With only 57 students enrolled, Missouri Catholic school won’t open this fall

[pstokely]

Source: KC Star

The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph announced today that after nearly 60 years of educating children in Jackson County, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School is closing.

Dan Peters, superintendent of diocesan schools, said enrollment at the Raytown school had dwindled over the last few years.

Only 57 students registered for the upcoming academic year at the school, which serves children in kindergarten through eighth grade. A decade ago, 199 students were enrolled.




Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/09/3067148/with-only-57-students-enrolled.html#ixzz1Uc4CJIsP

[JDPriestly]

1. Nobody can afford Catholic schools any more.

Just as well. Nothing wrong with Catholic schools except that they result in religious segregation in society.

[Demit]

2. Describe what you mean by religious segregation in society. I'm curious.

[JDPriestly]

3. Dividing kids by religion results in religious segregation.

When I was a child, I went to a public school since my parents were Protestants.

Down the street from my school there was a Catholic school -- same block. Apparently the Catholic kids started and finished the school day at a different time than we public school kids did. In addition, they sometimes had holidays that we didn't have. I was always curious about who in the world went to that school. Even our Catholic neighbors went to public school. I never met a one of them -- although they went to school on the same block that I did.

That made me very curious about the Catholic kids, but it also made me feel very separate from them. So I don't think it is good to have children separated, attending different schools according to their religion.

My children went to school in Austria for a few years. We are Unitarians -- always have been, so we didn't put down a religious preference when we started them in school in Austria. Religious education was a part of the school curriculum, so the children were assigned to classes according to their religion. One of my children was assigned to the Catholic class and the other to the Protestant class.

I will never forget walking my children to school one day and hearing a student, apparently from the Catholic class yelling out "The Protestant girls are *(^*&." It was really awful.

That's what I mean by segregating children by religion. It is as bad as racial segregation in my view.

[Demit]

5. I went to Catholic school in the states, in a big city. When school let out, I went out & played

with my neighborhood friends, many of whom went to public schools and some of whom weren't Catholic. We organized ourselves by age, mostly, and sometimes gender depending on what the activity was. Later, in high school (I went to a Catholic high school as well), some of our Catholic friends went to public schools instead. Through them we met their school friends, many of whom weren't Catholic. We met various people through activities, like sports, and going to dances. We did not try to be, nor did we feel, segregated in society because of our religion. Additionally, my high school was an all-girls school (and later I went to a women-only college!), and my social life did not suffer because of that kind of segregation either.

Today, in some big cities, non-Catholics are sending their kids to Catholic schools, when the perception is that the public school system is bad, and the Catholic schools happily accept them. Perhaps it is different in small cities, and I don't know about Austria, but in my experience there is plenty of opportunity for children to mingle with people from other backgrounds, and they do.

[Hangingon]

8. I went to catholic school too.

I played little league on a city league team. Went to the Y to swin and play basketball. Dated the girl from down the street - who went to public school. Played in a public youth golf league. Don't know how Catholic students could be such a mystery. I don't remember ever hearing a Catholic student taunt a public school student or vice-versa. Oh that was in Austria.

[JDPriestly]

9. Austria is a majority Catholic country.

At some points, the Protestants from a village I know well were deported to Siebenburgen.

Protestants were persecuted in various ways in Austria. It was pretty horrible. Protestant churches were not allowed to ring bells to call people to worship until sometime in the mid-19th century in Austria.

And so the separation of students according to their religion stems, in my opinion, from that original Catholic repression of Protestants.

[Hangingon]

10. I see no precedent from Austrian history.

As opposed to the Austrian system, the American education system has not included separate religious education by demonination. It's that pesky church/state thing. As other responders have noted Catholic school students are well integrated in their communities. The rise of religious schools - historically Catholic schools and now increasingly protestant - stems from parents desires for a better education for their children. The historic Catholic repression of Protestants has nothing to do with it.

[DesertFlower]

4. i went to catholic school. so did most of

my friends. that was a very long time ago. i'm almost 70. my mom and my aunts and uncles and even my grandmother had attended that same school. didn't know any better.

a few kids in the neighborhood went to public school. there was no tuition back then. we were taught religion with a catechism -- didn't see a bible until i was 18 and stayed in a hotel.

[robcon]

6. Gee.. that hasn't happened anywhere else.

:sarcasm:

I would say that a significant number of Catholic schools have closed during the last 20 years... maybe 20% in the New York Metro area.

Cost.
Lack of religious fervor by Catholics.
Scandals about the clergy.
Whatever.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. Plus proliferation of "philanthropic" charter $chools as an alternative.

nt