Given the many demands on Bishop Vásquez's time, it is hardly surprising that he was unable to attend this year. What is, however, both surprising and distressing is that the response to the invitation sent to Bishop Vásquez's office came not from the Chancery but from the Catholic Schools Office, and in a tone which was decidedly dismissive:Read the rest at Darwin Catholic.
> Bishop Vásquez received your invitation to celebrate a Eucharistic liturgy for the fall homeschooling blessing Mass.Ned Vanders is the diocesan Superintendent of Catholic Schools, and I think that the above email pretty clearly backs up the complaint I have heard that he is "openly hostile to homeschooling".
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> Bishop Vásquez believes Catholic education, and in particular Catholic school education, is an essential part of the life of the Diocese of Austin. As you know, Catholic schools are at the heart of the mission of the church.
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> Bishop's presence at the homeschooling Mass would convey a contradictory message equating the importance of Catholic school education with Catholic homeschooling; therefore, Bishop Vásquez must respectfully decline the invitation.
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> Sincerely in Christ,
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> Ned F. Vanders, Ed.D.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Is the Diocese of Austin Against Homeschooling?
There is an outstanding, but disturbing, piece at Darwin Catholic on a recent communique from Bishop Vasquez to an Austin-based Catholic homeschooling group.
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First, let it be said that I am a fan and defender of homeschooling (and I teach religion in a Catholic school). However, I can understand why some, perhaps even a bishop, might favor Catholic schools over homeschooling. Let's face it, when Catholics homeschool, it often takes from the local Catholic school precisely the kinds of families we so desperately need in those same schools... faithfilled, orthodox, counter-cultural families.
ReplyDeleteTrust me, I get it. For some, homeschooling really is about believing you can teach your kids better than the local school can (I think that's what it always ought to be about). But for others, and I know a concrete example in my own school community, they pull their kids because the culture of the Catholic school isn't pure enough (an accurate assessment, sadly - but an imprudent action nonetheless). The problem is that the school is all the worse for it - and so are the kids, who learn to run rather than to face adversity and be the solution rather than another source of our problems.
The New Evangelization requires that we begin anew within our own Church. The Church herself sees the family as the core of this, yes, but She also sees the Catholic school as one of Her greatest missionary tools. How many more solid families could be found at Catholic schools if already solid families brought the light of Christ back to them?
I have to give kudos to the bishop in question, even as I maintain my own deep respect for homeschooling.
My dear friend Mark,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate both your candor and respect, and therefore I will try to respond with the same. If it doesn't come across in my words, please know that the fault lies in my inability to communicate, not in my intention.
I would first caution people against equating education with schooling. Education is a much broader term than schooling, the later being specifically institutional. Institutional schooling is only one way in which one can obtain a portion of their education, and I am unaware of anywhere that the Church says that institutional schooling (Catholic or otherwise) is the BEST way to educate. This is not directly related to your comment, but I think it is a fundamental starting point for much of my thought.
The problem you cite seems to be the influence that orthodox families can bring to a Catholic school, or rather the lack of influence if they choose to not enroll their kids. While I don't deny the truth of this, I respectfully disagree with your assessment of whose responsibility it is to establish Catholic identity in the schools. It lies with the Catholic school itself to establish an authentic Catholic environment. Indeed, having such an environment is why people should want to send kids there. I hate to get into a chicken-egg argument, because the truth is probably somewhere in between. However, you seem to suggest that it is up to orthodox parents to send there children to Catholic school SO THAT the school has a stronger Catholic identity. I say that it is the school's responsibility to establish the identity SO THAT parents will want to have their kids there. Sending our kids there might help the identity, but my concern (and immediate responsibility) is for them, not for the parish school.
As a parent, my responsibility is to put my kids in an environment that best allows them to develop in virtue and learning. If the school is not the best environment (public OR private), then it is not only my right but indeed my responsibility to put them somewhere else, which may involve homeschooling. I would not be living my vocation as a father if I were to put them in an environment that is not conducive to virtue just for the sake of helping the Catholic identity of the place. If it is ME were are talking about, then I agree with your point about being part of the world and not running from it. The Gospel calls us to reform culture, which necessitates that we remain part of culture. But when it comes to kids, it is different if only because they are not yet formed in virtue. It is hard for me to imagine that my kids would get a better education, academic OR moral, in ANY school than they can at home. As such, I have the obligation, to the best of my ability, to educate them within our own home.
