Doing Better for the Next Generation of Catholics

Leticia over at Cause of our Joy had a link to a quiz on one's understanding of 15 Catholic teachings. My result?

You are 87% educated in Catholic truths!

Wow! You are totally educated in the Catholic faith. A real genius! Have you thought of teaching the faith to others? Be sure to share your wealth of knowledge with those who need it.

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First, a little background on me:
I grew up with a Protestant mom and a dad who calls himself a "progressive" Catholic. They are good people and they did place great importance on basic Christian values such as kindness, generosity, honesty, justice, and so on. They really tried to lead by example, and I want to give them credit for that since sadly too many people who call themselves "Christians" talk the talk but don't walk the walk. Those people would do well to remember Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees in Matthew 23. Lip service piety without the underlying love of God and of one's neighbor is completely missing the point. Anyways, while my parents did IMO a decent job at raising us as Christians, they basically left it up to our parish CCD program to educate us on Catholic doctrine.

Unfortunately, this being the 1980's to early 1990's, it was feel-good "CCD Lite" rather than a rigorous and Orthodox program. We never learned basics such as Transubstantiation and the Immaculate Conception! Rules were given without any explanation of the reasons behind them, which did not do much in the way of inspiring obedience in me. I didn't understand the Church's teachings and that led me to question its authority as a teenager and young adult.

I spent several years adrift spiritually while my attention was focused on worldly matters. I had a vague feeling that something was missing from my life but it took a long time to figure out that it was God. Fortunately, He never gave up on me and eventually He led me to rediscover my faith. Recommitting to Catholicism didn't happen overnight and I struggled along my journey. Catholicism is not an easy religion as Christ warned in Matthew 7:14.

I worry about whether I am capable of properly teaching the Faith to my children when I'm still working on understanding it myself. I feel blessed that there are now so many more resources available to help me in this task than even a decade ago. Homeschooling is all about learning along side of the children and deepening one's own knowledge of the subject in order to share it. I truly hope that this will be the case when it comes to religion!

I want better for the next generation of Catholics than what I received growing up, and I'm starting with the 2 that God has blessed me with so far.

Incidentally, the 2 questions I missed on the quiz were:
11. What are the effects of Confirmation?
I picked: It makes us mature Catholic adults
Correct answer: It increases sanctifying grace, gives its special sacramental grace, and imparts a lasting character on the soul
14. What are the chief moral or cardinal virtues?
I picked: Faith, hope and charity (I just love 1 Corinthians 13!)
Correct answer: Prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance

U.S. Divorce Rate Lowest Level Since 1970

A rare bit of good news for the traditional family: according to an AP article, the U.S. divorce rate is now at the lowest level since 1970.

The decline has been particularly significant for couples where both spouses are college graduates. Sociologist Russell Martin of the University of Maryland-College Park found that the divorce rate among those holding a bachelor's degree or higher has fallen by half since the late 1970's. Even though the conventional wisdom holds that half of all marriages will fail, Martin's research shows that over 83% of female college graduates will NOT divorce.

Another reassuring statistic: Catholics are tied with Lutherans for the faith with the lowest divorce rate :-)

Great Explanation of Catholic Classical Education

The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education has written an excellent article explaining what exactly constitutes a Catholic liberal education.

What is meant by "Catholic"? I love this quote: "Catholic Liberal Education is Catholic in its inspiration, resources and direction. It begins in faith and seeks understanding under the guidance of the Church's Magisterium and through the rich patrimony of the Church's intellectual, spiritual and cultural tradition. It is also Catholic in its willingness to learn, within the boundaries of faith, from any source of wisdom -- Christian or pagan, ancient or modern."

Too often Christian homeschoolers misguidedly criticize Classical education for studying Greek and Roman texts. While it is true that the ancient Greeks and early Romans were pagans, they form two-thirds of the basis of Western Civilization (the third being the Hebrews). Rejecting their pagan myths and other problematic practices does not mean that Christians should ignore all that they contributed to the development of our culture. Absolutely, we should consider non-Christian texts through the lens of Christianity. The Greeks and early Romans did not know the fullness of the Truth that has been revealed to us through the Holy Catholic Church. We should seek out the "True, Good, and Beautiful" from their civilizations and consign the rest to the dustbins of history.

What is meant by "liberal"? Not political progressivism, but the Latin word liber (free) as in "liberate" and "liberty". Another great quote from the ICLE: "Liberal Education is what is proper for the free man. The man who is free, as the aristocrats of pre-modern societies were, wants what is desirable for its own sake, not what is essentially a means to something else....the liberally educated man was introduced to the finest ideas of his culture through his study of literature, history and the fine arts, while he tested the soundness of these ideas through philosophy. This education is not only proper to a man with time on his hands; it also made him more free, free to be the best man he could be – free from the interior confusion of scattered experiences and opinions, free to express himself fully, free to understand and weigh the greatest and most beautiful thoughts of man."

Again note the emphasis on seeking out the True, Good, and Beautiful. This type of liberal education is the opposite of the conformist agenda of government schools. For an eye-opening discussion of this agenda, I highly recommend reading John Taylor Gatto's The Underground History of American Education available in a *FREE* e-book here.

