If you decided against Catholic School, can you share why?

[Anonymous]

I prefer the language arts program at Catholic in elementary. It's big draw actually. The program though is pretty repetitive. After 5th grade I think it loses its appeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you considered but decided against a parochial Catholic elementary school, can you share why? We’re debating between Haycock and either St. James or St. Luke’s.

Besides the fact it is just an educational front for the next wave of "good Catholics"? Ok:
-Mediocre STEM (you can't claim otherwise when any mention of divinity enters science class)
-nuns and priests w/o an education background and who are, frankly, sub-par educators
-Overly strict, if not downright cruel, treatment by teachers, nuns, and priests
-Given the history of the Catholic church overlooking abuses of all kind, I do not trust them with my child
-history of secrecy in the Church, individually and as an institution, leads me not to trust them
-Do not want religious education for my child.

-Signed, K-12 Catholic School student and practicing Catholic until my 20's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you considered but decided against a parochial Catholic elementary school, can you share why? We’re debating between Haycock and either St. James or St. Luke’s.

Besides the fact it is just an educational front for the next wave of "good Catholics"? Ok:
-Mediocre STEM (you can't claim otherwise when any mention of divinity enters science class)
-nuns and priests w/o an education background and who are, frankly, sub-par educators
-Overly strict, if not downright cruel, treatment by teachers, nuns, and priests
-Given the history of the Catholic church overlooking abuses of all kind, I do not trust them with my child
-history of secrecy in the Church, individually and as an institution, leads me not to trust them
-Do not want religious education for my child.

-Signed, K-12 Catholic School student and practicing Catholic until my 20's.

I will also add, I did have a couple wonderful teachers through those years. But I can count them on one hand, with fingers left over.

[Anonymous]

1. We're not Catholic and don't want our kids spending a portion of the school day learning Catholic theology.

2. Classes at our local Catholic are as large or larger than our local public school.

3. Teachers are generally less experienced and educated.

4. Our local Catholic's demographics are not reflective of our community.

5. History of sexual abuse and lack of reckoning.

[Anonymous]

we considered it but since we are not religious, prochoice and are fairly liberal- it did not line up with our beliefs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child attends a Catholic in DC that is not a parochial. Stuck back in time with some of their outdated and not purposeful ways. Interaction with students are harsh and don’t respect boundaries. Elderly monks shun and not open to making any updates, changes, and improvements and are disconnected and not understanding of family and children or their needs. Disappointment to what could be a great school.

This is the disgruntled St. Anselm’s poster.

[Anonymous]

I am Catholic (lite at heart) and Catholic school would be too much Catholicism.

We went with another religious school.

[Anonymous]

DD visited for a day and couldn't believe how far behind the math class was

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are leaving Catholic to go back to public next year. We left public due to Covid and it’s been great for the last two years but I don’t really see us going all the way through 8th and then to Catholic high school which is undoubtedly where most of the kids from the parochial will end up. I don’t want my child to have to start over meeting new people so I figure it’s better to move back to our neighborhood school now before friendships fully solidify. FCPS certainly has its issues but most of our neighbors seem happy with our local public elementary and very few kids in our area go to private… and some definitely have the money for it. I figure we can always reevaluate down the road. The Catholic school is our parish school and I knew before enrolling that it is on the conservative side. It is even more conservative than I thought and doesn’t quite line up with my personal preferences as a Catholic who grew up in a parish that was more laid-back. I don’t think you can make a blanket generalization about all Catholic schools just like you can’t make one about all FCPS schools. It’s all going to depend on the school administration, the teachers, class sizes, culture, etc. My child has done well at Catholic and I’m worried about language arts in FCPS. But I know they’re about a month behind our FCPS school in math and I don’t think science is anything special either. I personally feel I can supplement language arts at home if needed — it’s always been a strength of mine — but math and science would be harder and I’ve heard kids who go from Catholic parochial to public HS aren’t always prepared on those.

Honestly I won’t know if this is the right decision until we go back to public and see how it goes. I try to remember this board is skewed by major complainers. There are pros and cons just like everything else in life.

St. Mary's?

[Anonymous]

I really liked my child's experience at Catholic school but the logistics and costs were hard to handle. The lower elementary school years in particular are pretty great with the handwriting and grammar and just overall teachings on how to treat others and serve others. I'd also say the middle school gets some draw in our community. High school tends to be people that want a more exclusive school or a sports draw or they've just done Catholic all years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you considered but decided against a parochial Catholic elementary school, can you share why? We’re debating between Haycock and either St. James or St. Luke’s.

This doesn’t really answer your question, but several families left our ES for St James and they have not returned. I don’t have any insight on the other two schools.

[Anonymous]

We switched to our local Catholic k-8 in fall of 2020. We returned to fcps this year because my youngest was starting kinder. We really didn’t want to pay 2x the tuition. My kid is asking to go back. I thought he’d stop asking by now… ugh, not sure what to do.

[Anonymous]

We always lose a few 4th graders who didn’t get aap in third grade to Catholic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We switched to our local Catholic k-8 in fall of 2020. We returned to fcps this year because my youngest was starting kinder. We really didn’t want to pay 2x the tuition. My kid is asking to go back. I thought he’d stop asking by now… ugh, not sure what to do.

Hang in there. We were at a (non religious) private for Covid and switched back to FCPS this year. Our child too is begging to return to private. For him it is the social side of things (tiny classes and knowing everyone vs a big school filled with strangers) We are seeing the frustration and sadness slowly abate. Hopefully your child will settle too!

[Anonymous]

I was uncomfortable with anti abortion/anti gay marriage conversations. It didn’t matter how great everything else was, once I realized our local school focused heavily on that with 2nd graders I had no interest.