I wish there were a school that, like, just did academics and spared me all the other crap.

Just like every other school system, Catholic schools bill vary in rigor and by every other measure. That said, the idea that Religion Classes, attendance at Mass and other Catholic-centric aspects of the program might somehow detract from the overall academic rigor of the program in Catholic schools is laughable, preposterous, silly. ALL school programs dedicate a significant amount of time to non-substantive activities; they simply differ in their points of view and what they choose to emphasize.

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Anonymous wrote:
You know what “rigor” is? Not taking TWO YEARS off for a respiratory virus, like publics did. Catholics were smart enough not to fall for that insanity.


I hear this so much at our Catholic. Said with a little smile. No humility. So disappointing.

Sorry, but I don’t think this is something to be humble about. I understand why many public schools had to close. And how aspects of the Catholic schools made it easier for them to remain open.But, the admin, teachers and families worked together to make this happen all across this region at Catholic schools AND they provided opportunities for parents who chose differently for their children.

I will forever be grateful for this. I will continue to remember the teachers and administration for making this happen.

This thread was started to bash at Catholic school rigor. Pointing out how the schools embrace rigor is appropriate.

Agree with much of what you said. I too am grateful. But I also realize there were many factors that made the way our school managed the pandemic possible that really were not under our control.

We shouldn’t compare our efforts with the parents and students at other schools who care just as much and worked just as hard. And we shouldn’t be feeling superior because we aren’t.

You can advocate for your school and show how it is indeed rigorous without tearing down other people.

And OP is likely one of the standard issue anti-Catholic bigots on DCUM.

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Anonymous wrote:True story. A friend of mine whose daughter attended MCPS through HS is now at Towson University. She is struggling because she doesn't know how to study. Because she never had exposure to mid term or final exams, she is having to learn how to study and is considering dropping a class or two. This is so sad.

Also, she was an honor student in HS FWIW.

True story, lots of MCPS kids go to top colleges, and they know how to study, and get good grades there.

I am talking about average kids here, not the ones who are going to magnets and W schools. Students who never take an AP class don't get exposure to cumulative testing experiences. There are lots of these kids, and if they can't succeed at a school like Towson, that is not a good look on MCPS. Sorry.

I know it's shocking but there are actually kids outside of magnet and W schools that do go to great colleges.

Of course there are. But not many.

and there are "not many" from catholics who get into great colleges.

There seemed to be a lot of people in the Catholic club at Princeton when I was there, but I agree a lot of my Catholic peers chose Notre Dame or Georgetown rather than excellent secular options.

"Because of its Presbyterian roots, Princeton did not really welcome “papists” until the early years of the twentieth century. Today, Catholics make up 20 to 25 percent of the student body, or roughly 1,200 students, and are the largest single religious group on campus." https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/catholicism-campus#:~:text=Because%20of%20its%20Presbyterian%20roots,single%20religious%20group%20on%20campus.

Do you realize that many Catholics don’t go to Catholic school, right?

PP here. Princeton reports that 13 percent of the Class of 2026 attended “religious affiliated” high schools, the majority of which presumably were Catholic. Another 17 percent attended independent day schools and 9 percent attended boarding schools. Sixty percent attended public schools. So it appears that both public and Catholic school graduates are underrepresented at Princeton, but public schools are the most poorly represented of them all.

Less than 13 percent of high schoolers in America graduate from Catholic schools but 13 percent of Princeton students hail from them, so they are over represented. I went to Dartmouth, after 12 years of Catholic school, and found a ton of peers there from Catholic school. Like a previous poster said many of my classmates chose top Catholic colleges rather than applying to the Ivy League.

As PP said, why would you assume all of the graduates from religious schools are Catholic? Many, if not most, of the top schools in not just the DMV but in other cities are religious, but not Catholic. I’d be willing to bet at least half of this 13 percent attended non-Catholic religious school. Sidwell, St. Alban’s and NCS send more kids to the ivies than all the Catholic high schools in this area combined.

This is absolutely false. Visi, Stone Ridge, Gonzaga, Prep, Heights, St. Anselms, DeMatha, St.Johns will easily send more kids to Ivies each year than Sidwell, NCS and St. Albans combined. Plus they will send another 80-100 kids to Notre Dame each year. And I'm leaving out another dozen or so independent and parochial Catholic schools in the DMV.

A different poster here. I have no idea what is true and what isn’t true about the numbers, but I have little doubt guess that there are more Ivy legacies at these top independent privates, and that has something to do with the disproportionate representation of their graduates at Ivy League schools

Look, if you want to continue to believe that Catholic education is inferior to whatever you chose for your child, no one can stop you.

