The first talk at the IHM Conference in D.C. was Fr. Papa and Dr. Moran speaking on “Why Homeschool?”
Fr. Papa opened, briefly, highlighting the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Of course, we need knowledge, but it doesn’t do it much good if we don’t have the wisdom to use it. On a related note, we need to educate not just to make a living but to point our children to eternal life.
Many people claim that public school will teach our children to defend their faith in a hostile world; homeschoolers often object that this doesn’t seem an appropriate expectation for, say, a grade-schooler. Fr. Papa concurs: “If you throw a canary into a snowstorm, it doesn’t get stronger or wiser- it gets dead!”
Finally, Fr. Papa reminded us that we can’t measure our children by the same yardstick we use for ourselves. We adults are all called and expected to be saints, but, “The Church is amazed when a child becomes a saint.”
Dr. Moran then followed by breaking down homeschooling into three levels of importance:
- Religion: catechism, theology, Scripture, saints’ stories. “They need to know that you’re there to make them saints first.” Instill a love of the Faith; they may leave as young adults, but most will come back to their childhood training.
- Reading, math, and English.
- Afternoon: science, history, other more enjoyable subjects. Let’s face it, most of them aren’t paying quite as much attention by then and need some subjects that are a bit more engaging and/or less mentally taxing.
On the temptation to compare your family to other families that are “at daily mass every single day, full rosary every night, all home-cooked meals, all kids at least one grade level ahead, etc.”… 1+2+dinner=Super Mom!
Finally, she reminded us to expect the devil to mess with us if we’re doing anything near the right thing to bring our kids up solidly Catholic and to make them resistant to the evils in the culture.
And pray to accept the crosses that God is going to send you today.
I suppose the speakers didn’t quite address the title of the talk, but they had some good points, and other speakers more thoroughly addressed a lot of the cultural and faith issues that drive us to homeschool. So (shameless blog pitch!) come back through the rest of the week for the rest of the conference summaries: Chesterton, Dr. Ray Guarendi, Prof. Joseph Pearce, more Chesterton… good stuff!
(I promise to leave out the bad talks, including the “How to survive as a Catholic Homeschooling Mother” that was just an infomercial combined with a harangue to attend mass every single day no matter what, “You’re not really a Catholic homeschooler if you aren’t doing a full family rosary every day,” and other little gems. Or the priest who was supposed to be talking on “Raising a Holy Family in the Culture of Death” who instead spoke on the evils of polyphonic chant (yes, chant: harmony causes too much emotionalism in church, he said) and rock and roll (Satanic), let alone Christian rock (blasphemous). I nearly walked out of the first and did walk out of the second. So, not all talks at homeschooling conferences are going to be to your liking, but most of them were really great. More tomorrow.)
The Political Housewyf 