Conservative Catholic School: A Toxic Environment
By: Anonymous
Growing up in a household where developing my own beliefs and respecting others’ was crucial, attending a private catholic school was like having my wings cut off and taken away for seven years. My school was plagued with conservative beliefs and values, and anything that didn’t fall within those values would not be tolerated. These beliefs were not only praised by the school, but they were also imposed upon us. This caused the more impressionable students to fall victim to the one-sided views they were presented with every day. The forcing of opinions is only the tip of the iceberg, as intolerance is what comes to affect the few of us whose opinions differ from what the school promotes. Although many people’s experiences differ in this environment, I believe mine is an accurate representation of what people fail to see is going on behind closed doors at these types of schools.
Part 1: Teachers
“Your parents should have taught you better.” A teacher told me this phrase after expressing a progressive idea. These were the words that made me realize how unwelcome differing views were at school, as it was the first time a person in a place of authority at school reprimanded me for speaking out about what I believed. Censorship is a key factor in this environment, as they don’t want students to fall astray from following their conservative agenda. Promoting your beliefs to students is one thing, but censoring and undermining and falsely disproving and inhibiting the development of a student’s personal views is where the system’s real corruption lies.
Teachers seem to be the leading promoters of intolerant behaviors, as the amount of absurd, discriminatory, and blatantly false biased information they feed to us as students is ridiculous. They can often disrupt an entire lesson and talk for a whole class period about why their viewpoint is correct and why a student’s is incorrect. Without using evidence to back up their point, they resort to using their faith, interpreting, and perverting scriptures to support their points of view. Most of the time, their ignorance is hidden by the words, “As Christians, we believe…” These words are then followed by their opinions, even if the Church or Pope does not express these views. For example, a teacher might say, “As Christians, we believe that homosexuality is a sin,” a statement that directly contradicts the Church’s teaching.
What I believe is to be the largest factor in the toxicity of these teachings is misinformation. These people who hold places of authority above students misuse their jobs and often say things that come directly from the misinformation they believe and the opinions they choose to support. The following are some examples of statements (not exact quotes) that I’ve heard first hand that accurately portray the way they use misinformation to express their opinions:
“The Christian white man is the most oppressed group in America because they cannot hide behind their race or gender. Nobody defends them.”
“Gays and blacks rule society because they get to blame everything on homophobia and racism.”
“Abortion is wrong, but when they find the gay gene and start aborting all of the gay babies, I don’t want to hear the liberals complaining.”
In the end, the actions carried out by those in places of authority to further their political agenda within this environment are the foundations for the toxicity that the environment exhibits.
Part 2: Students
I’ll never forget the day that I left a class after debating the topic of abortion for an assignment. I argued that I would always fight for a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body, but I was confronted with yelling from other students as I left the classroom. “Murderer!” one of them cried as I walked down the hall; another one pulled me over and told me, “You’re a horrible person, and I hope you know that.” I didn’t care what these students said to me, and that was the problem. I became so used to having my own opinions insulted and dragged by others that were uninformed that it no longer fazed me, illustrating how widespread these unsupported beliefs can go.
Believe in global warming? You’re a libtard.
Want people to have access to free healthcare? You’re a commie.
Support a civil movement? You’re racist (against white people, of course).
Disagree with the actions or words of the president? You’re a snowflake.
Other students didn’t back up their ideologies with facts because they didn’t know how to, since the opinions they developed came from their conservative environment and teachers, who expressed their views to them without providing evidence to support their beliefs.
Although I try to focus on the positive things that I’ve acquired from this environment, the only good things that I believe I have taken away from it are patience and strength. Although I may silence my voice for now (hence the anonymous post), I will continue to fight for my beliefs while flying under the radar.
So much truth here. Thank you anonymous.