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They won't take developmentally disabled children simply because of all the staff it requires, not just for their educational problems, but their physical needs as well.
My huband went to Catholic Elementary School. There is a 2 hour test (Co-ops) required to get into HS, plus grades. With his C Average, he was not accepted in any schools. Think a special needs kid is going to make the cut? Add Charters and Privates to this also. They all pick the CREAM OF THE CROP.
Which is one of the reasons the alleged higher performance of private schools is misleading. Selective admission ensures students are on the right side of the bell curve in most cases.
If you live in a crappy public school district (and you don't have a lot of kids) then private schools may be a good idea. (If you have a lot of kids, buy a home in a higher performing public school district.)
If you live in a higher performing public school district, chances are the peers are higher performing, the parents are educated and proactive, and the education received by the student won't be that much different than the $15K per year private school down the street.
@Konraden:
Home schooling gets away from the original topic which is Catholic school with its evolution, sex ed, and all of that.
However, I would point out that as more wealthy progressives like those in Brooklyn and Seattle from the NR article begin to homeschool, you'll start to see global-warming and evolution-based science textbooks come on the market that are geared toward those consumers. Of course those progressive homeschoolers may simply be using the standard public school textbooks already.
Last edited by jtab4994; 11-15-2012 at 02:02 PM..
Reason: Edited to indicate whose post I was replying to.
Which is one of the reasons the alleged higher performance of private schools is misleading. Selective admission ensures students are on the right side of the bell curve in most cases.
Misleading only if you think "dumb" kids magically become smart in private school. Parents of bright kids are attracted to private school because they know their kids will be surrounded by other bright kids and they won't have to worry about "looking like a nerd" for being smart.
Is it acceptable to send small, mentally undeveloped children to schools that teach religion as a full subject and as an explanation for life?
I do not think so. I am from Ontario, Canada. In my city we have a catholic schoolboard that is open to any enrolment. I went to one elementary school from senior kindergarten to the eighth grade (right before high school), and it was extremely dodgey. I had a french teacher come in wearing shirts pushing anti-abortion, was never taught about any other religions, no overview of evolution, and was questioned and forced to fill out an application to a catholic highschool when I was in my graduating year (I registered to a normal highschool).
I do not believe that this is okay. Children have developing minds, and anything less than complete facts should be presented as a belief, and debatable. Critical thinking is important, and this is not a fair way of encouraging it. I'm not harping on catholics or christians, but please do not drag other people in to your beliefs. Even if you as a parent are in tune with the school's beliefs, it is irresponsible to force a new individual on to them without any options for alternative philosophy.
I don't know if I've ever heard anyone talk about this before, so I'm interested in hearing where this goes.
Keep it civil, please.
If they go to a Catholic school they should learn church teaching. Why would someone send them for any other reason? Most Catholics complain that the schools don't stick to the faith as much as they should, being afraid to offend some kids.
When did the public schools let children have an alternative opinion? Are any left that are not PC?
I attended Catholic schools from 1st grade through law school. It gave me a moral center although like a lot of Catholics I have lapsed. That's a whole other story.
Not all Catholic schools are created equal. They rank from below par to superior.
I remember our nun in 8th grade teaching her own wrong understanding of algebra until she was replaced. Our school library was two metal carts in the hallway, and, although I may be wrong, I do not believe we were taught the sciences but by 8th grade we probably were. I do remember being sent to the public school for a shop class probably mandated by the State.
I do not think many scientists or engineers were produced by my elementary school but the opinion in the town was that we were the better students. Did I or anyone I know send their own kids to parochial school? No.
Well, in the United States, religious-schools are privately owned and operated and generally don't receive government funding to run. (There are ways around this, of course, but in general...).
From what I just briefly read, Canada operates in a similar fashion.
Do I think it's right that student minds are corrupted by religion while they're trying to learn factual information? No--but it's a parents right to destroy their childrens minds. Religious indoctrination doesn't risk the health or safety of a child, so I can't generally support government interference until that happens. The child will just have to grow up being lied to.
I don't understand how you could say this.
In my opinion, I honestly don't think we should have the right to tell our child what to believe in and what not.
If you risk sending your child to a Catholic school, as I've learned on a similar thread, then those schools have a right to teach about what the school is all about.
Is it acceptable to send small, mentally undeveloped children to schools that teach religion as a full subject and as an explanation for life?
I do not think so and am very proud to be a founding member of Atheist Ireland who are now working closely with Irelands current government in overseeing the removal of Irish Catholic Schools from Catholic Patronage and back into the hands of the state where they belong.
I am very much all for teaching religion in schools but not as an explanation for life or as any one religion being true. I am for teaching it as a social subject, the history of religions, what each religion teaches, what each religion has done in the past, how they differ and relate and more.
I am also all for teaching the English versions of the Bible as a book in English Literature courses as much of it provides a good basis for the rest of English. I find it bizarre that our schools teach Shakespeare and Milton, to name but two, without reference to the Bible. Ones ability to understand and appreciate such texts is hampered by that lack. Further the only people I as an "atheist" have ever converted away from being religious I have done so not by arguing facts and science, but by actually making them read their own bible which very few of them appear to have done. They all came out of the experience saying things like "I was meant to believe THAT crap?" so I think actual study of the Bible could work wonders on the path to destruction of religion.
Finally I am all for teaching the fallacies that commonly lead people to think there is a god. Even if there is one then we should reach that conclusion for good reasons and not for fallacious ones. We should target and train out of children fallacious thinking by teaching the fallacies that humans commonly fall for... why we fall for them.... how they work... and how to spot them when they are implemented by others. This would be useful not just in religion context either. We are very prone as a species to fall for fallacious reasoning and thinking and I see great utility in making a study of common fallacy a part of any curriculum from a young age.
But we send our children to schools to learn what is true. Yet at this time there is not a shred of even an iota of evidence, argument, data or reasoning on offer to lend even a modicum of credence to the claim that there is a god. As such I find that there is no place for it in our schools.
Konraden, it is possible to home school children without using the texts schools supply.Where I live there are libraries (a wealth of information),and the computer proves useful as well.
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A Catholic education
