German Homeschooling Family Granted Political Asylum In U.s

[Saint Therese]

[quote name='Raphael' date='30 January 2010 - 10:58 PM' timestamp='1264910295' post='2048023']
Gotta tell you, the more homeschoolers I meet, the more attracted I am to it. Jennie and I agree that we would do it if we could afford it.


[/quote]

My sister and her husband have homeschooled all three of their children, and they are anything but rich. They've made deliberate sacrifices to live more simply in order to do this. Because of this I really think that most people [i]could[/i] do it they were prepared to make the necessary sacrifices.

[Ephrem Augustine]

[quote name='CatherineM' date='31 January 2010 - 12:54 AM' timestamp='1264917247' post='2048082']
I was told they didn't need multiplication because the kids would just use calculators anyway.
[/quote]
well that could be one way to turn electronics into a "magic spell" that only techie "wizards" can operate. actually i think that is why Macs are so popular.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='CatherineM' date='31 January 2010 - 12:54 AM' timestamp='1264917247' post='2048082']
I was told they didn't need multiplication because the kids would just use calculators anyway.
[/quote]
Morons.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' date='31 January 2010 - 09:23 AM' timestamp='1264947819' post='2048198']
Our former pastor is now an auxiliary bishop and he was very supportive of the homeschoolers at our parish. Our current pastor was the vocations director for our archdiocese and he is [i]very [/i]supportive of homeschoolers. Three of the associate pastors who have been at our parish have been very supportive (two have sisters who homeschool, the other taught our kids Latin)... I think those clergy who know homeschoolers tend to be supportive. And your Catholic homeschool would be a Catholic school.
[/quote]
Well, I think the bishops who are critical of homeschooling fall into one or more of three categories:

1. Bishops who think homeschoolers are radical nuts.
2. Bishops who think that Catholics should support Catholic schools as a matter of duty by sending their kids.
3. Bishops who think that homeschool parents aren't adequately trained to pass on the faith.

My responses:

1. I'm sure there are [i]some[/i] radical homeschoolers, but I don't see how sweeping generalizations help anyone.
2. I think Catholics have an obligation to raise their children in the faith, I don't think (and the Church's documents don't support the view) that that job must be outsourced from the domestic church to the Catholic school.
3. As a Catholic theology teacher who was educated (K-8) in a Catholic school, I can tell you that few religion teachers have any formal training in theology and even fewer practice their faith. Most Catholic schools are not faithful to the Church. I'm fortunate to work with two religious studies majors from Benedictine College. The majority of our theology faculty has theology or religious studies degrees.

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='CatherineM' date='31 January 2010 - 04:35 AM' timestamp='1264912532' post='2048050']
I homeschooled for two years. Religion had nothing to do with the decision. The older boy was in 4th grade, and they had decided to no longer teach them multiplication tables. The younger boy was getting ready to go into 2nd grade, and couldn't read. My choice was to let them be academically destroyed by a hopeless school, try to find the money for private school which at the time was more a year than I made, or homeschool them.
[/quote]
Yeah, I didn't especially like teaching the math curriculum in FL. Would've been great as a supplement, but not as the main curriculum, IMO. Granted, I have little teaching experience, but that's how I felt.

Regarding homeschooling, we're hoping to homeschool our children, for various reasons. One is because I want to be able to tailor things to their levels, so if my son is reading on a 3rd grade level at age 5, I can do 3rd grade reading work with him. And if, at that same time, he's on Kindergarten level for math, then I can also do that. And we can't afford a private Catholic school, and the Catholic schools we can afford receive government funding and thus have to use the national curriculum, AFAIK.

Edited January 31, 2010 by Archaeology cat

[Sternhauser]

Even Penn and Teller, who are atheists, support homeschooling. I was at one of their performances, and a particularly perceptive 9-year old answered Penn's question with a little less gullibility than he expected. Penn said, "You're homeschooled, aren't you, kid?"

~Sternhauser

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Sternhauser' date='31 January 2010 - 11:59 AM' timestamp='1264957193' post='2048268']
Even Penn and Teller, who are atheists, support homeschooling. I was at one of their performances, and a particularly perceptive 9-year old answered Penn's question with a little less gullibility than he expected. Penn said, "You're homeschooled, aren't you, kid?"

~Sternhauser
[/quote]
Now if Teller had said it, I'd be even more impressed.

[add]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' date='31 January 2010 - 10:23 AM' timestamp='1264947819' post='2048198']
Our former pastor is now an auxiliary bishop and he was very supportive of the homeschoolers at our parish. Our current pastor was the vocations director for our archdiocese and he is [i]very [/i]supportive of homeschoolers. Three of the associate pastors who have been at our parish have been very supportive (two have sisters who homeschool, the other taught our kids Latin)... I think those clergy who know homeschoolers tend to be supportive. And your Catholic homeschool would be a Catholic school.
[/quote]

Not only did our parish support my homeschooling, a magnificent semi-retired priest at a near-by parish volunteered to and taught my three and two military home-school families children, private tutoring lessons in the Latin language studies. Likewise, our children used a catholic home-school curriculum.

[CatherineM]

My pastor was supportive at the time with my homeschooling. He knew I was competent to teach, and our parochial school was more than half non-Catholics due to the cost, and being in the South, there was that not wanting to get bussed thing. Once they brought in that statewide testing thing, the curriculum in Florida went completely out the window. The teachers spent all their time teaching the kids how to pass the math portion of the test rather than actually teach the kids math.