Kids: Faith, School and Socialization - A great article

[manualman]

catholicexchange.com/the-pagans-are-happy-to-socialize-your-children/

I’ve lived up close to all four educational approaches:

1. Marginally catholic school (attended myself for 8 years)
2. Public school (attended 4 years of high school)
3. Fantastic catholic school (my kids attend)
4. Homeschool (wife’s sister has done it for 11 years)

I think this guy’s observations are SPOT on! What came to my mind while reading is how easily we delude ourselves about how much we are influenced by others. Coke and Pepsi spend hundreds of millions of dollars on 30 second TV ads and they find that they get their money’s worth out of them in results! Meanwhile, we turn our kids over for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week to the predominant culture and retain the delusion that our family dinner, bedtime story and weekly mass attendence will fully counter any ill ideas they absorb. Wanna buy some prime development land next to the river while we’re at it?

Having close experience with each, my personal rank of the four in preference goes as follows: 3, 4, 1, 2. I suppose there probably is a fifth category for really BAD catholic school that would rank dead last (innoculating against the faith instead of instilling it). But I suspect most of those are long since shuttered.

The reason I rank 3 first is because I’ve seen what a difference it makes when the school staff, teachers, coaches and enough of the student body SUPPORT our catholic worlview and values. At that point it becomes a critical mass that multiplies the instruction of parents rather than adds to it. But that seems sadly rare. If you can find a catholic school where the faith is taught unabashedly and devotional life is a primary part of the school week, JUMP on it.

 

[HouseArrest]

*Objection: “I’m going to let my children shine their light for Jesus!”

If you were there with them through their school day, I may say “okay, go for it.” But you are not. And instead of shining their light for Jesus, a light that takes time to grow strong, much more likely is that the darkness of our pagan culture, as exhibited by their peers in overwhelming numbers, will snuff out the nascent flame that God has lit. I’ve seen it happen, again and again, even in good Catholic families (more on this later).

If you lived in AD 100, would you be sending your children to the pagan Roman schooling system, to worship Caesar and be exposed to so many perverted people? No. You would not do that. No more should you send your children to the schools today, which would give any Roman institution a run for its money in terms of debauchery.

An adult Christian, strong in the Spirit, can face such evil. Children cannot. Even George Lucas understood this when Yoda tells Luke he is not yet strong enough to face Darth Vader and his Emperor. As Mr. Miyagi said to Daniel-san: “First learn stand, then learn fly.” (See? Pop culture references from being being reared in the secular culture–I guess there are some good things about school!)*

This about wraps up what is likely to happen when we send our kids into the lion’s pit to defend the faith. Fourteen through eighteen year olds aren’t solid on their faith. They may be well on their way, but we all know the brain is still growing at these ages. I have two in high school right now and they are both very intelligent. They are still immature. They are still vulnerable. They are testing the waters and are very much susceptible to peer pressure and mob mentality. Apologetics is not a job for children.