Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Are Catholic schools really pro-life?

On another blog I frequent, the topic turned toward Catholic education. A comment was added about schooling autistic children in Catholic schools. Really, any special needs child in Catholic school. I had the benefit of an incredible generous and holy priest who allowed my 2 autistic boys to attend the parish school. My second son has a stronger form of Asperger's Syndrome and he has difficulty understanding complex instructions. I realize it has been challenging for the teachers and it will only get more so as he gets older. My desire for an orthodox Catholic education may out-weigh my sense of reality and I admit it. As a child from the Glory & Praise generation, I cannot allow my children to go through what I did and lose the jewels of the faith because someone feels the need to strum a guitar, hold hands and talk about social justice and the rain forest. That being said, I know the time may be coming to make some hard decisions. They attend a small school with a small budget that is already being strained. My oldest son is doing okay but the younger one is struggling and we can't seem to break through to help him. We had a local social worker tell us my boys would never make it past the 4th grade with their disability. In other words, get them in public school now before you regret it later. So I am sad today because tuition went up and it will be about $600 a month to send all three kids next year. The school I would love to send them probably will not take them because of the "autism factor". I have a 2/15 deadline to decide. I know other parents face this but not many really care about the faith factor. To me, faith is more important than education. Faith will get you through the toughest times in life. An education can't even guarantee you will get a job anymore.

3 comments:

Rosemary said...

Oh Lord, please provide for these boys that they may have a faith-filled education as their mother desires. I work as an aide in the 2nd grade at a Catholic school. The teacher I work with goes to great lengths to accomodate all sorts of learning challenges. There is one child who may have aspergers, certainly has dyslexia, and maybe some kind of attention issue. She plans special lessons for him, has me help keep him focused, has a special reward system for him... May your sons have a teacher with love like this.

a thorn in the pew said...

Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. The teachers do help and he gets tutored for a 1/2 hr one day a week but I know he is not maturing socially or making real friends. But then, he may never make friends. I know I may come across as bitter that no one is helping these kids but I suppose I feel the need to get people to think of how pro-life/Christian it is rejecting the most helpless of children. Your words gave me hope. Thank you again.

FloridaWife said...

I wish I knew what to say. I have paused to pray for you and your sons.