ScrantonPoliticalDiscussionBoard

Ten years from now all my children will have graduated high school with a parochial education and (hopefully) will be on their way to a Jesuit education at the University of Scranton.

Dreams and aspirations for our children are one thing, but making them happen is another. We fully intend to do our best.

I do think there will be Catholic schools ten years from now, but they will be more along the lines of Scranton Prep that the (old) Bishop Hannan, which is truly sad. For decades, Catholic schools provided great educational opportunites for lower & middle income families...in the future, you are looking at upper-middle class and the wealthy only having that access.

Honestly, I think Bishop Martino came to Scranton in part to dismantle the Catholic system of education. He's "downsizing" it, just like a corporate CEO would do with an unprofitable business...which in turn explains his approach to labor relations.

One other point: I was taking an early evening walk through town and I saw a dumpster outside of Bishop Hannan...inside of it were old yearbooks, etc. What a sad, sad commentary on what's been happening. It's as if 50 years of tradition were just being tossed out as it were rubbish.

The Catholic Schools have been losing student's to public schools each year because they have let the tuition get so out of hand over the years making it virtually impossible for people to afford to send their children to these schools.

Martino is closing so many schools because of declining enrollment over the years ... and with this he holds the threat of job security over the teachers heads ...

Personally, I'm getting tired of hearing the Catholic school teachers whine. The Church is a private religious institution, and if they do not like working for the Church, they are free to seek a job in the public schools. Any government intervention in trying to force the Diocese to recognize the union would be a violation of the separation of church and state, in my opinion. Also, Catholic school tuition has gone up so much that the schools are cost-prohibitive to most families in our area anymore, and that is the main reason why the enrollment has dropped so much. Catholic schools nowadays are filled with kids whose parents look down their noses at public schools and think their kids are too good for the public schools. I'm a Catholic, but I wouldn't waste my money on the Catholic schools, the level of education is not any better than the public schools, if not a little behind them. I think at this point, the Diocese is funding exclusive schools for well-off kids, which is why I think the Diocese should get out of the school business altogether. There's not much "Catholic" about these schools anymore, as most of the teachers are lay teachers who haven't been able to get a public school teaching position. There are better things the Diocese can be doing with the money we put in the collection basket every week.

Also, if the Catholic school teachers are allowed to unionize, will nuns and priests be forming a union as well?

::: ... Catholic schools nowadays are filled with kids whose parents look down their noses at public schools and think their kids are too good for the public schools. ... :::

I beg to differ. For the most part, I do not think my children are "too good" for public schools. Other public schools in the City are wonderful. But the choices offered to us for their public education are two schools I would not send my dogs to. The number of bullies my friends children have been exposed to is outrageous and would be detrimental to the overall education of MY children. You can say all you want about getting exposed to "real life", but a black-and-blued and bloodied child is not something I want to greet at my door at the end of the school day. Our children will learn in due time what a d1ck is and how it's used, they'll not call a girl a wh0re because she wouldn't share her homework or take a picture up her skirt as she walks up the steps, with a cellphone they don't particularly need in school.

My husband and I are middle-class, hard-working people who struggle each year to make sure our children's tuition for a 'parochial' education is paid. Yes we struggle, yes it is a sacrifice and yes we see to it that the tuition is paid up front before the school year commences. We teach our children to appreciate the sacrifices we make for them, and in turn, they study hard and make excellent grades. They have a birthday party for 10 at our home and not Great Wolf Lodge. We have an ancient Playstation and an original Nintendo, with not a Wii in sight. If my kids are wearing Polo or Nautica, it's because we bought it at TJ Maxx or Marshalls and not the Country Club.

Yes there are children from high-income families in our school of choice and yes sometimes I get the impression of snobbery from their parents - BUT - There are also those children from low income families who attend the school who do not (as far as I can see) appreciate the education they are given (and I strenuously use the term "given").

Thirty years ago when Ireceived my parochial education, things were much different. Sure my parents struggled to pay tuition for me and my four siblings - but would they put their hand out for a freebie from the Diocese? HELL NO. It was their choice to send us to a parochial school and they were responsible to pay for the tuition, not the people they sat next to in church.

My parents didn't have to worry about me getting my ass kicked by a bully or molested walking home from school. We were taught to walk on the sidewalks and not down the middle of the street. We were taught to respect our teachers and not mouth off to them (or worse). We did our homework and we got good grades because it was expected of us.

::: Also, if the Catholic school teachers are allowed to unionize, will nuns and priests be forming a union as well? :::

Catholic school teachers have already been unionized, which the diocese is now choosing not to recognize. I am no fan of unions, but job security and health insurance for the people who educate my children is a necessity. Please do not trivialize it by making a joke about the clergy - they've got enough problems of their own. Our school of choice has teachers which are both lay and clergy. A group of people, who if they were to lose their teaching positions, would be a travesty for the children at the school.

::: It's great that you have your children's lives all rigidly planned out until they turn 22. You had better hope they don't plan your golden years like that and plop you in a nursing home when you turn 70 ... :::

Glenn, if I am half the woman my mother was, and can teach my children all of what she taught me, I shouldn't have to worry about that.


-- Edited by Thursday's Child at 12:38, 2008-07-17

The Bishop is saying he has to close down schools and some parishes for lack of priests and nuns to act as administrators.

How can the Bishop expect to have more priests and nuns when he is closing down the catholic grade schools and high schools which instill a religious education in our young people and could possibly give them the education and incentive to enter the clergy?

Half of the public school students these days barely go through the motions when they go to CCD classes. It's pretty easy to ship the kids off to CCD classes on Sunday morning and have them sit through a monthly mass with the rest of the Communion or Confirmation class. Most of the children I see at these masses have no idea what it means to be in a catholic church and to be respectful in a "house of God".

Do they spit out their gum before they enter the church? No.
Do they stop chattering when they enter the church? No.
Do they genuflect before they enter the pew? No.
Do they kneel to say a prayer after they enter the pew? No.
Do they follow the mass and make the appropriate responses? No.
Do they receive communion? Yes, and giggle the whole time.
Do they dress appropriately for going to church? Absolutely not. Girlfriend 's got her sparkley thong hanging out the top of her low-rise Britney jeans and homeboy's wearing his oversized gangsta coat painted with guns and knives on it.

I am certainly no bible thumper, and sure, I occasionally miss a Sunday mass, but children from a very early age, learn by example. If you are exposed early on to a religious education (instead of the old once a month snitch-a-bulletin-from-the-back-of-the-church and smoke in the parking lot) and there is some parental influence, we would probably have a better type of people in the world. Instead we've got a country full of teenagers shooting at each other for drug money, people having multiple babies with multiple fathers, people spreading their 'seed' and simply walking away, or worse yet using abortion as a form of birth control.

For the sake of our parochial schools in the future -- our parochial schools need to stay open NOW.