You seem to suggest that a school not being pure enough is not a valid reason to homeschool. While it is certainly not the only, it is most definitely a reason. Again, if a child is not yet formed in virtue, then throwing them into an environment (for more hours a day than they are home, by the way) that is working against virtue is not conducive to their moral development. The schools may be worse for it, but once again, this is not my responsibility - my kids are my responsibility. I won't be judged for what impact I made on the local parish school, but I will be judged on how I help my children in their call to holiness.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to take your comment about kids being worse off for pulling them out with a grain of salt. Perhaps you can clarify this, but in the absence of clarification, I can only take it at face value. By keeping kids innocent, why would you assume that this is teaching them to run from adversity instead of facing it? Does not this logic break down in virtually every other area of temptation? Is not part of Catholic moral teaching avoiding the near occasion of sin? Surely you would't suggest an adult male logging on to a pornographic website just to improve his resolve to stay pure? While exaggerated, this is a parallel situation than what you suggest. We are called to place ourselves in situations that are conducive to our own holiness, not to actively seek out temptations for that sake of learning to deal with them. This is very different from running away from situations that are put in front of us.
My real problem with your argument is that there seems to be nothing that is specific to Catholic schools. In other words, if we take your argument to its logical conclusion, it would not seem to justify putting our kids in Catholic school, but rather putting them in the public schools … in fact, putting them in the worst public schools possible. In the inner city schools, children would have ample opportunities to develop resistance to temptations, evangelize not just fellow Catholics, but people of all backgrounds, and begin the process of establishing a Catholic identity in culture at larger. Are you willing to take it this far? In other words, ask yourself why you have your children in a Catholic school instead of a public school, and then ask why that argument doesn't support keeping kids home.
With all due respect, I will do everything I can to both educate my children with the highest level of academics, AND to keep them pure and innocent. Quite franking, the kid-culture in both public and private schools scares the hell out of me. This is not to "run from adversity" and certainly not to teach them to stay out of the world, but rather it is a recognition that virtue is a habit that need developed. Thus, in keeping them away from impure environments we are not failing to prepare them for the world, but quite the opposite: we are giving them the environment that best allows them to develop virtue SO THAT they can then deal with the problems the world will eventually throw at them.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid I cannot echo your kudos. The message from Mr. Vanders was not only rude, trite, and imprudent, but it also shows a total lack of respect for the rights of parents to actually parent. If he, and by extensions the Bishop, want orthodox parents to send their kids to the Catholic schools, I highly recommend that they make leaps and bounds in terms of both academics and Catholic identity in their schools. I fear, however, that they have a vested interest in NOT fulfilling the later. Until this changes, they lose the right to speak out against Catholic homeschooling, they lose my respect, and they certainly lose my kudos.
Jake,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link.
Mark,
It strikes me that you point out a basic tension involved in solidarity. If one is to support the mission of any particular organization, it is necessary to accept a certain amount of compromise in regards to its running, or else splintering occurs immediately. One sees this all the time in political groups and perhaps even more so in religious groups. If people splinter off whenever they see an organization as being insufficiently pure, you pretty soon get down to organizations of one.
That said, it seems one can hardly go to the other extreme and argue that one should never withdraw from any voluntary association, because doing so would only make things worse. We as Catholics can, of course, point to how the Catholic Church remains one, while Protestant sects undergo constant splits. But that is in part because the Catholic Church is guarded and guided by the Holy Spirit, while Protestant sects are not. When we get down to organizations smaller than the Universal Church, we do in fact see splintering for reasons of purity. This is why, for instance, there are so many monastic orders: a great many of them are the result of a reformer splitting off from an existing order in order to achieve greater devotion to the vows which the order was originally created to follow.
