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| Yes, I forced him to pose for this picture ;-) |
This is an interesting topic to me because I've dipped my toe into both the public and private spheres. I'm a product of public school. I had a great experience in elementary school, but the junior and high schools I attended were a bit rough. When I had Henry, my assumption was that we would send him to public school as well, and we live in a district with very nice schools. While he was in kindergarten, I started thinking about Catholic school for the first time, and I wrote about how that came about back in January 2011 (when I was pregnant with Anne, awww!) And then we attended some of the affiliated open houses (part 1 and part 2), and we just fell in love with his current Catholic school. While I was looking for these posts, I came across this one about both registering Henry at the school and calling my parish to schedule Anne's baptism. It's rather amusing. :0
And I've been happy with our decision ever since. It's a sacrifice, because we have to budget for it, but to see how he's thriving there, and the adorable things he brings home from the religion curriculum, it's all worth it. I know that everyone has different options available to them, and what is right for your family could be completely different from mine, this is simply my experience.
Did you go to Catholic school, or do your kids? Do leave a comment. And tomorrow hurry back for the Catholic Book Club, we'll be discussing Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light!
My husband went to both Catholic and public, and well, I was brought up Lutheran, but I always went to a private Lutheran school. As a result of my childhood I see the benefit of a private school. My husband however thinks it depends on the situation and child. The city that is literally across the street from our house (we live right on the line between two cities) has the best high school in the state. They also have open enrollment, so when Annamarie gets older, technically we could send her there. My husband thinks it'd be great to do that since it's the best school in the state, but I have some reserves. But, she goes to a Catholic school now, and I love that they teach about religion, and I feel like it sets up a good baseline for the future schooling. So, I guess we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there, thankfully not any time soon!
ReplyDeleteAs you know my oldest goes to a public Catholic school in Ontario. I love it! Unfortunately because of his social issues, he'll probably have to attend a regular public school when we go back to the states. Not all Catholic schools are equipped to deal with special needs. I'm hoping that once we get an evaluation and have some therapy we can reevaluate Catholic schools again. He could possibly attend Catholic school and transition to doing therapy after school. But for now I think our best bet is see what's available at public school. I haven't thought much about the youngest. He's not old enough for formal schooling and he's not completely potty trained, which you need for pre-schools these days.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I are both products of Catholic schools (for him, K through college; for me, 3rd grade through college), and we made the decision early on that we wanted to give our five boys the same kind of education we got. It was a big financial sacrifice over the years, but so worth it!
ReplyDeleteBy the time our youngest son was in 3rd grade, the local Catholic grade school from which his four brothers had graduated was getting a tad secular--so we homeschooled him for 5th-8th grade. (And if you ever decide to homeschool, I highly recommend Seton Home Study School curriuclum!)
God bless Catholic schools! I can't imagine not having them available. So I'm a big fan of celebrating them during Catholic Schools week. In fact, even though I don't have any kids in school anymore (and my grandchildren haven't started yet), but now I feel like doing a blog post about it!
All of our kids went to Catholic schools. Thank God for them!
ReplyDeleteHi Michael! Yes I have seen the high school costs (yikes!) and have definitely thought about this. My feeling is that this is the right decision for now, so let's go with it. I worry about the expectation issue too, but I figure when the time comes, we'll discern anew. I'm hopeful about scholarships, and we won't have student loan debt anymore when Henry starts high school, so... Fingers crossed. :)
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