Hooray for Friday
The second full week (sans Monday) of frosh-hood over at high school has passed quickly and fairly *cough* uneventfully--for me. Not so for dad, who had to put up with a gobsmackingly bad day this week that I know few details about. All I know is that one of the students down at school (dad teaches at the place--and no one knows who this kid is) committed some as-yet undescribed atrocity against my dad in comfortable anonymity. As we were leaving today, we noticed some shattered glass had been placed conveniently under our car's rear tire. Suspicious.
Anyhoo, aside from that, and the flooding of our basement, which I will leave to padre to describe,--as he has already done so pretty effectively--not much happened.
However, that doesn't mean I don't have a rant coming.
An irony that I observed both at my Catholic grade school and here at Catholic high school is that many of the kids are totally and comfortably oblivious of their faith and its meaning. I realize that was a disgracefully sweeping, judgemental statement to make, so lemme rephrase: it seems that many of the Catholic school kids are as far from Catholic as any others. I could always be wrong, but the evidence suggests it.
For example, I've overheard a couple of my fellow freshmen mispronouncing the word "Catholicism". Granted, that's no "Dick, Jane, and Spot" type of a word, but still. Come on, people!
Another example: Every Friday, everybody comes to school dressed up and we have Mass in the gym. We have Mass at the time we regularly have a twenty-minute or so break; a snack break for many people (even by 11 A.M.--roughly the time we have Mass--you can get pretty hungry). However, since you are not supposed to eat anything one hour before receiving Communion, snacking in the brief break before Mass is strongly disadvised. If you forget, though, and end up eating something absent-mindedly beforehand, you may pass up on Communion.
So here's what happens: A couple of starving classmates grab something munchy last Friday before Mass. When another student reminds them they shouldn't eat, the response is: "I don't care, I just won't have Communion."
Do I see a priority problem here?
Granted, an empty stomach is a powerful force, but it is obvious that these guys don't at all appreciate or understand what Communion is.
Religion class is the most noisy and disordered one we have. Another thing that seriously bugs me.
F-bombs are dropped regularly by the students. Not that that surprises me, it happened in 6th grade, too.
Of course, school is by no means a cesspool of depravity, or anything like that. It is run by very skilled, caring, well-meaning people who know their faith and what they're doing with it. And not all the students are clueless, by any means. There are many who do care. But there are many who don't either, and that's what gets me.
Enough rant.
Anyhoo, aside from that, and the flooding of our basement, which I will leave to padre to describe,--as he has already done so pretty effectively--not much happened.
However, that doesn't mean I don't have a rant coming.
An irony that I observed both at my Catholic grade school and here at Catholic high school is that many of the kids are totally and comfortably oblivious of their faith and its meaning. I realize that was a disgracefully sweeping, judgemental statement to make, so lemme rephrase: it seems that many of the Catholic school kids are as far from Catholic as any others. I could always be wrong, but the evidence suggests it.
For example, I've overheard a couple of my fellow freshmen mispronouncing the word "Catholicism". Granted, that's no "Dick, Jane, and Spot" type of a word, but still. Come on, people!
Another example: Every Friday, everybody comes to school dressed up and we have Mass in the gym. We have Mass at the time we regularly have a twenty-minute or so break; a snack break for many people (even by 11 A.M.--roughly the time we have Mass--you can get pretty hungry). However, since you are not supposed to eat anything one hour before receiving Communion, snacking in the brief break before Mass is strongly disadvised. If you forget, though, and end up eating something absent-mindedly beforehand, you may pass up on Communion.
So here's what happens: A couple of starving classmates grab something munchy last Friday before Mass. When another student reminds them they shouldn't eat, the response is: "I don't care, I just won't have Communion."
Do I see a priority problem here?
Granted, an empty stomach is a powerful force, but it is obvious that these guys don't at all appreciate or understand what Communion is.
Religion class is the most noisy and disordered one we have. Another thing that seriously bugs me.
F-bombs are dropped regularly by the students. Not that that surprises me, it happened in 6th grade, too.
Of course, school is by no means a cesspool of depravity, or anything like that. It is run by very skilled, caring, well-meaning people who know their faith and what they're doing with it. And not all the students are clueless, by any means. There are many who do care. But there are many who don't either, and that's what gets me.
Enough rant.
posted by James at
5:29 PM
