A Catholic-School Veteran Tells All

Part 3: Nuns in residential schools in Ireland, Canada (they're digging up bodies in Canada and think that most of the deaths from "TB" were actually children beaten to death, murdered, at the schools), and other places were even worse. Read "Suffer the Little Children" to get an idea that what my family and I experienced was only a small taste of the evil these schools could perpetrate on little children. I see the catholic conservatives as being no better than Holocaust deniers in their assertions, which is right in line with RCC teaching, as they *love* Holocaust deniers now. There was a second Holocaust, perpetrated by RCC Inc, the organized criminal child rape cult - it was a Children's Holocaust. Those of us not killed were seriously damaged for life. If there was only one school available for my child, and it was a catholic school, I would not even think of sending them there and would homeschool instead. Things haven't changed, as some friends recently learned from their grandson's kindergarten experience this year. It's still the same old god hates you, you're never good enough no matter how much you pray, etc. Even if the physical abuse isn't there, the emotional abuse sure is, and they're getting their grandson out asap.

Part 2: My brother got it even worse. He had a man-hating second grade teacher (lay teacher who eventually became a nun and is still teaching as a nun). She would pick on the smallest and weakest boy in her class every year for monstrous physical, mental, and emotional abuse - constant yelling and screaming, constant throwing of objects, constant singling out for any and every humiliation possible - AND she *actively* got the entire class to join in with her. If she threw an eraser, she told all the kids to throw their erasers at him, so he'd be barraged by erasers.
He got an equally incompetent and abusive teacher for fifth grade, where a kid pulled a knife on him in the back of class. Instead of the knife-kid being punished, this teacher punished my brother for having a knife pulled on him (she asserted he deserved to have a knife at his throat and that the knife-kid was doing God's will). After this, my parents pulled us both out of catholic school and put us in public school, where we were both well accepted and thrived beautifully.

Public school initially tried to put us in "dummy" classes because we had come from catholic school, which they knew to be substandard - until they saw our IQ scores and realized we were smart. They moved us to smart classes, where we both did great, and we finished our educations successfully in the public school system left in peace. Catholic schools were seen to be inferior because the teachers were uneducated, uncertified, and incompetent. They engaged in teacher malpractices such as collective punishments, holding us for hours after school (got home at 6 once when school let out at 3:15) and violence. They only taught RCC propaganda, so we never learned any actual literature or history, only lives of saints who threw themselves out of windows instead of being raped by unbelievers and how the conquest of the Americas was good for the indigenous people and was God's will. Yeah, I saw the wood paddles in public jr high/high school, but they weren't used on the elementary level and were only used on boys who were full-adult size and who were deliberately acting out, not on small, weak children for the fun and kicks of the teachers.

Part 2: My brother got it even worse. He had a man-hating second grade teacher (lay teacher who eventually became a nun and is still teaching as a nun). She would pick on the smallest and weakest boy in her class every year for monstrous physical, mental, and emotional abuse - constant yelling and screaming, constant throwing of objects, constant singling out for any and every humiliation possible - AND she *actively* got the entire class to join in with her. If she threw an eraser, she told all the kids to throw their erasers at him, so he'd be barraged by erasers.
He got an equally incompetent and abusive teacher for fifth grade, where a kid pulled a knife on him in the back of class. Instead of the knife-kid being punished, this teacher punished my brother for having a knife pulled on him (she asserted he deserved to have a knife at his throat and that the knife-kid was doing God's will). After this, my parents pulled us both out of catholic school and put us in public school, where we were both well accepted and thrived beautifully.

Public school initially tried to put us in "dummy" classes because we had come from catholic school, which they knew to be substandard - until they saw our IQ scores and realized we were smart. They moved us to smart classes, where we both did great, and we finished our educations successfully in the public school system left in peace. Catholic schools were seen to be inferior because the teachers were uneducated, uncertified, and incompetent. They engaged in teacher malpractices such as collective punishments, holding us for hours after school (got home at 6 once when school let out at 3:15) and violence. They only taught RCC propaganda, so we never learned any actual literature or history, only lives of saints who threw themselves out of windows instead of being raped by unbelievers and how the conquest of the Americas was good for the indigenous people and was God's will. Yeah, I saw the wood paddles in public jr high/high school, but they weren't used on the elementary level and were only used on boys who were full-adult size and who were deliberately acting out, not on small, weak children for the fun and kicks of the teachers.

