catholic school questions.

[FlightlessDuck]

Around here, unless you're extremely wealthy, Catholic school is your only private school option.

Well, then, let me put it this way: I'd rather put my child in public school, anyway.

I understand why some people don't, and that's perfectly fine, but I am relatively happy with my public school district.

 

[princessmom29]

We are Episcopalian, and mt DD attends one of 2 Episcopal schools in town. I would not have hesitated to enroll her in Catholic school if that had been the only option, or iI felt like she would get a better education. Tha Catholic schools i looked at seemed to be very flexable about non-Catholics attending, and although she would not be able to recieve communion it seemed to be handled very well, and none of the children seemed bothered by it. Another poster commented on public versus private and for us that decision was easy. I teach in a public high school, and my sister teaches in a public elementary school. Class size, nad the emphasis placed on standardized testing were our deciding factors in going private. Public K is 22-25 in a class with one teacher, no aide, no help. My DD has 16 in her class. Ther are one of 4 K classes that share an aide. In our public schools K students begin getting numerical grades from day 1 and are subjected to standardized testing after 9 weeks. The teacher's continued employment is in part dependent on the student's performance on these tests, which are taken every quarter, along with yearly achievment tests. In DD's school they do not recieve number grades in k. They get a report detailing the skills worked on that quarter and there is a mastery, approching mastery, or needs improvment categrgory checked off for each one. They only take a yearly achievment test, and that is really more for the parents than the kids. There is not the huge amount of time spent on test prep that I see in public school. Most teachers in our public elementary schools are forced to teach to these tests if the want to keep their job, and sepend an insane amount of time "training" the kids to take them. For us, the differences were worth the extra cost, which was within $500 per year of what Catholic schools cost.

 

[Deb & Bill]

For our Catholic schools (my son has been in one since he was in K and is now a Junior in HS), the non-Catholic kids receive a blessing, just like the younger kids who have not yet completed their First Communion, at mass. They fold their arms over their chests instead of extending their hand to received the host. Our K/Elem/Middle School was about 20% non-Catholic. Since our HS has a great reputation, it is about 50% non-Catholic.

 

[NotUrsula]

They recieve communion and attend reconcilliation? That shouldn't be happening unless they have officially converted. I would challenge the school administrators on this. If it's happening with their knowledge, you should go to the bishop.

I'm not going to get into details here, because we are not to discuss religion with that kind of depth; suffice it to say that all requirements are met.

 

[RMulieri]

It depends entirely on the school. Ours treats children who are non-Catholic as if they were in the process of Conversion. They are required to attend all Masses, participate in religion class, and prepare for and participate in the Sacraments just like their RC classmates, except that they can choose not to go through with Confirmation (as can any student.) Essentially, if they go along completely and finish 8th grade, they *are* RC when they leave, at least technically, because of the Confirmation with the school as parish of record.

This is undoubtedly because they only started accepting non-Catholics in the past two years; our previous school was a lot less secure in terms of enrollment and had been accepting non-Catholics for decades, they were a lot more accepting and only required participation in religion classes. Our current school still does not accept non-Christians unless they are willing to participate fully and to be baptised in some Christian church before starting school.

As parents, we have to sign paperwork agreeing to all of the religious requirements, including regular weekly Mass attendance with the family (that's on the honor system; they don't take attendance on Sundays.)

2nd this...It depends on your catholic school..Ours is much like above.