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I went to Lutheran school for k-8 then also hs. I enjoyed it and that's what we're planning for our kids. We had a small school so we had 2 grades in each classroom which was awesome because we got to work ahead and we also got a lot of individual attention. They also made time for music class and art which I want for our kids. They have lots of recess and I feel like the parents get more of a say in what happens. I also enjoyed having my siblings in the same school and we did a lot of buddy work with older and younger kids which was great. I also liked that all the parents knew each other so there was a lot of communication

Pros: I feel like most of my teachers were super duper invested. That's not to say public school teachers are not, but it seems important to point out when they're paid basically nothing.

Cons: not many "extra" classes (eg advanced classes, specialty classes). This may have just been my school, but there was definitely an elitist vibe

no personal experience here, but wanted to say that my understanding is that Jesuit schools have really high standards for education and are pretty left-leaning, if you're interested in political as well as religious indoctrination

my husband went to a Catholic school k-12 that was not super wealthy/elite and had a really positive experience, even though he became an atheist as a teenager. I think he still gives them money and is grateful for the good education he got. they had the basics with sports and extracurriculars and I don't think he ever missed any of the bells and whistles with special classes, etc. (whereas I got to take IB psychology and anthropology and played lacrosse in high school--kind of cool, but exactly not life-or-death important.)

I did Catholic school 5-8. It was not the greatest experience for me. Coming in at that age to a very small social circle was hard and since there was only one class per grade level things got cliquey.

We are not religious but T goes to a daycare at a private Preschool then K-8. Classes are very small- about 10 per class.

I had a great heart to heart with the principal recently and she said as long as we are comfortable with the religious teachings they are happy to have us. There is a variety of kids that are from various backgrounds. We may do private school there. The staff is awesome.

I was raised Catholic, went to public school and then did religious ed after school. I attended a Jesuit University.

My son attended a day care on the campus of a Catholic k-8 school. We enrolled him in preK but ultimately decided to send him to a private non religious preschool and then public school for Kindergarten.

I think you have to look at the program that the school has. Is there a computer lab, a science program? Do they have the resources to provide extra help (like a reading specialist) for kids that are struggling? I think if your child is a typical learner, you're fine no matter where you put them. But some kids need a bit extra and parochial schools aren't often in the position to be able to deliver that.

I went to Catholic grade school and junior high - public high school. I won't be sending my kids to Catholic school. I think there's too much emphasis on religion and not enough emphasis on other extra-curriculars....or math! Also had nuns teaching a lot of grade school - and frankly they were not very kind. This is based solely on my own experience, though.

@Bibliolove: "Math was a joke" - YES. That was my experience. I was behind when I got to high school even though I was considered "advanced" in junior high.

@meredithNYC: This is why I wrote that I was sharing based solely on my own experience....

@winniebee: sorry - was more responding to @Bibliolove.

This is a sore point with me. It seems that there can't be a discussion about Catholicism/Catholic schools without things getting rude and it wears me out.

@Bibliolove: your last line read like a blanket statement to me. Apologies for my misunderstanding.

In my experience... (and I'm typing this on my iPhone so please don't judge by my writing!!)

Too strict on behavioral discipline for things that don't matter. For example, 45 minute detention for wearing the wrong socks in my high school. A week of scrubbing down chairs from the cafeteria during lunch break for making too much noise and piggybacking in the hallway, once, in my k-8 school. Two hours detention for not having put away my phone right when I walked on campus and my mom who had just driven away was calling me, like half an hour before school even started. Just sort of silly things, which was also the case in the school my brother went to, a different catholic school. I just felt like in a lot of cases it stunted us.

It was close knit but that could work for or against you. In my school all the x race moms were friends and excluded the other kids and parents a lot. I'm not saying they were racist or whatever but it just happened. On the other hand you get to know people well, so that can be nice.

Less programs/extracurriculars, but due to the close knit environment a lot of community support for the ones that existed. And there were quit a few teachers that went above and beyond for those extracurriculars in a way I don't think would happen in public schools (or at least most of my public school friends did not describe).. lots of weekends (overnight things too) etc..

Most subject areas had a pretty rigorous curriculum especially in my k-12 high school. In my area it was much better with regard to academics than the public schools.

The uniforms were good and bad and I'm sure you can probably decide for yourself whether you like the idea of uniforms.

@Bibliolove: my husband had a similar experience with academics. In my area academics were the reason to go to Catholic school. There was pretty low turnover too. But I know my husband went for one year (9th) and switched to public.

@mamacate: we are very likely doing catholic school for k next fall. the school is k-8, and then we will likely do public high school. i'm catholic (loosely practicing...we go to church occasionally, the kids are baptized, etc) but DH is not. we both did full public schooling k-12, and i never really considered doing anything but public school until now.

in our case, the public school and the catholic school are both very good academically. it's coming down to size -- the public schools here are fairly large and also fairly crowded (almost 30 per class), while the catholic school only has 2 classes of 17-20 and is a very close-knit community. being as we are new to the area with no local family AND live in a major metro area, it's important to us that our kids (well, particularly our oldest daughter, who seems to thrive in more big fish/small pond scenarios....we may re-evaluate each as we go!) have that smaller, family-feeling community. i imagine it will become less important to us as they get older, which is why i think we'll do public high school, as the opportunities there will probably outweigh my size concerns. but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

I went to a small lutheran grade/middle school (20-25 kids per grade) and then a larger lutheran high school (700ish students), so not catholic but comparable. I would caution, if your child isn't the "typical" type kid, small classes can make it really hard to make friends. I was a shy, reader type, who liked math, nerdy and I had a really hard time making friends. There was only 10 girls and basically 1 click, you were in or you weren't. Luckily I was a competitive gymnast and had lots of friends through that, but without it I would have been pretty miserable. There was also one boy with learning problems and he was basically ostracized. I felt so bad for him.

My math education was more than fine, I was ahead of most others at my state-flagship public college. However, my schools were terrible with science. Because they wouldn't accept evolution our science education was basically missing parts. I became basically a 1 person crusade to teach other students and teachers what stem cells really were and what the theory of evolution is. I am a scientist now so it didn't hurt in the long run and maybe helped forcing me to delineate my positions so passionately.

But as a scientist, I could not send my child to a school that does not teach evolution. And I would be cautious about sending any children that have a hard time fitting in to a very small school.

@Ms.Badger: interesting. For my high school we learned about creation in theology and evolution in biology. It was a college prep school though.

@honeybear: was going to say the same thing.