A:
Yes. Let me limit myself to the United States and certain
features of the United States . For many years, I have received
letters and phone calls from parents who are in tremendous
grief because their children have lost their faith going to
Catholic schools. The problem with the catechetics and academics
was basically denied by those in authority and lay people
were told that they were working on it- don't worry things
will get better. But when your kids are growing up, you don't
have time. You need to have a Catholic education now.
So, as a result
of that, many Catholic parents began to home school. Primarily
because they could no longer entrust their kids to the parochial
schools. Once they started doing that however, many of them
discovered that it's a better form of education if you can
do it. So, now I know many Catholic home school parents, who
even if they had a great Catholic school right across the
street, would still home school. Right here at Ave Maria,
we have a wonderful grammar and prep school - Ave Maria Grammar
and Prep- with some of the Dominican sisters from Ann Arbor
who are teaching there, a wonderful headmaster, excellent
faculty and great kids. But there are many families that live
literally a block or two from the school, and who home school-
it's not that they think the school isn't a good school, they
just think home schooling is a better education for their
kids.
Q:
Would you agree with them?
A: I would agree
that as a general principle that home schooling is superior
to schooling in a more structured context of a classroom.
But, that doesn't mean it's for everybody at all times and
at all grades. I do think it's better. Here at University,
half of our students are home schooled. Through high school,
about 25% are home schooled.
You find, in general,
even though the other students are good too, a greater love
of learning, willingness to study on their own, receptivity-
and in addition, incredible talent. A number of our students
can play the piano, or the violin, or can act, or sing, and
do it well. It's astounding to me. I've never seen such a
concentration of talent, and a lot of it is because they have
large families that home school and can learn these things.
So no one can claim now that there's no opportunity to educate
their kids in a Catholic way. They can always home school.
Then there
are these new family schools, many members of NAPCIS as you
mentioned- there's more than a hundred of them around the
country. These are family-operated, small, Catholic schools,
which are loyal to the Tradition of the Church and to a classical
education. And as far as universities go, there are 10 or
12 spread across the country, so I think you can get a good
education.
Q:
In terms of a classical education, there are those who would
argue that the idea of a classical education would actually
include the dynamic of having peers among you in the learning
environment, simply in regards to the idea that the original
idea of school being leisure among friends, and granted you
can get that in the home element as well…
A: What's classical
about that? Do they have to be the same age? The idea of schools,
is as they say in French a “pis aller” a second
best type of thing. What were the best types of education
in medieval and post-medieval times? It was with the nobility
in the castles. How? With the tutors for the children of the
noble families. They didn't go to some school. And then, when
you started with the cathedral schools and in the monastaries,
you would go in with the monks. You would have young men join
the monastery as clerics, lower clerics, when they were 7
or 8 years old.
I think schools
have a value, but I think They are not as good as the kind
of care and attention you can get in a home schooling environment.
I've seen it happen- in a family of four kids, the oldest
boy who was very analytical and very argumentative did a lot
of reading and a lot of essays on different topics; but his
brother, a couple of years younger, was very intuitive and
artistic. So, he did more poetry, literature, art and that
sort of thing. And by doing that he also learned the other
skills he needed, but learned by doing the things that he
loved.
There's
a fellow that helps do some work for us in our retreat house
north of San Francisco . When he and his fiance were getting
ready to get married, he had about a fourth or fifth grade
reading level. But, he loved to hunt, so his fiancee’s
mother got him three subscriptions to some hunting magazines
and suddenly his reading level zoomed up because he finally
found something he wanted to read. That's how home schooling
works.You take a look at your kid and say, "He's interested
in WWII" so there's an entrée. You learn to read
better and do research. Then you might want to go on to other
things, like geography or weather. Who knows what it might
be. I think home schooling is a great sign of hope in this
country, and the small Catholic schools as well, and as a
result of that, the parochial schools and Catholic schools
are going through a renewal process. We also have younger
bishops now who are more traditional and younger priests who
are more traditional. I do see a lot of movement in the right
direction.
|
