Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Home-schooling and Over-schooling

I have an article up at Catholic Stand about education... as complex as that might be:

http://www.catholicstand.com/homeschooling-and-over-schooling/

I hope you enjoy it. This is one of the things I most think about recently.

3 comments:

  1. Julie, such a beautiful blog you have here! Congratulations! And this article is very good too. But I leave you a few questions just as more food for thought: are we just trying to get our children into Heaven, or should we, as Christians, try to get all the other children into Heaven too? Are we supposed to be everything in the lives of our children, or should we let others have an influence on them too, so that they can confront different ideas, and also come to us for comfort - otherwise, who do they go to when "school" is a source of conflict? If parents are also teachers, who is there to "rescue" them? Well... Another question: Jesus told us to be in the world without being part of the world. Can't our children do this? You have a small child, but I have six and the eldest is seventeen. They are all in school. They love it. They have troubles, conflicts, they hear at school things that are different from the things we say at home. Nothing has ever caused them any harm. Every day we pray together and discuss the Scriptures for almost an hour, and we chat about everything. Our relationship couldn't be deeper. They couldn't be nicer children... What I am trying to say is something I have discovered with my own family life: school cannot harm you if your family is strong in God. We can be in the world and be saints, helping others to be saints too. Of course - my children don't spend at school longer hours than they should and don't go out with their friends whenever they feel like... Family, for us, is the strongest thing they have, and the most time they have is with us. long holidays, long evenings at home, no sleepovers, no holidays away at other friends' houses, no vanity activities... School is, for us, very limited in time and in time consuming, and our children are famous for having the longest hours at home. Well, Julie, this is just my share of thoughts with you. You have a lovely family! Come and visit our family blog - Uma Família Católica. Teresa Power

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  2. Hello Teresa... thank you for sharing your thoughts. I agree that school can also work for families. Maybe it depends on the school and the family... and where and how they live. I have been a teacher for the last few years in Portugal and am kind of traumatized by the schools I have worked at. But I like to think there are good schools here... maybe.
    It's so funny because I have heard of you! From Helena and Rute. I will check out your blog. You didn't write it here, but I found it: http://umafamiliacatolica.blogs.sapo.pt/

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  3. Thank you, Julie! I am also a teacher (English teacher) and my husband is a very nice Irish fellow :) so we both have multicultural bilingual families, I suppose! We may meet one day and even talk about all these isssues personally. Well, we have a very nice pilgrimage day in Fátima, on the second of January. We are very child-friendly, as you must have heard... All our retreats and meeting include the whole family, and the more children the merrier! Check all the information on my blog, if you think you might be interested. It would be a pleasure to meet you! Have a very merry Christmas, Teresa

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