Home Schooling and This Catholic Family

The other day, I asked my wife if I could take a look at the book she'd been using.

I'd noticed an illustration of a Roman-era family, which turned out to be a very quick introduction to what Roman citizens wore, and who was allowed to wear a toga. And that's another topic.

She's teaching a unit in Latin for a home schooling family we know. We got the teaching resources through someone else we know at church - yet another topic.

Why Home School?

My wife and I have home-schooled our kids, from grade 7 through high school graduation. Their choice.

The local school system is pretty good, and I might not have embraced the idea of home-schooling quite so readily, if I hadn't been involved in America's government schools for a time.

No matter how basically decent the folks in a local district may be, and how sincerely they want to teach students skills and knowledge: Their options are limited by the government school system's rules, customs, and values.

The American educational establishment as a whole has a culture which is not entirely consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church. In my opinion.

Short version: I think my wife and I can teach our kids more effectively than the government schools. And - an important point for me - that we won't be indoctrinating them with whatever intellectual fad is in vogue at the moment.

That said, we have a working relationship with the local school district. Which, among other things, allows our youngest to participate in the school band.

Home Schooling Parents: 'Everybody Knows' What They're Like

'As is well-known,' at least in much of America's old-school news services, parents who home school are Bible-thumping anti-evolution zealots. (March 6, 2010) Which is one of the reasons I think it's a good idea to study the news: not just read it. Yet again another topic.

I'm sure that quite a few folks who have decided to take their kids out of the government schools think that Bishop Ussher was right - at least in principle.

Me? I'm comfortable with the idea that an all-powerful, all-knowing God could have made the entire universe in six days. I'm also aware that the evidence He left indicates otherwise. (March 5, 2009) I'm not patient enough to spend something like 14,000,0000,000 years on one project: but I'm not God, either. Just as well, and that's still one more topic.

Bottom line? Some home schooling parents may be the backwoods ignoramuses we're told about now and again. The folks I've met who home school their children aren't like that. At all.

I don't expect to sway the opinion of zealots, or convince 'serious thinkers' that Pat Robertson, Tony Alamo, and Fred Phelps aren't typical Christian leaders. (December 10, 2010)

On the other hand, I figure that it won't hurt to add my views about home schooling, learning, and intellectual pursuits in Catholic life, to the marketplace of ideas. And occasionally mention the likes of St. Catherine of Siena, Copernicus, and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Related posts:

• Home schooling
  • "Jesus is a 'Wine-Guzzling Vagrant' - It's Taught in School"
    (December 7, 2010)
  • "School District Celebrates Religious Freedom Day: By Banning Bibles"
    (July 1, 2010)
  • " 'To Infinity, and Beyond' - And a Plug for Home Schooling"
    (June 21, 2010)
  • "Home Schooling: It May Not be What You Think"
    (May 20, 2010)
  • "Home Schooling, Religious and Moral Instruction, and American Culture"
    (March 6, 2010)
• Science
  • Pope Benedict XVI, the Big Bang, and Science: No Surprises Here"
    (January 15, 2011)
  • God's Creation: He Seems to Think Big"
    (September 23, 2010)
  • Science, Faith, and Auto Mechanics"
    (August 19, 2010)
  • Stem Cell Research: Backed by the Vatican, No Kidding"
    (April 28, 2010)
• Catholicism, culture, science, and getting a grip
  
  • Archaeology Paleontology, Science, and Wishful Thinking"
    (October 12, 2010)
    Particularly
    • 'Man is Inherently Evil' - What is Wrong With This Picture?
  • Astrobiology, the Vatican, and the Meaning of Our Existence"
    (November 12, 2009)
  • Copernicus, Galileo, Science and a Reality Check"
    (October 26, 2009)
  • A Patron Saint of - Scientists?!"
    (October 25, 2009)
  • Faith and Reason, Religion and Science"
    (March 20, 2009)
    Particularly
    • What If Darwin Had Been an Astronomer?
  • "Science, Religion, and being Catholic "
    List of related posts in this blog