Comparing Catholic Schools in Arlington Diocese

[Anonymous]

DCs (2nd and 6th) go to a Catholic school in Alexandria. It seems like every week, there’s some reason that classes or other academics don’t proceed under the normal schedule. Last week, they had a bunch of “special events” for Catholic Schools week. Now this week, there’s mass both today and Friday, again taking hours away from academics.

Other weeks, it seems like there’s some obscure feast or “celebration” (many of which I’ve never heard of, despite growing up in a strict Catholic Church and attending Catholic school my whole life), which again takes away from class time.

With all the special feasts, special events, etc., it’s not clear to me when the kids actually attend class with any regularity.

My question: is this a Diocese thing? Are all Catholic schools around here like this? Or is it unique to my school? (It certainly isn’t like this in the Carolinas, where I grew up, so it’s not a national thing!)

[Anonymous]

My kids are in high school but thinking back to our k-8 days, yes. Catholic schools week (last week) is a good example that the traditions and rhythms are special and I'm glad for them. Mass alone takes a significant amount of time if you add the hours for the whole school year. Because trust me, they get there early and sit quietly before mass and there’s transition time in the classroom before and after. Nonetheless, my kids were well prepared for high school. It’s definitely part of the deal.

[Anonymous]

It’s a diocese thing. Ours is the same way. If it doesn’t work for you, you may want to look in a different direction.

And similar to pp, my ds who is a freshman taking honors on the honors track at an Arlington diocese high school says it’s easier than his parochial K-8 and thinks he was very well prepared for high school. So all those special events didn’t seem to have a negative impact on academics in the end.

[Anonymous]

My kids had a lot of events last week for Catholic Schools Week. They still seem to get a lot of work done, so I am not concerned.

[Anonymous]

This is true for our ADW school, too. We are considering pulling our kids next year as they've reached the age we want them to learn at school.

[Anonymous]

It’s getting ridiculous. Since mass is usually in the morning, we often just let the kids sleep in those days and/or do some academics from home in the morning. Marked tardy but no biggie.

[Anonymous]

Yep was like that when we had our kids in an Arlington Diocese Catholic School. Also daily Religion class NEVER got cancelled while math and ELA and other core subjects frequently did.

[Anonymous]

Before you pull them, I'd encourage you to check the public school calendar where you live.

I don't know if all the additional non-Christian holidays will remain in the calendar under the new federal regime, but between those and the many half days and teacher workdays and more traditional days off, there is always lots of complaining from FCPS and APS families about the amount of days off. Our kids always jokingly said "No school November" was a thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before you pull them, I'd encourage you to check the public school calendar where you live.

I don't know if all the additional non-Christian holidays will remain in the calendar under the new federal regime, but between those and the many half days and teacher workdays and more traditional days off, there is always lots of complaining from FCPS and APS families about the amount of days off. Our kids always jokingly said "No school November" was a thing.

OP here. Fair enough, but trust me that our Catholic school has MORE than its fair share of BS “teacher work” days, half days, etc too. So I suspect it’s a wash with FCPS.

My bigger concern is that even when they’re IN school, they’re often not doing “school” things — instead, they’re handing out flowers, marching/walking for some affinity group, attending assemblies, celebrating some esoteric “feast” that even the Pope probably hadn’t heard of, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before you pull them, I'd encourage you to check the public school calendar where you live.

I don't know if all the additional non-Christian holidays will remain in the calendar under the new federal regime, but between those and the many half days and teacher workdays and more traditional days off, there is always lots of complaining from FCPS and APS families about the amount of days off. Our kids always jokingly said "No school November" was a thing.

OP here. Fair enough, but trust me that our Catholic school has MORE than its fair share of BS “teacher work” days, half days, etc too. So I suspect it’s a wash with FCPS.

My bigger concern is that even when they’re IN school, they’re often not doing “school” things — instead, they’re handing out flowers, marching/walking for some affinity group, attending assemblies, celebrating some esoteric “feast” that even the Pope probably hadn’t heard of, etc.

It sounds like you’re pretty fed up with the situation, so it’s probably reasonable to start looking elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is true for our ADW school, too. We are considering pulling our kids next year as they've reached the age we want them to learn at school.

Does ADW have mass weekly? I grew up at an ADW school and I do not remember us having weekly mass, but I know our local Arlington Diocese school does. I wasn't sure if it was an Arlington thing or if ADW does it now too.

[Anonymous]

We moved across the country but Catholic Schools Week is a big deal here, too. Of all the classes to miss for each day’s events, my child’s grade missed 5 days of math class! But on the other hand, they had special activities with their younger grade brother/sisters, had a special mass, did service projects, and had spirit days. The high schools here time their finals to happen before Catholic schools week so it’s like a second homecoming week with lots of fun activities, including new student acceptance day and auctions. If anything, I appreciate that they compress the fun into one week and are otherwise pretty efficient with random days off.

Re: feast days- by us each school puts special emphasis on the feast days that are most relevant to their school. So ours celebrates bigger for its namesake saint in November but my neighbor’s HS has their big celebrations in May. We definitely don’t celebrate random ones.

[Anonymous]

Why does your school have TWO masses this week, OP? I assume one is First Friday, but what else?

Catholic Schools Week is an anomaly and disruptive everywhere. Some schools celebrate with more fun than others though. But excessive assemblies outside of those unique periods might have an educational benefit?

[Anonymous]

Maybe today is Blessing of the Throats ( St Blaise). When DC were at school, the priest just went around to the different classrooms. There was no Mass.

FWIW when I was in Catholic school, we went to Mass monthly (not in DMV). Where are my niece and nephews attend, they do Friday Mass, but they don’t have a religion on that day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does your school have TWO masses this week, OP? I assume one is First Friday, but what else?

Catholic Schools Week is an anomaly and disruptive everywhere. Some schools celebrate with more fun than others though. But excessive assemblies outside of those unique periods might have an educational benefit?

Yeah. That is sort of wierd. My kids Arlington Diocese school generally has mass on Friday but will move it to another day if there is some special feast day or day of obligation but never do they have 2 masses in a week.