Quote:
Originally Posted by WhiteTiger
I've never been a fan of forced religion, which is what Catholic school, even if you aren't Catholic, is. If you are serious and the only reason you are considering Catholic school is because it's "closer"...I'd urge you to re-evaluate your needs vs your kids development.
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I dunno if I would call it forced religion, there were a lot of people from different religions and backgrounds (even atheist) when I was there and they didn't have much problem with it. And that was a long time ago, I'd imagine it only got softer after that.
As I mentioned above, it's not always a distance issue. Some parents want to send their children to the Catholic board because they feel it's a better education (was for a while, I heard it's about the same now) and a better/safer environment.
Cept for the visiting priests of course! Har Har!
I was lucky in high school though. I went to Bishop Carroll and for your religion course you could take any number of a multitude of topics or course. I took a unit on Buddism, Satan in Scripture (really what teen doesn't want to read up on 'true' exorcism stories!), science and spirituality where we looked at chaos theory and relativity, and other things.
I also don't think the 'religion' portion is compulsory after grade ten. Course most of your impressionable years are over by then and you're rebelling anyway.
Parents could also easily tell their kids that while they don't belief in Christ, or other Christian and Catholic stories and principles, that the extra perspective may give them something to think about. And that if they are confused about anything when they get back home they can bring it up.
I guess what I'm saying is, I wouldn't say it was ever forced or pushed. It's fairly unobtrusive. Generally on religious celebration a month (which usually coincided with a holiday anyway) and a prayer to start the day. And a short religious class, which basically just teaches good values.
Though we did learn how to say the rosary... and went at it pretty hard one year. Maybe it was more intense than I originally argued, and I didn't notice it because I grew up with that in my family.
Still, I'd say there are other reasons, besides distance or religion, that would come into choosing a Catholic school.