The Catholic schools have a fine science curriculum. I don't see much difference between Catholic and public- the folks who are batshit crazy are the holy rollers/born agains, who use "special" science books- which aren't actually science. Those kids are woefully ill prepared- because not only are they not learning science, they don't have credentialed teachers (you don't need the same education to teach in private schools)- so they aren't learning much else either. It's not like they're even literate in the Western Canon that is a foundational part of English classes. In our district they have extremely poor transfer rates to college. The Catholic high schools, on the other hand, have a transfer rate similar to the public high schools (which are very good suburban public high schools).
I've taught since 2000, and every now and then, a totally bizzaro child pops up in class. There was the Lebanese Xtian girl who wanted to do a report on how the Holocaust never happened (interesting, right?) I said she could do her report if she found independent factual evidence from reputable news sources. She decided to do another topic all on her own :-) And a few years later I had a Catholic youngster whose father went ballistic and called me because as background for Macbeth (talking about Elizabeth and James, and the Protestantism that runs through Macbeth- some ass kissing on the part of Shakespeare) I mentioned the reformation and Henry the VIII's swing away from the Church of Rome. Dad called to tell me there were no indulgences sold, ever! Fabulous news, I said. Send me independent proof of this, and I'll share it with my class, I said. Never heard from dad again. It was a large family, and I taught several more of the kids (I think there were 12 of them) and never heard a peep again. I think I ended up writing letters for at least 2 of the boys for their college aps. Nice kids. A bit brow beaten by their family, but smart, quiet and attentive. It's funny that some people think they can just bully you into doing something with zero proof. It must work sometimes. |
