Homeschooling: the new monastery

[Mark77]

Alright everyone… calm down…

I don’t disagree that homeschooling can be likened to the modern monastery… that sounds like a decent comparison.

But, keep in mind that we’re CATHOLIC (read: UNIVERSAL).

Not every Saint was a Priest, Monk, or a Cloistered Nun.

Many, many, many Saints lived out IN THE WORLD! They went out and SAVED SOULS and brought many to Christ!

There isn’t only ONE way… there are many roads.

Homeschooling isn’t something I’d ever consider for me or my family. I don’t think it does justice to the talents, graces, and gifts that God has bestowed on OUR family. I have HIGH expectations for my children to learn how to live IN the world, but not OF the world. I EXPECT them to be comfortable in challenging, non-Catholic situations - to live HOLY lives in spite of obstacles, and to then use those gifts to bring others back to Christ. None of that could be accomplished in a modern monastery.

Peace!

****JESUS WAS HOME SCHOOLED BY OUR BLESSED VIRGIN MOTHER MARY! ****

**i’m sorry to hear you say that you wouldn’t ever consider home schooling. You sound kind of closed minded or defensive???
**
**Home schooling is a beautiful thing, it returns the education of children to where it should be, with the parents!
**
Home schooling keeps the dumbed down, common denominator garbage & lies that public schools inevitably bring, out of our childrens’ lives.

The only down side to home schooling is the limited exposure of the kids to other children.

As long as the children are allowed to interact with other kids in sports or other activities, then they will be fine!

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark

 

[Em_in_FL]

****JESUS WAS HOME SCHOOLED BY OUR BLESSED VIRGIN MOTHER MARY! ****

**i’m sorry to hear you say that you wouldn’t ever consider home schooling. You sound kind of closed minded or defensive???
**
**Home schooling is a beautiful thing, it returns the education of children to where it should be, with the parents!
**
Home schooling keeps the dumbed down, common denominator garbage & lies that public schools inevitably bring, out of our childrens’ lives.

The only down side to home schooling is the limited exposure of the kids to other children.

As long as the children are allowed to interact with other kids in sports or other activities, then they will be fine!

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark

I’m not here to argue my reasoning, nor to question others’ choices… and your quick assessment of me being “closed minded” is humorous…

Jesus was educated in the way that was common to His culture… and we are educating our kids in a way that is common to our own.

 

[Advocatus_Fidei]

I’m not here to argue my reasoning, nor to question others’ choices… and your quick assessment of me being “closed minded” is humorous…

Jesus was educated in the way that was common to His culture… and we are educating our kids in a way that is common to our own.

Well see that’s the problem, you aren’t the one educating your child/children if your not home schooling, you are getting someone else to do that for you.

And maybe your right to do so, maybe the teachers at school who spend more time with your children than you do are better at teaching them what you want them to teach than you would be, only you can judge that.

And don’t think all monasteries are closed to the world either, at one time the Dominicans were the greatest of all Christ’s servants in confronting the world, and overcoming it, and they learned how to do that in a monastery.

 

[Advocatus_Fidei]

Well, the very act of posting a thread that likens the homeschoolers to the last keepers of the faith pretty much leaves everyone else out, huh?

When I first joined CAF I participated in a thread that went south quickly and everybody pretty much tried to show how their educational choice was the absolute best. At that time, the people involved (and there were a lot) agreed to call a truce and respect each person’s choices. It’s a very sensitive subject, because it goes to the depth of family choices, family needs, and a whole lot of things.

And thanks, Em.

People who didn’t home-school could have stayed out of the thread, its obvious from the title what this thread is about yet you all still clicked on it, if it causes you pain avoid it, censor your own decisions don’t try and censor everyone else. It is obvious people who home school think it is the best choice or they wouldn’t make the sacrifices needed to do that and they are not going to lie and say that they home school but sending the kids to public school is just the same.

 

[rayne89]

As a former homeschooling mom I think a couple of the homeschooling posters are being unfair to EM. When we come off as militant and intolerant of other Catholic parents choices on how they educate their children we do no service to the homeschooling movement.

EM as a parent has the right to educate her children the way she feels is best. Every family is different, every school is different, every child is different. You can have faithful Catholic children outside of the homeschooling movement - and choosing not to homeschool does not mean they are not as good parents or less faithful Catholics.

 

[Em_in_FL]

Well see that’s the problem, you aren’t the one educating your child/children if your not home schooling, you are getting someone else to do that for you.

