Memories of Catholic school?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I doubt I’m the only one here who attended parochial school from kindergarten up through 8th grade.
Let’s share our experiences.

Some of mine:

We used to attend Mass every Tuesday and during Lent, every Friday we had Stations of the Cross. During the latter, we always had incense, and it happened every time-someone would either puke or faint. We used to always hope for the latter.

The time our principal, a nun, said “You should not be playing with your balls during the pledge of allegiance” (referring to basketballs out on the playground, we said the pledge after lunch before we came in from recess, rather than in the mornings). Hehehehe.

2

Ooh, I hated Stations of the Cross. You had to kneel a lot and the incense always made me feel sick. I only recall one kid throwing up in church, not sure if it was during Lent or not.

We didn’t have to go to mass every week, just during the first Friday of the month. When they were remodeling the church, we had Mass in the school’s hallway. We all sat on the floor along the walls while the priest said Mass standing in front of the restroom doorways, heh.

3

I went to Catholic school from 2nd grade through most of 6th grade, then again for the end of 8th grade (my family was in England during the 2-year gap, where I matriculated in the British school system). Then I went to a Catholic high school. And then I spent 4 years at a Catholic college.

But I was born in '71, so I don’t remember any scary priests or nuns or stations/mass attendance requirements. My grade school’s principal and assistant principal were nuns and I remember a nun who taught English, and when I started high school the principal was a priest, but those are the only religious faculty/staff I remember – I think the only religious at my college was the campus priest.

Pretty boring, I know. :slight_smile:

4

Went to Catholic school pretty much from K-11, though in grade 7 and 8 I switched out and for a time went to a Christian private school as well as public.

I remember saying the Our Father every day, usually right after singing O Canada (iirc). I don’t ever recall doing the Stations, and the only time we had mass was on special days (Christmas, Lent, Ash Wednesday, Remembrance Day… yes we had a special mass on Remembrance Day). No priests or nuns, though Mom tells me about the ones who taught her (which was back in the 50’s and 60’s).

It wasn’t all that different from public school as I recall, except that we prayed, went to mass and had a religion class. Oh, and in high school it seemed like half the school was Wiccan.

5

I went to Catholic school from first through eighth grade. First to Immaculate Conception, then to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. We went to Mass weekly. I very often was a lector, because I read better than any of my classmates. I was beaten up regularly by that amazon Jean Yasback, who would pull me behind the bushes in front of the cafeteria and pound on me. I was fortunate because the teachers and principal were willing to make allowances for my educational strengths. By 4th grade I was in the highest 8th grade Reading and English classes and in the 5th grade Science class. They wanted to promote me a grade or two, however I was very small, the smallest child in my class by far. (I wore a child’s size 4 school uniform from 3rd through 7th grade)

I liked the discipline of Catholic school. I liked wearing a uniform (or rather, not having to figure out every day what I was going to wear). I’m fairly religious and enjoyed Mass. If I had kids, I’d probably send them to Catholic school, too.

StG

6

I went to Catholic school from first through eighth grade. First to Immaculate Conception, then to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. We went to Mass weekly. I very often was a lector, because I read better than any of my classmates. I was beaten up regularly by that amazon Jean Yasback, who would pull me behind the bushes in front of the cafeteria and pound on me. I was fortunate because the teachers and principal were willing to make allowances for my educational strengths. By 4th grade I was in the highest 8th grade Reading and English classes and in the 5th grade Science class. They wanted to promote me a grade or two, however I was very small, the smallest child in my class by far. (I wore a child’s size 4 school uniform from 3rd through 7th grade)

I liked the discipline of Catholic school. I liked wearing a uniform (or rather, not having to figure out every day what I was going to wear). I’m fairly religious and enjoyed Mass. If I had kids, I’d probably send them to Catholic school, too.

StG

7

Odd. I know I only hit enter once. That hardly ever happens to me.

StG

8

Went to Parocial school from 4th to 1/2 way thru 8th grade.This was in the late 50s.
Mass every day was “recomended”.You other Mackerel snappers know what I mean. I was a patrol boy which was important since school and church were across the fed highway.
I was an altar boy as was every other boy in the school.Had a regular schedule for mass which included weekdays saturday and sunday.Easter time was always wierd.
Christmas midnight mass was nearly unbearable. We practiced for weeks ahead and then sat or kneeled for what seemed like forever.
Three nuns taught K-8th. A couple were the meanest critters on earth.
The Priest had cancer and died while I was there.
Not much was said to us kids about it.
When I left and went to public school my reading and math skills were way above the public school kids however my physical self was in poor shape due to no phys ed.That was soon to change because I played all sports and excelled in football.
A different upbringing from most especially when both parents were WWll GIs.