Clearly, some sort of balance must be struck. We must be ready to accept situations which are not perfect in the interest of solidarity, and yet we must also not sacrifice principle itself to solidarity. A unity without principle is not a unity worth having.
In regards to Catholic schools in particular -- I think much of the dividing line has to do with whether parents want to effectively run a family size school, design their own curriculum, etc., or whether they want to make certain compromises in order to have someone else do the day to day running of the school. There was a point a while back when a friend of mine was telling me about how she had scheduled "yet another" parent teacher conference with her son's Catholic school teacher in order to express how she thought the curriculum should be designed, the pace of instruction, the type or tests, the reading assigned, etc. "I'm every teacher's nightmare," she said.
I figure part of the reason that my wife and I homeschool our children is so that we don't become a teacher's nightmare. We have a lot of ideas about what sort of subjects should be covered and how, and I don't want to be the sort of parent who is always coming in and trying to run someone else's class. Better to run our own class in that situation.
So while on the one hand one might see homeschooling parents as taking away a precious resource from parish schools by deciding to homeschool -- you could look at it another way and see them as taking away the parish school's greatest annoyance by not trying to backseat drive the class.
Jake,
ReplyDeleteI think you may have read too much into what I wrote. I'm not jerrin ya.
Catholic schools are not perfect. Nothing this side of Heaven is. I was only trying to offer reasons why a bishop would respond this way. He would obviously want his schools to be as strong as possible.
Also, I didn't mean to suggest that the lack of catholicity in a school is not a reason to pull kids. I think it's wrong to do it if it's the only reason. I have seen the good that solid families and teachers can accomplish by working together. This could not happen if our best families left (and I know they are disappointed with the same things I am).
I didn't think it necessary to expressly draw limits to how far to take some of my arguments, but I think it's obvious that lines are prudentially drawn at some point. We aren't talking about intrinsic evils here.
I also think those in the homeschooling community might take more offense at the last paragraph of the super's letter than I do. I don't find it disrespectful. It is a statement of values which one may or may not agree with. I see a guy who wants to shore up support for his schools, who thinks they are the best way to educate, etc. Perhaps with humility, the Catholics of his diocese should consider why their bishop feels this way, rather than being put off by it. Honestly, it could spark some fruitful dialogue with the bishop, thereby improving what so many find fault with in the schools.
Darwin,
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree with anything you've written. I have no problem with, and in fact, support homeschooling for precisely the reasons you put forth. I would do it myself if I thought I were up to the task!
Final comment (in general)- I'm also not a HUGE defender of Catholic schools. I think there are a lot of problems. And... I'm not one who thinks all Catholics need to send their kids to our schools. Some cannot afford it. Some have decent public schools to choose. Some CAN homeschool. For those who choose to send their kids to our institutionally Catholic schools, I think they are making a mistake if they later take them out ONLY because they aren't satisfied with the level of catholicity. After time and effort to effect change proves fruitless... perhaps. That was all I was trying to say in that regard.
Oh... and catholicity is a funny thing. I'm pretty sure my school has it. It just might not have it to the degree I would like. So... is that a problem with the school or a problem with me? Something to consider in all this.
ReplyDeleteMark,
ReplyDeletePerhaps I did read into your comment too much. Such is the perpetual danger online communication. If so, then I apologize. I appreciate your call for dialog between the homeschoolers and the Bishop. I would, however, point out that it was the homeschoolers that reached out to the Bishop asking him to say a Mass, which his predecessor had done in the past. If the Bishop was interested in helping them to see the value in the Catholic schools and to find ways to work together, perhaps putting them off in such a manner is not very prudent. Even if he was concerned about how this activity might be perceived, perhaps a simple, "His Excellency's schedule is quite busy, and he regrets that he will not be able to make it," would have been better.
I know you, so I know I am preaching to the choir with this next statement. But it always amazes me the lengths to which those in the church will go to not offend those who question the church on the "liberal" side (denying the teaching on contraception, abortion, etc.). Yet when good orthodox people who want to follow the Church and her teaching step over some boundary line that they may have not even realized exist, the same priest/bishops make no time to dialog. If the bishop feels that those in the homeschool movement have some issues that need addressed, then isn't it his vocation to address them?
