Would you send your kids to Catholic School?

I believe in letting people choose their own religion/non-religion. If I ever have a kid and they tell me they agree with the catholic beliefs, and would prefer to be in a catholic school, then yeah, I'll send them there.

However, (correct me if I'm wrong, there's only two catholic schools around my area) I understand that religion is part of their curriculum, and would prefer not to have a bible shoved down the kid's throat.

 

I was raised Catholic but I have some serious issues with many of the biblical interpretations. So for the last several years I've barely gone to church, and when I do it is really only to appease my parents at the holidays. My family moved around a lot when I was a kid, so in 5th grade (and that year only) I went to a Catholic school. Overall it was a pretty good curriculum, but I still don't think I'd want to subject my kids to that. I strongly value being an individual thinker so I don't believe in blindly following anything. I would rather my kids make that decision on their own when they are mature enough to understand the full meaning of religion.

 

I might send them to Catholic school, I went to one and I liked it more or less. It was pretty accepting, even though I wasn't out. A decent number of kids had gay parents and this was in a rural town. For me it would depend on how religiously strict the school was. Mine wasn't that religious so it was basically like a public school with a religion class.

 

If science isn't messed up there, maybe. But mostly no. Yeah, no.

 

Nope. I don't believe in most of what Catholicism professes, so I irreconcilably feel that they are filling my kid's head with untruths.

Not that they are inherently bad schools, because I'm sure they're great. But if I were shopping for private schools, I'd consider every last secular one before going religious.

 

No way

 

Hey,

Don't do it I was in catholic school for a while and I was bullied even though its not "tolerated" it still happened. As far as UNI goes it may look better but in private/catholic schools we don't have as good discipline atleast not here in Canada. Recently ok the news it was saying that private school/ catholic schooled children have problems in college or university becuase it's all self reliant like you har to do your work no le is helping you you need to be independent. There are more kids in one class I was in both catholic school and just a private school and both had small classes and one on one help ad when I got kicked out if private school and went to public school it was a reality check, the classes were big not a lot of one on one help that's why I did bad becuase it was so different

 

No but in catholic school you have to go to church or you are at risk of getting kicked out

---------- Post added 8th Jun 2013 at 01:09 PM ----------

On the other hand private school you don't need to, I went to both and I liked private better than catholic

---------- Post added 8th Jun 2013 at 01:10 PM ----------

But private school is more than double the price of catholic

 

I went to a private Christian school from eighth grade to graduation. It was a better education than the public schools locally. Now that I'm Catholic I have affirmed to the bishop I would raise my children (none yet) catholic. I would supplement their lessons with my own beliefs and guide them in making up their own minds.

 

From what my mum told me from being raised Catholic, hell no!

 

They're basically like public schools with a religion class sums it up. They're also sought after when a public school district isn't particularly good. In terms of how someone is treated, bullying in a rougher school district might show up as avoidance. I don't think outright bullying in the physical sense would last very long. However, they've been known to fire teachers whose lifestyles didn't tow THEIR line in some more conservative areas.

 

I was raised a Catholic, though I condemn a lot of the behaviour of Christians today (read: the homophobic ones ) and probably consider myself Agnostic/secular in all fairness. I do actually know that there are a lot of good Christians out there who are charitable people, and I do consider that a lot of my liberal ethical values do stem from my religious upbringing more than anything else (after all, Jesus was the original radical ). Moreover, I do know that being Christian doesn't automatically make one homophobic, and that it's as much to do with upbringing and one's own interpretation of religion. I also don't like it when atheists become so violently anti-religion, as it comes across as lowering themselves to the level of mouthy, sanctimonious religious people.

I think the system in the UK is different to that of the US in that faith schools are quite common AND are funded by the government and are subject to local authority and government protocol. As such, I do think that faith schools do have to tow the line somewhat and can't become absolute beacons of fundamentalism. In addition, I don't know of many religious state schools that have actual ordained clergy or nuns still working there (though there will probably be religious members on the board of governers). They may invite priests in to do services, and some may employ nuns in various capacities, but I don't know of any non-private schools that employ priests and nuns as actual teachers (not that this wasn't the case - my mum went to a state-funded convent grammar school in the 60s/70s where many nuns taught).

