61 - 70 of 85 Comments

1. Laurie

   1 year ago

   Homeschooler parents...keep your heads up high. I am noticing the integrity and maturity and purity of the young people who have been homeschooled. The Catholic schools where I live let me down...teaching all manner against the Church...including condom machines on premesis. I wish I had home-schooled my children. The Bishop in my area sings the same song...about Catholic school education. Head in the sand syndrome? I really don't know how they can vouch for Catholic education in schools when the schools have become centers for corruption of moral values.

2. Tony

   1 year ago

   It is still Cannon law that parents have an obligation to seek Catholic education (798) AND the Church has an obligation to offer affordable Catholic education (800). I don't think citing Vatican II in gratuitous fashion carries your argument when one could just as gratuitously argue that Vatican II is the reason you don't find many religious teaching in our schools any longer.

3. Judi

   1 year ago

   If I read this right, since there is a Catholic School near me, if I choose to send my child to Public School, I am not fulfilling my duty as a Catholic parent? What? That is totally stupid. I live paycheck to paycheck and even if we qualified for a tuition scholarship, I would still have all those extras I'd have to pay for (uniforms, lunch, fundraisers). I would love to send my children to Catholic school but it is not financially feasible for me to do so. I also work full-time so I would not be able to home school.

4. Milehimama

   1 year ago

   Absolutely agree!
   
   My parish has a school. We don't attend it. Why? Because WITH MY PARISH DISCOUNT the cost to send 6 children is over $23,000 a year (not counting uniforms, book fees, registration, etc. etc. etc.) (We have 9 children, but three aren't old enough for school yet.)
   
   That's more than half our AGI. That's more per month than our rent and utilities combined.
   
   Don't tell ME I'm abrogating my duty by homeschooling when there is no opportunity for Catholic school.

5. Fr. Dheeraj Sabu IMS

   1 year ago

   It pains me to read about the conflict between home schoolers and traditional Catholic Schools. Just glance through the statistics that is given below. It is taken from an article published in a weekly, India Today.
   
   “And surveys reveal*, it's a generation that spends 10 hours a day on some sort of a media, two hours on social networking sites, 1.6 hours on the phone, four hours 23 minutes a week on computer games. While 66 per cent carry mobile phones to school, 47 per cent can't live without TV. Over 45 per cent drink alcohol five times a month and 14 per cent use tobacco. Yet 70 per cent teens show signs of depression and 48 per cent think about suicide. A survey released by one of Bollywood's biggest hits last year, Udaan-all about a 17-year-old boy, who gets expelled from boarding school for sneaking out to watch a semi-porn film-shows: one in five teens watches porn before age 13; every second teen necks and kisses, 15 per cent in the school loo; one out of five claims to have had sex; 90 per cent believe in premarital sex, with 45 per cent of girls opting for clandestine abortions”. “Secret life of Indian teens” Damayanti Datta | February 25, 2011
   
   Seeing the plight of teenagers, parents respond in various ways. Some say, “that’s how the modern youth are”. But some others who are more serious about faith and morals say, “it should not be so”, but they do not find a way out to help their children. A few others find home schooling as right solution. I do agree that Catholic schools are better than other public schools. Yet situation is not really satisfactory. Therefore some parents see home schooling as the solution to provide best possible education and faith formation to their children. I think from the part of the Church we must understand the genuin concern of parents, appreciate their courage and support them. After all the future of our children are more important than the future of our instutions. I see in India also the number of people opting for Home Schooling are gradulaly increasing. There are also neighbourhood schools where two or three families of the neighbourhood together conduct the education of their children following the cariculum of Home Schooling.The emergance of such alternative educational system is an indication that our traditional educational system needs to be updated.
   Fr. Dheeraj Sabu IMS
   

6. Cynthia

   1 year ago

   If it is an "obligation" of parents to send our children to a Catholic school, then what is the "obligation" on the part of the Church to welcome that child into that school community?
   
   
   
   I bought into the whole "Catholic" school scam hook, line and sinker, making sure that as we moved with my husband's job MY kids would be Catholic school educated, as was I, sacrificing all along the way. When it came time for my youngest to enter school we were shocked to learn that the admissions board deemed my child not "Catholic" school material, because of a disparaging report submitted by the preschool staff without the knowledge of my husband or I. We recieved the rejection letter on the Friday afternoon before Spring Break.
   
