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I know we have had this discussion in another thread, but I pose a different situation. First let me say that DH and I both grew up in Catholic homes and both attended Catholic schools K-12. We have always been set on our children going to CS's.... until recently. A few months ago, I interviewed for a teaching position at a CS (didn't take the job because the pay was WAY less than I am making in the public school system), but they offered me a tour during school hours. I was in shock at the blinding whiteness in each classroom. I guess I shouldn't have been in shock considering I NEVER had an AA student in my grade level for all my 13 years in CS, but I was. After my visit, DH and I began discussing some other options for school for our son, who is AA. As much as I value religious education, I do not want my son sitting in a class with NO other students that look even a little bit like him. Although we live in a big city with lots of diversity, our neighborhood is in the suburbs and is a mostly caucasian community. I want him to grow up around and go to school with other AA children. Have any of you encountered this dilemma? What are your thoughts?
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Are there other C schools in the city where that might not be the case? We are in a mid sized city and have about 8 Catholic schools that are k-8, then 4 high schools. Two of the elementary schools are probably 80% Caucasian (and also tend to be the schools where the curriculum is more secular---they are more like generic private schools), but the others are more diverse than most of the public schools. My nephew, who went to one of the smaller schools, came home from his first day of pre-K there and told me about his new friend Justin, "with the bright brown face." Still makes me smile.
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There are close to twenty Catholic elementary schools in this city. I'm sure that there are some with a more diverse population, but those are probably 20-30 miles from our home, so really not practical. He will definitely attend a Catholic high school. DH is set on him attending his alma mater. The high schools, especially the boys' schools, are much more diverse.
MAN. I need to move near you guys! There is a Catholic school about 45 minutes in one town north of here and aobut 45 minutes in another town SE of here........ wow. To have all those choices! That's amazing.... I will have to ask my sister about my niece's school - I never thought about it. i don't think there were many other kids in her Christian preschool (one of the other little girls came home after her first day to tell her mom about her new friend - ny niece- the little "brown girl"....) I guess it's hard to weigh the two - what's more important - diversity in school until HS or the extra Catholic education that he'd get in school but not CCD...
I taught high school CCD for about 8 years, and I'm sure it's not like this everywhere, but for 9th and 10th graders they were absolutely clueless as to what the Catholic faith is about. A lot of them had been going to CCD for years, but their parents don't go to church, and they don't reinforce any of the teachings at home. Not all of the students were like that, but a majority of them were. Almost all of them didn't know that it is a requirement to go to mass every weekend. I don't know if they weren't paying attention in CCD before I got them or what, but I was pretty much having to start out from scratch with my students. I guess what my point is if you're going to send your child to CCD you might want to look into the program your church has and see what exactly is covered. The program at my church is severely lacking, so you might have to do a lot of supplemental work. Also the students on the whole were well behaved, but when they aren't tested anything, and regardless of what you do in the class you pass on to the next grade level, there wasn't a whole lot of incentive for them to retain anything they were taught.