Why Catholic Homeschooling?

Everyone has his or her own reasons for homeschooling. Here are some of mine.

1. Soul Pollution: At home "J" and I try to provide a Catholic environment in which we encourage our kids to love and serve God and each other. To do that we must constantly limit and guide their exposure to the media: T.V., movies, books, magazines, and internet content, all of which tend to be filled with godlessness, and consumerism, as well as sex, violence, and contemptible interpersonal relations of all kinds. Schools (even Catholic schools) foster a kind of youth or peer culture that values more exposure to mainstream secular humanism than we believe kids can handle. The urge to conform and compromise with peer culture is overwhelming and we don't want our kids to be overwhelmed.

2. Generic Teaching: Two of our four have recognized "learning disabilities" and the other two are special in other ways. When they were in schools, public or private, catholic or secular, at least two or three were misunderstood and poorly taught at any one time. At home, we honor each child's individuality. One learns Algebra at 13, another at 15, and another never learns it at all. All are successful. One learns best by reading, two from lectures, and another by a process she designed herself (pre-lessson vocabulary enhancement for students with expressive and receptive language delays).

3. Alcohol, drugs, premature sex, bullying, cliques, eating disorders, and suicide: Call me a crazed over-protective fear-mongerer if you wish. (Like this: "Tom, you are a crazed over-protective fear-mongerer!") But I think that these terrible problems are all associated with the "us vs. them" mentality that large institutions (like schools and prisons) breed between the staff and the client population.

4. It's Easier: When we had 3 or 4 in school, the end of the day was filled with the pressure of homework. Often we had a choice between teaching the kids what they needed to learn and getting the homework done on time. I knew that V needed to learn her times-tables, but first she had to complete her "word finds," and copy her spelling words five times, and make a collage from magazines I had to purchase for the purpose. It seems paradoxical and illogical, but homeschool took the pressure off us and the kids. They learned more and were happier. We taught more,in a relaxed atmosphere, and were (are) happier.

5. I like homeschooled kids. They are generally more comfortable with adults than kids schooled in institutions. They have fewer self-consciously cute or otherwise obnoxious attention-getting behaviors. They are not busy being tough or stylish or smug or superior. They rarely say "duh!" They enjoy other kids of all ages.