schooling

Nevyn

ok So We are not christains, and had a lot of reservations about
putting our kids into to the local school. You are signing up your child to 14 years of state/church eduction.

Did this freak anyone else out weither they are catholic or not ?

foxinsocks

bit of background first, my mother is jewish (by birth, not practicing) and my dad was methodist (till he upped and died on me)

Before i got pregnant, i always kinda thought that although i didnt really want to bring my child(ren) up catholic, that if they were christened by their father, and sent to a catholic school, I'd tolerate the idea...

Now that the prospect of parenthood approaches, and having been brought up in this country, and having seen how Catholic schools work, the thought of my own offspring actually being brainwashed from the tender age of 4 appalls me. Now i know things have changed in the last 30 years, and the whole thing is a lot less cultish, but honestly, how can a 7 year old possibly understand 'sin'.

If i can in ANY way help it, they will not go to Catholic schools, there will be no nuns or priests anywhere near them... No weird statues of some alleged Virgin Chick on the walls, or bleeding Jesus's, or crosses, no cultish mumblings in church, NONE of it.... its creepy. The few times I went to catholic masses, beit it ordinary weekday masses, or funerals or weddings, i was creeped out, and i simply wont put my own offspring through it...

Fox_in_Socks
Just another one of the ways my opinions have VERY much solidified since seeing the Little Blue Line

Hellrazer

My daughter started school in September and we had 2 choices in the area.
1.The all girl parish school run by Nuns
2.The co-ed which had a waiting list so long that she would have been almost 6 starting school.
So we decided to start her in an all Irish school about 15 minute drive away.

The reason for not using the Nuns school was twofold.Firstly we are both christened catholics who dont practice--I cant stick that hypocritical religon but the main reason for not sending her to the Nuns was due to the fact that the local parish priest was a member of the school board and with all the sexual abuse stories I didnt want my daughter to be involved with some paedophile priests.
I know that this sounds terrible but I dont think Im the only parent who worries about that sort of thing especially with the church being so involved in Irish education.

PhilipMarlowe

I understand what you are saying but the fact that your childs teachers speak Irish doen't make them immune from (ab)normality either.
It's not a nice thought, having to think things like that through. It's a pity you cant just look at a school and base it on its merits, facilites etc.

DeadBankClerk

/me remembers having a sermon in a saint michael's collegel mass by a dodgy priest telling us all how masturbation was a sin. the guy had the nerve to stand in front of thirty thirteen-year-olds and tell them not to masturbate. it's like being given the best new toy ever, and told that god thinks that you are a bad person for playing with it.

and to any parents out there, please send your children to mixed schools. after fourteen years in an all-male environment, girls still scare the bejesus out of me, three years later :rolleyes:

Nevyn

There are some non denominational schools out there but unfortuntaly the nearest one to us is over a 30mins journey by bus, that is two much to do twice a day with both kids and a buggy for we are not a two car family.

I did set up meetings int he chools we were considering and taked with the head masters/misstress and asked to see what was the religious content for 4 year olds. Based on feed back from them and what they would and would not comprise on we made a decision.

The school we picked let me know in advance if they are doing anything iwht the kids and if the parish priest is to drop by.
I tis a mixed school, at that age i know my 4 year old could not care if he's sitting with boys or girls for girls are just people .


But We may consider moving him when he reaches 7, for it is silly how much class time is spent on prep for communion which lets face it there are parents that are never in church and all the kids care about is what money they are going to get. So they time can be spent on toher things.

I did get asked by another parent that if i was not brigning my
kids up to be cathloic how would they know right from wrong ?
that my children where irish and how could i deny they thier religion ? and i hardly know the woman.

MrPudding

There is a French School in Foxrock. It is very good, OK so everything is in French and they teach everything English & Irish as foreign languages. It has 2 really good points

1) As far as the French are concern religion should not be taught in school.
2) It is run by the parents.

There are other good reasons too like the teacher to child ration is really good.

Talliesin

It seems weird that any time I meet a new parent or soon-to-be parent they soon start asking about the non-D schools in the area, and yet there is so little supply to meet the demand.