Sending your child to a religious private school of a different religion than yours..

[DizBelle]

Just something I'm wondering about...

You practice religion A (or no religion at all for that matter) but you choose to enroll your child at a private school that is run by a different religion (a catholic private school for example). I think that those schools have as part of their curriculum a religious study course and maybe a requirement to attend services.

How does that work? Doesn't your child get confused by the differences in the teachings when you take them to your church and what they learn at their school? Or confused by the differences between what you teach them (in the case where you practice no religion) and what they learn at school?

 

[daisax]

People have done it for hundreds of years. I always assumed that they told their kids to fake it and go along and not believe a word of it, while getting the rest of the good education Of course the schools shouldn't dilute religious ed which is obviously a cornerstone of the school's purpose, but I believe nowadays there's a little less strongarmed attempts at conversion, which would make it easier.

 

[SydneyBristow]

Are you talking about different branches of a religion? Like a Protestant child at a Catholic school? Or a different religion all together like a Jewish or Muslim child at a Christian school?

 

[DizBelle]

Are you talking about different branches of a religion? Like a Protestant child at a Catholic school? Or a different religion all together like a Jewish or Muslim child at a Christian school?

What about a baptist going to a catholic school? Or a greek orthodox going to episcopal school?

 

[SydneyBristow]

What about a baptist going to a catholic school? Or a greek orthodox going to episcopal school?

My best friend and I both went to a Catholic High school, I was technically Catholic and she was Presbyterian. She attended religion class just like everyone else and sat through countless masses during her 4 years there. It never seemed to bother her a bit. In mass & during prayers she would just sit respectfully and no one ever really noticed or cared, she wasn't treated differently at all.

Now this was all in a High school setting so I guess that made it easier, I imagine it might be a bit more complicated in the younger years.

 

[Disney Doll]

I went to Catholic grammar and high school back in the 70's.

We had a few Jewish kids and a few Greek Orthodox kids. If the religion course was specific to Catholicism, they didn't have to take it if they didn't want to. If it was like a "Comparative Religions" course, that talked about many different religions, then they had to take it.

They didn't have to attend Mass when the rest of the school did, like on First Friday and such, unless they wanted to. Some kids did because they didn't like to be different. But the school respected the decision either way.

 

[Buckalew11]

As a Christian, I'd have no problem with sending my child to a Catholic school. But I wouldn't send her to a school based on a different religion (like Jewish, Muslim etc.) I have no problem with her learning about other religions but for school, I'd rather her learn about Christian religion.

 

[bumbershoot]

Didn't work well for hubby's family. MIL is Korean Buddhist and my (now late) FIL converted to it. They lived in Taiwan for a year or two, when hubby was at the end of elementary school/start of middle school age, and the only American school was a Southern Baptist missionary school. It was also a live-in school. They started out just letting the teaching go over their heads, but within a few months they'd been converted. Once they got back to the States, they stuck with it for about a year, but finally it faded from hubby. In the meantime, however, he had driven his parents batty about becoming Christian, using all the guilt stuff he could. Of course his dad was raised Catholic and CHOSE to step away from those beliefs, and his mom was absolute in her beliefs, so it didn't work, but he defintely apologized once he got back to Buddhism.

And it never faded with my SIL (though she certainly isn't any church-goer, and doesn't act like a Christian, etc etc, it's belief-only with her).

So you probably shouldn't send kids to a missionary school or another school founded by religions that actively try to convert people. That's hubby's advice.

 

[browneyes106]

My friend is a Catholic and he attended a Baptist high school. He said that about 20% of the students at the time he attended weren't Baptist. The school only had after school bible classes which were not required. I think it depends on the policies and how the school is run.

 

[Ran]

I went to a Catholic school for a year in Key West, there were 4 of us non Catholics in my class. When the Catholic kids had religion classes we went to the library .

 

[Tuffcookie]

I sent youngest DS to Catholic kindergarten because the public schools did not have all day kindergarten at the time. Being a divorced, working mom (protestant faith), I needed all day kindergarten. The Catholic church/school is 4 doors down from my house and I work 3 blocks from home. So it worked out great for me, not having to drive that year! I would walk him to before school care (at the church/school), walk to work, pick him up at after-care (again, at the church/school).

He had a wonderful teacher and got a great education! The kindergarteners weren't taken to mass every day so I didn't see alot of religion in his class. The only bad side was that, because I wasn't Catholic, I was charged double the tuition!

The next year the public schools went to all day kindergarten. Figures!

TC