Homeschooling, Money, Catholic Education, Qualifications of a Teacher

I thought I wrote a very clear blog on the reasons we did NOT choose to homeschool, but alas, in Facebook debating, several things were brought up that I felt I needed to address in a separate blog posting.

1) Money 

We did not choose to homeschool because of money. We don't make much money, it's true, but money was off the table. Why? Because we would have done what we had to do, just as we have done in trying to get our CD finished -- fundraising, saving, garage sale, extra jobs, extra concerts, etc.

Money was not an issue for us, not because we have a lot, but because we have learned in our almost five years of marriage that God provides for our needs. Not always our wants, but our needs.

We have also learned that when we glorify God with our money, the rewards are multiplied. We strive to serve the Lord first with our money. This includes putting cash in the basket at church, not requesting reimbursement for every tiny thing, giving to people we know, in our lives, to be in need. Etc. God will hold us accountable to how we used our resources and if we don't use them with our first and foremost goal of building up God's kingdom, then we have some 'splainin' to do. That doesn't mean I can't enjoy new curtains which I plan to buy next month because we used that money for something more worthy, but if I keep my money to myself and not support my Church, or Catholic School financially or with my gifts of time and talent, then I didn't help sow in the vineyard, so to speak.

In Michigan, I was leading a Holy Hour for the Catholic school kids. A woman happened to be there praying and was moved to tears by the prayers of the students. She immediately walked over to the Catholic School and made a donation. She was an elderly woman without kids in the school, but was moved by the Holy Spirit to support Catholic Education and I think that is awesome, and I pray we can all be that way.

When David was unemployed for a short time due to a layoff resulting from a parish merge, we felt called to give a hefty donation towards some students who were heading to World Youth Day. We knew how much World Youth Day meant to us in our own faith lives. I had a number on my heart, but I said, Okay, Lord, if you want us to give this much, put that same number on David's heart. And He did. Dude... Holy Spirit fo' sho'!

Logically, it made NO SENSE that we should be called to give financially, and it was a huge sacrifice for us. But I PROMISE and even more than that, GOD promises, when you give generously and follow the Lord, He provides for your needs and the grace is a thousand fold. Just because some people have more than others doesn't lessen anyone's call to give to others, especially in building up the Kingdom.

David and I, our Catholic Schools, our Parishes, our teachers are all dependent upon the generosity of others, but deeper than that, the active response of the heart to the call to build the Kingdom of God with the resources we have been given BY Him for that purpose. Yep, that's right, what we have is a gift first and foremost to share. That's not a parish appeal -- that's all part of the Great Commission.

So David and I did NOT base our reasoning on money. If we had decided to go to Catholic school, we would have found a way, as many of my friends and family have, to make it work. Our reasons for homeschooling are listed in my previous blog, but I will recap them here.


2) There is no difference between the Catholic School and Public School, so homeschooling was our only option.

FALSE!

We have been to many great Catholic schools but I will narrow it down to three elementary schools that stand out in my mind, in the order that I experienced them!

A. St. Francis of Assisi in Memphis, TN. I student taught here. Outrageously expensive, but the teachers I met were INCREDIBLE. I've never seen so many creative lesson plans, fun academic activities outside of school, and the students excited to come to school. It was very pleasant and behavior issues, during my time there at least, were at a minimum.

B. Most Holy Trinity in Fowler, MI. The Faith Life here was unparalleled to anything I have ever seen. I think this is a result of the parish dynamic as a whole. The parish has two main priorities - 1. The School, and 2. The Youth. I saw first hand students' families returning to the faith because of their kids. The Youth Minister and Religious Education Director and I, the Music Director, were all required to have a presence and relationship with the school and its students. We ALL worked together to coordinate events, teach the faith not just from a book, but in practice, Holy Hours, Mass, Special Feast celebrations, etc. Busloads of teens went to the Steubenville Conferences, and right now, as we speak, CNN is doing a documentary on the vocations from that Parish!

C. Sacred Heart Catholic School, Dodge City, KS. I would be remiss in mentioning this school as it will be the school we send our children to if we decide not to continue in homeschooling. The middle school youth group is just starting up so David, as Youth Minister and Dad, will have a regular presence at the school. We have met many of the teachers and are good friends with the Principal. We see them at Mass regularly and see them live out their faith on a daily basis. We know that people who love the Lord will love our kids and that love will in turn draw our kids to the Lord. The tuition here is also very reasonable compared to other places. We WILL send our kids here if we choose to no longer homeschool.

