Faking Catholicism so my kid can go to the Catholic school

[Byrns]

I was wondering if anyone has experience with this?

Our closest elementary school (1 block away) is a Catholic school and naturally, like almost all schools in Calgary, is somewhat full. We can get her into Kindergarten as non-catholics, but they won't guarantee her a Grade 1 spot.

Can I just go in say I'm Catholic when I'm not? Is there a Catholicism test I/we would have to take? (lol)

If the anti-religion peanut gallery could skip this thread it would be helpful.

[Nufy]

If I recall correctly I had to declare which school board I wanted my taxes to go to.

I don't now if they use that as a determining factor or not.

Both of my kids went to a catholic school even though they are not catholic.

I am so they were allowed to register.

I don't remember having to show a birth certificate, proof etc...




Just watch for lightning bolts when you walk in the place...

[KelVarnsen]

My sister went a Catholic high school, and last time I checked she ain'tCatholic. So you might be ok.

[Byrns]

Thanks for the replies.

They said she would be allowed in, but if there was a waitlist she would end up behind declared Catholics.

[cDnStealth]

Right off the board's website

Grades 1 – 12
A child who turns five years old on or before March 1 is eligible to register for Grade 1 in that fall of that same calendar year. For example, this means to register for Grade 1 in September 2015, children must turn five years old on or before March 1, 2015. The child’s birth certificate is required and one parent’s Catholic baptismal certificate is requested to be presented at the time of registration. Resident Catholic students transitioning from kindergarten to Grade 1 in the same school do not need to re-register for Grade 1. Non-resident students need to inquire with the principal of the school to determine if they will be able to register for Grade 1 based on available room and resources. Parents of students not previously registered at any grade level should call the school for an appointment to register.

http://www.cssd.ab.ca/parents/registration/

[calgarygeologist]

Edit: cDnStealth beat me to it.

[burn_this_city]

Hit up a drive thru baptismal and you'll be good.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Hit up a drive thru baptismal and you'll be good.

Knox United Church on 6 Ave and 4 Street is pretty cool with providing baptisms. They are accepting of all people regardless of faith (or non faith.) We baptized our kids there because my mom and grandma wanted it done (I'm baptized but not Catholic or practicing.)

[FlamesFanStrandedInEDM]

It's cool, there are a ton of teachers "faking catholicism for employment"

Kind of a "Will Pray for Pay Cheque" scenario

But seriously, I dont think they make a big stink about it. Schools get their funding per child. I know some of the emptier schools will take non-catholics no questions asked just to put butts in the seats.

you may have an issue with the heavier populated schools.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Knox United Church on 6 Ave and 4 Street is pretty cool with providing baptisms. They are accepting of all people regardless of faith (or non faith.) We baptized our kids there because my mom and grandma wanted it done (I'm baptized but not Catholic or practicing.)

Knox United isn't a Catholic church, so I highly doubt a baptism from there would be recognized by the Catholic School Board.

[Stay Golden]

Originally Posted by Byrns

I was wondering if anyone has experience with this?

Our closest elementary school (1 block away) is a Catholic school and naturally, like almost all schools in Calgary, is somewhat full. We can get her into Kindergarten as non-catholics, but they won't guarantee her a Grade 1 spot.

Can I just go in say I'm Catholic when I'm not? Is there a Catholicism test I/we would have to take? (lol)

If the anti-religion peanut gallery could skip this thread it would be helpful.

Yes you can...
All 3 of my kids went to Catholic school in spite of me and my wife not being Catholic. 2 graduated ND and our youngest is still in school.
Neither of us are Catholic. We both went to public school in Calgary and with all the handcuffs on Christmas, Easter, the Lords Prayer etc we did not went our kids subjected to such a system that puts Christianity on the sidelines completely.
I have no statistics at hand to back this up but I recall fights/ gangs and all that BS that frequently occurs in or around schools but I can honestly say that seemed to be dramatically reduced especially at the Elementary and Jr High level at their Catholic Schools.

