Yes it is called CCD...ALL of my DC went to or are going to Catholic schools. I have noticed the last 10 years the Catholic School system has Tanked right with the public schools.
Catholic high schools here select by ability as demonstrated by grades and national testing percentile rank. There are twenty-eight of them in St. Louis. Students apply by listing their top three choices. They are offered admission to their best match within their performance range. The higher tiers do turn away non-qualified students every year.
As far as gifted programs for religion education...NOPE not going to happen. The teachers in CCD are "volunteers" they have an outlined program.
Teacher expertise varies greatly in the PSR and in-school religion courses although most have an education degree at the K-8th level. My son has been very lucky to have only teachers with advanced degrees in their subject (who appreciate his challenging questions) since switching to non-parish affiliated Catholic prep school.
My DS 10 who has religion EVERYDAY in school spoke out and explained to his religion teacher why he believes evolution was/is very much a good possiblity.
Man, that went over well...NOT
This is what happens when you have kids who dig deeper and want to make logical sense of the universe.I had to stifle him again...Just like the reproductive system he taught himself in 1st grade. I had to explain to him it was one of those things he cannot talk about at school...
This sounds like the Catholic school my grandmother attended.
My kids have been instructed on evolution since 6th grade-and at a more in-depth level than my state university freshman prehistoric anthropology course (with much tougher tests too).
