PP- I was told that I was too demanding because the deadlines for the programs my kids applied to were before the deadlines of the Catholic HS.

My kids both attended a local parochial (when they were younger) and public schools when they were older.

While we met a few nice families at a local parochial, the school atmosphere was toxic. The buildings were beautiful, you could eat off the floor, and they did a great job of selling the school at the Open House.

Once you get in though, it’s like having a relationship with a narcissist. You are immediately made to feel superior “love bombed” because you “invested” in your child(ren’s) education. When you walk through the halls, you see all the amazing projects hanging on the walls or the professional looking dioramas sitting on the tables. The crazy number of graded projects, which were always completed at home were not age appropriate in the least and were more like “family projects.” Many of these “family projects” were completely done by parents though they’d never admit it. Cheating was rampant- parents writing their kids papers or doing their homework for them. The school felt like one big “act”. There was one set of rules for big donors of money/time another for everyone else. Oftentimes, it felt like I was homeschooling my kid as it seemed like they assigned a ton of homework but school was often reserved for fun activities.

The clique was terrible and run by the parents. Almost everyone came from a similar background, white upper middle class. Since it was a small school, you were either in or out. If you were the type of person to question things, you were definitely out. If you weren’t Catholic, even if you checked all the other boxes you were ousted at some point. There were some mean staff members that would take pride in bullying kids that weren’t part of the “in clique” and the principal turned a blind eye.

The environment worked for some. There were some nice kids whose family fit well enough socially and they are doing fantastic now. It didn’t work for a lot of people. There were a crazy number of kids that developed mental health issues when they were older.

And never ever say you are sending your kid to a public high school. The administration will turn their backs to you if you apply to a magnet or actively criticize you for being too demanding when all you are asking for is getting the documents you need in a timely manner.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two different issues that you need to work through on your own.

1. My family is Catholic, but I was shocked by the large amount of discussion (preaching) to my kids at regular Sunday school regarding abortion and homosexuality. I don't think of our church as being an outlier at all, which makes me think this is pervasive. This may not bother you at all, but I've seriously considered not even doing Sunday religious education because of this. So just a head's up.

2. Think about the cost in relation to college savings. For my family, $9k/year into a 529 would be a great help.

That said, I would have loved the idea of a small, nurturing community for my kids when they were younger, and there may be similar benefits once you hit HS. So I understand the appeal. If the above two things are manageable, I'd consider it seriously.

What is "Sunday school" at a Catholic Church? And what church is this? I've attended churches all over the country and have never seen this. So, no, not pervasive.

Sunday school is at nearly every parish in the country. It's religious education for children. Churches usually hold it on Sunday (or sometimes Saturday afternoon/evening). My son went every year from 1st through 8th grade. They had a workbook and sometimes homework. It's for kids who don't attend the Catholic school there.

I suspect some of the benefits might be:

Discipline
Learning how to be respectful of adults and each other
Cursive
Grammar
Spelling
How to speak correctly and carry yourself with confidence
Academic rigor
Homework
Learning how to be a good student (read, memorize, be prepared)
Morals and ethics
A confidence that carries you through life

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We can afford the 9K tuition (with FA) but it’s still extra money we could save if we do public. However, we see so many academic benefits from Catholic in addition to the lovely close knit community, smaller teacher/student ratio and how the school embraces other religions (despite teaching from the Catholic perspective of course). Public would be considered by many a “strong” one but class sizes are in the large side. Feeling “guilty” about oaring tuition while having a “good” public in neighborhood..but is it “good” for real…

Catholic school does not embrace other religions that is a crock of shit. It is a Catholic school that is what they teach and they are not accepting of other religions. Again absurd.

Yes, the public would be better academically there is no comparison.

College admissions are better from public for sure.

Science is better in public 100%.

This is all so silly.

I’ve worked in public and Catholic. My children have attend Catholic. The schools we are affiliated with absolutely respect and accept other religions. My older daughter is currently studying world religion and has regular guest speakers from various faiths.

