Catholic clergy clash over home schooling

[irishpatrick]

'Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas, executive director of the Catholic Education Foundation, has become something of a bête noire for the Catholic home-schooling community, championing the idea that Catholic children should be educated in Catholic schools.​

The rest, including two counter opinons can be found here:

renewamerica.com/columns/abbott/110528

 

[Cristiano]

I think that Fr. Stravinskas is completely right with his concept. However, I see a few practical points that might work against it for the time being. First Catholic education is not cheap and when you have several children it could become prohibitive. Second Catholic schools might not be competitive in terms of academics and in terms of support for children in need of special education. Third, not all Catholic schools are Catholic in their charter and their practices.
I sent my son to the same Catholic school until 8th grade and I had to do/undo a lot of work in terms of academics and Catholic orthodoxy. Now he is in a great Diocesan Catholic high school where I am quite impressed with his Catholic and academic growth. The school is quite expensive but it is worth every penny. I just told him that the money that we spend now will not be available for college.

 

[Corki]

I think that Fr. Stravinskas is completely right with his concept. However, I see a few practical points that might work against it for the time being. First Catholic education is not cheap and when you have several children it could become prohibitive. Second Catholic schools might not be competitive in terms of academics and in terms of support for children in need of special education. Third, not all Catholic schools are Catholic in their charter and their practices.
I sent my son to the same Catholic school until 8th grade and I had to do/undo a lot of work in terms of academics and Catholic orthodoxy. Now he is in a great Diocesan Catholic high school where I am quite impressed with his Catholic and academic growth. The school is quite expensive but it is worth every penny. I just told him that the money that we spend now will not be available for college.

I had almost an identical experience and, coincidently, also in Texas. Thank goodness for the high school my children now attend. The elementary school was considered one of the most faithful to the Church but I still had to be very vigilant and did a lot of “un teaching”.

Catholic families are in a real Catch 22 situation. Sure, if you have a good Catholic school available and you can afford it, that should be your first choice. If more faithful Catholics had their kids in the schools and advocated for faithful education, much improvement could be made. But is it realistic to sacrifice your current children to try to improve the school for future students? I would sacrifice myself but not my kids.

From the article:

'‘On the same property where they go to church on Sunday is a school where the parents don’t wish to send them,’ he said. That leads to a subtle anti-clericalism, he said, because the children learn that priests cannot be counted on to hand on the faith.

Since most Catholic schools, in our area at least, have virtually no participation from the priests or religious in the area, that’s a bit of a stretch, in my opinion. In fact, at the elementary school my kids attended the pastor had much more interaction with the CCE students than he did with the kids in the parish school. If anything, the 'subtle" message received was that public school was preferred by the priests.

Respectfully, I think Father Stravinskas should focus his attention on families who send their kids to public school and to non-Catholic private schools rather than support their parish school.

 

[PattiDay]

I think that Fr. Stravinskas is completely right with his concept. However, I see a few practical points that might work against it for the time being. First Catholic education is not cheap and when you have several children it could become prohibitive. Second Catholic schools might not be competitive in terms of academics and in terms of support for children in need of special education. Third, not all Catholic schools are Catholic in their charter and their practices.
I sent my son to the same Catholic school until 8th grade and I had to do/undo a lot of work in terms of academics and Catholic orthodoxy. Now he is in a great Diocesan Catholic high school where I am quite impressed with his Catholic and academic growth. The school is quite expensive but it is worth every penny. I just told him that the money that we spend now will not be available for college.

You hit the nail on the head. The Catholic school alternative is the choice of some who want a private school education where the education and behavioral expectations exceed that of public education, but don’t lean heavily on Catholicism.

 

[manualman]

There is certainly a discernment that must take place. There are catholic schools out there that are virtually absent of any real catholicity except the name on the door, the crucifix on the wall and perhaps a montly all school mass. Given that they then have on average about 1/3 the budget to work with why WOULD you choose such a place?

But there ARE catholic schools where the faith infuses the staff, the curriculum, the culture and the practice. Where mass is daily (or at least weekly), catholic perspective is infused into the history, sociology, literature, heck even spelling and handwriting! My kids attend such a place and that uniquely catholic identity far outweighs the challenges of low budget posed by having to charge tuition to parents already burdened by a bloated public school tax levy (with no real credit or deductions). These kinds of schools I agree with the priest cited here. They are worth sacrificing for because they don’t just teach the faith, they present a catholic community to be absorbed by the kids. Our once strong catholic culture exists is few places anymore. Restoring our schools into incubators of this catholic culture is a potential way back from abyss of secular materialism.

 

[Graubo3]

Respectfully, I think Father Stravinskas has zero experience as a Catholic home school parent and more experience as a Catholic school teacher/administrator/educrat. The original article published in Our Sunday Visitor magazine has angered many Catholic home school families for OSV’s reliance upon controversial anti-Catholic home schooling statements by their former editor, Father Stravinskas.

