Monday, May 04, 2009

Catholic Education Week

I found out at church yesterday that this is Catholic education week. Sometimes I wonder whether I had a particularly bad school, because none of the purported benefits really struck true to me. No, I don't feel that I had "Catholic values" integrated into every part of my education. I ended up learning more about a lot of folk practices, and I did get some basic (very basic) religion classes. But, had the Catholic board had a high school with a good math and science programme, I probably never would have learned very much about my religion. Probably not until I went to university, if then.

I have to wonder though. I don't see anything about the way that the school was set up that could allow there to be a strong difference. From what I've heard from a teacher in the board, there's rules against things that could make a difference. The teachers really aren't allowed to discuss moral or religious decision making, not when it comes to anything serious. In theory, the advantage of a Catholic school would be that the teachers there are Catholic, or at least hold Catholic values. You should be able to turn to them for advice. Which is a lovely idea, if they weren't so worried about stepping on the parents' toes.

What did I get from my Catholic schooling? Well, in fairness my mom attributes her return to the church to it. I also got peer-pressure to make my confirmation (first communion and reconciliation don't bother me as much, although we did do them out of order), which was done at an age I consider too young anyhow. I also got a strong admiration for the public school board.

1 comment:

Alex said...

I went to a catholic school with a very strong religious programme. My math and science education suffered as a result.

I spent four years feeling like I was resented by the school. Meanwhile, the kids who were essentially @$$es except for the time they were in church seemed to be allowed to do whatever they wanted.

I'm going to go be bitter about more immediate concerns now. Like my work report.