As an advocate and participant in "home eduction," I have to confess that the movement as a whole is fraught with pockets of weird-ness. To some, the whole movement is weird because they don't just send their kids to school like everyone else. Of course everyone knows, that the government's Department of Education, is full of the experts on education. What can parents possibly know about teaching children... (Yawn). That's not the weirdness I am talking about. I'm talking about within the movement itself- like those, who make the bold move to home school and then pattern everything they do after the public school model and then fill their every waking moment with participation in home school co-ops and support groups, organized sports and private lessons. Or those who pride themselves in the high quality of education their children are receiving, and parade their children about as trophies of their success. "Li'l Jim, potty trained at 9 months, and learned to read the following summer. He's now taking college courses on-line at the age of 7." As a parent I totally understand being proud of our children and their accomplishments. There are points at which such boasting helps to make the argument for the viability of home schooling against its detractors, but among the home schooling crowd this is just weird. The thing that really wearies me is that so many Christian home-educators are so woefully ignorant of the Christian faith, and the history of the Church. And as if that were not enough, they are content to remain in such ignorance. It's as if they would say, " We love Jesus, and worship him, but really have no interest in learning more about Him." It really doesn't matter to them that Christ founded his Church almost 2000 years ago, and that we in the 21st century are at the end of a long line of people who lived and died for Him, preserving and handing on the faith "that was once for all delivered to the Saints." (Jude 3) Furthermore there may be generations to come that depend on our preserving and passing on the very same Faith. In studying history, we learn that the best sources are primary sources, eye witnesses to the events. All secondary sources, are limited by the bias of the writer. Yet how many Christian home schoolers, have ever read any of the Apostolic fathers (the first generation of Christian leaders after the apostles)? Do they even know that there are volumes and volumes written by Christians in every age past? Or do they teach their children the christian faith, based entirely modern writers, or worse, their own personal interpretation of the Scriptures? This is a problem. Not because it means they are not sincere or earnest in their faith, but because it creates a dysfunctional witness to Christ and his Kingdom. Such inattentiveness to the most important events in human history is scandalous to the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As people, living out our lives as Christians, should we not give as much attention to learning and teaching our Faith as we do to mathematics, literacy, history and science? Just sayin... The Truth matters.
Ok. I recognize that I might have offended someone by what I have said. But look at the bright side, as long as I don't know who I have offended, I won't know you were one of the "weird" home schoolers I was talking about. :-)
5 comments:
rstoderrI found this interesting and thought provoking. Wasn't offended - at my age - education of children is in the past. As I read, I compared to homeschooling friends I have had in the past and in the present.
Fr Francis W
Thanks for having the boldness in sharing these thoughts. Now I think the days we practice hymns are well-spent. Also, we need to incorporate more church history from first person documents to truly educate our children to live a life worthy of the high calling of Christ Jesus.
The word 'weird' catches the readers attention, and the word 'tragic' could describe this situation also. I trust God's redeeming work in our families as we seek God's way of humility.
I like the way you worded this article.
I have a lot of respect for anyone willing to homeschool their children and your family is a success story in how it works. Sadly, too many other families lack the structure and perhaps even the education themselves, or the willingness to educate themselves on their own, to truly provide the necessary environment for success. While college isn't always the answer I do worry that homeschooled children are not prepared for the world outside of their families or their churches, We can not shelter our children from the world. That said I also am concerned about educating at home for primarily religious reasons: what is being omitted in the conversation and is the parent always the best influence on their child in all realms? I don't believe so. It takes mentors, teachers, community leaders, pastors, peers, and yes, family, to make it all work
Thanks for taking the time to read this little article. I appreciate hearing your thoughts, although the "anonymous" authors are hard to reply directly to. I would just say to the writer who was suggesting that, "We cannot shelter our children from the world..." These concerns that you express are all ones that I have heard before. I will answer the first part with a question, "What part of the 'world' are you speaking about? Drugs? immorality? pornography? bullying? secularist ideology? Which of these are necessary to healthy nurture of children? Of course my answer is none of them.
Secondly you ask, "Is the parent always the best influence on their child in all realms?" Answer: First you used "Always" and "all" in the question. Obviously I cannot say yes to this. However, that doesn't negate the premise, and it has nothing to do with home schooling for religious reasons. I will simply say that God gave the responsibility of raising and training children to the parents. Thoughtful and careful parents, are able to involve "experts" in realms where they acknowledge their deficiencies. This argument against home schooling is usually put forward by persons with a moral agenda in conflict with traditional Christian moral teaching. They recognize that as long as Christian parents are teaching their children Christian values, they will have a much more difficult time "softening" people to accept their agenda. Thankfully, they are right. You said also that "too many other families lack the structure...." One such family may be too many, but again that does not negate the premise. The percentage of successful home schooling families are far greater than the unsuccessful. The same argument could be laid at the feet of the public school system, with greater effect. Its success/failure ratio is far worse. Please take the time to research the facts on home schoolers. I think you will be surprised.
In charity, Fr. Bob
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