As Catholic parents it is our responsibility to be the primary educators of our children in the faith. We teach that by living in the faith through every day examples… Weekly Mass, Daily Mass when possible, regular family prayers, living moral and loving lives, showing examples of charity, etc, etc.

That can be accomplished in *any *family scenario, and suggesting otherwise only serves as a stumbling block to those who are exploring the faith through this website.

I am perfectly fine sending my children to others to learn readin’, writin’, and 'rithmetic… because I may not be the perfect example in those subjects - why should my own personal limitations dictate how far my own children can go?
But - that’s besides the point… reread my first two paragraphs.

 

[cyberwolf001]

Do we really need another thread where the homeschoolers insult everyone else and pat themselves on the back?

We’ve rehashed this so many times…

I doubt this will make you feel better but I see where homeschooled Christians of all types end up. Normally they find there way into our circles and groves and are the wildest (sex, drinking and so on) of all of us.

So give it till they leave home and you’ll hear the where did I go wrong lamentations.

 

[Advocatus_Fidei]

As Catholic parents it is our responsibility to be the primary educators of our children in the faith. We teach that by living in the faith through every day examples… Weekly Mass, Daily Mass when possible, regular family prayers, living moral and loving lives, showing examples of charity, etc, etc.

That can be accomplished in *any *family scenario, and suggesting otherwise only serves as a stumbling block to those who are exploring the faith through this website.

I am perfectly fine sending my children to others to learn readin’, writin’, and 'rithmetic… because I may not be the perfect example in those subjects - why should my own personal limitations dictate how far my own children can go?
But - that’s besides the point… reread my first two paragraphs.

Thats why I said maybe you are right to do so.

 

[Advocatus_Fidei]

I doubt this will make you feel better but I see where homeschooled Christians of all types end up. Normally they find there way into our circles and groves and are the wildest (sex, drinking and so on) of all of us.

So give it till they leave home and you’ll hear the where did I go wrong lamentations.

Normally? What percentage are you talking about and how did you come to that figure?

And by the way all the druids died out or converted to Christianity a long time ago, and did not leave any written records, our only knowledge of them comes from the Romans so please do not try and hijack the traditions of the Gael by labelling yourself a druid and trying to pass off your behaviour as Druidism it is extremely offensive to my people for you to do so.

 

[ac_claire]

EM as a parent has the right to educate her children the way she feels is best. Every family is different, every school is different, every child is different. You can have faithful Catholic children outside of the homeschooling movement - and choosing not to homeschool does not mean they are not as good parents or less faithful Catholics.

I agree with this. But nobody has suggested otherwise on this thread. I think this kind of post is where the “defensive” impression is coming from.

This thread started with someone who homeschools wanting to share a nice anecdote of support with other people who homeschool or who want to or who just aren’t hostile about the whole idea. And immediately, in the first reply, someone took it personally for some reason and the defenses were thrown up.

 

[LilyElain]

I do not have children…yet…

However I wanted to post because I am the eldest of eight children, and we were home schooled,as well as schooled in Catholic, Christian, and Public schools. My parents made choices based on their CHILDREN’S needs. I was very shy, and excelled in homeschooling. My younger brother was intelligent and played soccer and was in the honors program at our public school. My three youngest siblings are all in the Catholic Middle and Highschool because the school made some changes to be more pro magisterium and less worldly…
I think that telling parents they are wrong for making a choice for their children’s needs is very Pharisaical…I believe that is up to the parents since it is their family.
All of us were raised a strong, polite, good Catholic children because we were raised by parents who were still involved in and out of our schooling.

 

[ac_claire]

I doubt this will make you feel better but I see where homeschooled Christians of all types end up. Normally they find there way into our circles and groves and are the wildest (sex, drinking and so on) of all of us.

So give it till they leave home and you’ll hear the where did I go wrong lamentations.

Nonsense.

 

[LilyElain]

Home schooling is a beautiful thing, it returns the education of children to where it should be, with the parents!

Sorry, but historically Grecian schools were outside the home…

 

[sanctamaria17]

I think homeschooling is great if it works for your family and I’d have to agree, most of the homeschooled kids I know are polite, articulate, well-spoken, and grounded in faith.

However, this isn’t true for everyone and not all homeschooling is perfect.

I dated a guy who was homeschooled. It’s true, he was brilliant and he was a gentleman. However, he had a hard time in high school and college because, while his mom is intelligent and a reader, she can’t teach everything. Not only that, his mom homeschooled him partially for religious reasons (evangelical Christians), but he lost his faith. He became an atheist while we were dating. His mom confided in me later on saying, “I think I made some mistakes, I was trying to make them good believers.” I told her it wasn’t her fault, that we all need to find our own way, but it goes to show that it’s not necessarily a surefire way to keep your kids on the straight and narrow.

