I grew up Catholic.

I would never allow my son to go to a school that teaches that women are second class citizens, that women should be forced to give birth, and that gay marriage is a sin. Don’t even get me started about spending parish funds to protect child rapists and attack victims.

As a Catholic who doesn’t attend Mass on Sunday, I’ve decided to pull DC out of the Catholic ES after two of the staff members segregated kids based on parents’ origin. They also badmouthed parents who don’t attend Mass every Sunday and make donations. That is not Catholicism. Period.

My older child left Catholic at the end of elementary and my youngest has always been in FCPS. I GREATLY prefer FCPS and other than a few friendships made I wish we had never done Catholic to begin with.

Cons first, but there are pros too.

Main complaints:

-Academics didn't live up to the hype. It was fine, not extraordinary.
-Wildly varying teaching quality
- we loved that the parochial supposedly taught Spanish only to learn that the Spanish teachers were unqualified and the program was a joke.
- ancient teachers that were actively nasty or simply non-responsive. Not overall, but in elementary where there are maybe two classes it's a big deal.
- no aide in kindergarten with, again, a marginal teacher who was really sweet...
-Someone mentioned art and music - FCPS art and music programs are on par with our experience and in fact, the teachers at our parochial resented the kids taking strings because it took them out of the classroom, so our kid was too intimidate to do strings
-parochial and elitist mindset of not wanting their kids to mix with people not like them in either skin color or "values."

All that said,

Pros:

-Community was welcoming and close knit;
-There are opportunities for activities - athletic, music, etc. Our school started focusing more heavily on computer/digital literacy and STEM;
-Fun traditions for the kids;
-We are Catholic, so I like that Catholic practice was part of the school day and there were events for parents to attend;
-the good teachers were very good and dedicated.

Anonymous wrote:Because the main purpose of a Catholic education is to create good Catholics. Academics are secondary. Our kids were way behind when they went back to public school.

Can you say more? Which school did your kids attend? And were they behind generally, or in particular areas?

I really like that my kid has friends that are Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, Jewish, etc. I know Catholic schools can have all kinds, but it's not like public school. All their family is Catholic, so it's nice for them to get exposure to other religions and cultures outside of the family. I also tend to think the public schools have a little more breadth of experience/choices. Finally, although many of the Catholic schools around here are tolerant, I am concerned about my kids being gay or internalizing homophobic messages from a Catholic school. I don't think the schools affirmatively teach that anymore, but I don't think they will shut down a homophobic teacher the way that a public school will. And he abortion stuff is also problematic for me.

Because the main purpose of a Catholic education is to create good Catholics. Academics are secondary. Our kids were way behind when they went back to public school.

I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools my entire educational career. We strongly considered applying during the public school COVID shutdowns, but I just couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. As an adult I can now look back and see how messed up a lot of the teaching at my Catholic grade school was. I no longer consider myself Catholic and will not raise my children to be Catholic (or any religion for that matter). This is both because of the horrible abuse the Church allowed to carry on, but also because of countless personal experiences of judgmental, sanctimonious, and hypocritical behavior from Church and school leaders who purported to be loving.

We were raised Catholic, though we converted to Episcopalian a few years ago. We still have many Catholic friends and family for whom we retain a deep love and respect, and we love the community at the Catholic school we considered. They do many good works and offer a terrific, well-rounded education. In almost all respects, I would have loved for our children to be education there.

However, every year the school hosts an anti-abortion essay contest. I needed an abortion to save my life. (Strictly speaking, this is against Catholic teaching.) I could not in good conscience send my kids to a school that would teach them to hate me.

We are at a private middle and upper school in DC. We are not happy there for a variety of reasons. Most of all, it’s not what they tout and have encountered some of the worst behavior in teachers. We are Catholic and will not return.

Cost, and my kids got into AAP, which I considered better. We saved our $$$ for private colleges.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We decided no on Catholic schools because when I taught in one, my principal asked me to cover up child abuse (not that long ago) and openly cheated on state exams. We had the same extreme behavior issues public schools have, but because of overall declining enrollment, the school couldn't afford to expel them and there was NO help at all for those kids. And when I look at the criminal cover up of sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, I don't believe for one second there has been true change. A lot of surface change, but deep down? Nah.

