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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: July 14 2007 at 6:27pm | IP Logged
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I know everyone is planning and shopping for their school curriculums now or in the next couple of months.
I am too. Finally . 
I was browsing around for the new 2007-2008 school year schedule in our area when I came upon the local Catholic school's website.
Their curriculum choices are listed there.
Thought it might help (or at least be fun) to see what the area Catholic schools use via way of curriculum.
Looking at our Catholic school, I realize I do expect a lot more out of my children's education then what I see and I do tend to overload on curriculum.
Share Catholic school sites if you have one.
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Cay Gibson
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CatholicMommy
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There are several Catholic schools in our area, but the one I would choose if we stayed here and I had to choose one would be Spiritus Sanctus Academy.
They do not have their specific curriculum posted, but what philosophy and general information they give, they STICK to.
I cannot complain about the education the children receive, except the WAY TOO MUCH HOMEWORK part - the academics are exemplary (short the Latin instruction!). When I ran the after school care program at one of the schools, they had combined age groups (K alone, then 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8), but that part is no longer  The chapel is at the center (or as close as possible) of each school and they have (had) daily Mass at times (weekly minimum). The nuns who run the schools wear habits. They do employ non-religious teachers, but they must be Catholic. AND they use a form of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, though they do not refer to it as such.
So... it's close to the ideal. But still not quite there. I do ask some friends of mine (whose children attend there still) now and again to tell me what the school uses for such and such class.
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stefoodie
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Oooh, fun thread! When we first started homeschooling I tried to get the curriculums of 3-4 Catholic and/or private schools where I would have sent my children if we didn't know about hsing *and* if we could have afforded it. I still check what they offer every once in a while...
Chaminade St. Louis (pdf)
Summit Country Day School
Ursuline Academy (pdf)
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Martha
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All Saint's Catholic School
Saint Catherine School
An interesting thought you had here, Cay.
I must say the most disturbing thing to me, personally, was how little actual catholic materials are used in these catholic schools. And I'm not too inclined to think it's being "infused" with faith when so very often the teachers aren't catholic either.
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Cay Gibson
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The same thought crossed my mind, Martha.
And that's a LOT of money the parents are paying.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
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Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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JennyMaine
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Cay, looking at what the local Catholic schools use always depresses me! LOL! Truly, it isn't helpful or fun to my homeschool.
I worked for my local parish/school for several years. During the school's summer break, while the janitor was working away, I went into several classrooms and looked at the materials being used (like you, I was curious!). Couldn't locate a single Catholic piece of literature or textbooks in the rooms. I did learn that each grade level had religion class once per week for 40 minutes, using a very watered down text. The nuns told me they couldn't push religion too much, because the majority of the students weren't Catholic.
I think that's when I decided that I wanted our homeschool experience to be so Catholic it'd make ya sick! 
My daughter takes private art lessons with a wonderful Catholic woman who taught for years in another "local" Catholic school (here in Maine anything within a 45 min drive time is "local"). She said she finally left when she was told she wasn't allowed to mention Jesus or the Catholic faith in any of her art lessons -- wouldn't want to offend the non-Catholics, you know. 
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CatholicMommy
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JennyMaine wrote:
| wouldn't want to offend the non-Catholics, you know. |
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... who have chosen to send their children to a (gasp!) Catholic school. 
I just don't get it...
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acystay
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It is happening in so many parish school that you cannot bring up Jesus or Catholic doctrine. I did work for the Archodiocese of Chicago and had a different experience so it does seem odd to me that it would happen. We in fact had to take religious ed courses ourselves and during the year show lessons that incorporated some Christian doctrine. We all had to to have a prayer corner. My first school each room had a statue of the Blessed Mother. We had religion class every day and prayer in the morning.
The text however are not Catholic. Catholic publishers are going away from being Catholic b/c they cannot make enough money. Look at Loyola Presses stuff. Their lanuage arts series used to be very Catholic but now it is not and boy is BORING! I really don't find that many parish school are Catholic just that appreance of Catholic.
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leanne maree
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i am having the same issues in oz. i was told by our dioceseon religion schools office that even if we have very few catholics going to catholic school it is up to the kids to evangelise to the non catholic/ non religious teens. this is bizarre to me as at this age group who could!!!!!
we took our youngest out of school because of the lack of the watering down or lack of faith raught.
i am sure it is the same for all of us anyway.
i can't link you to our local school, it doesn't have a webpage. sorry.
leanne 
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guitarnan
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Here in MD we have an agreement between the diocese and the state; the state gives the Catholic schools access to free (state) textbooks...not Catholic...and this saves the schools so much money that they leap at the chance. With K-8 tuition close to $6K a year already, the schools are doing every possible thing to cut costs.
Sigh.
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vmalott
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Here's the curriculum link to our parish school:
St. Gertrude
Admittedly, the one thing I was impressed by when it was implemented last year is their virtue education. They kindly shared this outline with the whole parish in a bulletin.
I was kind of surprised by the lack of Catholic sources for their texts. However, a few of the teachers are Dominican Sisters ofSt. Cecelia (Nashville), normally in charge for the two important sacramental years, 2nd and 8th grades.
One cool thing about the 2nd grade classroom (in which our 2nd grade dd had her CCD class last year) is it is outfitted with some great CGS materials, including the Mini Mass Kit and the Mini Vestments, though I don't think they take a strict CGS approach.
Valerie
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Mary G
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Martha wrote:
| I must say the most disturbing thing to me, personally, was how little actual catholic materials are used in these catholic schools. And I'm not too inclined to think it's being "infused" with faith when so very often the teachers aren't catholic either. |
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When dh and I were both teaching at the parochial school in Raleigh, but I was looking into starting to home school, we mentioned how many really excellent Catholic texts there are out there for ALL subjects and we were laughed at. The problem seems to be that altho most of the teachers were good Catholics, they often o to secular schools for their degrees and think the only good textbooks are the ones that are "even handed", "ecumenical" and give "both sides" of the story ...
I'll never forget when my Joe was a 6th grader at this parochial school and he was learning about the middle ages; according to his teacher (who is a good friend of ours and a good Catholic) reading from the text, the ONLY contributions made by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages were taxes and hospitals  -- no mention of universities and education in general, almhouses, orphanages, science (esp biology and astronomy, regardless of the Galileo myth) and many, many other things.
I wish we could get How the Western Church Built Western Civilization into ALL the Catholic high schools ... at least as a spine for Western Civ!
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Topic: Catholic School Curriculums
