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Dear Yaelle,

When I attended Catholic elementary school (a very long time ago), I'm not sure there were any non-Catholics among us.

When I went to Catholic high school, there were some Protestants, and even a few Jews. It seemed a positive experience for them. I believe a few did ultimately become Catholic.

I believe that most Catholics will respect the fact that your son is a Jew, and I doubt that there will be serious attempts (at least on the part of faculty and administraton) to convert him.

Nonetheless, if the situation were reversed, I doubt that I would send my children to a non-Catholic school. Period. I don't really care how academically excellent a school is, in fact, the better it is, the less I would like it.

Children are impressionable. If I send my 12 year old son to a non-Catholic school, especially a very good one, especially one where a non-Catholic religion is openly adhered to and proclaimed, he cannot help but to be impressed by these others, who are very good at what they do, firm in their faith, and not Catholic. My sons, too, are homeschooled. If I sent my sons, then, to a school, for the first time, they would experience a competing center of authority in their lives - their teachers and administrators. They would be impressed by this new source of authority, because children are impressionable.

It'd be their first experience with the competing authority between home and school with which other children grow up, and have learned to mediate well by sixth or seventh grade. Without any active effort on the part of their teachers, I believe that my sons, in this situation, would be at least very curious about the possibility of adopting the faith of their new authorities. Especially if no active effort was made by these new and exciting people in their lives.

If I were in a similar situation, I would explain to my son why we would continue to homeschool.

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