We will NOT send our kids to Public School for elementary/middle school. We have discerned that this is not the most ideal environment for our kids given we value faith-based learning and application to our reality - not just an academic learning of faith, a life-learning. (That said, David went to Catholic School and became a Muslim for a time, so..... yeah. Ha!) We value also individualized learning. In a class with 30 plus students, teachers have to teach to the median.. the students that don't understand fall behind and the students that already know the material get bored and often hate school.

I do know homeschoolers who have left the Catholic faith too. That's a reality for all of us, but there are so so many reasons why we would choose Catholic School over Public School even at the expense of our future retirements, eating out, vacation, etc. To us, the faith-based education, small class sizes, support of the Church's missionary efforts, and freedom to express their faith are all valid reasons for us to support our Catholic School. Which we are also supporting in other ways even though we have chosen to homeschool!

Catholic Schools came along to educate the uneducated and those that couldn't educate their own children. We have the ability to educate our kids now and will send them along when we can't or discern that it isn't meeting their needs.

3) Parents are not qualified to teach their kids. 

Some are probably not, but neither are some teachers, despite having a degree and tenure. One of my first student teaching assignments was in Inner City Memphis. It was a horrible assignment because of the adults in the equation. Parents didn't care about their kids and if their kid couldn't read or had a behavioral issue it was blamed on the teacher. I remember having a parent/teacher conference with a woman whose daughter was constantly stealing from me, other classmates, and the classroom. The parent said, "Well, I don't know why you're telling me that. Just whoop her."

Um , sorry... not going to spank your child....

The cooperating teacher and several other teachers literally sat in the classroom and read from the textbook while kids talked, threw things, got into fights, etc. They gave the students answers to tests because their class got rewarded for good test scores.

Now, I'm sure that teacher didn't go into the classroom thinking, "I can't wait to lose all control of my students and just read to them from the textbook." I'm positive it was a result of lack of parent concern, terrible, terrible behavior from students who weren't used to discipline at home, and lack of resources to do the kinds of activities that my first example of a private school was able to do. Her lackadaisacal attitude was certainly a result of being jaded from the system.

This lack of parental concern over the child's education is not limited to public school. This extends even to Parish Religious Education programs. "It is YOUR job to teach my kids, not mine, that is why I send them to you."

In a way that is valid, but it puts the educational and faith future of your child in the hands of a person who has 29 other students to worry about.

I am perfectly qualified to teach my children. I have a degree in Education. I also know, parents who don't have college degrees who do a fine job educating their children because they are able to work with them one on one until they understand the material. There are many resources available to homeschoolers including college classes with dual credit - high school AND college credit -- a huge money saver!  Homeschooled children do very well on testing. Here is another article with more information to that fact.  

Parents have educated their children for years. And kids back then were smarter than they are now, too so......... I'm not saying' but I'm just sayin'..... What are our academic standards and how can we effectively produce educated, functioning adults in our society? No matter what, PARENTS MUST BE PART OF THEIR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION! Public, private, or homeschooled... parents MUST be involved.

I also want my kids to have time! School is eight hours a day plus homework! I really enjoyed the opportunity to work in school and have time to pursue music. I hope that my kids will be able to use the extra time they have to pursue their interests on a deeper level than a once a semester class. I hope that this time that I have with them will help bond us together as a family so that they have a good foundation to build from.

I always feel like I have to keep inserting disclaimers, but my parenting choices are not meant to be a reflection of others' parenting choices. My choices are prayerful, researched, and positive -- as in, not negative towards another option, but positive in that this seems to be the best option for our family!!!!!!! 


Ok, to recap.... these are the reasons that we decided to homeschool in order of priority.

1) TRAVEL, our kids would miss so much school. At this point we are still called to do our National Ministry and are open to if and when the Lord decides it is no longer our calling. Homeschooling allows us this flexibility without hampering the kids' academics or leaving them behind all the time.


2) We like the one-on-one, flexible schedule of homeschooling and find it more favorable to students of different learning types, and especially boys. David has raging ADHD and had a hard time in school. Chances are that one of our kids may have it too. Sitting still and learning in a classroom setting is not the ideal environment for a student with ADHD who needs to learn other coping skills and take frequent mental breaks.

3) I already work with our kids on educational type activities on an informal basis and find that they have learned much of what is required at their grade level. Let's see how they progress!

4) I have a degree in Education, so I may as well use it.

5) We can create a faith-based learning environment in our home.


That's it!

Again, I really thought my blog made the distinction that our reasons were very neutral and practical about homeschooling, but I hope this answers some of the objections!

God bless!

