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Dan wrote:

Hi, guys —

This is more of a question on teaching. I am currently working on a task force to save our Catholic Grade school. A comment was made by an individual on the task force that if a child was not taught about our Catholic faith before the age of six by his or her parents, then it was useless to send them to a Catholic school.

It's hard for me to believe that. My parents took me to Church every Sunday. They understood our faith; they just weren't teachers. I agree that today's parents need to take a more active role in educating their children in our Faith,  but I'm hoping someone can disprove that sending a child to a Catholic school after the age of five is not wasting their investment.

Thank you,

Dan
  { If a child has not been taught the faith by age six, is sending them to a Catholic school useless? }

Mary Ann replied:

Hi, Dan —

The parent is confusing teaching the faith with modeling certain attitudes, and even then, those attitudes and behaviors that are modeled in early childhood can be changed.

Teaching the faith starts with the age of reason, which is 6 or 7. Children can learn before that, of course, but they don't have reflective understanding and appropriation, though they are deeply affected by what they learn in pre-school years.

Mary Ann
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