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Anonymous wrote:True story. A friend of mine whose daughter attended MCPS through HS is now at Towson University. She is struggling because she doesn't know how to study. Because she never had exposure to mid term or final exams, she is having to learn how to study and is considering dropping a class or two. This is so sad.

Also, she was an honor student in HS FWIW.

True story, lots of MCPS kids go to top colleges, and they know how to study, and get good grades there.

I am talking about average kids here, not the ones who are going to magnets and W schools. Students who never take an AP class don't get exposure to cumulative testing experiences. There are lots of these kids, and if they can't succeed at a school like Towson, that is not a good look on MCPS. Sorry.

I know it's shocking but there are actually kids outside of magnet and W schools that do go to great colleges.

Of course there are. But not many.

and there are "not many" from catholics who get into great colleges.

There seemed to be a lot of people in the Catholic club at Princeton when I was there, but I agree a lot of my Catholic peers chose Notre Dame or Georgetown rather than excellent secular options.

"Because of its Presbyterian roots, Princeton did not really welcome “papists” until the early years of the twentieth century. Today, Catholics make up 20 to 25 percent of the student body, or roughly 1,200 students, and are the largest single religious group on campus." https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/catholicism-campus#:~:text=Because%20of%20its%20Presbyterian%20roots,single%20religious%20group%20on%20campus.

Do you realize that many Catholics don’t go to Catholic school, right?

PP here. Princeton reports that 13 percent of the Class of 2026 attended “religious affiliated” high schools, the majority of which presumably were Catholic. Another 17 percent attended independent day schools and 9 percent attended boarding schools. Sixty percent attended public schools. So it appears that both public and Catholic school graduates are underrepresented at Princeton, but public schools are the most poorly represented of them all.

Less than 13 percent of high schoolers in America graduate from Catholic schools but 13 percent of Princeton students hail from them, so they are over represented. I went to Dartmouth, after 12 years of Catholic school, and found a ton of peers there from Catholic school. Like a previous poster said many of my classmates chose top Catholic colleges rather than applying to the Ivy League.

As PP said, why would you assume all of the graduates from religious schools are Catholic? Many, if not most, of the top schools in not just the DMV but in other cities are religious, but not Catholic. I’d be willing to bet at least half of this 13 percent attended non-Catholic religious school. Sidwell, St. Alban’s and NCS send more kids to the ivies than all the Catholic high schools in this area combined.

This is absolutely false. Visi, Stone Ridge, Gonzaga, Prep, Heights, St. Anselms, DeMatha, St.Johns will easily send more kids to Ivies each year than Sidwell, NCS and St. Albans combined. Plus they will send another 80-100 kids to Notre Dame each year. And I'm leaving out another dozen or so independent and parochial Catholic schools in the DMV.

A different poster here. I have no idea what is true and what isn’t true about the numbers, but I have little doubt guess that there are more Ivy legacies at these top independent privates, and that has something to do with the disproportionate representation of their graduates at Ivy League schools

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Anonymous wrote:You know what “rigor” is? Not taking TWO YEARS off for a respiratory virus, like publics did. Catholics were smart enough not to fall for that insanity.

I hear this so much at our Catholic. Said with a little smile. No humility. So disappointing.

Well in Montgomery County, the health officer tried to close our schools, but luckily Gov. Hogan put an end to that and allowed us to open. So yeah, we like to smile about it. Public schools are so behind because of the nonsense of closing schools.

Anonymous wrote:Our experience was that there is a LOT of work and homework at the catholic school, but not a great DEPTH of study. So, “rigor” in the sense of very busy and generating lots of papers, but not a rigorous depth of learning necessarily and not any probing studying or wonder.

Lol. Do you think you the publics do a deep dive?! They don’t even write paragraphs in MS! Zero writing demand past 3 sentences

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Anonymous wrote:Any Private is better than Public. Catholic or not.

no way, not *any*, not those evangelical ones that teach creationism

And here she is…creationism lady! I should have known you’d make an appearance here!

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Anonymous wrote:True story. A friend of mine whose daughter attended MCPS through HS is now at Towson University. She is struggling because she doesn't know how to study. Because she never had exposure to mid term or final exams, she is having to learn how to study and is considering dropping a class or two. This is so sad.

Also, she was an honor student in HS FWIW.

True story, lots of MCPS kids go to top colleges, and they know how to study, and get good grades there.

I am talking about average kids here, not the ones who are going to magnets and W schools. Students who never take an AP class don't get exposure to cumulative testing experiences. There are lots of these kids, and if they can't succeed at a school like Towson, that is not a good look on MCPS. Sorry.

