The Round Table of Catholic Homeschool Leaders (RT)-

A Keeping It Catholic Report

Dear Fellow Catholic:

The RT is an annual meeting of Catholic homeschool leaders from various states. Anyone who has a leadership role in a local, regional, or national capacity is welcome to attend the yearly discussions. The 1998 RT was held in Houston, TX at the beginning of November. The tentative location for next year's RT meeting is San Antonio, TX.

 Traditionally, the RT is a weekend event, beginning on Friday evening and lasting through late Sunday morning.

The following is an overview report on each of the three days in which the Round Table of Catholic Home School Leaders met. The big issues of the day were sex ed, chastity ed, "Catholic homeschooling - Protestant style," as coined by yours truly, and the "international homeschool association."

 Special thanks to KIC member Rita Thomas, who attended the RT as an independent leader from the state of Ohio. Mrs. Thomas wrote the following overview specifically for the KIC Online Support Group and our website.  Her report appears below.

Also found on this site is an independent report by Vivian Dudro , who distributed her summary of the Round Table through a Catholic homeschool leaders' email list for public dissemination. It's always interesting to read the the different views of those who participated in the same events, so please - read and compare.

In the love of Christ and His Virgin Mother,

 

Marianna Bartold

Keeping It Catholic

 

FRIDAY: The predominant activity was the arrival of the 98 Roundtable (RT) attendees, dinner and fellowship (old acquaintances renewed and new ones begun).

A post dinner meeting convened to approve the agenda for the weekend and begin the RT discussions of sex education materials and CCD programs. Throughout the evening an opportunity for Eucharistic Adoration in one of the retreat center chapels was utilized by some attendees until 10:00pm when Benediction and Stations of the Cross closed the day's sessions.

Thirty attendees from 11 States (CA, FL, IL, KS, MI, OH, OK, PA, TX, VA, and WA), including two priests, representing a variety of organizations and Catholic home education support groups were on the 98 RT roster. It was interesting to note in the roster that none of the attendees were identified as being associated with either TORCH (Traditions Of Roman Catholic Homes) or NACHE (National Association of Catholic Home Educators).

Friday Evening Session:

The sex education programs in the forefront were, "Catholic Vision of Love" (edited by Fr. Kris Stubna, diocese of Pittsburgh), "New Corinthians" (promulgated by the Cincinnati based Couple to Couple League), "Project Genesis" various programs by publishers such as Sadlier, Benziger, Brown, and Paulist Press.

It was reported that Fr Kris Stubna, editor of the Pittsburgh CVOL series was a speaker at the NACHE (National Association of Catholic Home Educators) conference in Virginia this late summer. His talk was interrupted several times by displeased conference attendees.

The reporter, having attended a plethora of Home Education Conferences, had never witnessed any speaker at a home education conference interrupted in such a fashion. It would seem that the national conference attendees were not pleased with Fr. Stubna's presentation.

The binders of various grade levels of the Pittsburgh, CVOL series were available for personal perusal by the RT attendees, as well as copies of other programs. One could see for oneself how the information was being presented to the little ones.

Discussions ensued regarding parental primacy in the extremely delicate topic of sex education. It was concluded that this area is to be dealt with on a personal level by each homeschooling parent as they see the need in their individual children.

The danger of promoting a sex ed book, series or curriculum as the authority to homeschooling parents could produce the problem of too much information too soon when such a program is simply followed vs. the child's need approached directly by parents.

Further discussion revolved around the aggressive promotion of these materials at home education conferences, in Catholic catalogs, such as The Leaflet Missal Co. and in home schooling magazines such as NACHE's The Catholic Home Educator.

A resolution was passed at the end of the three-day conference not to promote these materials at our conferences, to relay this information to home educators in our local areas and to notify the above public concerns that westrongly object to that marketing.

Information was relayed from Fr. John Hardon warning that some Catholic "sex education" programs were subtlely promoting a "tolerance agenda" of immoral and aberrant behaviors in their programs.

Respectfully submitted,

 

Rita Thomas +JMJ+

+Do All For the Greater Honor and Glory of God+

 

All Rights Reserved.

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