GROWING UP CATHOLIC: THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL EXPERIENCE

Here is a story of the catholic church educational experience of my friend Dwayne James Mitchell:

"My education started in P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village, New York City. Going to this public school was an enjoyable experience. There were all kinds of activities using art supplies. I always liked to draw pictures of Apartment houses, and later on in life I became an Industrial Arts Teacher. It was a fun place to learn. There was no violence on the playground during lunch recess, and everyone seemed to get along with each other in a harmonious fashion.

       But during the first grade, my parents removed me from that school and put me in Saint Joseph’s Elementary School on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, NYC.

       I noticed immediately was that there were no art supplies, and no friendly atmosphere like there had been in the public school. In the second grade, the religious instruction was handed out hot and heavy: Catechism questions and answers word for word and the concept of Original Sin. First, the nuns painted God as a loving being, but then they informed us that the loving God dumped original sin on us, and because of this we were defective. Since we made our first Holy Communion then, we had to learn about confession, and the concept of telling someone else about our inner most thoughts! Third grade was a positive experience, because I did not have a nun as a teacher, but a lay teacher.  

       The nun who taught the fourth grade got her training from the Nazi SS!  If you asked a question, she got mad. If you were called to the blackboard and said something wrong, she would push your head into the blackboard with force. We went to the public library and it class seemed to be a positive experience in spite of the fourth grade nun. But the next day, the nun asked me. “who was my partner on line walking to and from the library the previous day?” When I identified the other boy, for no reason she grabbed our heads by the hair and banged them together. That night when my mother noticed lumps on my head and I explained what had happened, my parents did nothing.

       I became an altar boy.  We had to learn the Latin,  serve Mass from 5:00 to 7:30AM daily and on Sundays, and attend daily mass at 7:30AM. Then you had to run home, eat and get back to the church for the school’s Mass. It wasn’t easy.

From the 4th grade up we had to attend the Monday afternoon Novenas, and a similar service on Wednesday. If you were an altar boy, you had to return to the church for a similar service in the evening! 

       At Saint Joseph’s there were two schools: mine with 30 students to a class and an academy with 15. The sad part is that my parents could have afforded to send me to the academy!

       While in the 4th grade, I noticed that violence was starting to enter the student body. The nuns were using violence toward the children, so the students used violence among themselves.

       The 5th, 6th and 7th grades were similar to the 4th grade in terms of the behavior of nuns. Children were being slapped around and demeaned, in front of the class. If you had a learning problem, there was no help, and no one cared. The nuns took extreme pleasure destroying the self-esteem of boys. 

       After the 7th grade, we moved to New Jersey, and I attended “another school of indoctrination” for the 8th grade. There was less violence but the nuns’ negative behavior permeated the building.

       When I started 8th grade, I had a substandard  education from the New York City Catholic School, plus I had a learning disability. I did not know “how to study” or “how to organize” my educational life. I made a friend by the name of Richard who had the same educational problems, so we struggled together. We took the test to enter the parish high school and both received “letters of acceptance.” While we were happy but surprised because we both knew that we had a difficult time dealing with “timed tests.” 

We found out that we were only accepted because we were in the parish, and that we should tell our parents that we wanted to go to the local public school. As we walked home that day, Richard stopped me and said, “how can I tell my parents that I cannot go to the Catholic High School?” ----- I responded, ---- “We have the letter of acceptance, and if we say nothing to our parents then the school has to accept us!” That is what we did!  

We managed to graduate from that “poor excuse of a High School,” and get accepted to college, but sad to say, Richard never made the transition to the adult world. Both he and his wife drank themselves to death! He was a gentle soul, and he was an outstanding free hand artist. The Catholic Education destroyed him!

       When I told the nun in my junior year of high school “I am going to college!” --- She responded, “What Catholic College or University would every accept you?” ---- I responded, “I do not want to go to a Catholic College or University!” ---- She countered with, “where do you want to go?” --- I said, ---- “A state school!” ---- She commented, “If you go to a state school, you will lose your faith!” ---- At that point in time, I knew that I had her in my gun sights just like a fighter pilot in WW2, and I went in for the kill.  ---- I responded, ---- “before you can lose something sister, you have to have it in the first place!”  --- The year was 1959. In 1967 I met the same nun walking down the street. She asked me, --- “what are you doing with your life young man?” ---- I responded, ---”I am graduating college tonight sister.” ---- She countered with, “what college took you? ---- I countered with, “a state school!” ----- Yes, there is a God, but it is not a Catholic God! ---- Today I have two MA’s,  and Diplomas from schools of technology courtesy of my own efforts, not the efforts of the Catholic Schools and the nuns.

       My abuse by the Catholic Church followed me into my adulthood. When I met the woman of my dreams and we decided to get married, we had to attend the PreCana conferences in order to get “permission to get married in the Catholic Church.” When we attended these meetings, I noticed that there were only two types of couples that were paraded in front of the group. Couples who were expecting a child, and couples who already have children. There were no couples without children. This demonstrates their long term agenda. They want more loyal cool aid drinking followers to continue to finance the corrupt evil organization. 

We were told that we could not have the traditional wedding march! All my life I wanted that to be played at my wedding, and now we could not have the traditional wedding march. NOTE: One year later, in the same church, with the same music director, the traditional wedding march was played, because the groom was part of the “good old boy Catholic Network.”

So in my life, I was physically and psychologically abused by the nuns, deprived of the sponsor that I wanted for my Confirmation, and also deprived of the traditional wedding march. The frosting on the cake occurred on the rehearsal night before the wedding. After the rehearsal was over, the pastor called me into his office, and he hands me a letter to sign. While handing me the letter, he said that if I did not sign it, he would not perform the wedding the next day! The letter dealt with the use of contraception in my marriage. The subject was never brought up prior to that night! That is pure and simple blackmail. Since I did not care, I signed his letter. I cannot take a chance of having children because of a DNA issue that has shown up in the family!  

       The Catholic Church is NOT a user friendly form of the Christian Religion. If you want a happy successful life, stay far away from these fakes, frauds and phonies! They will destroy you with their smoke and mirrors, while taking all your money so that they can save your soul!