Sam Kim12 said:We’re all on the same page here—no doubt about it.😉. I don't exactly consider myself a Catholic—and that’s solely because, in my view, faith isn't something you can measure by how often you show up at Mass. Honestly, seeing the crowd of people who make it an obligation to sit in those pews every single Sunday just makes me feel a bit nauseated. To me, true prayer isn't a scheduled performance; I find myself praying when I actually feel the need—most often when I'm standing over my brother's grave.
I didn't sign the kids up for religious education classes—they insisted on doing it themselves, and frankly, if they had asked me, I would have been the first one to say no. But neither my husband nor I wanted to be the ones standing in the way of their own little desires. Besides, the kids don't exactly complain about going to Mass—it’s the extra classes that feel like a chore. They just end up sitting through unnecessary, tedious lessons that they'll eventually learn and forget anyway—though, I suppose there's always the occasional old man showing up with cookies to make it slightly more tolerable. 😬) It isn’t the faith itself—nor is it the core theology that bears the blame—but rather the people tasked with presenting it. I am talking about the clergy, the religious educators, and even those responsible for drafting the textbooks. They are the ones who distort the message.
Maybe I’m misreading the room, but from where I’m sitting—and I’ve been watching this play out in my local school district for a while now—it seems like everyone is losing their minds over the scheduling of religious studies. It’s an elective, plain and simple. Yet, for some reason, it constantly gets jammed right into the middle of the school day. Meanwhile, look at how they handle a second foreign language—also an elective, mind you—which usually gets tucked away in the first period or shoved to the very end of the day, or even moved to a different shift entirely once the kids hit high school. At least in my district, there's some semblance of logic applied to the languages, but the religious education classes seem to be treated like a mandatory centerpiece of the schedule.😉
Take my situation, for example, where they’ve got foreign language set up as a double block during the fifth and sixth periods, yet they insist on sticking religion class right in the thick of the daily grind. I suppose they think religion requires more mental heavy lifting than learning a new language, so that's why 🙄
coppermarlin14 said:Honestly, kids pick up on everything—the prayers, the confessions, all the theatrics involved in that whole circus... I mean, how could they not? As for me, I was baptized... but I never went through First Communion or Confirmation. I ended up having a church wedding because my husband really insisted on it, even though I wasn't thrilled about the idea. I was pretty upfront with him, though; I told him straight out that I had no intention of doing any religious rites like Confirmation or Communion. Later on, we had our children baptized just like everyone else. But if I ever had to go back and redo all of that now? There is absolutely no way I’d ever marry in a church again. Honestly, the whole thing just turns my stomach. In truth, I probably wouldn't have even married at all. I would have just lived in a common-law marriage.
And besides, what business does an eight or nine-year-old kid have with making a confession? It’s just distasteful.
Mine just stopped attending religious education classes the moment they realized they were expected to go to confession before they could even take communion.
granitemarlin53 said:I guess it's just because only a handful of people actually make it to the summit. Maybe that's why. 😉 The statistics pretty much say it all: hardly any high schoolers are actually sitting down to tackle those massive, doorstop novels on their reading lists. I guess some kids just aren't readers, while others find the books boring, way too long, or maybe the themes just don't resonate with them at all. It’s the same story everywhere in the States, really. You see plenty of people opting for shorter, more digestible versions for that exact reason, and honestly, those versions have a pretty loyal following. At the end of the day, I think it's better if they read something at all rather than nothing.
Honestly, why even bother enrolling in a prep school if you can't handle a bit of reading? If we're following that logic, we might as well strip the math curriculum down to just addition and subtraction and call it a day.
granitemarlin53 said:I recently came across the Penguin Classics series. They basically offer condensed versions of the classics that run about a hundred pages or so. So far, they've released three titles: Don Quixote, Crime and Punishment, and Madame Bovary. I know some purists and literary snobs might argue that high schoolers shouldn't be reading summaries instead of the full texts, but honestly, I think it's a great idea. I mean, it's better to read something than nothing at all, right? Plus, these retellings do a decent job of mimicking the original style, so you almost feel like you've actually tackled the source material. I guess these could be a huge help with school reading lists since you can get through these massive literary staples in maybe two hours rather than spending several days on them. 👍
It’s because reading a book like this feels less like leisure and more like trying to summit Everest; you don't just sit down with it, you have to actually conquer it.🙄
Anyway, I have a question for those of you working in the school system who might actually have some insight into this mess: how on earth is it possible for a kid to skip an entire subject—specifically religion class—and yet still see regular grades popping up in the online gradebook? Is this just some massive technical glitch in the district's software, or are we looking at pure negligence from the administration?
Sarah Hall53 said:If that's the case, then your school is actually breaking the rules. Honestly, there shouldn't be any need for signing a consent form every single year—once you enroll your kid in an elective during first, fourth, or fifth grade, you're basically giving your implicit consent for them to take that class all the way through the end of elementary school. If you want out, you just have to submit a formal written request to withdraw by August 15th, and then the school board makes the final call.
