My sixth grade teacher put our class through an
exercise I will never forget. Upon the signal of dropping his pen,
I threw my books down on my desk, burst into tears and marched out
of the room. (This was in public school, mind you.) Other
previously arranged things happened, and after everything was
restored to normal, my classmates were asked to report what had
happened. Now everyone in that room was an eyewitness of
everything that went on, yet no two accounts were exactly the
same.
Only one student was astute enough to realize that the
dropping pen was the catalyst that set everything else into
motion. It is with a little trepidation that I attempt to piece
together a report on Round Table 1998, which met in Houston Nov.
6-8, not only because I recognize that my powers of observation
and retention are finite, but also, and even more especially,
because many homeschooling leaders
already are suffering from misunderstandings and misjudgements,
and I do not wish to add to their already heavy burden.
Nevertheless, the issues that were discussed are so
important to homeschoolers now and in the future, that we must not
back down from the difficult task of sorting things out. I am
convinced that homeschoolers are doing a tremendous service to
families everywhere in clarifying the inalienable duties and
rights of parents. The family is under attack by our spiritual
enemy, and as it crumbles, the state is encroaching upon it and
aggrandizing itself in the process. We must realize that we
homeschoolers represent a bulwark against the enemy and against
the state, and of course we will suffer for it!
While other topics came up at Round Table and will be
discussed later in this report, the
two most important issues were, in my opinion, sex education and
diocesan guidelines. These seem like two different
topics, but in fact they intersect each other at that juncture
where we define the duties and rights of parents. The reader might
take notice that I prefer to list duties and rights in that order.
That is because I wish to draw attention to the fact that one
precedes the other. We have rights from God precisely because we
have been given duties by Him. We have the primary rights with
respect to the education of our children because we have been
given the primary duty to raise them.
This is a point of political
philosophy about which every homeschooler must be
clear.
Illustrating this point very nicely were the handouts
provided to the Round Table by Julia
Fogassy and Katherine Eames of Seattle. These two
ladies had done their homework and had produced graphics, analysis
and documentation.
At this point, I would like to mention that I missed the
Sunday session about legislative
initiatives. This issue ranks right up there with
the aforementioned ones.
Ellen Kramer of
Pennsylvania came prepared with up-to-date information on
forthcoming bills, the merits of which can be judged according to
the true definition of parental duties and rights. So you see,
if we Catholic homeschoolers can get
it straight with ourselves, our bishops and our pastors, the
Church will become an even stronger advocate of the family in the
battles that lie ahead.
Back to Julia and Katherine, if I can sum up their point
about sex ed, it is this: While explicit and therefore age
inappropriate content has been the attention grabber on this
matter (And no one, perhaps, has done more to uncover how truly
terrible these programs can be than has Mothers'
Watch ), the real issue is that
educators (in this case
Catholic ones), however well intentioned some may be,
are ursurping a responsibility that
belongs to parents.
We must then shift the terms of the debate away from whether
this program is good or that one bad and toward whether this
subject matter should be taught to children in a fashion that
bypasses their parents. "But what
about all the children whose parents refuse to teach
them?" many will ask.
To address this very real problem, the
Church must resist the temptation
to ursurp the parents' role and aim her educational
efforts in this area at adults, and Heaven knows how needy
American Catholics are of sound formation in this area. However,
even then the Church must be careful not to let the secular world
dictate the content. Her mission is to preach the Gospel, not
dispense Planned Parenthood materials.
Dr. Mary Kay Clark,
founder of Seton Home Study School, made the observation that
simply reviewing modern sex education materials, even those
produced by Catholic publishers, can have a corrupting effect on
one's thoughts, which only
underscores what happens to children in classrooms.
By turning what ought to be a private, discreet, and
personal exchange of information between parent and child
according to the child's own special needs into a public,
indiscreet and impersonal discussion between teachers and mixed
classes of boys and girls of various backgrounds and developmental
stages undermines
purity, modesty and self-control.
For this reason, the Round
Table passed a resolution discouraging the marketing of explicit
sex education materials designed for classroom use to
homeschoolers. Diocesan
guidelines for sacramental preparation was the next big
topic.
Thanks to the attendance of Fr.
James O'Connor of the St. Joseph's Foundation, the
Round Table had an expert on hand to answer questions regarding
canon law, a great assest indeed. The conversation on guidelines
can be divided into two areas: 1)
defining the respective responsibilities of parents and
bishops, and 2)
debating the moves made by national homeschool organizations to
address this issue.
Enter again Fogassy and Eames. Once more they made the point
that the primary question is not about the content of various
guidelines but whether such guidelines, insofar as they are
addressed to parents, are improper because they represent a
ursurpation by the bishop of responsibilities that belong to the
parents.
They argued that while the bishop may issue guidelines to
his pastors regarding the time, manner and place of the
sacraments, and while he may protect the authenticity of the Faith
by forbidding the use of erroneous materials in his diocese, and
while he also may guide pastors in their delicate task of
ascertaining the proper disposition of a candidate for a
sacrament, the bishop may not issue
guidelines directed at parents regarding the ways and means of
bringing up their children in the Faith.
They may not, for example, mandate
that parents place their children in particular programs or use
particular books. To back up their argument , Eames
and Fogassy presented a 1988 letter
from Edouard Cardinal Gagnon, president of the Pontifical Council
for the Family, which states that parents are not
obliged to accept the catechetical assistance offered by their
pastor.
While Fr. O'Connor agreed that parents are not obligated to
place their children in parish or diocesan programs, he said the
Eames/Fogassy analysis limited the
bishop too much. The roles of parent and bishop are
mutual, he said. It is difficult to divide up the task into neat
spheres of domain.