As for me, I was in public school most of my life (with the exception of some Catholic education in early elementary years and attending a Protestant university) but my siblings and I didn’t follow the crowd. Our parents encouraged us to be strong, to do well, and to be who we were. We made our mistakes but we tried our best to be responsible and to stay in a good crowd. We all had dreams of doing something great, we didn’t want to throw it all away. My parents made sure to take an active role in my education, challenge my intellect, and help me form my character, which led me to the Church. I wouldn’t dare think they were negligent.

Seriously, people will wonder if they did the right thing, whether they took all their prenatal vitamins, breast or bottle fed, homeschooled, Catholic school or public education, whether the TV was on too much or if the kids ate enough vegetables. After a certain point, it’s their free will, their souls, and their choices. All you can say after that is that you tried and you did your best given the info and situations at the time. No one thing is right for everyone. You should discern and do research but in the end, they make their own choice. Hopefully it’s for the better.

But I am glad it’s working for the OP! How wonderful!

 

[cyberwolf001]

Normally? What percentage are you talking about and how did you come to that figure?

I’ll need to look them up again but I know we get a large chunk in our membership roles as do Buddhist and Atheist. Think of it like this, as I hunt down the numbers, those converts are coming from somewhere.

And by the way all the druids died out or converted to Christianity a long time ago, and did not leave any written records, our only knowledge of them comes from the Romans so please do not try and hijack the traditions of the Gael by labelling yourself a druid and trying to pass off your behaviour as Druidism it is extremely offensive to my people for you to do so.

If they gods will to reinstate Druidism it gets reinstated. It was so willed and it is back. I dont wanna turn this into another Druid thread but with every new finding we find what we do now is very similar to what was done then.

Oh and there are Druids in Ireland now too

 

[ThyKingdomCome]

As a homeschooler, it’s very frustrating that EVERY SINGLE BLESSED THREAD about homeschooling, ALWAYS turns into a discussion/debate on homeschool vs. building school. I personally feel very encouraged by the remarks in the OP. I feel DISCOURAGED that good Catholics can’t let me enjoy that encouargement without spoiling it with a debate. I’m sure my non-hs’ing friends won’t feel encouraged by the OP’s remarks, just as I wouldn’t feel encouraged by someone singing the praises of the Legion of Mary (since I’m not a member). But if I was part of a conversation between Legion of Mary members who were encouraging themselves because of some praise they had received about the good work they’re doing in the Church, I sure as heck wouldn’t feel the need to rain on their parade and defend my choice to not be a member. To each his/her own. For goodness sakes, it gets old fast when every mention of MY particular way of life always turns into a debate. I didn’t realize that homeschoolers weren’t allowed to talk openly about our life. But when these threads go in this direction every time, it’s the equivalent of telling us “Go back in the closet, we don’t want to hear from you.” And sadly, it’s situations such as these, that make it very tempting to segregate ourselves to the only-homeschooling crowd, so that we can occasionally have a conversation that goes beyond the same tired old argument.

Sometimes I want to discuss the merits of homeschooling vs. the merits of building school. This thread was not created for that purpose. The OP relayed some words of encouragement to homeschoolers from his priest. Can’t someone start a new thread titled, “Let’s bicker about homeschooling” and leave this one to the original topic?

 

[PaulinVA]

I had a wonderful talk w/ my priest yesterday. He is a very wise and holy man. We were talking about some challenges my son has, but Father remarked that he had noticed during mass how reverently my son receives communion.

We were talking about the decline in morality in our society, and Father mentioned that after the fall of Rome, it was the monasteries that kept the Word of God alive in the Dark Ages by copying and preserving the texts of the Bible. He wondered if we were not entering another dark time, and if in this age, that the homeschool families may be the new monasteries. Father was so impressed w/ how well homeschool families knew their faith - he thought that the homeschool families would be the Tabernacles to keep the Word of God alive in the coming time of darkness. Isn’t that a marvelous, reassuring thought!!

Homeschooling can be so hard, but the rewards are eternal. I had to pass along this marvelous piece of wisdom. May the Lord bless the work of your hands.

I really didn’t mean to drive this thread into the bushes. Really. I apologize.

But, this thread does *not *give one the impression that the thought being expressed here is that all educational choices are equal as long as you prayerfully make a decision based on your child’s needs. That is what I was objecting to.

I vote that this thread gets locked and we let the undercurrent of hostility about educational choices submerge again.