Wow, that sounds like a pretty horrendous school. This doesn’t sound even remotely like my experience with Catholic school, as a student or as a parent. Hopefully you reported whatever abuse you witnessed.

Oh yes, absolutely reported. Principal was furious. I was ok with that. Worst thing she could do was fire me. I would have hired a lawyer and sued the crap out of her and the parish. Was so glad to leave. I'm assuming you work in your school so you truly know what's going on and glad it is better.

PP here. Was the child abused by a teacher/staff? Or a parent? That is so awful, I’m glad you got out of there.

By a parent. The child disclosed to me, I went to talk to my principal about it and she told me not to call child services. She wanted to let the priest handle it. I called anyways. Then, the next day, when DCFS came in, the principal walked around telling everyone how we always call and report when there's an issue. This was AFTER all the abuse stuff came out within the church in general.
I can't think about her without being pissed off to this day. There was a LOT of stuff that went on there that just blew my mind. Shocking stuff. I know not all catholic schools are like that, but this place was really something.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We decided no on Catholic schools because when I taught in one, my principal asked me to cover up child abuse (not that long ago) and openly cheated on state exams. We had the same extreme behavior issues public schools have, but because of overall declining enrollment, the school couldn't afford to expel them and there was NO help at all for those kids. And when I look at the criminal cover up of sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, I don't believe for one second there has been true change. A lot of surface change, but deep down? Nah.

Wow, that sounds like a pretty horrendous school. This doesn’t sound even remotely like my experience with Catholic school, as a student or as a parent. Hopefully you reported whatever abuse you witnessed.

Oh yes, absolutely reported. Principal was furious. I was ok with that. Worst thing she could do was fire me. I would have hired a lawyer and sued the crap out of her and the parish. Was so glad to leave. I'm assuming you work in your school so you truly know what's going on and glad it is better.

PP here. Was the child abused by a teacher/staff? Or a parent? That is so awful, I’m glad you got out of there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We decided no on Catholic schools because when I taught in one, my principal asked me to cover up child abuse (not that long ago) and openly cheated on state exams. We had the same extreme behavior issues public schools have, but because of overall declining enrollment, the school couldn't afford to expel them and there was NO help at all for those kids. And when I look at the criminal cover up of sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, I don't believe for one second there has been true change. A lot of surface change, but deep down? Nah.

Wow, that sounds like a pretty horrendous school. This doesn’t sound even remotely like my experience with Catholic school, as a student or as a parent. Hopefully you reported whatever abuse you witnessed.

Oh yes, absolutely reported. Principal was furious. I was ok with that. Worst thing she could do was fire me. I would have hired a lawyer and sued the crap out of her and the parish. Was so glad to leave. I'm assuming you work in your school so you truly know what's going on and glad it is better.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I'm a single mom (and non-Catholic) with an IVF baby and when we applied last year, I was told that "there was no space" for my 2nd grader. Later in the summer, a new admissions officer at the school contacted me because there was a spot open on the waiting list...but weirdly all of my paperwork couldn't be found. I would have had to resubmit everything and pay another $150 admission fee.

Maybe there was a paperwork mess up. But the episode suggested to me that the admissions office thought we wouldn't fit at the school and they tossed our application. The new admissions person didn't know I was a single mom since there was no paperwork there anymore.

Did you tell them you used IVF? I wouldn’t think they assumed that just based on the fact that you’re a single mom. On the contrary, I know many couples at Catholic schools who used IVF. I don’t think that was the issue.

Anonymous wrote:We decided no on Catholic schools because when I taught in one, my principal asked me to cover up child abuse (not that long ago) and openly cheated on state exams. We had the same extreme behavior issues public schools have, but because of overall declining enrollment, the school couldn't afford to expel them and there was NO help at all for those kids. And when I look at the criminal cover up of sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, I don't believe for one second there has been true change. A lot of surface change, but deep down? Nah.

Wow, that sounds like a pretty horrendous school. This doesn’t sound even remotely like my experience with Catholic school, as a student or as a parent. Hopefully you reported whatever abuse you witnessed.