What kind of advantages are there to Catholic Schools for your child?

[mercygate]

I don’t think it would be risky… I suppose it depends on the school though. At our school in 2nd grade they all make their 1st Communion so a non-Catholic child may feel a bit left out but as far as being ostracized by the kids… I don’t think kids really notice or even care.

That would be a good question for the Principal though.

Good point about First Communion but otherwise, Catholic schools these days often have kids from many religious backgrounds. They make it clear that teaching will be from a Catholic perspective but the kids just act like kids.

My daughter’s Episcopal school had Blacks, Whites, Moslems, Hindus, disabled kids, a dog and a parakeet. The kids learned that “different” is normal and if somebody had a reputation for being weird it was because he was weird, not because he wasn’t “like me.”

This is a point to discuss with the principal. You need to come with your questions and concerns up front. YOU are interviewing the school as much as THEY are interviewing you.

 

[mercygate]

Good to hear.

Well, if I end up believing that this is where God is telling me I should be, then maybe by then we will be ready to conform and be catholics by then. She is only going into K now, so its possible I guess.

I know 1st communion was a big deal for the catholic girls I knew, but I never saw it, I only heard about it. They talked about their dresses, and veils, and shoes and stuff like that. It sounded to me (as a non believer) more like a event about those things.

Now, I am older and realize that, while I dont really understand it, its very important for Catholics.

I know this is off topic, but why cant the kids do this when they want to? Is there a signifigance with their age? Lets say, if my child (who is rather intelligent, and has been asking me about God) decides they want to be baptized, is she considered an infant? At the age of 5? Or does she have to do this class thing called RCIA if I did not send her there?

Kids go through the formation at this age because it is considered to be the minimum age at which they can understand the sacrament enough to receive it.

A child of 5 would not be catechized separately from yourself. But if she is asking, then the message for you is: How am I going to handle this.

You may be a “nonbeliever” but you sure have SOMETHING going on inside or you would not be taking all of this so seriously and approaching it so openly and gently. Talk to the school principal or the parish priest. If you don’t even know whether you are being called to CHRIST, then you might want to enroll in RCIA yourself. There is no pressure or obligation to “enlist” if you go to the inquiry portion of RCIA.

 

[notsmart]

Thank you for explaining that waiting time mercygate. I did leave an email to the closest catholic church to me, and hope they will send a reply. Their site has nothing mentioned about it. It does have a lot of mini groups for various christian types of charity and things like that though, so they must have it. Another church, a bit farther does have the RCIA listed on their site, but it does not tell you anything about it, like dates, ect. So, I will leave an email with them also just in case. I sincerely dont think I am ready for such classes because I am very unaware of many christian ways, the language christians use, slim bible reading only, ect.

Basically no church attendance, except for weddings and funerals. I dont think I qualify to go to any type of classes yet.

Sincerely,
Monica

 

[mercygate]

Thank you for explaining that waiting time mercygate. I did leave an email to the closest catholic church to me, and hope they will send a reply. Their site has nothing mentioned about it. It does have a lot of mini groups for various christian types of charity and things like that though, so they must have it. Another church, a bit farther does have the RCIA listed on their site, but it does not tell you anything about it, like dates, ect. So, I will leave an email with them also just in case. I sincerely dont think I am ready for such classes because I am very unaware of many christian ways, the language christians use, slim bible reading only, ect.

Basically no church attendance, except for weddings and funerals. I dont think I qualify to go to any type of classes yet.

Sincerely,
Monica

Heck! Of course you “qualify” – if you explain your position, and that you are really coming in on the very ground floor, you would be most welcome to just hang out for a “look-see”. If you think you are “very unaware of Christian ways and language” you ain’t seen the average Catholic born after the year 1960. Sheesh!

As for knowledge of Christianity: the Catholic Church was where it all started. You would be very welcome, even as an observer.

 

[notsmart]

Okay, if I can go with this little backround on the topic, I suppose I can try it. Now to work out the details of if I need a babysitter. I wouldnt expect they will offer that also.

 

[mercygate]

Okay, if I can go with this little backround on the topic, I suppose I can try it. Now to work out the details of if I need a babysitter. I wouldnt expect they will offer that also.

Can’t hurt to ask.

 

[yellowbird]

Okay, if I can go with this little backround on the topic, I suppose I can try it. Now to work out the details of if I need a babysitter. I wouldnt expect they will offer that also.