9

Oh Yeah
The Mass was still in Latin.

10

I went to Catholic school for k-12. Mom wanted me to change schools before my senior year to a public, but I didn’t want to - if it had been before my junior year, I might have, but not right before senior year.

The first elementary school I went to (All Saints) closed after my 6th grade year. The mascot for that school was a black-eyed saint. Kind of neat. We occasionally went to Mass, but only on the holy days of obligation. All teachers were lay - there were no nuns or priests teaching at that school, at least since the convent that was attached to the church was closed in the late '60s. The priest did come down to the school for confessions every once in a while. Brown plaid polyester skirts and vests for the girls.

7th and 8th grade I went to Our Lady of Perpetual Help (OLPH). There were sisters there, but I don’t remember what order - they didn’t wear habits. There, we went to weekly Mass. I passed out once during Mass, but not from incense or anything. Blue plaid polyester skirts, no vests.

High school: occasional Mass for the whole school - I think it was for the beginning and ending of school and the holy days of obligation. The sisters there were Dominicans and there were green plaid polyester skirts.

11

Attended parochial school from grades 3 through 6. If my dad hadn’t been sick I probably would’ve stayed through the 8th then gone on to the girls’ only parochial school in our area.

I was the only girl I knew of who was ever “roughed up” by nuns because of one reason or another – chewing gum, having a messy desk, talking in line, hiking my uniform above my knees. My 4th grade nun slammed me against a wall because I dared to correct her during geography (um, Sister, Springfield’s the capital of Illinois, not Chicago). I wasn’t a born troublemaker, but I just couldn’t abide by all the rules. Og forbid I should be different rolls eyes

What ticked my teachers off more was that I was an excellent student. I don’t know nowadays, but back then the nuns – at least the ones in my parish – practiced an unspoken tracking system that rigidly defined kids more than any public school tracking system. Once you were pegged as a “bad kid”, you were always a bad kid, no matter what. No redemption for you, no siree. They couldn’t fit me neatly into that box because of my grades. They didn’t know what to do with me.

I loved attending weekly Mass. I loved singing in the choir. I especially loved doing the Stations of the Cross during Lent because it was one of the few instances I could chant in Latin, even if I didn’t completely understand what I was chanting. I loved the rituals: lighting the Advent wreath, purple bags over all the statues starting Ash Wednesday, the school’s annual May Day/Our Lady procession, kneeling during Communion…I could go on and on.

Liked most: rituals, culture
Liked least: the suffocation of self-expression (hey, everyone, let’s be a clone!)

12

Born 1969, attended Catholic school for 1st and 2nd grade, then from sixth grade until the end of high school.

Elementary school, St. Joseph’s, which has since closed: most of the teachers were lay; the nuns we did have were Franciscans. Other than my first grade teacher, who was evil, and the anal-retentive nun who served as librarian for a while, they were definitely Franciscan. Sweet, sweet ladies, gentle and patient. The only physical punishment I saw was in first grade, and that was indeed from Sister Witchipoo. Discipline was strict, stand up when an adult enters the room, walk in a straight line and no talking, and all that, but the teachers generally had other ways to make kids behave than the Fear of the Ruler.

We attended Mass every First Friday, for the first and last days of school, and any Holy Days that happened to fall on school days. I also remember going to church for the feast days of St Francis of Assisi and St Blaze, and of course we did May Procession.

Girls had uniforms the whole time. Early on they were dark green jumpers with white Peter-Pan collar blouses. Boys had a strict dress code but no uniforms. Just before I returned for sixth grade (after three years at a different school - the school psychologist thought I needed the gifted program which at the time was only open to public school students), the uniform changed. Girls through sixth grade wore plaid jumpers with white Peter-Pan collar blouses; girls in 7th and 8th could wear skirts, pointed collar blouses, and navy blue V-neck sweaters. Boys wore navy blue pants, white shirts, and plaid ties.

High school: Mostly lay teachers, some nuns, a few priests. Mass in the gym on Holy Days and first and last days of school. Uniforms for the girls, plaid skirts, white blouses, navy blue V-necks again; strict dress code for the boys but no uniforms. Discipline was relatively strict, but generally fair.

Really, other than Sister Witchipoo, I don’t have any bad memories or horror stories. I got an okay education in a relatively safe environment. I was picked on a lot, but that also happened in the public school I attended for three years - more a system-wide problem of teachers and others not taking teasing seriously yet than a problem of a specific school. Kind of boring, innit?