At my kid's school, we just give consent every year like clockwork, no special paperwork required. My kid just stopped attending this year, and honestly, nobody even blinked.
The law itself is a bit of a mess:
Article 27, paragraph 2 states that electives are chosen at the start of every school year, while paragraph 3 says you can stop taking them after submitting a written request. It’s all pretty vague if you ask me.
Are you honestly telling me that second graders in this country actually believe in Santa Claus? Like, they genuinely think he’s out there lugging around bags full of gifts?
In your opinion, when is the right time to pull the plug on the fantasy—I mean, at what point are kids actually mature enough to handle the truth?
electricpilot4 said:I honestly have no intention of getting dragged into this debate, so please consider this my first and final word on the matter! It’s quite fascinating how true believers—specifically Roman Catholics, rather than just some fringe extremist groups—actually coexist beautifully with scientific discovery, including the theory of evolution. After all, one day in the eyes of the Lord is akin to a hundred years on Earth, isn't it? Similarly, mainstream Catholics don't find themselves at odds with medical advancements like IVF, provided we aren't discussing sperm donation. You know, despite what some might assume, people of faith are certainly not lacking in intelligence, and I truly believe it is entirely possible to be both a deep intellectual and a devoted believer; the trick, I suppose, is to actually study your faith deeply enough to move past those overly simplified Sunday school stories. Now, I'm not suggesting religious studies should be mandatory in our public schools, but I do find it rather disheartening to see such an intense clash between intolerant, narrow-minded religious types and fiercely tolerant atheists or agnostics.
It’s a real shame this turned out to be your first and last post, because you really could have used the space to clarify that mess. So, according to you, Roman Catholics are the only legitimate believers within Christianity, while everyone else is just part of some "lost sect"? Well, I suppose that’s one way to handle tolerance and acceptance, isn't it?
briskbison55 said:That's... uh, quite the comparison. So, what, you think religious fundamentalists are out there handing out weapons and inciting hatred too?
I mean, what would happen with them?
How does an election issue factor into that, though?
No, they wouldn't, because you still don't seem to get that this is an election matter—it was basically a compromise made for parents who can't just leave work to drive their kids somewhere else.
Besides, they have to head over to Sunday school for religious studies during the week anyway.
Drew Johnson2 said:So, my son had this encounter with one of those absolute gems in his class—she actually told him he didn't deserve good grades just because he doesn't believe in God... He shot back that she probably shouldn't be worrying about his grades when her own aren't exactly stellar, and suggested that if she truly believes in God, she might want to watch her mouth before He takes offense at such nonsense...
She burst into tears, of course, which made him feel terrible for a moment... but ever since that little exchange, she’s been the only kid in the entire grade who won't even look his way...
Sounds like your little guy is sharp, though. How old is he now?
My kid stuck with it for the first two years before deciding he was just totally over it.
Look, I’ve always felt that religious instruction shouldn't be baked directly into the standard curriculum, but I don't think it would be a bad idea to design some kind of "world religions" course or something similar—just a way to introduce kids to the foundational beliefs of the major faiths we see here in America, along with a bit about what people believe on the other side of the globe. No matter how much we might grumble about faith or organized religion, the reality is that it has shaped pretty much everything throughout history—our literature, our music, our art in general—and honestly, it wouldn't hurt for students to have a basic grasp of that if they want to actually understand how the world works. That said, I really do think it's far too early to even touch these topics when they're still in those lower elementary grades.
So, Tim Cook, I’ve been wondering how spending hours bickering on an internet forum fits into a Catholic upbringing, especially when it falls on a Sunday. Wouldn't you think it'd be more important to actually spend some quality time with your kids? On a day like this, at least.
restlesshound3 said:The topic was honestly pretty fascinating, and I was actually kind of caught off guard when it got locked. 👎 Either it should have been moderated from the jump, or they just should have let the debate play out.
But even beyond this, I’ve always found the rules and how the mods handle things over in the Women's Corner to be a bit strange. It’s not rare to see someone get sent a private message, or for people to be called complete idiots—even having new users pushed away from a thread—all without a moderator stepping in. (And by the way, this happens even with some of the folks who get labeled as fascists during those heated debates about immigration. 😁 )
Which, of course, lines up perfectly with that supposed "liberalism" and generosity some of these people love to preach about🙄.
I spend a lot of time lurking on CNN, though I rarely bother posting anything myself, but certain debates over there feel less like actual conversation and more like some twisted debate club where the whole point is just to see who can stay in the ring the longest before they collapse.
In our experience, homework almost always gets knocked out during after-school programs; I think we had maybe one single instance where they didn't finish, and even then, it was only because they were tied up with some extracurricular activity outside the school building.
I honestly think it all comes down to the specific teacher running the program, but in our case, the kids actually do their work—though from what I've observed, they mostly focus on it during those dedicated homework blocks. Everything else is usually carved out for creative stuff, games, heading outdoors if the weather isn't being miserable, or occasionally watching a cartoon. Generally speaking, it’s been incredibly helpful, at least for my kid.