 

[monicatholic]

i have friends, a married couple, he was educated by jesuits. she by dominicans. matters of orthodoxy aside (and usually, matters of orthodoxy are NOT asides in their arguments) they’ve had real, intense, heated disagreements over who educates better-- the Dominicans or the Jesuits?

meebee we think that’s a stupid argument. but it’s one they’ve had a few times.

just thinking it may be like the homeschool public school argument. just thinking.

my kids are homeschoold through highschool completion. but they finish early so they (sort of) repeat the senior year at the publich high school (which they’re very familiar with because they all sang in choir or played in band every day since grade 5.)

they’ve never had any problem making the transition from homeschool to fulltime school. and a college professor aske, my 20 yo (our 4th kid) if he was homeschooled. how’d he know? my kid " presented atypical arguments well."

so, yeah. if you want to raise a kid who presents atypical arguments well, homeschool them, i guess. but being i’m in for a penny, in for a pound on this one, here’s what i think of my monastery:

i love homeschooling. why? because when my husband worked weekly swing shift he didn’t see his kids for an entire week every month. homeschool solved that. when i had lots of babies and our focus wasn’t on studies, homeschool carried into the summer months and we caught up.

i love homeschooling (and the location of my home, too) because when one of my son was in grade 6 and 7, it allowed him to serve Mass across the street every weekday. nobody ever asked him. that’s what he wanted to do. lotsa graces, there.

i love homeschooling because we can stop every thing and pray together when we hear about earthquakes in Haiti or somebody’s grandma dying.

i love homeschooling because, when goodhusband and i traded places (him home, me workforce) he knew just what to do. he was already exceedingly involved in the kids’ ediucation and he carried on.

but

i love public schooling. because even in our podunk little town, my kids became excellent musicians in the public school band, earning one, and perhaps a second, good scholarship(s.)

i love public schooling because it’s given my older kids a great opportunity to learn what’s strong about their faith, what’s weak. to learn the strengths and the holes in their own program, their own reasoning.

i love public schooling because our littlest, Naomi, gets services and good experience in her special ed preschool program. sure, they want her there 5 days a week and we only agree to 2, but they’re still wonderful. it’s still a lovely experience for her.

and

i hate homeschooling because 21 years into it, it hasn’t gotten any less messy.

i hate homeschooling because if things go south, i got no one to blame but me.

i hate homeschooling because 21 years into it, people i didn’t ask are still explaining to me why they don’t homeschool.

i hate public schooling because nothing my kids get there takes as many hours in a day, days in a week, or weeks in a year as the school schedules.

i hate public schooling because after a lifetime of eating greens, organics, home-mades and good nutrition, you should see what my 17 yo son prefers to eat at the school. (grrrrr.)

that’s all i have to say about our proposed little monastery. some days, though, we wish these little monastics would all head out for an extended mission trip.

 

[ThyKingdomCome]

Just to actually go where I didn’t want to go for a second…

Let’s look at homeschoolers - we’re a community, we’re quantifiable. We can be lumped together by the term “Catholic homeschoolers” and there are generalizations that will be made that might actually be true for most of us. There are tons of faithful Catholic families all over the country raising their children well, WHILE putting them into building school. But in most situations, they are not as easy to spot. They are spread out, less connected as a whole, because they are interspersed with less-faithful Catholics who also have their kids in the same schools. This is true with most Catholic schools as well - they don’t usually have an entrance requirement of coming from a really religious family. So it’s not that those flames aren’t being fanned in ALL circles. Its just that homeschoolers are a recognizable entity that has a good reputation for this.

Just like (to use my earlier reference), the Legion of Mary. It is a lay movement that rightly deserves praise for advancing the Kingdom of God. I’m sure various Popes have taken the time to specifically praise them for the good work they do. There are lots of faithful Catholics advancing the Kingdom of God who are not a part of the Legion of Mary. I hope I am one of them. But we are not as easily recognizable, because we do not belong to a particular group. “Catholic” isn’t specific enough, b/c there is so much diversity within that group. So those of us who can’t claim membership in the Legion of Mary, or another successful lay movement, are not going to receive the same kind of specific mention and praise that the Legion of Mary receives. It doesn’t mean we aren’t individually advancing the Kingdom, it just means that the Legion of Mary is doing it on a large, group scale, and we can’t be lumped together as easily.

That’s what I see in this comment by the priest from the OP.

 

[Grace_Alone]

I truly did not expect this kind of reaction! My kids have been to public school, have been homeschooled, and have done distance learning on-line. I certainly didn’t mean for anyone to take offense - and neither did Father - he does an outstanding job pastoring the school associated w/ our parish. Peace be with you.