13

I went to St. Henry’s in Nashville for grades 1-4, 1967-71. Our uniforms made us look like waiters. The nuns were crazy enthusiastic for the paddle.

I had a huge advantage over my fellow students when I switched to public schools in 5th grade (We moved to another state), as far as writing and spelling were concerned, but I really have to credit my parents more than the nuns.

One thing I really loved about Catholic Schools: TREASURE CHEST! My mom wouldn’t let comic books in the house, or MAD, but somehow T

14

I hit “send” a little too quickly. Long story short, TREASURE CHEST rocked!

15

I went to Catholic schools for grades 3-8 (parish school) and 9-12 (Jesuits). The last nun had retired before I started.

We wore red ties, white shirts and blue trousers. The girls wore the plaid jumper and skirt with a white blouse and blue cotton knee socks. After sixth grade, the attrition rate for boys shot up. The class size went from 35 to 24 in two years, with most of the difference coming from the boys. In my 8th grade class there were seven boys and 17 girls, which I rather liked.
The school had no frills at all. There were eight classrooms for eight grades. The “science lab” had wheels. There was also a “music room,” which was about the size of an average bedroom, and had two pianos and various other musical equipment. we also had an A/V Room the size of a classroom which was just a big empty space with folding metal chairs. The band and chorus practiced there, and we saw filmstrips there as well, whether they were sex-ed or “Cree Finds a Way.” The cafeteria doubled as an auditorium, as well as a gymnasium, and the heavy curtain at the east end of the room opened up to make it part of the church Sanctuary. The 7th and 8th grade boys had to set up rows of folding chairs every Friday afternoon, for the overflow crowd on Sunday. This also meant that latecomers spent the Eucharistic Prayer kneeling on linoleum. We went outside for gym whenever it was possible. There was a huge dairy farm that wrapped around the school and the development it was in, and the spring, the smell wafted over the playing fields.

Hijack Question: What did you blame on the CCD kids?
For me, it was a broken pen that got ink all over the wall, the carpet and my desk. Not exactly a felony.

16

Oh yeah, CCD! Some of them tore up the other second grade teacher’s magazines. Another shredded my friend’s number flashcards. Hehehe…good times.

The best was finding reasons to giggle during Mass. We used to sing a hymn called “Were You There”, and one line went, “Oooooh, sometimes it causes me to tremble…tremble…tremble…”
My friends and I would always start shaking during that line. Even in 8th grade, it still got laughs. (For some reason, everything’s funnier during Mass).
My uncle told me about the time he locked his eighth grade teacher-a nun-in the coat room. She went in there to get something, and my uncle was standing right by the door. He just did it on impulse-just slammed it shut. When she finally got out, she sent him to the priest, who, upon hearing about it, laughed himself into a hernia.

17

I attended 1-12.

Possible the most vivid memory of high school was the time I, the very shy kid who did not really run with any crowd and caused no trouble anywhere, found her hand in the air to ask a quesiton during religion class.

I have no idea what the discussion was that day, but I looked up at my raised hand and wondered, why is that up there?, " What about the Jews?" Now where did that question come from? Are we not learning about St. Burt who is the patron Saint of Hemerroids or something? Where did that question come from?

“What do you mean? What about the Jews?” replied the startled teacher.

" When are we going to learn about The Jews?"

“They’re not important.”
Yes, my Rage Against the Machine started out as a squeak, but there you have it.

And I routinely barely passed religion every year. I couldn’t understand why the other kids could stay awake and actually care about stuff like that and they couldn’t understand why I couldn’t remember The Stations of the Cross: Esso, Amoco, He’s on the Cross, He died, and Ummmm He rose on Easter Sunday in time to bite off the head of a chocolate bunny. And the entire Pray the Rosary thing mystified me along with recalling the 10 commandments.

“Ummmm, I have no plans on coveting an man’s wife. But since it doesn’t mention it, women coveting other women’s husbands is OK.”

" No it’s not."

“Look here, look at this in black in white: Do not cover they neighbors wife. Your future husband is all mine…muahahahahahaha!” She held this against me for years.

18

Ah yes…Catholic school for all of grade school, and my freshman year of high school.

Fortunately, I’ve managed to block most of it out.

19

Me too. What I can remember is not very inspiring, but the entire " What about the Jews" moment really is the bright spot, as it were.

20

Jesuit school.

Compulsory mass every Friday. Optional before school every other day for the pious.

Benediction every Monday afternoon. Recitation of the Rosary after lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays.