My facebook feed lit up the other night after I re-posted this little ditty about homeschooling. I must admit, I wasn’t ready for the breadth and depth that the combox would supply. But, as is custom when the trademark blue facebook bar bears the resemblance of the first layer of flame on the wick, I figure it’s time to let the wax melt into a blogpost. Here’s hoping its not just a nebulous puff of smoke.
Socialization.
That’s the stock response from those who love their beloved friends and family members that homeschool their kids. “How will they learn to play/ work/ relate to kids their age if they’re not exposed to them in a traditional school setting?” they say.
Truthfully, that one has been debunked over and over again. But it is a logical response, one based on love. For that reason, I will spend no more time on this particular thread of the homeschool debate.
What I’d like to revisit is why do Catholics homeschool?
Well, let’s take a look at the alternative options and their pros:
1. Send your kids to public school
- It is free.
- The majority of the kids in town go there which makes for more community friendship possibilities.
- Trained teachers stay up night and day to make sure each and every kid has the best chance to succeed possible.
- Cultural diversity is a good thing, right? The fact that my child will interact with people from several socioeconomic/ religious backgrounds will provide him with a more global perspective of the world which will ultimately help him once he is older.
- You probably went to public school and you turned out pretty good, why would it be any different for your child?
2. Send your kids to Catholic school
- Your child will share a common culture based on the faith that is so important to you and your family.
- The teaching staff will work the same clock hours as those in the public sector to make sure your kid is challenged, but they’ll do it for nearly half the paycheck and benefits. A servant teacher is always an effective one, even if it is only by association.
- Odds are if you can pay for it, your child’s peers also can too which places them in an elite community that will more than likely have stable, or perhaps even lucrative, jobs post graduation. Whether your successful or not, in 20 years it will be good to have friends in high places.
3. Homeschool your kids
- It costs less than both of the other options.
- Your kitchen table, your back yard, the library and the internet can build your curriculum.
- You can effectively individualize your child’s learning in ways that systemic education cannot. After all, they’re your kids, no one knows them better than you which makes the zone of proximal development and internal interest like gasoline below the struck match of your passion for them to succeed.
- You have peace of mind that they are safe from possible negative influences such as bullies, worldly culture and popularity caste systems.
So, as a Catholic, which route is best for your family? How can you be sure that your child is getting the best education that you can possibly provide?
The answer? Discernment.
We’re all called to give our children the best education possible. In order to come to a reasonable conclusion as to what that education entails, it is on us to discern where God deems the souls of His children are best fit to earn their salvation.
For some, that means sending their children to public school where their faith must be lived in a secular environment. To these go the spoils of true evangelization.
“Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.” Psalm 127: 4-5
For others, it means strengthening the holy squadron by sacrificing tuition dollars and sending them to the parish schools where they can have the influence of clergy, religious and lay apostles surrounding them with truth and exemplifying the source of their mission- Jesus Christ. There they can also benefit from the graces of weekly Mass (or daily, if your parish is so blessed to have it).
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Acts 2:42
Still others are called to build their child’s academics by intertwining them with daily family life, a domestic Church in its own right that mirrors the school through which our Savior was taught by His first teachers; the Holy Virgin Mary and her just spouse, Joseph.
“Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2: 51-52
Both homeschooling and systemic education are both viable means that one must be convicted to do well. As a parent, you need to take your own time and talents in order to consider every avenue possible that could lead to, first and foremost, your child’s salvation and second, their academic success and future employability.
How you go about doing that is best determined by you and God.
Discern it.
29 thoughts on “Should All Catholics Homeschool?”
Discern it? The price of a “Catholic high school” education has made it only affordable to upper middle class with one or two children, who may or may not be “Catholic”, use contraceptives and abortifacients, and support same sex marriage.
Wow. Stereotype much? My husband may earn a middle class income, but we have four children (8 if you count the 4 we lost), are very conservative Catholics, only use NFP when my health has demanded it, and do not in fact support homosexual marriage, thank you very much.
I wish it were a “stereotype” it’s not. In the Northeast the price per student is between 11k and 16k per student, per year. I know of NO family with more than 1 or 2 children that attend. And I KNOW that many are not Catholic, and that almost all of ones that are DO NOT follow Humanae Vitae.
You’re exactly right. In the Northeast it is financially impossible to send more than one child to a Catholic high school. And most of the families are not Catholic, and those that are, do not practice the faith. The Catholic high schools have become like prep schools. Parents send their kids there because they don’t want them in the public high schools but can’t afford the real prep schools that cost $40,000 a year.
Yes. Thanks. I guess I’m not crazy.
But What really drives me crazy is the fact that we hear no sermons on a contraceptive mentality all the while a contraceptive mentality is promoted by the schools that are supposed to be catholic.
they do have help with the tuition
I inquired and never got a straight answer.
And by the way, many children attend the same school as my children who are not middle class earners, they are helped by others with scholarships.
there is a solution that the Church could implement. Each parish should establish a local endowment for the nearest Catholic school to help pay teachers’ salaries. Staff with local volunteers. Invest in Ave Maria rising Dividend fund and similar. 501c3 qualified to make contributions deductible. Many baby boomer grandparents would be delighted to contribute vigorously. These funds would help the Church heed the command of Christ to “feed My lambs.”. It is simple and obvious but the Church will resist it since they desire to control all funds.
Very interesting!
rejected at my parish – big article in diocesan newspaper shortly after refuting my points – never any positive feedback from the Church – nothing in the silly synod on the family – guess they are not concerned with evangelizing our own children. I’m not bitter or angry in these comments – merely speaking frankly.
I will bring my experience as a Canadian Catholic into this. First I homeschooled for 9 years taking my oldest through elementary school and he started a Catholic highschool. I now work in a Catholic high school – not as a teacher but in another capacity. I will say that in Ontario Canada I would not send my child to a Catholic school (which are fully funded) unless it was a rural school – which is what my younger children attended. It all depends upon the teacher your child gets and the principal of the school. God knew what was in my heart and he provided for them. But make no mistake, unless you are prepared to forgo the internet and television your children will be exposed to all kinds of damaging influences. Therefore the thing is to teach them their faith, mitigate the amount of exposure they have and pray.
I like that you have pointed out that one solution may not fit all families. The biggest school is the family – teach them there. And what the parents practice so will their children. If you contracept, it’s likely your children will too.
God bless you and God bless the rest of our beloved Canadian Catholics. It is true, you all have far more difficult knots to untie to our North.
Elizabeth, I can only agree. I grew up in Ontario and I went to Catholic elementary and highschool and it is not a place you send your child if you want them to come out a Catholic. I left the church immediately after I graduated and it took 8 years to find my way back.
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“For some, that means sending their children into the battlefield of public school where their faith must be lived but never spoken in public.”
That’s not true at all – one of the things I regularly discuss with my public school attending children is how they can be witnesses to their faith at school in both word and deed. Chilfren can absolutely speak their faith in public school – even if the teachers and administrators cannot.
Its important to make that distinction clear. When our family was discerning school choices, my ffear was that my kids would not be able to talk about their faith or share their faith at a public school. That fear was entirely unfounded. I would hate for that misinformation to cause undue anxiety among other parents who are discerning.
Good point, Kristin. I’ll have to go back and articulate that more clearly. Check back in a couple of days.
aha, this is what I said as well. 🙂
All fixed 🙂
I am 70 YO and we homeschooled all our children. We love the Lord and could not stand to send our kids to the brainwashing that government schools force on children; where the teaching of the Lord is completely left out. All four are married and are living good lives; they had the normal problems all children have when growing up.
Another reason we homeschooled them is so they could learn to deal with people of all ages and to understand how the world works, by working in it. We have a small business and they worked in the “real world” and learned their lessons,each day.
It is amazing how fast children learn when they are homeschooled.
Not sure the generalization of “the battlefield where their faith must be lived but never spoken in public” is your best line. To each their own. I went to public school, my friends knew I was Catholic, knew I went to church, and the like. I skipped morning classes on Ash Wednesday to attend Mass, and they knew that as well. While public school teachers themselves may not be able to espouse their religious beliefs (I know, because I am one) students aren’t restricted in that way. It’s a choice.
I agree with your overall premise and encourage discernment in schooling as well.
All fixed, thanks for your input!
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If nothing else, teach authentic Catholicism at home.
As a Catholic school teacher, I have encountered many parents, teachers and principals who either disagree with or are just plain ignorant of the Faith.
I have taught junior high students some “Church” Latin; had a Catholic novel as a class-reader; discussions about St. Thomas Aquinas; taught each class to altar serve, etc, – all of which the administration disapproved of. It mattered not that the principal thought things were “too Catholic” in the classrooms (and the pastor didn’t care). Or in a Jesuit high school, where social action replaces knowledge of the Faith and imagine a priest apologizing to the mostly non-Catholic faculty for the Mass Readings!
When bishops don’t have an interest about Catholic education (even if they are on the USCCB’s education committee) in their own dioceses, then parents need to step in. Unfortunately, many parents also suffer from this same disease though.
Thomas, my parents sent four daughters to 12 years of Catholic school each. We were and are VERY Catholic. So…not only for the elite who contracept. However, the discernment becomes “what can we do away with that we don’t need in order to make this possible?” We lived VERY simply in a house with shag carpeting, wood paneling, sad furniture and a TV that only had 12 channels. BUT, we all got a GREAT education.
That said…I homeschool my kids cause I live in a town where the cost of living is astronomical. And there are no Catholic schools here. We prayed through it…and decided it was the only thing we could in good conscience do.
My parish school is free for K-8 for parishioners only (as in only open to parish children). We love it. The principal and about half the teachers are dominicans out of Nashville. I’m 30 and had never encountered a parish school operated this way, but what an amazing blessing! They have an envelope system to ensure you are attending Mass, and you are expected to contribute to the parish. I wish more parishes used this model for education.
Oh wow, free Dominican education sounds HEAVENLY!
The pros and cons of homeschooling: http://politickles.com/blog/?p=9219
homeschooling actually cost more. I get free books and reduced meals for my children at the public school.