51 - 60 of 85 Comments

1. Trisha

   1 year ago

   Great article!!
   In response to Carl, I was educated in Catholic schools from K-9th grade during the 1980s and 1990s, and then I was Catholic homeschooled. I would NEVER want my children exposed to the "socialization" I received. Girls in 6 and 7 grade loosing their virginity. Boy/girl make-out (and more) parties in 7th and 8th grade. A friend of mine had an abortion in 9th grade. Openly gay teachers who lived together and tought at the Catholic High School. Publicly gay teacher in Elementary School. The principal at the Catholic High School denied the formation of a pro-life group at the school. I could write pages and pages of the "great socialization" I received at Catholic Schools. I won't even begin to write about all of the heresy that was taught at those two schools.
   I am so thankful to my parents for removing me from Catholic schools and homeschooling me for the last three years of high school. I was excepted into five colleges. I went to Christendom College. Now I am married and homeschooling my 4 children. As for socialization...we are very involved in our local Catholic homeschool support group, our parrish, altar serving, daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, the rosary after Mass, boy scouts and cub scouts. I am very glad to keep my children from the Catholic school "socialization".
   A friend of mine has said "If you want your children to loose their faith, then send them to the parrish school."
   All of you fellow homeschoolers are in my prayers.

2. Robin

   1 year ago

   When Catholic school curriculum is as rich as my homeschool curriculum is with Church history, devotion, catechism and a Biblical world view that is also Christo-centric at it's heart, infused across the curriculum, then maybe I will send them. I am giving them a Catholic education at home. They are immersed in Catholic culture in a secular world. They are also learning by the classical method, which, was invented by the Greeks, and adopted by the Church at its very beginning. The curriculum I use is not aligned with state tests, though i'm sure my kids will do well, they always have in the past. Our local Catholic school uses secular curriculum. with religious add-ons. I have little faith that this will bear the kind of fruit that Christ intends for us to bear! Catholic Schools should be CATHOLIC!

3. Lorraine Espenhain

   1 year ago

   I agree with everything that was stated in this outstanding article. I have been homeschooling my children for 15 years now. We have a Catholic School in our neighborhood. The problem, however, is that I am not able to afford the criminal tuition. If the Catholic Church believes that the Catholic Schools are part of their mission/ministry, then they should not be charging the outrageous costs for tuition. I believe that we need to get rid of lay teachers who require large salaries and bring back the teaching nuns. It seems to me that when the nuns were doing the teaching, Catholic education was affordable. My parents were able to put four children in Catholic school back in 1969. Today, there is no way my father would have been able to achieve this. The Church needs to work on getting back the teaching nun, for when we lost her, Catholic education went down the tubes. I remember the old days when every church had a convent and a school. When the convents shut down, so did the school. Shame on Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Ned Vanders, and Co. Instead of barking about parents who are having to deal with the mess that was created when we lost the teaching nuns, and criticizing them for giving everything up in order to fill the void, perhaps their time would be better spent figuring out how to get back the teaching nuns so that Catholic education can be what it once used to be - a sacred ministry, and not a way to make a worldly buck.

4. Danielle Fenske

   1 year ago

   I grew up going to Catholic school. I always had wanted to send my children to Catholic school. Let me say though a choice had to be made, given the church's stance on artificial contraception(which I totally agree with), we could not be as open to and welcome children and afford catholic school. I have 9 kids, you do the math OUCH my POCKETBOOK!!!
   
   Another thing I realized as I grew into adulthood, was how many classmates had fallen away or were cafeteria catholics...(you know picking and choosing what parts of the faith they are willing to subscribe to). I took a much closer look. I realized that when one goes to a Catholic school, you would expect a complete Catholic education. For me in High school this was NOT the case. In a morality class we had a lay instructor (all but 2 teachers in the school were lay instructors) who taught that abortion was ok in certain circumstances like rape, incest and mothers health. She continued there are many mother's health issues that condoned abortion as a valid alternative! I knew my faith and I knew that was not it...I stood up challenging her and then I went straight to the principle and was scolded for not following the proper procedure for complaining. So I called the bishop myself, he came down to straighten the situation out. Here is the point, many kids won't do what I did.. you sit listen and learn what you are being taught. Is it any wonder we have so many Catholic people who aren't truly Catholic? Imagine that having to defend your faith in a Catholic School? I realize most schools are not like this, but they do exist.
   