[Slava]

^ now that's amusing. I always thought that the Catholic kids were going to be so much better behaved, then I met some of them and realized they were no different. I always wondered as a kid what they were doing that was so different and amazing... and basically it comes down to one hour a week of religion.

Frankly, the idea of two entirely separate school systems is outdated and unnecessary in my opinion. We should be joining them together and leaving it at that.

[GGG]

The key here is that Catholics are prioritized over non-Catholics for Catholic schools.

Now you could probably fake a baptismal certificate pretty easily. There are no electronic records from baptisms when I was born (1980's). And if you go out of province they don't check. I was baptized Catholic and I just showed them the cert, they didn't even look at it or write anything down and let my kids in. However that is probably illegal and if you got caught the consequences would likely not be worth the benefits.

I would probably still go for the Kindergarten though as that should get your prioritized over non-catholic out of school transfers which should get you pretty high up the list. Try to find out how many non-Catholics are in the grade 1 and grade 2 classes now to get a feel to the demos in the school in terms of catholics and non-catholics.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Facing a similar situation, but my wife is catholic, so I guess we are good. I am actually one of the "anti-religious peanut gallery", so I have a hard time having our kid in that system purely because of convenience. She seems to think it is a good education system overall, but I am not so sure. Any idea how much time goes into religious studies?

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Slava

^ now that's amusing. I always thought that the Catholic kids were going to be so much better behaved, then I met some of them and realized they were no different. I always wondered as a kid what they were doing that was so different and amazing... and basically it comes down to one hour a week of religion.

Frankly, the idea of two entirely separate school systems is outdated and unnecessary in my opinion. We should be joining them together and leaving it at that.

If the public school would add religious sections to the curriculum I would be all for it. Even at a young age kids should be learning about other religions. Keep it fact based rather than dogmatic. To me it seems that the public solution is to eliminate all religion rather than accomodate religion. Instead of prayer to start the day there should be an opportunity for quiet reflection. The lack of any spirtuality in the public system hurts its curriculim.

[cracher]

Originally Posted by GGG

The key here is that Catholics are prioritized over non-Catholics for Catholic schools.

As a non-catholic that got up to gr5 in the catholic system, I always assumed that enrollment is open to anyone.

I am wondering how giving preference to catholic kids is not some form of discrimination (particularly in a public funded school). I can see giving preference to households that check off the catholic school tax form, but the present situation sounds fishy to me.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug

Any idea how much time goes into religious studies?

Anything more than 1 minute is too much

[Fighting Banana Slug]

The Public/Catholic system is basically entrenched as part of our Constitution, so it isn't really discrimination. I am with Slava on this one. Would be way more efficient to combine the two, but it ain't happening given our history.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug

Facing a similar situation, but my wife is catholic, so I guess we are good. I am actually one of the "anti-religious peanut gallery", so I have a hard time having our kid in that system purely because of convenience. She seems to think it is a good education system overall, but I am not so sure. Any idea how much time goes into religious studies?

Your kid will come home feeling happy because God made them special.

If you can stomach that part of it then the time spent of religious study is actually beneficial in my opinion. My kids just in kindergarten so I don't know how it goes higher up but having gone through the system in Saskatchewan I would feel that my education was better because of religious classes regardless of if I believed in God or not.

[Drury18]

Originally Posted by GGG

If the public school would add religious sections to the curriculum I would be all for it. Even at a young age kids should be learning about other religions. Keep it fact based rather than dogmatic. To me it seems that the public solution is to eliminate all religion rather than accomodate religion. Instead of prayer to start the day there should be an opportunity for quiet reflection. The lack of any spirtuality in the public system hurts its curriculim.

I agree with this to an extent. Religion should be taught in Social Studies and History as a part of learning about different cultures. It shouldn't be given any special class on its own, but I would agree with teaching about religions practiced in other cultures over the dogmatic "This is right, this is wrong" stuff.

I went through both Catholic and Christian school. In University, I took theology classes. I ended up to be the only Atheist in a highly religious family because of how much religion I took in school. So I wouldn't say that going to religion based schools really impacts how the children end up because they will always form their own opinion. However, it is nice to know about the other religions and can be respectful of them.