Nonreligious family sending child to religious school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, my children have been in various religious schools, and so was I as a child.

Absolutely do not send your children to a school that is a fundamentalist Protestant sect that thinks the earth is 6,500 years old, etc. BTDT as a kid, it was ridiculous and I KNEW it was wrong. I just felt my teachers were idiots.

My children have been to 3 different Catholic schools -- a parish school (too strict/teach to the test like public), a Montessori (taken over by nonreligious people and thus no real religious aspect remained, education was fine), and now they are attending a classical school.

I much prefer the classical school. The interweaving of traditional education is not about memorization, as some classical school critics want to suggest. Sure, they have spelling words like everyone else -- but the integrated curriculum weaving ideas from literature through science and math are really an exceptional, whole child way to learn. Like another PP, I also like that they move the children to what math group they fit in best with, not tied to grade level. They also learn Latin, which many think is not useful but as a philology minor, I think it is a wonderful base. They have 3 recesses a day so elementary boys are stuck in desks for hours.

The upside, too, is that the teachers are extremely overeducated. Most are Ph.D.s who did not get a tenure track job in theology. Many of the teachers are men, which is nice as I have sons and having male role models from a young age is good.

The downside is that if you are not at least on board with Catholic teaching, you aren't going to be very happy with the program. They have Mass first thing every morning. The school teaches in the Catholic faith. It is full of families of strong faith, not Easter and Christmas Catholics.

I myself am a Protestant, but my DH is Catholic and I would like my children to be strong Catholics. If you are uncomfortable with discussions about hard topics, probably not for you.

No telling how kids turn out. Some parents want their kids to be strong athletes or strong musicians or whatever and it just doesn't happen that way. Kids have minds of their own.

[Anonymous]

Our school is like this, but none of it has rubbed off on our child. He tolerates the religious stuff - barely - but could not be less interested (or indoctrinated).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school is like this, but none of it has rubbed off on our child. He tolerates the religious stuff - barely - but could not be less interested (or indoctrinated).

Catholic schools create more atheists than any others institution in the world

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school is like this, but none of it has rubbed off on our child. He tolerates the religious stuff - barely - but could not be less interested (or indoctrinated).

Catholic schools create more atheists than any others institution in the world

That's how I became one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are interfaith or not religious yourself, and your spouse is, would you send an elementary school age child to a school that is excellent, but also interweaves the religion into everything on a daily basis?

no, religion is a fundamental dividing force in the world. Not sending my child to any religion-related schools, no matter how good they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the religion and how it’s taught. We were not happy at a Catholic school. One example of values that differed from ours was when my kid came home and told us being gay was a sin. He claimed his religion teacher told the class that. Other than this, the school felt too religious for our comfort. We’ve transferred to an Episcopal school and it is a much better fit for our family. There is religion, but it’s more values based. We have families of all different faiths and the school tries to cater to the diverse group.

Why do we have a religion to have values? Isn't life much more meaningful if the kids discover what is important? Instead of someone else tells them?

[Anonymous]

Religion is not needed to have values.

We teach our kids lots of things - some religious, some not.

Religions HAVE values, of course, many of which are the same across religions (except for hating people of other religions)

[Anonymous]

Why did you start up a thread over two years old to bash other parents choice on school choice.

[Anonymous]

Many from my Muslim family went to catholic schools. If school is good academically, shouldn't be an issue. A non-Muslim friend of mine taught in local islamic school, she sent her kids there, partially because she got employee discount and partially because she was happy with school's performance.

[Anonymous]

Most of the kids nowadays turn atheists anyways. If you can't teach them your religion, what are the real odds of school teaching them some other religion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are interfaith or not religious yourself, and your spouse is, would you send an elementary school age child to a school that is excellent, but also interweaves the religion into everything on a daily basis?
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If it weaves religion in Feb it’s not a great school religion us indoctrination literally the definition of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school is like this, but none of it has rubbed off on our child. He tolerates the religious stuff - barely - but could not be less interested (or indoctrinated).

Catholic schools create more atheists than any others institution in the world

That's how I became one.

I know a few too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the kids nowadays turn atheists anyways. If you can't teach them your religion, what are the real odds of school teaching them some other religion?

Do they? All the adult atheists I know were originally taught a religion at home. Some at school too.

[Anonymous]

I did, but not for elementary. It had no effect on my child's religious beliefs. In fact, he seems to really dislike religion - says he got sick of it.

[Anonymous]

Applicants from small private religious schools (Christian, Muslim or Jewish) tend to stand out among sea of public school applicants. They've an advantage at Ivies and top SLACs. Mostly because their school principals and counselors are really invested in getting them accepted so they can flaunt those statistics to attract more tuition payers while public schools counselors don't care and have too many kids to give individual attention.