Peace, Graubo

 

[Cristiano]

Respectfully, I think Father Stravinskas has zero experience as a Catholic home school parent and more experience as a Catholic school teacher/administrator/educrat. The original article published in Our Sunday Visitor magazine has angered many Catholic home school families for OSV’s reliance upon controversial anti-Catholic home schooling statements by their former editor, Father Stravinskas.

Peace, Graubo

I think that this logic is absurd because if we were to follow the same logic priests could not discuss about marriage, sex, and a lot of other topics. Direct experience is not always necessary to know what is proper.

I think that the issue is that the Church should not put the burden only on the parents when the pastors relinquish their obligations toward the catholic school students. Often the pastors relinquish their obligations not out of negligence but they must delegate out of necessity; however, that is still counter-productive. Why do we allow teachers, staff and students that are not committed to an orthodox Catholic life to be in Catholic schools?

How do we expect teachers, students and parents to be proper Catholics, if we are lax with expectations in regard to Mass, in regard to the sacraments, in regard to general catechetical instruction for all the ages?

 

[Graubo3]

I think that this logic is absurd because if we were to follow the same logic priests could not discuss about marriage, sex, and a lot of other topics. Direct experience is not always necessary to know what is proper.

Absurd? I guess it flew over your head I only referenced Father Stravinskas’ bloviated and continually biased opinion. I think it is absurd to play Russian Roulet with a child’s soul trying to find the “right” school.

Peace, Graubo

 

[jwinch2]

I think that this logic is absurd because if we were to follow the same logic priests could not discuss about marriage, sex, and a lot of other topics. Direct experience is not always necessary to know what is proper.

The church has defined teachings on the issues of sex, marriage, and other topics for the priest to base his opinions on. It does not have defined teachings on home schooling versus sending your kids to private school. Furthermore, any teachings the church would have on the subject would have been based on the idea that proper teaching of the faith was actually taking place at catholic schools. That is quite obviously not the case in far too many situations.

Frankly, I feel that the priest ought to be overjoyed to hear about parents that are so concerned about passing on the faith to their children that they are willing to put out the effort of home schooling. And he ought to be asking hard questions about why they cannot find that sort of teaching in catholic schools.

Why do we allow teachers, staff and students that are not committed to an orthodox Catholic life to be in Catholic schools?

Great question and one that I have heard many parents ask. If we can’t trust catholic schools to present the faith accurately then what is a parent to do? They can either let it go or take matters into their own hands. That is what many of them have decided to do via home schooling. I would submit part of the problem is that there are not enough teachers to go around who fit that bill.

How do we expect teachers, students and parents to be proper Catholics, if we are lax with expectations in regard to Mass, in regard to the sacraments, in regard to general catechetical instruction for all the ages?

Again, great question and yet, that is exactly what we see at many schools that call themselves catholic.

 

[sojo]

This is such a non-issue. This priest is talking about his own situation and being oblivious to the fact that many/most of us live in areas where the nearest Catholic school is hours away with no public transportation. And that millions of us can’t afford the school even if we were to get up at 3 a.m. to to dressing and breakfast and drive our kids to that school. And what kind of family life is it really when your kid spending 3/4s of their waking hour at school or in a car.

And then there’s those of us who’s children are not welcomed at most Catholic schools due to having Down syndrome, Autism, Tourettes, severe ADHD just to name a few.

I would send my child to a Catholic school in a heart beat, but the nearest one is over a mountain pass, 2 hours drive each way. We are blessed that that same school - Kolbe Academy - offers us the homes school alternative, assistance from proctors and the opportunity, someday, for my son to graduate and march down the aisle in a cap and gown.

The nearest diocesan affiliate Catholic school is a bit closer at 1-3/4 hours away, but they would never accept my son with Down syndrome.

 

[jwinch2]

This is such a non-issue. This priest is talking about his own situation and being oblivious to the fact that many/most of us live in areas where the nearest Catholic school is hours away with no public transportation. And that millions of us can’t afford the school even if we were to get up at 3 a.m. to to dressing and breakfast and drive our kids to that school. And what kind of family life is it really when your kid spending 3/4s of their waking hour at school or in a car.

And then there’s those of us who’s children are not welcomed at most Catholic schools due to having Down syndrome, Autism, Tourettes, severe ADHD just to name a few.

I would send my child to a Catholic school in a heart beat, but the nearest one is over a mountain pass, 2 hours drive each way. We are blessed that that same school - Kolbe Academy - offers us the homes school alternative, assistance from proctors and the opportunity, someday, for my son to graduate and march down the aisle in a cap and gown.

The nearest diocesan affiliate Catholic school is a bit closer at 1-3/4 hours away, but they would never accept my son with Down syndrome.

Good points.

 

[Holly3278]

Personally, if I had children, I’d send them to a Catholic school but I see home schooling as a viable option as well.