I know it's shocking but there are actually kids outside of magnet and W schools that do go to great colleges.

Of course there are. But not many.

and there are "not many" from catholics who get into great colleges.

There seemed to be a lot of people in the Catholic club at Princeton when I was there, but I agree a lot of my Catholic peers chose Notre Dame or Georgetown rather than excellent secular options.

"Because of its Presbyterian roots, Princeton did not really welcome “papists” until the early years of the twentieth century. Today, Catholics make up 20 to 25 percent of the student body, or roughly 1,200 students, and are the largest single religious group on campus." https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/catholicism-campus#:~:text=Because%20of%20its%20Presbyterian%20roots,single%20religious%20group%20on%20campus.

Do you realize that many Catholics don’t go to Catholic school, right?

PP here. Princeton reports that 13 percent of the Class of 2026 attended “religious affiliated” high schools, the majority of which presumably were Catholic. Another 17 percent attended independent day schools and 9 percent attended boarding schools. Sixty percent attended public schools. So it appears that both public and Catholic school graduates are underrepresented at Princeton, but public schools are the most poorly represented of them all.

Less than 13 percent of high schoolers in America graduate from Catholic schools but 13 percent of Princeton students hail from them, so they are over represented. I went to Dartmouth, after 12 years of Catholic school, and found a ton of peers there from Catholic school. Like a previous poster said many of my classmates chose top Catholic colleges rather than applying to the Ivy League.

As PP said, why would you assume all of the graduates from religious schools are Catholic? Many, if not most, of the top schools in not just the DMV but in other cities are religious, but not Catholic. I’d be willing to bet at least half of this 13 percent attended non-Catholic religious school. Sidwell, St. Alban’s and NCS send more kids to the ivies than all the Catholic high schools in this area combined.

This is absolutely false. Visi, Stone Ridge, Gonzaga, Prep, Heights, St. Anselms, DeMatha, St.Johns will easily send more kids to Ivies each year than Sidwell, NCS and St. Albans combined. Plus they will send another 80-100 kids to Notre Dame each year. And I'm leaving out another dozen or so independent and parochial Catholic schools in the DMV.

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You know what “rigor” is? Not taking TWO YEARS off for a respiratory virus, like publics did. Catholics were smart enough not to fall for that insanity.


I hear this so much at our Catholic. Said with a little smile. No humility. So disappointing.

Sorry, but I don’t think this is something to be humble about. I understand why many public schools had to close. And how aspects of the Catholic schools made it easier for them to remain open.But, the admin, teachers and families worked together to make this happen all across this region at Catholic schools AND they provided opportunities for parents who chose differently for their children.

I will forever be grateful for this. I will continue to remember the teachers and administration for making this happen.

This thread was started to bash at Catholic school rigor. Pointing out how the schools embrace rigor is appropriate.

Anonymous wrote:Moved my kids from APS (public) to Catholic. One of the biggest differences is actually instructional time - but in the opposite direction of OP's point! Catholic school teaches from the first day to the last. APS does very little teaching at the start of the year, before breaks, and after the first week of May (after the SOLs). My kid in Catholic HS had exams the last week of school. Very big difference.

Similar experience. My kid was in APS and had private testing that would have placed them in a gifted program in another county (above 140). They got bored and when we talked about science (in person) we were told they would learn science after the SOLs (in May) because in their grade, the SOL was in history/social studies. Until then, my kid would be allowed to have "independent study time" once a week as an 8-year old. At the Catholic School there was not official Gifted program but they had more opportunities to have rigorous work.

The days were longer, and they started school a week or two sooner but it was worth it. Also, they worked until the last week or school.

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Anonymous wrote:You know what “rigor” is? Not taking TWO YEARS off for a respiratory virus, like publics did. Catholics were smart enough not to fall for that insanity.

I hear this so much at our Catholic. Said with a little smile. No humility. So disappointing.

It’s ok to brag about having common sense.

It's not ok to -brag- about anything. That is common sense.

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Anonymous wrote:You know what “rigor” is? Not taking TWO YEARS off for a respiratory virus, like publics did. Catholics were smart enough not to fall for that insanity.

I hear this so much at our Catholic. Said with a little smile. No humility. So disappointing.

It’s ok to brag about having common sense.

Anonymous wrote:You know what “rigor” is? Not taking TWO YEARS off for a respiratory virus, like publics did. Catholics were smart enough not to fall for that insanity.

I hear this so much at our Catholic. Said with a little smile. No humility. So disappointing.

Switching to Catholic...my kids will learn cursive and grammar and actually take tests using paper rather than everything being on the computer. And oh yeah, they will actually have homework.