Reply to Going to a Catholic school if you're not Catholic?

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[quote=Anonymous]The Archdiocese publishes a report that allows you to see the self-reported religious affiliation of every school's student population. While all schools are majority Catholic, many schools have a very high percentage of non-Catholic students. However, realize that many of the non-Catholic students will still come from practicing liturgical Christian households, so they will have some familiarity with the prayers, services, and Biblical stories that they encounter at school.

Outside of weekly chapels and holiday masses, Catholicism mostly comes up in religion class. A Catholic school where I worked was fortunate to have a non-clergy member who was a gifted and empathetic religion teacher. While he did have certain topics that he needed to address to help prepare students for first communion and, later, confirmation, he seemed to tailor lessons to be broad and inclusive. Still, it's up to you as a non-Catholic whether you want your child to have several hours of religious instruction per week. The Archdiocese prescribes certain minimums, and there's no way out of it if you enroll at a Catholic school. That is time that is not spent on other academic subjects or extracurriculars.

The only other way that Catholicism influenced the school day was during sex ed for older children. Where I taught, this was not a dedicated course, the way some schools might have family life education or similar. It was a several-day portion of some science courses. It's not that the content was particularly religious. However, the content was extremely limited because of the school's religious affiliation. Children did not learn about contraception or sexually transmitted infections, for example.

Last, I noticed that the Catholic affiliation did affect some outside-of-school socializing. Many families attended the same parishes and did live near each other so as to be conveniently located to church and school. These outside-of-school opportunities to see each other led some students to be closer than others. They weren't trying to be clique-y or exclusive, but they naturally gravitated toward the other children with whom they had already spent time. A new student might have to be more outgoing and persistent to break into these established social groups.

Of course, every school will have its own culture. And within the same school, your child might have a protestant teacher or a teacher who decorates his or her classroom with posters of the Pope and rosaries. (My school employed both types of teacher.) The best way to find out if you can see a school being a good fit is to visit during the school day. [/quote]

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