And Science and math? Why would AP Calc BC, AP Chem, and the other 7-9 advanced STEM courses we offer be any different in content than another school? Please don’t being up the “Catholics don’t believe in evolution” nonsense again. And before someone insults teachers: we all have advanced degrees and certification. Most of us transferred from publics.

I’m speaking from the high school perspective, obviously, but I’ve sent my own kids to Catholic k-8s. I credit those schools for turning them into the strong writers they are now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We can afford the 9K tuition (with FA) but it’s still extra money we could save if we do public. However, we see so many academic benefits from Catholic in addition to the lovely close knit community, smaller teacher/student ratio and how the school embraces other religions (despite teaching from the Catholic perspective of course). Public would be considered by many a “strong” one but class sizes are in the large side. Feeling “guilty” about oaring tuition while having a “good” public in neighborhood..but is it “good” for real…

Catholic school does not embrace other religions that is a crock of shit. It is a Catholic school that is what they teach and they are not accepting of other religions. Again absurd.

Yes, the public would be better academically there is no comparison.

College admissions are better from public for sure.

Science is better in public 100%.

Math is better in public as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We can afford the 9K tuition (with FA) but it’s still extra money we could save if we do public. However, we see so many academic benefits from Catholic in addition to the lovely close knit community, smaller teacher/student ratio and how the school embraces other religions (despite teaching from the Catholic perspective of course). Public would be considered by many a “strong” one but class sizes are in the large side. Feeling “guilty” about oaring tuition while having a “good” public in neighborhood..but is it “good” for real…

Catholic school does not embrace other religions that is a crock of shit. It is a Catholic school that is what they teach and they are not accepting of other religions. Again absurd.

Yes, the public would be better academically there is no comparison.

College admissions are better from public for sure.

Science is better in public 100%.

Absurd? Please give an example of a teaching at a Catholic school to support your statement.

Anonymous wrote:Two different issues that you need to work through on your own.

1. My family is Catholic, but I was shocked by the large amount of discussion (preaching) to my kids at regular Sunday school regarding abortion and homosexuality. I don't think of our church as being an outlier at all, which makes me think this is pervasive. This may not bother you at all, but I've seriously considered not even doing Sunday religious education because of this. So just a head's up.

2. Think about the cost in relation to college savings. For my family, $9k/year into a 529 would be a great help.

That said, I would have loved the idea of a small, nurturing community for my kids when they were younger, and there may be similar benefits once you hit HS. So I understand the appeal. If the above two things are manageable, I'd consider it seriously.

What is "Sunday school" at a Catholic Church? And what church is this? I've attended churches all over the country and have never seen this. So, no, not pervasive.

Anonymous wrote:We can afford the 9K tuition (with FA) but it’s still extra money we could save if we do public. However, we see so many academic benefits from Catholic in addition to the lovely close knit community, smaller teacher/student ratio and how the school embraces other religions (despite teaching from the Catholic perspective of course). Public would be considered by many a “strong” one but class sizes are in the large side. Feeling “guilty” about oaring tuition while having a “good” public in neighborhood..but is it “good” for real…

Catholic school does not embrace other religions that is a crock of shit. It is a Catholic school that is what they teach and they are not accepting of other religions. Again absurd.

Yes, the public would be better academically there is no comparison.

College admissions are better from public for sure.

Science is better in public 100%.

Anonymous wrote:Two different issues that you need to work through on your own.

1. My family is Catholic, but I was shocked by the large amount of discussion (preaching) to my kids at regular Sunday school regarding abortion and homosexuality. I don't think of our church as being an outlier at all, which makes me think this is pervasive. This may not bother you at all, but I've seriously considered not even doing Sunday religious education because of this. So just a head's up.

2. Think about the cost in relation to college savings. For my family, $9k/year into a 529 would be a great help.

That said, I would have loved the idea of a small, nurturing community for my kids when they were younger, and there may be similar benefits once you hit HS. So I understand the appeal. If the above two things are manageable, I'd consider it seriously.

+1000

Two different issues that you need to work through on your own.

