The First and Best of Teachers: All Catholic Parents are Home School Parents

By Deacon Keith Fournier
3/9/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

All parents are home school parents because they are the first teachers and family is the first school

At Baptism I exhort the parents "You are the first teachers of your children in the ways of faith. May you also be the best of teachers, bearing witness to the faith by what you say and do." At the heart of the teaching of the Church on the Christian family is it's educating mission.

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CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - I was recently asked why Catholic Online does not have more articles about Home Schooling. The fact is we have written many - and we would welcome many more. The Home School movement is a great gift to the whole Church. However, with this article I want to consider an underlying truth about the fundamental role of parents in educating children. Because, understood properly, we come to see that all parents are homeschoolers. Let me explain.

As a deacon of the Church I am an ordinary minister of Baptism. At each Baptism I exhort the parents during the Rite, "You are the first teachers of your children in the ways of faith. May you also be the best of teachers, bearing witness to the faith by what you say and do." At the heart of the teaching of the Church on the Christian family as a domestic church is it's educating mission. The home is the first school.

It is because of this that I can say that all parents are "home school parents". Some choose to share that educational mission with others outside of the home as their children mature. When they do, those partners in the educational mission should look first to the parents, not to a bloated federal bureaucracy.

My wife and I raised five children. We now have six grandchildren, one of whom we are helping to raise in our home. We never officially "home schooled". Instead, we chose to extend our teaching mission by empowering others, both in parochial schools and public schools, to assist us in fulfilling our primary educational mission.

However, all parents are "home school parents". Some choose to share that educational mission with others outside of the home as their children mature. There is no conflict between supporting parochial schools and supporting home schooling.

Any controversy or competition between homeschooling parents and supporters of Catholic education is mistaken. It must be dealt with quickly before it undermines the vital teaching of the Church on the primary role of parents in the education of their children and confuses the faithful. We need every home school and every good parochial school, private academy and solid public school we can get!

There was a widely accepted doctrine which was the polestar of educational law for many years that teachers act in loco parentis - a Latin phrase meaning on behalf of the parents. Sadly, we have lost our way and are increasingly usurping the vital role of parents. The very origins of what became the "public" school system in our Nation began with families pooling resources in small community schools. We need to reconsider our history to chart our future.

Some who oppose "school choice" or, more properly "parental choice" in education are entrenched in the current federalized educational bureaucracy and the culture which fuels it. Increasingly people of every walk of life will admit the obvious, our educational system is broken. I write as an ardent supporter of "Parental Choice in Education."

I am not against government.Because I advocate for limited government and the application of the principle of subsidiarity, it is too often assumed that I am "anti-government". That is not the case. I insist that we remember that government begins in the family. Any good governance beyond the family must defer to the first government of the family and follow the social ordering and good governance principle of subsidiarity. That principle reminds us that good government is bottom up, not top down, deferring first to the smallest governing unit; not usurping but empowering and helping families.

The current overly federalized approach to education in the United States is failing. Statistics and experience confirm the obvious. It is time for a change and parental (school) choice is the change that is needed. It means affirming again, as a matter of public policy and legislation, that Parents are the ones who should be able to make the choice of how to best extend their own teaching mission outside of the home.

The proper role of Federal, State or Local Government is to support, NOT USURP, the first government in the home. Rather than focus on the word "School" - which is then used to arouse a "public" school vs. "private" school debate - we should use the phrase "Parental Choice". After all, it is Parents who are the first teachers of their children and the family is the first school. This is where the policy debate should focus.

Those of us who support school choice should watch our language. We are not against government. We simply maintain that government begins in the family. Good governance recognizes the first government of the family and follows the social ordering and good governance principle ...

