We live in an area where many Catholic families choose to homeschool their children. My family does as well. In a discussion with my pastor about Catholic education he said, “I am grateful that it will be Catholic homeschool families who pass on the faith to the next generation.” The implication was that without Catholic schools the means by which the faith would be safely and successfully transmitted to the future would be through the work of Catholic homeschool families.
While this to a limited extent may be true, little does he know, Catholic homeschool families are often disorganized, confused, discouraged, and heading in all different directions. They struggle enough to achieve basic education for their children, let alone proper catechesis. If the keys to the kingdom had indeed been handed to us homeschoolers, we’d all be in trouble. Thankfully, the Church is constantly working and creating resources to help with this effort. Yet this does highlight a possibility regarding Catholic education. Could Catholic parishes and Catholic homeschool parents work together more formally to educate Catholic children?
Do We Need A School to Educate?
Recently, the Classical Liberal Arts Academy (CLAA) has introduced a program designed specifically to help Catholic homeschool families manage their studies well (see this video explanation of the program). Through this program, the disorganization, confusion and misdirection already present in Catholic homeschools is replaced by simplicity, clarity, and achievable goals. Such a program could serve as a means by which pastors of Catholic parishes could take joint responsibility with parents for the complete education of the children in their pastoral care. All this without having to formally establish a school.
Catholic homeschools are legally recognized schools. The Church is struggling to keep open or make available legally recognized schools. Parishes should be encouraging families to establish their own Catholic homeschools and working with them to provide the best possible Catholic education. Contrary to common sense (and the decrees of the Baltimore Council which mandated a school at every parish), many Catholic parishes have no Catholic educational options available for families. Catholic children are simply sent to public schools. It is simply an unconscionable situation. Why shouldn’t parishes get involved with the growing number of homeschool families and provide them with direction?
So there are two problems here. 1) Pastors do not have a reliable, comprehensive Catholic curriculum to recommend and 2) parents need more help establishing a homeschool and managing their studies well. The Classical Liberal Arts Academy has exactly what is needed to solve both of these problems.
The Problem Is Already Solved
The Classical Liberal Arts Academy provides a means of documenting and accounting for the entire education of Catholic children. They offer an accredited, authentically classical, affordable curriculum paid for directly by families who have established legal homeschools. Isn’t this what the Church needs? Isn’t this the unsolvable problem in modern Catholic education? It is already solved. Pastors right now, today, have a means of fulfilling their duty to provide a “school” for their parish. By the principle of subsidiarity, they have a more efficient and affordable way to do so within the context of the family. Further, pastors endorsing such a program would have the peace of mind that not only is the faith being transmitted to the Catholic children in their care, but the entire philosophical foundation which makes the faith intelligible would be as well.
Pastors know that to understand and live Catholicism well, a person must study the fullness of the Catholic intellectual heritage. This includes the classical liberal arts, Classical and Scholastic philosophy, classical languages, Sacred Scripture, and Sacred Tradition. They know education is enriched by humanities courses which are informed by these formal classical studies. They know such studies are not optional but essential for Catholics. We cannot simply continue without these studies and hope that the faith and Catholic culture will be passed on. They will not be.
A Win For Families and For Pastors
As was said, Catholic families who choose to homeschool often do so with no direction from their pastors. We need to change this. Pastors need to have confidence in a program which is authentically classical, Catholic, accredited, and workable for families at home. By adopting as a standard the educational goals of the CLAA, they would have a turn-key means to eagerly account for the Catholic education of their flock, as St. Peter encouraged.1 By explaining to families that such a program aligns with the goals of Catholic education and human formation, they will help their parish families orient their homeschool properly. They’d help them avoid the misdirection and chaos that so many homeschool families tend toward.
Pastors would then have access to the records available through the CLAA showing the progress of their own families through the classical Catholic curriculum. This could facilitate homilies which would pertain directly to the children’s studies. This would integrate a child’s intellectual formation with his sacramental formation. No more would pastors be in the dark about what exactly the children of his parish are learning. He would be actively promoting a program which conforms to his own intellectual and faith formation. And all of this at no cost to his parish! I don’t see why any pastor would not jump on an opportunity like this.
What About Practical Needs?
The practical needs of homeschool families can be met by the collaboration of parish families. Some parents will need help with supervision on certain days. Work schedules will have to be accounted for. Homes will need to be set up in a way that is conducive to education. All these practical needs are common to homeschool families. If one parish family and a neighboring parish family are both studying the same Catholic curriculum and pursuing the same goals, it would be very easy to cooperate together through the school year.
In conclusion, the answer is yes. Catholic parishes and homeschooling parents should work together to bring about the next generation of Catholic education. The Classical Liberal Arts Academy makes it possible.
- 1 Peter 5:2 “Tend the flock of God in your midst, [overseeing] not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly.” ↩︎