   
   
   Believing that the parish and school shared our goal of providing a Catholic School Education, we met with the preschool staff, pastor and administration to discuss a solution. My husband and I went so far as to hire a Catholic psychologist to evaluate our child so that we could have an objective point of view. We wrote the archdiocese asking for guidance. Ultimately, the school, pastor and school faculty broke agreements we had made and lied about their role or decision to reject our son’s application. We never received a reply from the archdiocese that can always find us for the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal.
   
   
   
   That incident happened over 10 years ago and has forever changed our relationship with the church hierarchy. I love my faith and will never leave it, but the lack of integrity we experienced was appalling and reflects deep problems within the hierarchy. In the end, it is hard not to believe that Catholic Education is not a self-serving private school system.
   
   
   
   As I sit here and write this, I hear the whir of the lawnmower being pushed by the child who was DENIED a catholic education by the same Catholic Church that Bishop Joe Vasquez, Ned Vanders and Fr. Peter M.J. Stravinskas represent. He is an excellent student with a gift for history, civics and music. He will be in advanced classes next year and will be participating in marching band. Too bad the "Catholic" high school won't get to hold him up as one of their "achievements".
   
   
   
   

7. Anna R. Daniel

   1 year ago

   Excellent article. The Catholic school system has been declining over many years. Fifteen years ago my friends who had their children in what was a good Catholic school from an academic standpoint, removed their children and began homeschooling them because of the sex education program put into place in the diocese. I went with them to the bishop, who didn't see us personally, and left pages of documents with him showing what was horribly wrong with this program and he refused to meet with us or do anything about it.
   
   After my two older boys attended a Catholic high school with an excellent academic reputation and I came in contact with their laxity in moral standards, I refused to send my third son to this school. You can't stick the name "Catholic" on a school or university and than have teachers who are teaching and recommending a morality in conflict with the teachings of the Church. As I explained to the principal of the "Catholic" high school, I am sending my children here to get a Catholic education. I can get "condom theology" for free in the public school system.
   
   This is not "bashing" the local Church authorities, this is the reality that Catholic parents face today. If those in charge of the Catholic school system in each diocese don't deal effectively with these problems, then their school system deserves to fail. Better for their schools to fail then continue to corrupt.

8. Patricia

   1 year ago

   I would rather my children go to a public school than a catholic school that does not have sound, orthodox catechesis and doesn't present the everyday living out of the faith with a "true, authentically Catholic" atmosphere, in leadership, teaching and example. Maybe the homeschoolers could show them how to do it.

9. Carl

   1 year ago

   While I would make exceptions for cases where there was no Catholic school; I cannot agree with the concept of homeschooling. Catholic schools are equipping children with the means to survive in a world of fierce competitors. They are doing so with the addition of giving each child a moral compass. The public schools cannot claim the last part. How well homeschooling equips children to face the world is debatable.
   
   What homeschooling cannot do is provide children with the socialization that comes from a Catholic School. The Catholic classroom setting is a mix of souls. It prepares children to exist in a framework of differing personalities and to do so with the moral reality of the Church. You cannot have socialization when the only persons in the room are mom and your sibling. Are we not called to live in community with other Catholic Christians?
   
   What homeschooling cannot do is provide the base of knowledge that a Catholic school has. To clarify, I am well versed in history, politics, and literature. I am academically weak in math and science. If my son were to learn these disciplines from me his education would be lacking. I am certain other parents, while intelligent, do not have the level of education needed to have mastered all subjects in a given curriculum.
   
   What homeschooling cannot do is provide the materials needed to give a full and well rounded education to children. Unless you have a full physics and chemistry lab in your house you cannot compare to a good Catholic high school.
   
   At the end of the argument, most home school parents want to send their kids to college, and there are no degree programs based on what happens in mom’s kitchen. In the world we live in today, you need a degree to succeed. There have been too many studies showing the improvement in the long range quality of life to argue against college.
   
   I don’t claim to understand the mindset that complains about fundraising. If it were to feed the poor, or fund a hospital would there be such a hue and cry? Many Diocese and Archdiocese work hard to keep tuition rates below the real world costs to educate a child. The Diocese of Wichita is one example. The Big Shoulders Fund in Chicago is another.
   
   Yes there are costs for sending your child to a Catholic school. Isn’t your child worth investing in?
   

10. Larry

    1 year ago

    What a beautiful message!
    Thank you so much for sharing....
    I am a Dr. of Education student attending online at Grand Canyon University.
    I am Catholic and pray that my services will someday benefit the Church.
    Homeschooling is indeed a wonderful and blessed opportunity to share and grow with our blessed children of God!
    Very Respectfully

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