I had a friend of mine from church tell me that she thought that people who didn’t send their kids to Catholic schools just didn’t love them enough. Now, when she said this lots of things ran through my head. It was the kind of thing where you really don’t know how long it has been since they spoke and you should probably say something but you can’t say what’s running through your head because that would be really rude. Honestly, I don’t know what I said in response because my mind was still in disbelief that these words had been uttered. I am still in a little bit of shock even though time has passed. Had I been one of those people who can just speak off the cuff and sound intelligent in any given situation I think I would have said something like this: I think that parents have to make the decision that is right for their child and that would demonstrate that they loved them since they were making a decision based on many factors and not just that it was Catholic.
I got that vibe quite a bit when I was teaching in the Catholic schools, too. Parents who feel like their kid is better than those horrible awful public school kids. Parents who feel that their Catholic school kids can do no wrong. Well, let me tell you. I have taught those kids. I had kids who lied, cheated, stole and did a number of other things that weren’t very holy. I think it would also be an eye-opener to a number of those parents just how few parents that send their kids to Catholic school actually go to Mass during the weekend. I must say, I was a little surprised, too. So, I guess my point is. Why does it matter what I do or what my neighbor does? Who cares. People have a lot of reasons for doing what they do in any given situation.
I would love to see those who chose public schooling and those who don’t to not see each other as adversaries, but as parents trying to do what they think is best and to have a mutual respect for each other as parents. In the end that is what we all are, parents, day in and day out making the best decisions that we can at the time.
One of my parent’s friends said something to that effect when we were growing up and going to public school while theirs attended Catholic school. I think some of those families ended up with some more family problems than ours and shouldn’t have judged us in the first place. We went to our religion classes after school once a week, and turned out fine.
I think there is a tendency to ‘want to believe’ that somehow by sending their kids to a Catholic school things will be magically better. Others do it because that’s where they went.
To each choice its utility. If the school in your neighborhood has better facilities, special needs, and other opportunities, then do what is best.
I personally feel the Catholic schools in this area are rather lacking in a lot of ways when it comes to computers, science, art, and music.
The whole theory about better ‘morals’ and ‘faith’ by sending children to a Catholic school is bullocks in my experience. I went to public school and always found that I could spot the Catholic school kid in college rather easily. What I noticed about them had nothing to do with his or her outstanding ‘morals’ fostered in the cloistered halls of a most holy Catholic school either. Ha ha.
Real faith is learned at home with the parents – seeing how they worship and practice their faith, not by sending them to a Catholic school.
Sean
I think for some people it is how they were raised and that is what you do-no questions asked. They can’t even fathom sending their child to a public school because no one in their family does or ever has. I can understand where that would be kind of “scary”. It’s the fear of the unknown. We are lucky that we have had such a good experience with public schools and since I have taught in both public and parochial we have seen both sides. We have made our school choices with maybe a little bit more info than most people have especially since I taught in the schools around here. I am glad that we had a year at the local school and I am also glad that we are going to a Catholic school next year. If the whole Catholic thing doesn’t work out then we can always go back to the public school without any regrets since we tried both.
OMG!!! I am SO glad God put you in front of that person and not me. I am afraid I wouldn’t have responded very Christian-like. Comments like that only demonstrate not that those parents love their children more, but that those parents are simply self-absorbed and superficial and judgemental – totally what the Catholic faith is constantly battling, right? What a disservice she has done not only herself, kids, and school, but our religion as a whole. And for what it’s worth, for us, we look at school being a good choice academically. We are more concerned with finding good educational opportunities for our kids where they can be exposed to lots of different things. After all, the purpose of school is learning academics, right? If Catholic schools were really any better than public ones, why is it that they can’t accomodate those children to are excelling above and beyond, and instead have to send them to public school to be challenged in a way that the Catholic school can’t provide? That was such an ignorant comment for that person to have made. I’ll surely pray for her.