No need to apologize, Jake. I wholeheartedly embrace what you've said in both paragraphs of this last comment.
ReplyDeleteIf I could revisit the original question posed by the post - Is the DoA against homeschooling? Maybe it would have been best if I had just put it in simpler terms.
1. They either are or aren't against homeschooling. I don't think the quote provided gives enough information to make a definitive judgment that they are AGAINST homeschooling, per se.
2. I think we CAN determine from the quote that they FAVOR diocesan schools OVER homeschooling, as I'm sure they do with regard to public schooling, and the bishop wishes to make that distinction (though again - I agree with what you said above about a more prudent approach). It would be very interesting to know why they feel this way about homeschooling.
I firmly believe the diocese - and any diocese - would stand to gain a lot from listening to the concerns of homeschoolers. Sadly, I don't think the same could be said the other way around, although I've love to hear some good arguments from those who get what parochial schools OUGHT to be. The bottom line - if homeschooling is done well... there is simply no better alternative.
I had an interesting conversation with my wife last night about all of this, and the question was raised about Catholic education versus Catholic schooling. Obviously the heart and soul of the Church's mission is the spreading of the Gospel and the salvation of souls, and to that extent, she is very interested in Catholic education. In fact broadly understood, Catholic education is nothing more or less than the spreading of the Gospel. However, to what extent is the Church as a whole interested in Catholic schooling? Certainly Catholic schools have not always existed ... in fact institutional compulsory schooling is a relatively new idea in human history (150 years or so?).
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, we are living in the here and now, and the here and now DOES have institutional schooling as its norm. Given that reality, it makes sense that the Church is interested in providing that system as a "better" alternative than the public schools. However, the guiding principle can't be an insistence on institutional schooling itself, but on the broader concept of education, which (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) is something different than schooling. In that light, the Church, it seems to me, must support homeschooling if it achieves the goals of authentic Catholic education (academic and moral), and in fact must support it OVER schooling if it better achieves the stated goals. On the other hand, if parents are unable to provide a better education (moral and academic) than the parish school, then the Church MUST support the parish school over homeschooling.
The difficulty is obvious, that this assessment depends entirely upon the parish school in question as well as the parents in question. For that reason, it seems imprudent for a diocese to express one preference over another, but in reality should give each the benefit of the doubt. I suppose this is the main problem that homeschoolers are having with Mr. Vander's letter. Why would a bishop worry about the perception that he places homeschooling on the same level as Catholic schools? In fact, they should be on the same level unless there is evidence to the contrary (and this goes both ways: defects in the particular homeschooling programs or defects in the Catholic schools). The only possible reason to preference the schools is a sort of "looking out for one's own." In other words, in the professional world, one would preference one's own company over other if for no other reason than the health of the company. Does it make sense that a Diocese would then preference its own school system over others (be they public or home-based)? Perhaps, but I guess a part of me hopes that they can see the endgame … that the goal is not a successful school system but the spreading of the Gospel, and if the Gospel is being better spread and people are being better educated in other environments, then it is okay to put those environment "on the same level" as the Catholic schools. In fact, if the health and success of the Catholic schools becomes the goal, then I would think it will eventually meet its own demise. Catholic education and character should be the goal … the spreading of the Gospel should be the goal. God will take care of the rest.
These are ramblings, of course. Take them all with a grain of salt.
I gave this quite a bit of thought last night as well. I began to wonder pretty much the same things you just wrote about in this last comment. Why would a bishop, on the whole, favor institutional schooling over homeschooling? The only thing I can come up with, while theoretically making sense, does not seem to have a matching reality... namely, that the bishop is ultimately accountable for the formation of his flock and he has more direct control over what goes on in his schools (I wonder if they know how much work needs to be done in them). I think, as Darwin mentioned, that this falls in line with solidarity. However, I keep coming back to the issue of subsidiarity and the parents as the first teachers of their children, a right and duty that is equally part of the Church's teaching.
ReplyDelete