Home school and dads

[GraceDK]

Hey everyone…
Just looking for comments on two statistics that I read. One said that Christian men in average spend more time with their children a week than non-Christian men do. ( )
It also said that Evangelical fathers spend appr. 2 hours more than average while Catholic dads spend 1,1 hour more per week. (This I read in a secular newspaper which is highly factually accurate and thus I find it credible).
Can anyone comment on the difference here… any theories as to why Evangelical dads spend more time with their kids than Catholic dads?

Then I read somewhere that homeschooling is much more a Evangelical phenomenon than a Catholic one. … a study said that about 70 percent of all homeschoolers in the U.S. were Evangelical Christians. (the statistic was related from an Evangelical source so there may be an agenda… but I dont know. Besides… maybe Evangelicals have a stronger tradition with home schooling?)
Again any comments ?

Grace

 

[Cari]

Do you have the source for the article so I could read it before commenting?

 

[GraceDK]

Cari… this is one interesting page I can tell you. The fact that these studies about severel family issues were made by a non-christian as it seems makes them even more likely to be accurate. Read the page if you can… or look at the head lines. Its really an interesting read and one that makes me happy

center.americanvalues.org/?p=75

 

[Cari]

Ok, having read the article, I can comment on the first section:

Just looking for comments on two statistics that I read. One said that Christian men in average spend more time with their children a week than non-Christian men do. ( )
It also said that Evangelical fathers spend appr. 2 hours more than average while Catholic dads spend 1,1 hour more per week. (This I read in a secular newspaper which is highly factually accurate and thus I find it credible).
Can anyone comment on the difference here… any theories as to why Evangelical dads spend more time with their kids than Catholic dads?

My initial guess is that Evangelical communities tend to have A LOT of “programs” outside of their Sunday worship services. They have programs that go on every night of the week- things like Bible studies, youth groups, father/son groups, mother/daughter groups, etc. etc. Evangelical groups tend to put a much much higher emphasis on fellowship opportunities than other Christian groups. This parlays into more time fathers spend with their children. However, this is a sweeping generalization, and I’m sure there are Catholic parishes out there that have marvelous family programs. It’s not the norm, however, the way it is in the Evangelical community.

Then I read somewhere that homeschooling is much more a Evangelical phenomenon than a Catholic one. … a study said that about 70 percent of all homeschoolers in the U.S. were Evangelical Christians. (the statistic was related from an Evangelical source so there may be an agenda… but I dont know. Besides… maybe Evangelicals have a stronger tradition with home schooling?)
Again any comments ?

Without the article, I can only speculate, but I would suggest the reason ties in with three things:

1. America is not a majority Catholic country. In fact, according to the CIA factbook, the breakdown is as follows:
   Religions: Protestant 51.3%, Roman Catholic 23.9%, Mormon 1.7%, other Christian 1.6%, Jewish 1.7%, Buddhist 0.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4% (2007 est.)
   from: cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html
   Since there are more than twice the Protestants in America than there are Catholics, it makes sense that a movement such as homeschooling would have more Protestants participating.
2. Add that to the fact that there is a stronger tradition of Catholic schools in America vs. “Christian” (read: Protestant) schools, many Catholics chose sending their children to Catholic schools over homeschool.
3. Finally, coupled with the high stress on “programs” in Evangelical communities (as discussed in the previous point), there is often times a built-in homeschool support group that doesn’t often find a counterpart in Catholic Churches.

Anyway, that’s my guess.

 

[leonie]

I’m not sure you can read anything in this study in regard to Catholic versus Evangelical fathers. I would like to know what “youth related activities” are. Is this only formal programs? Or, does it include giving baths, playing catch in the yard, etc?

as Cari commented, there is a lot of pressure in Evangelical Churches for members to volunteer in Church activities. I think it’s wonderful to see that involvement, but I do think that children actually benefit from personal time with their dads rather than being in a large group that dad is leading.

The article itself was making the point that marriages, families, and fathers are more successful and satisfied when men are affiliated with a Church.

Of course!

 

[Cari]

You know, I was thinking about this some more, and I think part of the reason Evan. dads seem to spend more time with their children may be tied in to the fact that more Evans. than other religious groups homeschool.

As a homeschooling family, I can attest to the fact that my husband spends more time with his children than fathers of conventionally schooled children do, simply because the children are around more than they would be if they went away to school.

Anyway, I think that the numbers suggest that:

1. men who are faithful practicers of their religion parlay that devotion into time spent with their families.
2. There are more Protestants than Catholics in America, so the numbers will reflect that demographic.

 

[kage_ar]

Having lived in both worlds, to me the answer is clear.

Evangelical Christians spend more time together as a family because of church.

Sunday is Sunday School (an hour), morning worship (90 minutes), Sunday evening service (another hour). During the week there will be at least one more church service of an hour. There are then other church activities, fun social events. The families socialize outside of the church with other families from the congregation. Evangelical Christian families also spend time in prayer and Bible study at home.

For some reason, most Catholics think the tires on the car will explode if they touch the Parish parking lot more than that one hour per week. They might do a drive by drop off of the kids to CCD, but, only until those kids get confirmed because everybody knows that once you are confirmed you never ever have to study your Faith or attend another class or do a service project again.

Sadly, many Catholic families have replaced fellowship with fellow Catholics with sports practice/games for the kids.

We need a change of priorities.

 

[Katholish]

It is estimated that there are around 2 million homeschool students in the United States. Of that number, only about 80,000 to 100,000 are Catholics. in other words, less than 5%. The overwhelming majority are fundamentalist Protestant as has already been mentioned. The reason for this difference is both found in the nature of Protestant doctrine and the strength of the Catholic school system (which also has over 2 million students).

Catholic Homeschooling has been on a steady rise, however, has the benefits of homeschooling are becoming more apparent to families as it becomes more mainstream. Seton Home Study School, for instance, which is the largest Catholic homeschool program has about 14,000 students enrolled which makes it one of the top 10 largest Catholic schools in the country (only smaller than the big univerities like Fordham, Regis, DePaul, and St. Johns).

Homeschooling fathers are statistically more likely to spend greater amounts of time with their children, hence the difference in statistics from the article cited.