I went to both a Catholic primary and high school and we were taught about things like evolution, and some of our RE teachers explicitly said that much of the earlier parts of Genesis are simply symbolic (in fact, I never knew there were still creationists around until I was about the age of 16). That said, we never had much sex education beyond general information about the general science of reproduction and STDs; nothing like learning how to put on condoms and what not like a lot of schools in the UK actually do now. I also remember a science teacher telling us how the best way not to get an STD was simply not to have sex before marriage. :rolle:

I don't know what the school's exact stance was on homosexuality, especially as Section 28 was still in force for a lot of the time I was at school. I assume the general stance would have been the usual pro-family unit, though the exact specific beliefs would have varied from teacher to teacher. I didn't know many out kids, and the ones who were would become the token gay kids. I believe an RE teacher was once quoted as saying that homosexuality was a disease. :rolle: That said, I remember a super-religious chaplain stating during a service that God loves everyone, no matter what type of family they're born into, and I remember another RE teacher distinctly had a more than tolerant attitude towards homosexuality during a PSHE lesson on the topic of human sexuality when we were in sixth form, which is more than what could be said of some of my fellow pupils (I was closeted at the time, but I said something like "imagine you woke up gay one day, and that everybody hated you for a little bit of you that you couldn't change", and she actually came up to me at the end and thanked me for saying it). Generally speaking, I did find that the school did get a bit too strict and patronising towards the pupils at times, as much as I'm sure it wasn't intentional.

Cut to adulthood and I'm training to be a teacher, and doing some placements in Catholic schools. The experiences have really proved to be quite an eye-opener, and has made me think in general not only what type of school I would want to work in, but which type I would send a child to. The first was a very tough inner-city school. I think that the best of the Catholic ethos was in action here. Most of the kids literally had no structure to their lives, and the strong moral system and the dedicated charity of the teachers/staff really did wonders. The pastoral element of the school was very strong. Not to mention, the teachers generally seemed very liberal and open minded. I don't think I'd send a child there as I would probably aim to live in a far more desirable catchment area, but I would send a child to a school of a similar ethos. I would consider working there if a job came up, though.

The second Catholic school I went to was in a more middle-class area. It actually had some ties to my old school (some of the kids at that school went to my school's sixth form), but I wouldn't dream of sending a child there based on my experiences there. The attitude towards the kids was generally quite "children should be seen and not heard", and I think a number of the teachers were quite bigoted and bitchy. If you fitted in their likes, you were fine. Otherwise, you were seen to be rocking the boat. There were teachers who would tell Polish kids socialising with other Polish kids to start speaking in English, and this was during recess and lunchtime! :eek: Apparently another trainee heard some teachers in the staffroom discussing aloud which kids they thought were most likely gay, and one claimed she knew a nice girl who may be able to change him! :rolle: Contrast this to the other school I worked in, where a similar staff room discussion was essentially a lament on how difficult it is for kids to come out the closet, especially for kids in tough, working-class areas with quite narrow-minded values. It probably didn't help that I was in a department with some quite prudey teachers. My "mentor" (I use inverted commas as she was a cold hearted bitch - not exactly mentor material) often slagged off the kids to no end, and was such a control freak that she once told a kid for forgetting his pen that "he should leave the school and go somewhere else". If I caught any teacher talk like that to a child of mine, I would seriously consider complaining, as it's quite frankly unprofessional to use such demeaning language. Unfortunately/fortunately, I got sick for unrelated reasons for a month or so and had to leave the school since I had to defer the placement altogether. Hopefully I'll be given a much nicer school when I do go back!

Anyway, rant over. My conclusion: I'd enquire about the general ethos of any school before sending a kid there. As good as league tables may be, I'd want to make sure my kids would generally be happy in addition to getting good grades.

 

nooooooooooooooooo, the idea of sending my children to a place where they force you to believe something with no evidence is horrible. My child should come to their own conclusion without other adults trying to push them.

 

Basically this. I'm not religious, and I don't agree with being religious, but if I had a kid who wanted to go to church or Catholic school, sure, why not? However, private religious schools tend to be expensive. I went to a Christian school as a kid, and I didn't enjoy it, at least not in retrospect.

 

catholic schools, like most all private schools, do not give a better level of education than the public and charter school system.

their success rate is an illusion; when you can choose who gets to go, they can and do choose to ignore any student that might struggle academicly.

when you are talking about religious private schools, you are more likely to get a substandard, and inferior education, depending mainly upon the political and denominational affiliations control the school.

where catholic schools fit into that spectrum would likely depend on the specific school. I know of people who went to one catholic school that did not scoff as reasoning and logic skills often derided by religious privcate schools as wrong and even demonic, and they are great students... but students at one of the more conservative catholic school end up coming to community college because they school tends to put more emphasis on their religious views than education; I had to tutor a student who got straight A's at that school because they came to college, and like most of their classmates, they were reading only at a 8th grade level. the catholic highschool did a strict lecture structure, and reading was sparse, so they fell behind.

it all varies.

however, the notion that private schools will provide a better education is utter bunk. the only real benifit is when a school has smaller class sizes, which can make a great deal of difference.

my public highschool tended to rank higher for achievement and graduation rates than most of the private schools in the state, and we also had one of the best sports programs in the state, and one of the most recognized music departments in the nation, winning multiple recognitions from the Grammy's education initatives.

socially, I think catholic schools have proven to be damaging, what with the stigmas many teach their students.