Public schools do not offer an equal chance for a good education to all students. Some public schools are excellent. Others are soul-killing factories. From my experience, it seems that this divides along economic lines.
Wealthy parents, who have access to private schools for their children, also have the option of sending them to the best public schools. Poorer parents often have no choices. They are forced to send their children to sub-standard, dangerous, inner-city public schools.
The deterioration of our society is apparent in the students themselves. Violent, disruptive children from dysfunctional families are common. In my House district I’ve had children as young as 7 or 8 or who were so violent and disruptive that they were uncontrollable. One elementary age child could not be left alone with younger children for even a short period of time because he would try to kill them by choking them.
Many of the children in these schools grow up without hope of a future. In spite of years of sex education they seem to have a complete lack of morality concerning personal sexual behavior. The girls regard getting pregnant while they are teens as an achievement. The boys brag about the number of out of wedlock children they have sired.
Homeschooling is the only viable alternative for many people. Private school tuition is more than they make, and even if they could afford it, their children would be unhappy as the lone working class child in a school where all the other kids come from wealthy families. The lifestyle of the other children would be too different from theirs and too unapproachable.
The choice between public and private schools is a no-win scenario for lower income parents. Homeschooling is the one option they have. The great thing about it is that homeschooling works. I can say from my own experience as a homeschooling mom that homeschooled kids learn. They have no trouble in college or holding jobs when they’re grown.
They don’t suffer the emotional and moral damage that is inflicted on children who spend their formative years in the pressure cooker of an inner city public school. They have strong friendships with other homeschooling kids that last into adulthood. They bond deeply to their families and their faith.
That’s why I was so happy to see the article, Homeschoolers applaud Vatican position on homeschooling. It is great to know that once again, my Church supports families in doing what is best for our children. If you’re interested in homeschooling, read it and smile.
Advocates of homeschooling applauded a statement by the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations in which he defended parents’ right to homeschool their children. Archbishop Francis A. Chullikatt, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See, said in remarks to the international body, “Parents … have the right and duty to choose schools inclusive of homeschooling, and they must possess the freedom to do so, which in turn, must be respected and facilitated by the State.” He added, “For some time now, my delegation has noticed a disconcerting trend, namely, the desire on the part of some to downplay the role of parents in the upbringing of their children, as if to suggest somehow that it is not the role of parents, but that of the State.”
Speaking at the Economic and Social Council at the UN on behalf of Pope Benedict, Archbishop Chullikatt “States are called to have respect for the freedom of parents to choose for their children schools, other than those established by the public authorities, to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions which equally applies to their right to make judgments on moral issues regarding their children.”(Read the rest here).
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