How does the Catholic school system work for teachers?

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Are they trained as both teachers and whatever training is necessary on the religious side of things (Bible study, etc)? Are there separate Catholic colleges or universities that cater specifically to training people to go into this path? How is training for teaching at a Catholic school for K-12 grades different than regular public or secular private schools?

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3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I attend a Catholic school in New York and our teachers are the same as any other teacher in our area. We have had teachers come from teaching at public schools to our school and teachers leave our school to teach at public schools. We are required to attend a theology class each year, in our case we have two sisters and a third regular teacher teaching theology. Religion is not brought up often throughout the day in other subjects.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In Ontario (don’t know about the rest of the country) you can be a teacher at a Catholic school WITHOUT a teaching degree. **At least you could be in the 90’s, don’t know about now** When I was a kid I had a friend who attended the Catholic school next to my public school and her aunt was her “science” teacher and the aunt had never been to teacher’s college, had a business degree and was “upstanding” in the church community so got the job. I say “science” because it was basically just creationism with pictures of animals.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In the US in general catholic K-12 education is held to the same academic standards as any other private school.

While in the past teachers were commonly priests and nuns, that is less common now. Teachers in subjects besides religious subjects are trained in their subjects. A priest or nun may teach the religious subjects.

There are divinity and catholic philosophy programs at the university level for those training to be priests, but that training is not necessary to become a teacher of secular subjects at most catholic schools.

You’ll notice several weasel words in the above statements. Depending on the directorship of the school in question, things can vary.