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1 - 6 of 6 Comments

Michelle
1 year ago
I'm with Susan E. Webb and Jennifer Sikora on this one.
Tom
1 year ago
I am an avid reader. Am about finished with my latest book by Steve Kellmeyer, "Designed to Fail".. Excellent on the subject of parents as an 'ordo' of the church with a God given sacramental duty to educate the children. Great history on why there were NEVER any schools to teach children for 1800 years of Catholic Christianity and why with England, Prussia, the Industrial Revolution that schools were established to control (not educate) the masses. Society needed workers, not persons. Describes the heresy of the U.S. Catholic bishops interfering with God's given mandate and grace to parents through marriage and conjugal act that created life....for not just this world
BUT for eternity. Parents are to lead their children to eternity. Subsidiarity. The church and bishops are suppose to help, not take over the God given right and obligation of parents. WHAT ARE THE FRUITS OF MANDATED SCHOOLING ...PUBLIC, PRIVATE, OR PAROCHIAL?

The book is an excellent history of the Catholic church in the U.S. and really points to many of our current problems in this country.

For a Catholic, wanting to be a Catholic this is a MUST read.

God Bless.
Jennifer Sikora
1 year ago
PRAISED BE JESUS CHRIST!!!

I agree that every Catholic parent STARTS OUT as a homeschooling parent... but as soon as you allow that God-given responsibility to be taken over by someone else, you cease to be a homeschooling parent. The precious few MINUTES a parent has with a child who they send to school (and institutionalized education is ALL the same... don't be fooled into thinking that "Catholic schools" are actually Catholic) can't even begin to be called "homeschooling".