I think this is a good idea… mention that you’d need help with child care - it might be an option. If you were to take the classes, at the very minimum you’d get a basic understanding of what Christians, and specifically Catholics believe and honestly, there is no pressure. If, after taking the classes you decide it just isn’t for you, there are no hard feelings whatsoever. When I became Catholic, I was in class with a couple of people who had previously taken the classes and then when it came down to it, didn’t want to commit. Down the road, they had changed their minds and were back again. It’s a very personal decision.

If you’re going to send your child to the Catholic school, I think it’s a great idea to become more familar with our beliefs. Whether through RCIA or even if you were to pick up a couple of good books.

 

[Appleby]

Not just Catholic schools. All girls’ schools with uniforms do the roll up the skirt thing. Except maybe SSPX and Yeshivas.

Mama sent us (five) girls to Catholic girls’ school when we were growing up in the early 1960s when Nuns Ruled. Our skirts had to touch the floor when we knelt, and Sister could stop you in the hall and make you kneel to prove it. Having to call Mama even once to explain that she had to leave work and come to school to take us home to change was the last time that particular trick was tried. Mama sent us to Girls’ School because it was the Sixties. There was a quiet arrangement made vis-a-vis fees if you had a large family, and there was a second-hand uniform shop on the premises where parents swapped sizes and nobody ever said anything about it.

I sent my boys to Catholic school although I was not at the time Catholic (I was Episcopal) because there were no metal detectors or shakedowns at the door, and there was absolutely NO sex education before Junior High, and then it was just exactly what I taught at home. (My sister’s kid came home from school in Grade 3 asking what a condom was. His mother said “Nothing YOU will ever have to know about, thank you!” but found out that the public school started pushing them even sooner in some classes.)

There was also firm discipline, ‘inspection’ in home room to make sure everyone’s uniform was ship shape and Bristol fashion, and they still used the punishment that Sister Principal had found most effective for us: the kid had to telephone his mother and tell her exactly what he had done. (In the 1960s my sister had to phone home and confess that she had written b***h in lipstick on the mirror in the girls’ washroom. She is now 55 years old and says that was the hardest thing she ever had to do in her life.)

I would recommend Catholic school for a number of good reasons, but those were the most important to me. And there are still bursaries available. Just ask.

 

[notsmart]

bursaries?

I am clueless.

 

[Appleby]

I don’t think it would be risky… I suppose it depends on the school though. At our school in 2nd grade they all make their 1st Communion so a non-Catholic child may feel a bit left out but as far as being ostracized by the kids… I don’t think kids really notice or even care.

That would be a good question for the Principal though.

I think it would depend on the attitude your child adopted. Back in the days when I attended, we ran into the opposite problem: Catholic girls who upon discovering that Daddy was a Jew, would shove us off the sidewalk and say that the Jews killed Christ. I doubt that comes up much anymore though. Anyway, Daddy told us that the kids were just repeating what their parents said and not to blame them,just explain it was the Romans.

 

[notsmart]

I think it would depend on the attitude your child adopted. Back in the days when I attended, we ran into the opposite problem: Catholic girls who upon discovering that Daddy was a Jew, would shove us off the sidewalk and say that the Jews killed Christ. I doubt that comes up much anymore though. Anyway, Daddy told us that the kids were just repeating what their parents said and not to blame them,just explain it was the Romans.

Great. She will be shoved off the sidewalk being blamed for Stalin, Hitler, and any other who was not Christian.

No way. She is starting to ask about God on her own.
She is the reason I believed abortion was evil.

She is about as beautiful a thing, I ever saw in my life, or ever will. She is my reason to wonder if God really is someone I pushed out of my life, out of fear of loving.

I wont let her be subjected to bigotry, even though I know she will be. I just cant see or imagine letting her suffer like I did.

 

[Appleby]

Well, likely kids are smarter nowadays than they were then. My kids never got any grief about being Episcopal, or about any other ethnic or social matters, from kids who had been properly brought up. And nothing much you can do about the others. Most children can handle the regular kid stuff.

So I would not worry about that kind of thing; it does not sound as if your daughter would be the type that would cause trouble, so she should be fine.

 

[AnotherChance]

We were ambivalent about sending our daughter to Catholic schools for many years. We thought about doing it, but I think we believed the government school lie that private schools aren’t that much different and a public school can be just as good, etc. Plus we were on a tight budget. Anyway, I first started looking into them when she was in kindergarten, but didn’t send her until she was in the eighth grade. Our ONLY regret is that we didn’t send her sooner.