   I am the one who has to be held accountable for instilling our faith in our children. I want them to be deeply rooted. We home school. I may send them to high school, but it will not be a catholic high school (there is only one 30 miles away and it is far to expensive). They will go knowing what their faith is, and expecting to have to defend it, not assuming that the very fundamentals of our faith will be present. I pray that this makes them stronger.

5. Michelle

   1 year ago

   What is the number one priority in K - 12 education? Is it to test well on ACT/SAT and get into a "good" university? Is to prepare children for "The Real World" (whatever that actually is?)? Anyone....anyone? Bueller.. Bueller?
   
   Our number one priority in education is the salvation of our children's souls. Since the government schools cannot partner with us on that priority and the Catholic schools will not, then we do it ourselves. It's that simple.
   
   Now for something interesting.....we have 11 children.
   
   The tuition cost at the nearest K-8 Catholic school is $6500/year. Let's pretend that cost doesn't change just for some fun.....
   
   11 x $6500 = $71,500 for one year of "Catholic" education. Now I'll multiply that times the 9 years they would be in this school, and I get $643,500.
   
   Let's roll on over to high school now where the tuition is $13,500/year.
   
   11 x $13,500= $148,500 for one year of high school. Multiplied by the 4 years they would be in this school my total is $594,000.
   
   My grand total of "Catholic" education adding both K-8 and high school together is:
   $1,237,500.
   
   This total is assuming the tuition does not change, of course, and it does not take into consideration all of the extra costs like uniforms, etc.
   
   $1.2 million? Ummm....No thanks.
   
   

6. Chris Beasley

   1 year ago

   When we converted to the Catholic church three years ago, we were very happy to put our 7th grade daughter in the parish school. However, this turned out to be a very negative experience, due to a certain teacher who insisted on teaching heterodox concepts such as polygenism and that Adam and Eve were "myths" (her words), among other other problems. The teacher lied about what she had been teaching when confronted in a face to face meeting, and the pastor and diocesan DRE both agreed that what we accused her of was OK to teach anyway. Fortunately, our daughter was sharp enough to know that what the teacher was saying was wrong, but most of the other students just kept quiet, although we met several other parents who were concerned about this teacher. We also learned that the Catholic high school in our diocese is just as bad, with heretical teachers who destroyed the faith of some of our friends' teens. We would have been glad to sacrifice for a real Catholic school, but we will certainly not shell out thousands for a false-Catholic education!
   

7. Jenni

   1 year ago

   Praise God and Thank you Jennifer and Catholic online for putting this article out there.
   I am home educator of three childreen with anoth two who aren't old enough yet. We live in the only Diocese in the US that has a direct liasion with the Diocscan office of Total Catholic Education.
   While we have local Parochial schools the comments here nail the education problems on the head.
   Carl: a lot of people's problems with homeschooling are what you mention. No socialization because schools are no longer set up to edcuate but instead to socialize. If you don't belive me read Joh Taylor Gatto's book the Underground History of Education.
   Also, schools (parochial and public) have taken away parents rights. Part of our marriage vows were to RAISE our children in the faith, not to give them away to be raised in the faith. It is an active verb. It requires activity on our part as parents.
   I think the point about not having a problem with Holy Mother church but having a problem with individual pastors, adminstrators, and bishops (yes even bishops) is the true issue there.
   It is such a sad point that these individuals are concerned about parents who are educating their children in the faith but I have not seen one article (and I read lots) from the same people admonishing parents who send their children to public school and do not catachize at home or in the parish.
   Let us all take these matters to prayer.