I am so sick and tired of Catholics from your era complaining about the 'mean nuns'. I don't by it.
Try growing up in a school run by liberals. Have you ever been subjected to mock trials, where if you tell your parents about what they told you in class or complained about a bully, the teacher castigates you or lines all the kids around the wall, interrogates everyone, singles you out so none of the kids talk to you for the rest of the year? Public humiliation is the number one tool to keep kids in line in public schools, at least it was in the 70's and 80's.
I'm sick and tired of hearing whiny 50/60 yr olds tell how evil the nuns were. I hear more people talk about how wonderful they were and how bullying was really punished. I know people who talk about the nuns like they were angels because the nuns defended them from the bullies and kept a tight ship. I would have chewed off my left leg to be able to go to a real bonafide catholic school. In public school it's pervasive, the whole system is set up to crush your spirit. And bullies are NEVER really punished.
So shut up already.

Why is it Newsweek is gloifying hitting children -- in the article regarding the princiapl you seem to insinuate that a school has improved because the principal brought back corp punishment. There is no excuse for hitting children in a school anywhere in the country. interestingly enough, April is Child Abuse prevention month. perhaps this publication should do an in depth report on the prevalance of Child Abuse in America, and how some of it is CAUSED by the legality of corporal punishment still allowed in 21 states. Sharmeful

Interesting that this gets published along with the other article about the paddling principal which seems to glorify corporal punishment. Hitting kids is wrong. I went to Catholic school and got my share of licks for being left handed. Guess what- I am still left handed. I never understood the 'love thy neighbor' bit, when every time I turned around some other kid was getting smacked. I smartened up and left the church, never to look back.

kgblankinship, get real.. This article is intentionally malicious. No one could dispute that. Noonan grinds his axe with the help of Newsweek's great big soap box. What a child. Grow up, Noonan. Write something responsible that doesn't tear down thousands upon thousands of good, humble, inspired people who, for some reason, became the target of your angry imaginings.

Where is my comment?

It is a FACT that the Catholic Church did nothing about the beatings that went on in the clasrooms of there schools. The reason the Catholic Church is a target is because it deserves to be. In the Olney section of Philadelphia, the St. Joseph's nuns who taught at St. Helena's were brutal task masters who found pleasure in "controlling" kids by face slacking, punching and head bangings against blackboards ON A DAILY BASIS. Were there day's of fun and learning?? Absolutely. There were many of those. Where the problem lies is in the unexpected, unexplained and unprovoked assaults that happened because they had Carte Blanc power and used it when they thought it would be to there advantage. Those who think the Catholic Church is being attacked are just hiding there heads in the sand. There are a multitude of reasons that people bring this kind of behavior to the surface. It's because it happened and it had life long negative affects on to many people. And it was done in the name of God. And it was done by a group of people who said "love thy neighbor" and then followed that up with a fresh can of whoopass. This is the same church who harbored dispicable pedophiles and moved them around from parrish to parrish and denied any of it ever happened. This is the same church that was a breeding ground for homosexuals even though that lifestyle was not supported by that church. This same church continues to avoid it's past for one reason only. MONEY. Money equals power and they have plenty and some of these issues are causing them to part with that power. What this church doesn't like is that people are asking questions that make them squirm and they think they answer to a higher authority. If they weren't guilty of this madness, they wouldn't be so nervous and there hypocritical leader in Rome wouldn't have apologized for the past actions of his corrupt flock. They just want everyone to pray and forget. That's like telling the Jews to forget the holocaust and the Chinese to forget Nanking or any other atrocities that have happened. What that phony in Rome, as well as all of his red hat wearing servants fail to see is that they can't hide behind the cloth. They are no different from any other human who has ever walked this earth. They will be held accountable and there time will come sooner then they think. AAhhhh, I feel better now. That was a great article...and funny too