The Catholic school is enormously superior to the public school in every way. Also, my husband is a baptized Catholic, and I was raised Episcopal. However, our daughter going to Catholic school brought our whole family back to God. I am now converting, and our daughter will likely join the church also. The Protestant religion had become so politically charged and more like a self-help meeting that we had come to the point where there seemed to be no point in attending. Now that we are involved in the Catholic Church: God, religion, life, and family has greater purpose and meaning for us. You might think I am exaggerating, but I am not!

We have two other younger boys now, and there is no question that they will attend Catholic schools from K-12. We have had to tightly budget, and even took out a loan for the Catholic high school. It is 100% worth it. In terms of attending and not being Catholic, this is not a problem. I can only say that for our family it is absolutely one of the best decisions we ever made.

 

[notsmart]

Well, likely kids are smarter nowadays than they were then. My kids never got any grief about being Episcopal, or about any other ethnic or social matters, from kids who had been properly brought up. And nothing much you can do about the others. Most children can handle the regular kid stuff.

So I would not worry about that kind of thing; it does not sound as if your daughter would be the type that would cause trouble, so she should be fine.

You are right. I guess, being new at being a mom, I worry about every detail. I am happy you were not bitter by your treatment.

God must do this healing, for those things.

I never felt healed by the things that I was subjected to by people of all faiths who claimed to love God, but I dont think they ever knew the God they claimed to love to do that to me.

They may have been even more lost than me, but I dont know since, I am “not found”!

 

[AnotherChance]

I never felt healed by the things that I was subjected to by people of all faiths who claimed to love God, but I dont think they ever knew the God they claimed to love to do that to me.

I can relate to what you are saying above. One thing I wanted to mention about the Catholic Church and Catholic schools: It is so much easier to have an individual faith in the Cahtolic Church. I wrote a glowing review above about the school and I stick to it. But I wouldn’t say that everyone at the school was living a perfect Christian life or anything. I felt moved and touched by God and by saintly presences. Most of the people there did not reach out to me as a non-Catholic. They were polite, but not overwhelming in welcome.

 

[notsmart]

notsmart;4023827:

I never felt healed by the things that I was subjected to by people of all faiths who claimed to love God, but I dont think they ever knew the God they claimed to love to do that to me.

I can relate to what you are saying above. One thing I wanted to mention about the Catholic Church and Catholic schools: It is so much easier to have an individual faith in the Cahtolic Church. I wrote a glowing review above about the school and I stick to it. But I wouldn’t say that everyone at the school was living a perfect Christian life or anything. I felt moved and touched by God and by saintly presences. Most of the people there did not reach out to me as a non-Catholic. They were polite, but not overwhelming in welcome.

Yes, it really does. Its likely better that way. Then you know its real.

 

[Larowyn]

When I was in a Catholic high school, it was considered uncool to practice. People participated in the mandatory school Masses if they were Catholic, but if someone told someone else that they wanted to be a priest or a nun or that they actually went to Mass every week or day they’d never be able to live it down.

 

[notsmart]

When I was in a Catholic high school, it was considered uncool to practice. People participated in the mandatory school Masses if they were Catholic, but if someone told someone else that they wanted to be a priest or a nun or that they actually went to Mass every week or day they’d never be able to live it down.

How can this be? Did their parents not take it seriously?

Or was this a case of child rebellion like kids do?

Well, in a way it will make it easier for my child to fit in, but now I wonder if its needed to help her or if I can just learn enough to try to do so myself if she wants to know more. Maybe she can take some kind of class also, and not go to the school. If she saw no one took it seriously, I think that would stop her from finding any interest in Jesus, like she is showing now.

 

[Appleby]

I lived in a Catholic neighbourhood where the families were large and it seemed like there were a lot of vocations. My best friend had an older brother who became a priest. We were all awed because we had known him when he was just another one of the kids.

In the days when I went to Catholic School the Catholic kids were not allowed to attend Protestant churches so when it was Girl Scout Sunday we always went to Catholic churches. So even though I was not Catholic growing up, I had a lot of contact with the Church. I would not have become a nun though because I thought the Nuns were scary people. Although now I think if I had to be Principal to a girls high school in the Sixties I would have ended up scary too!

Our local Catholic school in our parish collects food for the church pantry which I think is an excellent way to teach kids that you dont have to buy the whole grocery store, one can or package can be enough if everybody brings one. Loaves and Fishes, you know.

 

[notsmart]

I always liked hearing about how my other friends experienced their life as kids. Your story is a lot different than mine, but it surely is a story that made me happy to read.

thank you for that!

Monica