Reader Contributions

CATHOLIC HOMESCHOOLING

By Len Beckman, Anaheim     5/28/2020

Welcome, Orange County Catholics to homeschooling! You just joined 2 million who made the choice before the SARS-Cov-2 hit our shores.  In an instant, 50 million (including our county’s millions of kids) families became homeschooling aficiandos  on March 21st here in California.  For the record, our family of 11 munchkins have been Catholic homeschooling for over 30 years, starting with #1 in the 80s and our #11 about 10 months from high school graduation.  We look at Catholic home based education a choice, NOT a crime.  It’s a lifestyle we wouldn’t trade for a fortune.  Beyond the usual question of SOCIALIZATION, which few can ever spell when we ask, we are busy co-opting with other like minded homeschooling families, doing science fairs, field trips, making life learning a part of our lives not just 180 days a year.  Currently, we have 12 college degrees, in computer science, sculpture, communications, summa cum laude English (Briana getting married June 12), master in math after Thomas Aquinas, animal health science and more.

Mom Donna, now in heaven, and I thought, researched and prayed and took it one year at a time for about 36 years.  Truth is, EVERYONE homeschools for the first few years, until the crossroads: continue home based or farm out to Catholic parish or public education.  In the public realm, with child care costs, 35% Math/English proficiency  and 78% grad rates, often, we end up the better option.  Plus, with the partnership CalEd Inc has with Margaret Sanger’s planned parenthood Guttmacher aberrant sex ed (like S&M at 12, consent bondage at 12 etc), the decision to continue has two options: yes and heaven yes.  Forced homeschooling, matched to distance learning is NOT chosen, lifestyle homeschooling.  I know a number of hard working Catholic parish teachers working hard, but it’s not the same for both the teachers and the student.

The Plague of Xi has turned the world upside down, with job loss, depression and other maladies co-morbid with the virus.  But for those who have homeschooled as a vocation, for a year or 30, it has been a little easier task.  Our distance learning is kitchen to school room to living room to outside events.  Although the outside learning experiences have restrictions.  As lifelong homeschoolers, we have learned to adapt.

Canon Law states: “Parents are the primary educators of children” in the domestic church; whomever we use as a surrogate after age 3 or 5, they are an extension still of the home.  Actually, tons of online resources, aides, coop classes have been here for a long time, but the first step if considering, is to pray.  Discuss.  School is not an institution but a part of the character qualities development process and informational growth that accompanies education.  No one knows the future of this bizarro lockdown but this I know: TAKE control of your kids’ education.  If in Catholic parish school, give 110% along side the teacher who is learning Zoom and GoToMeeting like the rest of the world.  We learn for a lifetime; and a Renaissance is coming post plague.  Be ready for the adventure: your kids deserve it!  And you do too.  You will NOT regret the adventure; the kids that are still under your roof after 9am most weekdays are YOURS! Treat them accordingly.  Don’t settle for second best IF you can homeschool as a family.  Life IS an adventure; it IS a great day to be alive.