JENNIFER
homeschooling mama to 8
Susan E. Webb
1 year ago
Let me preface my points with this, ...in a perfect world where the Church "minions" and Government aren't literally trying to shove parents out of their children's education, I would agree with what you've said and the context with which you've quoted JP II's writings and the Church's teachings...in a perfect world. Now for a little reality check.
With all due respect, dear deacon, this opinion is just what one would expect from someone who has not homeschooled past the 3-5 yrs of age (that all depends on how "soon" one can get the children into a Pre-k, or Pre-pre-k class). There is an absolute, distinct difference between those who "tolerate" their children until they can "get the schools to take them", (paraphrasing many parents words...these are not mine) AND the parents who have answered God's call to have one parent remain home with the children; who have made untold and countless sacrifices; who have undergone spiritual and physical warfare to "school" their children; who have suffered ridicule and ostricization from their very own priests, parish communities and lapel pin nuns passing for religious sisters...; parents who have had their children denied their sacraments unless the parents put their children in two year "catechism" classes and allow them to go on co-ed overnight retreats, or sit through basic 101-"how to make sure you take your kid to church after they are baptized" course...and I could go on and on. I haven't even moved up to the diocesan level and the bishops. Believe me, if parents are teaching their children at home, are regular parishoners and are "requesting" the priest to interview their child to show the child is prepared and ready to receive their next Sacrament...the child is getting way more towards their Catholic "education" than a Catholic School student and far surpassing that of the public school student attending a CCD class once a week.
Your opinion is right up there with the rest of the folks that try to justify sending children to someone else to do the parents' vocation. This may sound narrow-minded and unreasonable, but where education stands today...this attitude is spot-on!
Due to poor choices made, parents find themselves in a position of both working or a single parent family...unless it is by death of a spouse...I cut know one any slack. A single parent due to lack of marriage or due to divorce... the root cause is bad choices made and the consequences are that the individual has to now struggle to work and parent, requiring others to take on their vocational responsibility of educating their child(ren). This is a tragedy, but society now makes it sound heroic... Divorce leaves shattered children, and the consequences lead to the above scenario... Again, to make people "feel" better about their lack of prudence and self-discipline, society makes it heroic. What is really quite sad are those who choose to stay home with their children, but still "can't wait" until summer is over. (Again, quoting many parents, not my words.) OR the two parent income households who, due also to a lack prudence and self-discipline, are dependent on those two incomes to "provide" a "comfortable living" for their 2.3 child(ren).
Once my husband and I committed to marriage, we took on the married vocation which is first and foremost aiding one another to gain heaven and being open to conceiving, birthing, training and educating any children that might come through our union IN THE WAYS OF THE LORD, period! The "education of children" the Church is referring to is NOT referring to a "scholastic" education nor a college degree. The "education of children" the Church is referring to is the teaching of the children of the laws of God and to OBEY them, not to have a "take 'em or leave 'em" attitude ...which is the message put forth by ALL external educational entities...even your best, most orthodox Catholic school is only as good as its worst Catechized teacher or liberal-cafeteria style "practicing" Catholic...can anyone say Pelosi, the Kenedys, Bill O'Rielly, a good portion of our American bishops and every Democrat in office??? So one cannot control who will be passing on what message...unless the education comes soley from within a consecrated Catholic home.
This opinion is un-PC, and there will be many who try to justify why "their" family situation is different and so shouldn't be cast in with the rest of the un-wed, or divorced or two parent working tragedies that have become an epidemic in our country...thank you very much, Mrs. Contraception and her live-in "companion", Mr. No Fault Divorce who are the proud "parents" of their furry little four-legged pet, Materialism! Having private or public schools telling parents it is not only okay to be in these situations, but they'll support them by taking over the brainwashing, I mean educational responsibilities which will allow them to feel good about their "heroic decisions" and the FACT that their children lack knowledge of God and His Teachings.
I'm fed up with people trying to sit on the fence, and not taking a stand...Catholic schools ARE in oposition to Catholic homeschoolers because we make the current systems look bad! Plain and simple. They resent the fact that we homeschooling parents don't "trust" them with our children. And we shouldn't, they've done nothing but cater to gov. funding and the protestants in their schools. My husband and I refuse to even allow our tithing to support our local parish school because they have the same teachers, the same books and the even MORE problems than the public schools...this goes for the entire Diocese of Corpus Christi! They teach a "religion" class of which protestant students can opt out instead of using a solid CATHOLIC CURICULLUM, and if the children attend daily Mass, then that is the religion for the day! So please don't try to shame homeschoolers into compromising their vocations to make people feel comfortable and to get along,...not to mention ease yours and so many others consciences about their own child-rearing choices. Christ calls us to be peacemakers, not pacifiers...the word MAKE is what's called an action word, a verb. It implies acton taken, not action NOT taken to bring Christ's peace to souls...not the absence of confrontation to the public forum.
God bless us all...and I agree w/ you 110% that Rick Santorum is "the One". no suprise there when you look at he and his wife's positions on family, homeschooling, less government, less regulation, etc. and...of course, Kenedy's ridiculous, vomit-inducing "historical" speech!
Bil Sr.
1 year ago
There is hardly any human condition for which there is not an over bloated fraud ridden virtual money pit governmental solution coming out of Washington either through legislation or edict perpetrated by the career minded ruling class who have assumed the mantel of benevolent masters of a nomadic entitlement seeking citizenry.
There is plenty more but we can start with the CHILDREN.
There are government run schools in every community which have a curriculum set up to teach what every growing child should know. These include but are not limited to, How to sing Obama Um, Um, Um, how it’s possible to have two moms or dads and not just one of each, and why it is ok if moms like women best or dads like men best. As they mature they are taught the various ways they or adults can show affection for each other male or female, the dangers of sex with the opposite sex and how to apply a free government supply of condoms to protect against the main danger, what government assistance is available to them if sex gets them sick, and most importantly if they, god forbid, should be punished (the presidents word not mine) by being pregnant the government well funded Planned Parenthood is just around the corner to get rid of your problem child. Now you can graduate with honors (and with a little help from the public school administration that has covered for your inaptitude in order to preserve their funding) try to find a job in a jobless market. But if you can’t find one the government will foot the bill for you at the nearest fun and games college of your choice IF you promise to go to work for the wonderful government that gave you all the blessings of a godless anti-voucher budget busting unionize LIBERAL education.
Every lockstep Democrat in congress has to admit this is all true and they are the architects of it. .
Case Closed
abey
1 year ago
For this the parents must have their responsibility to one another & this responsibility is based on the greater responsibility to GOD, 'cause responsibility does not come by itself & how can this come about, if families are ending up in divorces, for the simple reason of not willing to sacrifices, caught in self righteousness & indulgences, to a curse in the family structure & to this the government is increasingly pressurized to take over the mantle of the parents & since the government lacks love, which is most required for children, that which only the parents can give, which again comes from GOD, is also saying milk is the same but then there is the difference between breast feeding & bottle feeding, is the precise reason basic 'Education" through the administration is to a failure.

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