Why We are Trying out Homeschool

Several people have messaged me or asked me in person, why are we opting to homeschool, so I wanted to briefly answer those questions from our personal discernment on what is the best form of education at this time for our family.

We are starting with preschool/kindergarten as our first trial run of homeschooling, and I will be starting both Damien, 4, and Lucia, almost 3. We are going to take it one year at a time and actively discern each year and with each individual child if this is what God is calling us to! 

Here are a few reasons we have chosen homeschool: 

1) Our ministry requires a lot of travel, and we want the flexibility to travel without the kids having to miss school. Homeschooling allows us that flexibility to take the kids' work with us, double up work, or extend school to other days when school is not traditionally held, like weekends or snow days, summer, Labor Day, etc. 

2) Boys typically have a harder time in school than girls. Both my inlaws who were teachers and principals/vice principals in the Boston Public School systems agree that unless a teacher is very good with hands-on activities and keeping the students interested, boys easily get bored and act out. Many were recommended to be put on medications for having ADHD -- which is highly over-diagnosed especially in boys -- when maybe the unfortunate situation is that the child just wants to be a child. Because I will not have a group of 20 or 30 students like most overworked teachers, I will have the ability to do these hands-on activities, give one-on-one attention as needed, teach to the level of each of my kids, and give them run around outside breaks when they need one! Lord knows even as an adult I need my own version of run around outside mental break...(Looks more like a glass of wine... or two.) There are some amazing teachers out there and I support teachers 100% - I went to school to be one! I just wish the structure of the school day was more accommodating particularly to boys. 

3) Our kids are already ahead as far as curriculum guidelines. As we were debating on whether or not to send the kids to preschool this year, I looked up the curriculum. I was pleasantly surprised that my kids know most of the core objectives for preschool -- and the rest, I'm sure, will come. So, it wouldn't have been an academic reason I would have sent my kids  - at least Damien - to preschool, it would have been for the social. So, we had to ask ourselves...are there other ways our kids can get the social activities? Sure! There is an active homeschool group nearby, Damien will be taking martial arts, and Lucia may be taking ballet (depending on our pocketbook). Because they know the core curriculum objectives already, I want to see if we can go further. This year will be a combination of preschool and kindergarten. I don't want them to be bored with learning. Right now they are sponges and they are excited to learn! I want them to feel they have a great grasp over what they are learning, but also give them a challenge and see how they progress.

4) My degree is in Human Development - Education/Psychology. I went to school for this. If I'm not using my degree on a daily basis in a public/private school, I may as well give it a whirl in homeschool. ;)

5) Faith life is a given. We hope our kiddos will learn from us how to be holy people, whether they are homeschooled or private or public schooled, that is the best thing we can teach them! We also want to spend this time with them so they can witness our faith example and journey with us in ministry, as they are our first ministry. -- Ministry through vocation!

These are NOT reasons we decided to homeschool:

1) We don't trust the Church.  We love the Church, we trust her teaching authority, and we have a good Catholic school here. The Catholic Church invented formal education for crying out loud! I had a great conversation about this with a fellow Catholic mom about the circles of homeschool groups that are determined to homeschool because they have a mistrust of the Church, a mistrust of the Parish programming, and a mistrust of the secular world to a point of absolute isolation. This is more destructive than anything - but that's a whole 'nother blog post! We did not decide to homeschool because we don't trust our Catholic school to teach the faith. 

2) We don't want our kids around other kids. While of course we want to protect our kids from bad/negative influences, especially at this age where they are imitators and not examples, we know that they can't be in a bubble forever. We want our kids to learn to love and get along with all kinds of different people. There will be plenty of opportunities for that, including interaction with kids of all ages in the various homeschool group and other activities we participate in. 

3) We want to shelter our kids from heresy, moral relativism, etc. While yes, we are the guardians of their hearts, minds, and bodies while they are in our protections, this is not our primary reason for homeschooling. That said, one skill that we find sorely lacking in much formal education nowadays, even up to the collegiate level, is the ability to think critically. Hopefully we will be able to build a relationship with our kids that should something be said in any environment that they find confusing, dangerous, or hurtful, they will know they can come to us and talk to us about it. 

We are taking this ONE YEAR AT A TIME. Our discernment will be individualized per child and their needs, our family situation, our financial situation, etc. 

We are very excited about this new undertaking and would appreciate prayers! I am grateful for the structure that I hope this will bring back to our day. We have been so interrupted in so many ways this summer that I am praying for a routine! 

Hope this explains everything and if you have any questions, feel free to message me. 

God bless!