Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We are considering sending our daughter to a Catholic school for middle school. We had planned on MCPS but are concerned with the subject matter they are focusing on this summer. I have no issue with LGBTQ people or their rights but as a parent, I feel that these types of discussions are my role to frame and discuss at home, not at school, and especially not with preteens. How are the Catholic schools handling these issues?
Also, academically how do they challenge students who need enrichment?
We moved our kids away from FCPS and into Catholic schools for mostly the same reason: a combination of increasingly disorganized and subpar academic instruction and a political focus on kooky left-wing wokeness; the issues are related, as the time/effort/resources that are focused on wokeness detract from the core academics which are supposed to be the focus. We were also uncomfortable with a lot of the political nonsense that has been introduced in schools.
Our children--ranging from young elementary to high school teenagers--are all in Catholic school now, and we are so glad that we made the switch! We could never go back to the government-run-like-the-DMV public school after experiencing a true school community with teachers and a school administration that are responsive to parents and actually focused on education. The main difference is the basic approach of Catholic schools wherein they say "Parents are the primary educators of their children; we partner with parents to educate their children." To the extent that non-academic issues are discussed at all, it's all based on basic Christian values and all very age appropriate. Of course, it also helps that disruptive and disrespectful students are not tolerated, which makes for a safer and more enjoyable learning experience for all. We have also been relieved that the Catholic schools in this area use much less "electronic babysitting" (i.e., screen-time) for students and still use textbooks rather than sending students online for everything like we were seeing in public school.
For the record, my wife and I both grew up attending public school, and neither one of us thought that our children would ever attend private school. But honestly, the Catholic schools of 2022 remind me of what public school back in the 1980s/1990s used to be like -- a focus on academics, no political indoctrination in school, and a respect for parents when it came to teaching values.
It's a bit late in the summer to try to make the switch --- back when we switched, we had to really work hard to find schools with openings. Good luck with your decision and I hope it works out for you.