joined by one or more of their teachers. Two Fridays each month these kids spend their evenings in an intense study of the faith, learning and being challenged to take that faith into the world. These kids are salt and light. They would give you hope for the future of the church.
I am a product of Catholic schools and I would not have it any other way. I believe that it gave me a strong foundation and the sense of belonging to the Church that I would not have otherwise had. I was probably the last generation in my area to be taught by sisters in habits. I spent one year, eighth grade, in public school and begged my parents to send me Catholic school for high school.
Educationally speaking, it was a mixed bag. My brother had to be transferred to a public school because a Catholic school did not have the resources (or attitude) to meet his educational needs. I have two children whose educational needs could not be met by a Catholic School. It is truly a tragedy that most kids with special needs do not even have the option of Catholic School.
My husband, a military brat, was a product of public schools. He never went to Catholic School and attended CCD regularly, in different parishes across the nation and the world. He says he didn’t learn much at CCD, but he learned the faith at home.
I could give you a dozen anecdotes about people who chose one or the other, for various reasons, with different results, running the gamut from priestly vocations to a total loss of faith, in both private and public schools. Each situation is unique, but the common thread running through all of these stories would be that the families chose what was best for their individual circumstances. Sometimes, there is no choice but to send a child to public school.
Let us pray for families and for the strength of the domestic church.