No place like home:Some Catholic families feel the 'call' of homeschooling

WILMINGTON, Del. (The Dialog) - This September two Girone children left Christ the Teacher School in Glasgow to start classes in their own home in Bear, where their mom is the teacher.

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After considering taking her children out of Catholic school for a few years, Allison Girone has joined a growing number of parents in the United States who homeschool their children. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that about 2 million children are being homeschooled this year, compared to 790,000 in 2000, and homeschooling is growing at a rate of at least 15 percent a year. According to the Delaware Department of Education, homeschool enrollment increased from 1,226 in 1996-97 to 2,563 in 2005-06. It is not known how many Catholic children in the Diocese of Wilmington are homeschooled. Two homeschooling groups of Catholic parents in Delaware estimate their combined membership at 40 to 50 families. Homeschoolers interviewed recently by The Dialog cite that growing trend and say their decision to teach at home was inspired by the church's designation of parents as their children's primary educators, their desire to be more involved in raising their kids, and their ability to integrate religion throughout their lessons. Now the Girone children, members of St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in Glasgow, start their school day in church at Mass. Then from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. sixth-grader Will, fourth-grader Ben, and kindergartner J.D. (John Davis) are taught at home by their mother, a communications graduate of Mount Holyoke. (Two-year-old Annie is only "auditing" classes this semester.) "We loved Christ the Teacher," Girone said. "We weren't looking to leave but it was more a question of going from good to what was best for us." Homeschooling always appealed to her, Girone said, but because she didn't have a teaching degree she worried, "Would I be able to do it?" When Girone did some research she found lots of choices available for parents who teach at home. She read "Catholic Home Schooling" by Mary Kay Clark, who founded Seton Home Study School, one of the study programs that parents can buy. Many homeschool curriculums like Seton offer books, online testing and evaluation and other aids for teaching parents. Homeschooling isn't for everyone, Girone said, "but the books would tell you any kind of personality could do it. If God brings you to it, he will see you through it." Girone said her research showed homeschooled children perform well on standardized tests and have high social maturity. She was also impressed by a Catholic homeschooling maxim, "It's not about getting your children into Harvard, it's about getting them into heaven." "I want to put God first," she said. Girone feels that she and her husband, Steve, a financial analyst, didn't learn enough about their faith growing up. "The catechism of our youth failed us," she said, but through reading and watching EWTN, "we're becoming magisterium-type people." With two months of home classroom experience behind her, Girone remains enthusiastic. She linked up with a newly formed group of Catholic homeschooling parents in New Castle County, called Our Lady Queen of Peace, for a First Friday Mass at St. Hedwig Church this month. The homeschoolers, who named themselves for the Charles Parks statue of Mary planned to be erected in New Castle, are scheduling other field trips and devotions. Girone loves integrating the faith into her children's lessons, which she feels she can do more easily at home. "Why do book reports on 'Junie B. Jones' when they could be reading the lives of the saints?" she said. Parish cooperation The Diocese of Wilmington supports homeschoolers, says Ed Gordon, secretary of the diocesan Catholic Education Department and director of the Office for Religious Education. "They're our families, too." Many more parents teach religion to their children at home than homeschool their children in every subject, Gordon said. Reasons of "scheduling, distances, a desire to share their faith with their children, illness, any number of different reasons" lead parents to take on religious-education responsibilities. The National Directory for Catechesis, approved by the U.S. bishops in 2003, says there should be cooperation between the parish and the homeschooling families, Gordon said. While parents are the first educators of their children, the diocesan policy for sacramental education is that "all the children in the parish who are preparing for the sacraments prepare together," no matter what school they attend, Gordon added. "Sacraments are celebrated within the eucharistic assembly of the local parish. The pastor has charge of that." The diocese recommends that homeschooling parents who teach religion classes work with the parish director of religious education in the religious formation of their children, Gordon said. "We would encourage them to use the same texts as the ones being used in the parish and school. All our texts are in conformity with the catechism." In some parishes, Gordon said, "the DRE will meet periodically with the homeschooling families to help them and encourage them." Gordon also encouraged homeschoolers to "tie into the broader church community" by volunteering in their parish and keeping their children involved in parish activities. Gordon sees the use of computers and the Internet as one of the reasons for the growth of homeschooling. Computers "give you access to the world's library," he said. "You can buy into a Web site and check the effectiveness of what you're teaching." Life-changing experience Sue O'Hanlon has been homeschooling her children for 12 years. She is an active member of St. Polycarp Parish in Smyrna, where she serves on the finance council and has served on the pastoral council. Her husband, Ardle, sings in the choir. "We've always tried as a family to fit in with the parish," said O'Hanlon, whose family previously attended St. Catherine of Siena in Wilmington. "I do think in sacramental education it's important they share it with the community." O'Hanlon first learned about Catholic homeschooling at a Catholic store that used to be on Kirkwood Highway. The owners were homeschoolers. O'Hanlon also discovered the National Association of Catholic Homes & Educators (NACHE), which runs a Catholic Family Expo that includes information on Catholic homeschooling. "I went to the conference and it gave me everything I needed," O'Hanlon said. NACHE's recent Catholic Family Expo conferences have been in Baltimore. Bishop Saltarelli has spoken at the event in the past; the group, which lists Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore on its advisory board, will have its next Baltimore expo June 28 to July 1, 2007. With her oldest son now in college at Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Md., O'Hanlon's morning roll call includes Drew, Skylar, David, Mary Beth and Teresa, who is 4. The first year was the hardest, O'Hanlon recalls. "There were many days I went to bed crying. I didn't have a teaching background. We ordered a curriculum from a provider; it was so restrictive my son was becoming bored and I was becoming overwhelmed because I didn't want to screw up." During that first year "you're just trying to figure out what you're teaching style is," O'Hanlon said. Now she doesn't use everything from one program but mixes and matches material that works best for her students. If learning social skills at school is often an argument against homeschooling, O'Hanlon sees it as a shallow objection. "How much socialization do they really get in school? In classes they're not allowed to talk to each other; maybe on the playgrounds and at lunchtime. Socialization is just a paper tiger that people put out there because they're scared." The O'Hanlons are members of the six-year-old St. John Bosco homeschooling group. Through it and other networking -- such as classes in algebra and geometry that other parents provide, courses her 11th-grader takes at Delaware State University, and dance lessons provided by another homeschooling parent -- socialization isn't an issue, she said. Her experience with homeschooling has been "a total transformation of living life," O'Hanlon said. "It puts you where you need to be as a parent. Even if you put your kids in school, as a parent you're still their most important educator." Teaching her children at home was "the best decision our family ever made," O'Hanlon said. "It was always a call to this vocation. God calls you to something like this."

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This story was made available to Catholic Online by permission of The Dialog (www.cdow.org), the official newspaper of the Diocese of Wilmington, Del.