Though his remarks left me with more
ambiguity than clarity on this point, he clearly
stood on the side of parents who choose not to utilize Church
programs and hinted that pastors and
bishops are being less than generous when they withhold the
sacraments from the children of such parents.
To avoid such a situation with Confirmation, he
suggested that the
candidate write the bishop himself requesting the sacrament and
that the parents, sponsors and even godparents write letters of
endorsement. These should be sent via certified mail. If the
request is denied there are proper channels of appeal, but
recourse to these should be taken only as a last resort, he said.
The discussion grew animated when the
topic shifted from the guidelines themselves to initiatives taken
by national homeschool leaders on this front. Here
some background is necessary.
Kimberly Hahn,
known nationally for her book on homeschooling and her
leadership role in the National Association of Catholic Home
Educators (NACHE), helped the Diocese of Pittsburgh draft
sacramental preparation guidelines for homeschooling parents.
Hahn does not reside in the
Diocese of Pittsburgh, and it has been alleged that the
concerns of homeschoolers who do and who were not in favor of
the guidelines were discounted.
The resulting guidelines are
unnecessarily long, detailed and therefore burdensome to
parents, in the opinion of this writer. The stress
is upon the need for parents to cooperate with parishes rather
than the other way round, which opens
the door for the intimidation of parents by either
pastors or CCD directors.
Needless to say, Hahn's actions
and the resulting guidelines have drawn fire. It
appeared that none of
the Round Table attendees were happy about how things transpired
in Pittsburgh.
In response to the situation in Pittsburgh, the Catholic
Home School Network of America (CHSNA) has since produced an
enlightening booklet titled "Responsibilities and Rights of
Parents in Religious Education," which they mailed to every bishop
in the country. The book provides 50 pages of sound Catholic
teaching regarding parental duties and rights, with ample
citations from canon law. All of the Round Table participants
seemed grateful for those first 50 pages.
However, some (e.g. Eames and Fogassy)
took exception to the last four pages
which recommend both the Pittsburgh policy and that
of the Diocese of Atlanta, which states that children educated in
the Faith at home are exempt from requirements to attend
catechetical programs, as models for other dioceses.
The booklet qualifies this recommendation with the assertion
that no policy is the best policy
and that any policy directed at the ways and means
used by parents to teach their own children must be declared
optional.
Fogassy equated the actions of CHSNA
with those of Hahn, in that both parties went
directly to the bishops with recommendations,
bypassing the homeschoolers in those
dioceses.
Ken Clark, legal counsel for Seton Home Study School,
defended the CHSNA booklet by saying that the push for guidelines
is snowballing and that the bishops need to be informed by people
other than their own educational experts, who in many cases will
draft the guidelines. Better to provide the bishops with the most
harmless examples of guidelines and do their work for them, than
leave it up to their staff, he said.
The good intentions of Hahn and CHSNA were not and
should not be called into question.
But whether or not principles of
subsidiarity and representation are being violated
unintentionally by either the guidelines themselves
or the parties that have inserted themselves into the writing
process was. In spite of some differences of opinion, the
discussion exposed how differently
one's actions can be interpreted by others and how unintended
consequences are bound to result when people begin operating on
behalf of others.
Another topic on the agenda was the use by Catholic
homeschoolers of non-Catholic or even anti-Catholic materials.
A resolution was passed that
encourages the use of Catholic materials where
available. (KIC NOTE INSERT: In other
words, without mentioning our network by name, those attending the
Round Table espoused the basic message promoted by
Keep It
Catholic!) The discussion of this subject
aroused some thoughts and questions in the mind of this writer
that were not able to be fully addressed by the Round Table. But
they are, I think,
worthy of further exploration.
Let me explain. Many Catholic homeschoolers use study
schools, such as Seton and Our Lady of the Rosary, that provide
Catholic textbooks in every possible subject. But many Catholic
homeschoolers weave together their own curriculum combining
Catholic and non-Catholic materials. Some use textbooks mostly to
provide the scope and sequence of information; some select only
those portions of textbooks that meet their objectives. Some use
lessons that present a non-Catholic or even anti-Catholic point of
view as a teaching tool in apologetics. Finally, some parents
avoid textbooks as much as possible, preferring original sources
and their own innovative exercises. In any case, it must be made
clear that the parent, not the books, is the real curriculum.
Furthermore, Catholic parents should be exposing their
children to "the good, the true and the beautiful", whether or not
overtly Catholic materials are used. Of course, all are agreed
that Catholic materials are necessary for teaching the Faith.
While any responsible parent should welcome critical analyses of
available materials, and while homeschooling leaders can provide a
real service to parents in producing such analyses, the freedom of
parents to choose their methods and materials must be respected.
Otherwise we risk going against the
very principle upon which homeschooling rests, that the parents
are responsible for discerning what is best for their own
children.
(KIC NOTE: We have to disagree
with this last line on principle because we, as Catholics, must
follow the Church's authentic teachings on Catholic education.,
while at the same time recognizing and respecting parental
subsidiarity.)
Another subject that was discussed at the Round Table was
the formation of associations of Catholic homeschoolers.
NACHE is in the process of forming an
association with the help of Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore.
Julia Fogassy and some
friends are networking with homeschoolers in other
countries and trying to discern what if any formal organization
can be arranged for their mutual benefit.
A lot of questions were left
unanswered, but there seemed to be a consensus among
the participants that this is an area that should be pursued with
a great deal of prayer, caution and prudence.
No one wants the principle of subsidiarity violated by
organizations directed by the clergy making pronouncements about
what Catholic homeschoolers should and should not do. And no one
wants the existence of organizations
to produce insiders and outsiders within the
homeschooling movement. However, we can expect more developments
in this area, as those who are eager for more official contact
with the heirarchy of the Church and those who desire greater
unity and collaboration among homeschoolers continue on their
respective courses.