Would you send your children to a religious private school that was not your religion?

I can’t answer the question exactly, but I can tell you that I know people who did this. I had friends who went to the local Catholic private high schools who were not Catholic. They did this because many people in this area were wary of the public schools and the local non-religious private high school costs money out the ass, more expensive than Stanford tuition. So if they wanted a cheaper private school and didn’t want to “settle” for public school, the Catholic schools were the answer.

Yes. We sent my little sister to a Catholic Jr. High school because we couldn’t afford the private school I went to as a kid. There were many families like ours who picked the school more for the curriculum and less for the religious studies. All we asked my sister was to show respect and make the most of her opportunity.

I am not a practising catholic. Nor a practising protestant. but we send our twins to private catholic and church of england schools. (one to the former, one to the latter). we did this because we felt the level of instruction would be better, and the science labs and athletic departments so much better equipped and funded. they both bombed out and now go to the local ag bonehead school….

It depends, there are religious schools which are religious practically in name only, and there are fanatical religious schools. I would have to go case by case basis.

I don’t have a religion but I would have no problem sending a child to a Catholic school. Catholic schools provide a very good education.

I am Jewish and I would send my daughter to a Catholic school without any problem if I thought she’d get a good education.

Yes, I sent my oldest son to a Catholic school. He attended the first year they went co-ed, so there were only three boys and 20 girls, in the third grade. He says it was the best public school year he had.

I was home schooling him, but he wanted to go to a regular school for awhile. He went back to home schooling until high school, which he ended up hating.

I notice that in the notorious poorly educated south that many people send their kids to parochial schools. That is the only way to save them from an extremely poor public education. When we lived in Virginia, we considered sending our kids to Catholic school because many of the teachers in out southern Virginian county where effectively illiterate.

My buddy that lived near to Atlanta sent his daughter to Catholic school because the public schools were more interested in building self-esteem than in education.

Fortunately, we moved to rural Pennsylvania where there is a uniformly excellent public school system. It is funny, taxes for schools is lower here but education is much better.

When my guy and I talk about having a kid, we also look at things like daycare. There’s a local Christian oriented, church-affiliated daycare right on the way to work. I would consider leaving a baby there, but once they are old enough to start asking questions about life, I would feel uncomfortable doing so. This is not to say that I would shelter my kid from Christianity, not by a long shot. They’ll know about as many religions as they care to ask about! But I want to present them as areas of study or options to consider, without one being drummed in as The Only True Way.

On the other end, once a kid is out of that impressionable phase and is able to formulate independent opinions, I might consider a religious school if there were no better secular options around. I am hoping here that my child would have a very good filter in place, and questions many things (even me). So it would probably be an infancy and/or high school thing, with very little in between.

I sent my kids to private Christian preschools, because they were the best preschools available in our area. I am (nominally) Christian (I’m actually an atheist), and their father is (nominally) Jewish.

We’re an atheist family. My kid is going to a Jewish-bent afterschool program. Once a week, they’ll have a class on Jewish-related stuff. I don’t care whatsoever, though when looking for a time slot for his swim class, I picked that day since I don’t care whether he gets his Jewish education in, lol. I wouldn’t send him to any fully religious private school like a catholic school or something unless he was older and able to numb it out for the sake of the education. I want him to go to a school, however, where he can say the word queer and be around as little homophobia as possible. I understand that in a public school that, too, is unavoidable but in a religious school, I fear it’s more likely, especially from the staff.

No. It’s not that I’m against other religions, it’s just that I don’t want my children being educated in any private religious school.

Yep. Anything place where the focus will be on the kids and values and caring for humanity is better than public school.

Never.

I don’t know if you’re looking for answers from someone the likes of me (an agnostic) for whom all religious private schools are not my religion. But I’ll answer anyway: no, I don’t want my child to spend his most impressionable years in an environment that might try to influence his beliefs. I want my child to be an independent thinker and decide for himself what he believes in.

I have a Jewish friend who went to a Catholic school for a while (he got a scholarship to play football for them) and it was absolutely horrible for him.

@Mariah if it makes you feel any better, I spent my grade school years in Catholic schools and I got over it even though I endured hours of “Church History” airbrushed by the nuns to extract any sense or meaning from it.

I am now a well adjusted atheist although it took 4 years in public high school, and 12 years in the military to break the “Catholic guilt” that was drummed into my first 8 school years.

Catholic high schools and universities are not nearly as dogmatic and you Jewish friend stands a good chance of graduating relatively unscathed.

Interestingly, my ex-mother-in-law is definitely Jewish, and attended a Catholic university. Obviously, by college age it’s different (she wasn’t going to be swayed one way or the other at that point), but she did enjoy the experience of learning about a religion other than her own.

By the way, the Christian pre-school my oldest two attended was very open to other religions. There were several Jewish (or half Jewish) kids, and at least one Muslim child there. They even had celebrations of other religion’s holidays, complete with lessons on the traditions and making the traditional foods associated with them.

@Mariah Yes, the question was intended for everyone religious or not, atheist or not.

My dad was an LCMS minister for 50 years. At one of his parishes, my sister and I both went to Catholic school. It was the best option at the time.

The Catholic school was across the street, the public school was a 45 minute bus ride each way.

To answer the question title succinctly: No.

When I was a kid (in the 70s-80s) I went to a Catholic grade school. My parents said NO to the Catholic high school- local “problem” kids were sent there to be “cured”. I think that it depends on the schools involved. When I went back and talked to a friend with kids there now she said that now kids want to go to school! It is a case by case decision.

Would you send your children to a religious private school that was not your religion?

Yes

What religion are you?

Invalid question. (I am atheist.)

Which schools would you be willing to send your children to?

Las Flores Elementary School, Las Flores Middle School, Tesoro High School

Which ones would you not be willing?

I don’t know of any.

In what circumstance do you think this might happen?

Do I think “what” might happen?
_

I am Jewish, and it depends on the religious affiliation. I would not send my kids, if I ever have any, to a private school with a more than very weak Catholic affiliation – and then only as a last resort. I would absolutely send them to a Quaker school or a Jesuit school. Jewish-affiliated – that’s a tough one for me. I went to a private Jewish school through third grade and learned to speak Hebrew and all about Judaism, but got a terrible education in many other areas. When my parents sent me to public school in fourth grade, I was embarrassed at all the stuff the other kids knew that I didn’t. So now I feel suspicious of the quality of Jewish programs regarding education in non-Jewish matters, and I probably wouldn’t send my kid to a Jewish private school unless I was convinced it was strong in all subjects. I don’t know enough about private Muslim-affiliated schools to make a call on that one.