8. Serge

   1 year ago

   Great article! I believe the issue about homeschooling is basically in two areas. One, follow the money. Both the public and Catholic school systems are really in the business of making money. The income is obtained in different fashion, but it's about revenue. Homeschooling children reduce the ability of those institutions to increase their income. So, homeschooling is financially competing with them and they don't like that. Second area, the public and therefore the Catholic school system is really about social engineering. It's about developing a society that is obedient and submissive to their "authorities" in constructing a New World Order. Anyone who studies the education material being used by educators can see that the whole system is about manipulation, and control. It is really about behavioral control. Pavlov, Skinnerian psychology, etc. Most of those superintendents have received their phds in education from those secular schools that are essentially Marxist in ideology and belief. Their goals have nothing to do with forming little saints. The real and true primary obligation of the Catholic school system is toward their controllers, the STATE that allow them to have a school system and give them the privilege of 501c3.

9. Sandor

   1 year ago

   Hello Carl,
   
   I respectfully say, you really don't know what you are speaking about with regards to Homeschooling. I went to Catholic Schools for 12 years, and I am a degree'd Mechanical Engineer. I am forever grateful for the sacrifice my mom made to send us me to Catholic School on her single low income. I attended what would be considered a upper academic echelon HS for boys and did receive a much better education than my Public school peers. With that being said, I can tell you without hesitation, that the schooling my children are receiving at home with their mother is far better than the one I received. You fail to realize the quality of programs available for Catholic Homeschoolers. For grades 1-8, my wife used the very comprehensive Seton program which is an accredited schooling program in California. She has decided to use the Angelicum Great books program for the High School years, starting with my daughter, eldest of 8. These programs are rich in their content, demanding of the students, and produce truly educated individuals able to grasp fundamental reasoning concepts and draw upon source materials far better than their traditionally schooled counter parts.
   
   Both my wife and I attained B.S. degree's, so she is certainly equipped to school them in mathematics. But if she wasn't, there are numerous mathematics programs that give DVD instruction along with online tutoring if required. My wife has utilized some of these just to help maximize her effectiveness (you forget some of these math topics if you don't use them regularly). I too have helped on more difficult math topics.
   
   Regarding the socialization factor, we have our children in athletics, music and parish catechisis. But unless you've personally observed or experienced homeschooling in a large family, you don't realize the amount of real world experience these children gain from being schooled at home. The real world work place is in fact far more like the homeschooling environment, than it is like the structured school environment, where everyone sits in desks, faces the front, with one person leading the discussion and instruction. In the homeschool environment, elder children take time out to help the younger ones. They need to remain focused and get their work done, regardless of the constant movement of their siblings and other disruptive events. They have to learn to deal in an appropriate and controlled manner with people they have longstanding disagreements with (siblings). They learn to help one another to accomplish their goals of teamwork to get done before a certain time, so they can enjoy the fruits of success (movie or game). And most importantly, they understand and discuss amongst themselves topics as deep as the importance of virtue in their lives, assist one another on virtue and avoiding vice, discuss topics on the faith very freely and energetically. I never ever ever experienced this type of faith lived out so dynamically in my entire 12 years of Catholic Education. It's a wonderful thing to behold.
   
   Of course, it certainly is a calling, and can be trying to engage in. Like my wife and I say, with homeschooling, you are either pulling your hair out, our laughing your head off, never a dull moment :) It's not for the feint hearted.
   
   Please investigate what homeschooling is really like, before you make uneducated assumptions and statements which are truly removed the the reality of homeschooling. You may find that homeshooling, far from being a disservice to children, is actually a great gift to children, to those who are able to provide this.
   
   In Christ,
   
   Sandor

10. Jennifer Hartline

    1 year ago

    Daniel Monzon,
    I'm happy to share: I'm using Seton Home Study curriculum with great success. It was recommended to me by my sister, who's been using it with her three children for over 10 years now. They are fully accredited and their support staff is always there when I have a question or need help. God bless you.

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