1. My family is Catholic, but I was shocked by the large amount of discussion (preaching) to my kids at regular Sunday school regarding abortion and homosexuality. I don't think of our church as being an outlier at all, which makes me think this is pervasive. This may not bother you at all, but I've seriously considered not even doing Sunday religious education because of this. So just a head's up.

2. Think about the cost in relation to college savings. For my family, $9k/year into a 529 would be a great help.

That said, I would have loved the idea of a small, nurturing community for my kids when they were younger, and there may be similar benefits once you hit HS. So I understand the appeal. If the above two things are manageable, I'd consider it seriously.

OP, we are in FCPS, not MCPS, but the concerns were the same. My big regret is that we stayed in the “good” public school despite my concerns about class sizes, technology use, and failure to deal with disciplinary issues. If I had it to do all over again, we would have switched to Catholic school in early elementary. Kids are now in Catholic high school and I wish we would have made the switch years ago.

We switched and a few years laters switched back to public. The $ just wasn’t worth it. We got a lot of busy work homework, teachers who couldn’t deal with adhd and the class size moved from 17 to almost 30 in the three years we were there so ended up being larger than our public . Also do you plan on Catholic HS? The cost is double to triple that of elementary. We learned that about 98% of kids at the Catholic elementary went to Catholic HS. we would have been the only ones to tell our kids in 8th grade that they couldnt go to hs with their friends. Also I am Catholic but I was shocked by some of the devout conservatives- moms must stay at home and have 6+ kids etc. know what you are getting into.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I posted this on the other thread OP had on this topic, but I would only consider an independent Catholic. Independent schools are more rigorous and have a much stronger curriculum. Compared with a regular, church-subsidized school, the academic experience in MCPS is stronger, warts and all.

We attended an independent Catholic in Bethesda, a Montessori through Grade 8. The teachers were excellent in the lower school. Many teachers were excellent in upper school, but not all. Some were downright horrible and unprofessional. That, paired with bad school leadership and really nasty kids, cliques, worst bullying you can imagine, and teachers who couldn’t give a crap about mental health or holding kids to high standards made us eventually leave. Glad we did, sorry we stayed for so long. We really loved the VP, admissions team, advancement, and one of the deans, so we kept thinking it would get better. It got worse. Long story short—if you have a strong public, why rock the boat? Do you have 30,000 to throw around for the next ten years? Don’t assume just because a school is Catholic or independent that it has great, morale kids and strong values being touted. Don’t assume it’s a good school. Really get to know the school’s culture. If you still want Catholic, I recommend DeChantal.

Sorry—moral, not morale. My mistake. 😂

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to make your own choice. But know at Catholic schools, how the school "embraces other religions" is to show how they're inferior but still worthy of studying.

+100

We would never do Catholic, instead we provide other enriching activities through family vacations, an au pair who takes the kids after school 3 x a week (on trips to museums, or other activities), summer camp experiences and spring break trips to a diff state each year.

Education starts at home, it does not begin in school.

We don't want our children to only think in a linear way.

Seems only one who is thinking "in a linear way" is the PP, who claims they would "never do Catholic" when they clearly know nothing about Catholic schools.

Perhaps I should clarify that no religious schools would be okay for us. You are your child's first teacher, education and learning does not take place in a corporate structure. It takes place at home.

You do you. We like having the reinforcement of religion in the classroom. It actually expands their education beyond a public school experience where religion can never be discussed. Those kids are missing out and getting the type of education that might make THEM think in a linear way. My kids learned about all religions, not just Catholicism. Sadly not allowed in public schools.

Catholic school works great if you're Catholic. Not so much if you aren't.

Plenty of non-Catholic families at our Catholic school… about 50% of the student population. I suspect they’re doing just fine.

I'm sure they love the "reinforcement of religion in the classroom" they're getting.

As a non-Catholic, it doesn’t bother me at all. My child learns about helping others and gets to do that through regular service projects. She practices being honest, supportive, and kind through each day. Does she learn about saints? Sure, and there are some good moral lessons in those stories.

I’ll speak for myself, thank you. You don’t get to project your disagreement about the Catholic Church on me.