Catholic schools rigor?

[Anonymous]

Friend’s kids go to local Catholic school for 3rd grade and 5th grade. It seems like every other day they go to mass, have some prayer event, have a student assembly, etc. Do kids at these schools have enough instruction time for ACADEMICS?

How do they compete with public and non-religious schools whose total number of school days are the same (or more) but without all the religious extracurricular?

[Anonymous]

Bigot.

[Anonymous]

Well, they don’t have to evacuate classrooms for desk-throwers, so there’s that.

[Anonymous]

If I were OP’s friend I’d worry that I had a stalker on my hands. I have no idea how my friends’ kids fill their school days. It’s weird that OP does.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the school but there are mixed views on that. Many people find that the basic writing and math skills taught in Catholic schools give them a stronger foundation than public schools when the kids get to high school.

What seems to lack is a broader degree of differentiation that you might get in public schools. Few if any K-8 Catholic kids get to Geometry for example. Advanced learners who might be in AAP and students at the other end of the spectrum don't necessarily have their needs met.

Catholic schools are a good fit for a run-of-the-mill student who also wants a religious component to their education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friend’s kids go to local Catholic school for 3rd grade and 5th grade. It seems like every other day they go to mass, have some prayer event, have a student assembly, etc. Do kids at these schools have enough instruction time for ACADEMICS?

How do they compete with public and non-religious schools whose total number of school days are the same (or more) but without all the religious extracurricular?

And yet graduates of these Catholic schools are as a well prepared for high school and college and law and medical school as are the graduates of public and other private schools.

Sounds like the premise of your question is flawed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, they don’t have to evacuate classrooms for desk-throwers, so there’s that.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the school but there are mixed views on that. Many people find that the basic writing and math skills taught in Catholic schools give them a stronger foundation than public schools when the kids get to high school.

What seems to lack is a broader degree of differentiation that you might get in public schools. Few if any K-8 Catholic kids get to Geometry for example. Advanced learners who might be in AAP and students at the other end of the spectrum don't necessarily have their needs met.

Catholic schools are a good fit for a run-of-the-mill student who also wants a religious component to their education.

It took me all of two seconds to prove you wrong. Of course Catholic schools offer geometry. Here’s a typical example:

https://www.ihm-school.com/academics/eighthgrade.cfm

How many Catholic schools do you actually have experience with? What qualifies you as an expert on Catholic education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friend’s kids go to local Catholic school for 3rd grade and 5th grade. It seems like every other day they go to mass, have some prayer event, have a student assembly, etc. Do kids at these schools have enough instruction time for ACADEMICS?

How do they compete with public and non-religious schools whose total number of school days are the same (or more) but without all the religious extracurricular?

And yet graduates of these Catholic schools are as a well prepared for high school and college and law and medical school as are the graduates of public and other private schools.

Sounds like the premise of your question is flawed.

np... but that could be said of public schools that private school parents look down as a dumpster fire.

So, you have private and public school students ending up in the same place.

[Anonymous]

Our Catholic school starts the day at 7:40 and ends at 3:20, our public elementary starts at 9:30 and ends at 3:30, so we have an extra nearly 2 hours a day of school time. We do one 2 hour long standardized test per year, seems like our public peers are spending more time in testing than we spend in mass. We start and end our school year earlier but we also have some days off for Catholic holidays, then again we have zero days off for Jewish, Muslim or other religious holidays.

Our kids do extremely well compared to their public peers academically, you really don’t need to have such grave concern for this neighbor of yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the school but there are mixed views on that. Many people find that the basic writing and math skills taught in Catholic schools give them a stronger foundation than public schools when the kids get to high school.

What seems to lack is a broader degree of differentiation that you might get in public schools. Few if any K-8 Catholic kids get to Geometry for example. Advanced learners who might be in AAP and students at the other end of the spectrum don't necessarily have their needs met.

Catholic schools are a good fit for a run-of-the-mill student who also wants a religious component to their education.

It took me all of two seconds to prove you wrong. Of course Catholic schools offer geometry. Here’s a typical example:

https://www.ihm-school.com/academics/eighthgrade.cfm

How many Catholic schools do you actually have experience with? What qualifies you as an expert on Catholic education?

I'm a Catholic who looked at multiple diocesan schools for my kids and this was feedback I heard from school parents as one of the negatives. Yes, some schools offer it but most kids don't have access to it, is what was shared with me by parents at at least three different schools near me.

[Anonymous]

It’s the heavy load of homework that takes kids time, not much the religious events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the school but there are mixed views on that. Many people find that the basic writing and math skills taught in Catholic schools give them a stronger foundation than public schools when the kids get to high school.

What seems to lack is a broader degree of differentiation that you might get in public schools. Few if any K-8 Catholic kids get to Geometry for example. Advanced learners who might be in AAP and students at the other end of the spectrum don't necessarily have their needs met.

Catholic schools are a good fit for a run-of-the-mill student who also wants a religious component to their education.

It took me all of two seconds to prove you wrong. Of course Catholic schools offer geometry. Here’s a typical example:

https://www.ihm-school.com/academics/eighthgrade.cfm

How many Catholic schools do you actually have experience with? What qualifies you as an expert on Catholic education?

I'm a Catholic who looked at multiple diocesan schools for my kids and this was feedback I heard from school parents as one of the negatives. Yes, some schools offer it but most kids don't have access to it, is what was shared with me by parents at at least three different schools near me.

Name the schools. Let’s take a look.

[Anonymous]

For your their sake, please drop this friendship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friend’s kids go to local Catholic school for 3rd grade and 5th grade. It seems like every other day they go to mass, have some prayer event, have a student assembly, etc. Do kids at these schools have enough instruction time for ACADEMICS?

How do they compete with public and non-religious schools whose total number of school days are the same (or more) but without all the religious extracurricular?

Having kids at both DCPS and Catholic schools I can report that the Catholic schools seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time on events focused on love of God and love of family. But nowhere near as much time devoted to hating the USA as our public did. I guess there’s only so many hours in the day.