Should private non-sectarian college in the United States toll the Angelus?
Back in the distant past the attendance at my private non-sectarian elite alma mater was roughly a third Jewish, a third Catholic, and a third anything else. I wonder if it’s about the same now?
Just more of the same: the nation’s elites fomenting social discord & upheaval at every opportunity.
I’m surprised you haven’t commented on this yet:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/majority-of-us-public-school-students-are-in-poverty/2015/01/15/df7171d0-9ce9-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html
And this is making me wonder about the phenomenon Drew & PD were discussing earlier. Are middle-class people really pulling their children out of private schools in number, for the cheaper option of public school? If that’s happening and the overall population is still getting poorer that fast?
Still noticing a slow but really trend of a better class of people moving into my neighborhood, by the way. I really think the top numbers on the economy are masking a tremendous amount of rot….
13% of American students either attend private schools or are homeschooled and the number being homeschooled is growing fast. More evidence of what I’ve written about before: we’re transforming into a small upper class, a slightly larger struggling middle class, and a large lower class.
It’s obviously anecdotal, ice, but you hear it rather often. Can’t quantify but it’s real. I’ve also noted the pleas for cash donations by the school is up sharply. We are big donors and the phone rings often. There is clearly a disconnect between the headline reporting and reality. I’m cynical enough to say its by design. Earlier today I read the JPMorgan weekly economic puff piece, er, report. As usual, don’t worry be happy. Jamie Dimon may do some bitching but his economists know who butters the bread.
Ellipses: Our kid’s grade school principal has said that she’s gotten a lot more inquiries from private school parents since the economy went sour, but it didn’t end up adding that many students. Most of the parents were told they didn’t live in the right neighborhood for the school.
Since the high school tuition doubles, I hear more from parents thinking/talking about switching at that point. They ask a lot of questions, seem anxious, but I don’t know if they will actually make the switch. The HS orientation program had record attendance, but I don’t know for certain why. One of the purposes of the program was to get kids not already attending public schools to get their information.
Know of a middle school kid being home-schooled w/mom working regular 40 hour week, i.e. the kid is at home without supervision during the school day. At least in Illinois, there are no standards for home-schooling, so it’s always hard to figure out what to make of this group.
I was told a week or two ago that the local (political) elite Catholic high school had about 10% non-Catholic attendance. Thought that was low, but I wonder if more are willing these days to convert to get tuition breaks.
@PD Shaw
For the Catholic schools around here, I have never heard of an in-faith discount, and it would surprize me to find that there was one. At the high school level, you are not going to get religious preaching.
My stepson’s religion classes were more like a Progressive indoctrination session (not quite but close). At my high school. it was probably an ethics course.
Years ago, one of the reasons to go to the Catholic schools was discipline. The nuns did not put up with a lot of guff, and they would put a foot in your ass pronto.
In my grammar school, there was an old nun who only watched the playground, and if you got too close, she would beat you with her cane. Any complaints were met with: “That will teach you not to go running around Sister Benedict.” (For fun, the older kids would send the younger ones to ask her something.)
… and they would put a foot in your ass pronto.
Usually that costs extra. Or so I’ve heard.
@Tastybits, just from checking the website right now, I don’t see a different pricing scheme for the high school, but at a random (feeder) grade school, the tuition cost for non-Catholic was a little over 50% higher.
@Icepick
That was included in the tuition. The academics were secondary.
In grammar school, there were not enough nuns, and there were regular teachers. They were not as bad as the nuns, but I remember Mr. Ott would throw a book at you if you got out of line.
After I graduated, they rotated out the nuns I had, and they brought in some nuns straight from Ireland. My sisters said they decided that the school was lacking discipline, but they fixed the problem. One of my sister’s friends still talks about the nuns.
On the one hand, it was really unfair, but on the other, you quickly learned that life was unfair. You take your beating from Sister Benedict, and the next year you send some younger kid to take his. Circle of Life.
For parochial schools parishioners typically pay lower tuition than non-parishioners.
Perhaps things have changed since I was in high school. At my Jesuit high school we were required to attend daily Mass and we took four years of religion classes (the honors track took a college level program for which credits would be accepted by SLU). Non-Catholics of which we had a few had study hall during Mass or religion class.
“Perhaps things have changed…….”
At. Benet Academy they certainly have not.
Some pushback on the 50% poverty stat. 21% of American school children live in poverty, which is pretty consistent since ’80.
Alex Tabbarok
If they are including those who receive free lunches under a variety of school programs, we must live in poverty as well as some far more wealthy people my kids attend school with.
In grammar school, we went to Mass every Wednesday, and if any of the elderly parishioners died, we would fill the pews if there was too much empty space. I argued with my mother that this fulfilled my weekly obligation, but she stated that it was only fulfilled on Sunday.
There are different Orders of Nuns, Brothers, and Priests who run the schools, and they have different philosophies, styles, and methodologies. There are at least seven different Orders running schools in the area, and many of them have multiple schools.
In New Orleans, everybody and everything is Catholic, and you get a religious education one way or another.
Non-Catholics of which we had a few had study hall during Mass or religion class.
Were non-Catholics permitted to attend the religion class if they wished?
I’m sure they wouldn’t have been prevented but to the best of my recollection the issue never arose.
At the local Catholic high school, all students are required to attend religion classes, regardless of faith. My understanding is that they are not proselytizing or Catholic indoctrination, but religion courses. My sources are all Catholic, or to be more precise Catholic parents, so they may not quite pick-up on the subtle biases that frankly anybody would have in describing religion, but I’ve heard this enough to credit it as largely true.