What is meant by "education"? Yet another fabulous quote from the ICLE: "Education doesn’t aim at simply accomplishing a task; its goal is understanding....education is a higher word [than instruction]; it implies an action upon our mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and permanent, and is commonly spoken of in connexion with religion and virtue....Education above all aims at developing the proper habits of mind. It takes patience, prudence, and prayer. Facts will be forgotten after the exam is passed; education provides the foundations for a lifetime of growth."

This is precisely what I aim to foster in my homeschool- developing my children's minds in a way that will allow them to become the best Catholic men and women that they can be :-)

Baby Number 17 for the Duggars!

Less than 2 years after the birth of #16 Johanna Faith, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are expecting #17 Jennifer Danielle. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have 17 kids in 19 years!

Of course children are indeed blessings from God. I definitely believe married people ought to be "open to life" as the Church teaches. Still, I question the Protestant "quiverfull" movement since it seems like it can be pretty misogynistic at times. Mary Pride was quoted in a Newsweek article bashing Natural Family Planning as unnaturally denying sex to the husband. That kind of attitude is pretty degrading towards women IMHO. It isn't all about the husband's lust without regard for the best interests of the wife and the family as a whole. The whole point of NFP is for the husband AND the wife to prayerfully consider TOGETHER whether to try to conceive, try to avoid pregnancy, or something in between.

Women are more than just a womb and responsible parenthood can mean there are sometimes very legitimate reasons to postpone pregnancy. God made women only fertile for 1/3 of their cycle and to have recognizable fertility signals to predict with 98-99% accuracy when that is. Why would He do that if it were never morally permissible to use NFP for any reason whatsoever?

Large families are wonderful if personal circumstances allow for it. Too many people in our society limit family size for purely selfish reasons. However, having a "welcoming heart" towards children does not automatically mean "have as many babies as you physically can".


UPDATE: Jennifer Danielle was born on August 2, 2007 at 10:01 A.M.

College Admissions by Lottery of Qualified Applicants?

The Los Angeles Times recently published a very interesting op-ed article by Professor Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore. In it, he makes the highly provocative suggestion that selective colleges that have far more qualified applicants than slots use a lottery to determine which to admit.

He discusses how the idea of the "flat maximum" applies to college admissions: "when comparing the qualifications of people who are bunched up at the very top of the curve, the amount of inherent uncertainty in evaluating their credentials is larger than the measurable differences among candidates. Applied to college admissions, this principle implies that it is impossible to know which excellent student (or school) will be better than which other excellent student (or school). Uncertainty of evaluation makes the hair-splitting to distinguish among excellent students a waste of time; the degree of precision required exceeds the inherent reliability of the data."

Professor Schwartz also talks about the negative impact of the current system on students and their families. Not just the financial drain but also "playing it safe" when it comes to classes & extracurriculars, and valuing demonstrable achievement over learning for its own sake. At worst, the pressure can contribute to substance abuse, anxiety disorders, and depression.

When the top colleges now admit 10% or fewer of their applicants, it seems likely that a random selection from among say the top third of the admissions pool would be just as successful as those chosen by the current method. Admissions officers are not psychics but right now they are attempting to predict which 1550 SAT varsity captain valedictorian among many is going to outperform the others. Why not recognize that they are *ALL* qualified and let a computer decide which gets the prized thick envelope? It would ease the disappointment of a rejection letter to make it obvious that it was just the luck of the draw. For the most part, that's the case already because of the "flat maximum" but the current system makes rejections feel like personal ones.

I'm not saying that it would be a good idea to remove all subjectivity from college admissions. Standardized test scores and grades are not everything and admitting students solely based on some arbitrary formula would be terrible. Admissions officers should use "holistic" methods determine whether or not an applicant is qualified. Does the applicant have the potential to succeed at the particular school? For a sizable percentage, the answer will be "yes", and those will go into the lottery for final selection.

Sounds a whole lot fairer to me than the current process and it would go a long way in easing the admissions hysteria plaguing so many communities!

The "Creative Class" Discovers Homeschooling

Businessweek had an interesting article last year all about how many of the so-called "creative class" parents have turned to homeschooling.

Unlike the previous generation of homeschoolers, their primary motivation isn't religion but academics. According to the BW article, they feel current schools "are like old industrial assembly lines, churning out conformists who could function well in rote factory jobs or rigid corporate hierarchies but not in New Economy professions that demand innovation and independent thinking."

Given that we live in an affluent suburb near Silicon Valley, it's no surprise that many of the homeschoolers we know fit into this category. We didn't start out with this motivation for homeschooling but more and more I'm coming around to it.

Professor Richard Florida writes in The Rise of the Creative Class that: "The distinguishing characteristic of the creative class is that its members engage in work whose function is to 'create meaningful new forms'....Members of this super-creative core produce new forms or designs that are readily transferable and broadly useful---such as designing a product that can be widely made, sold and used; coming up with a theorem or strategy that can be applied in many cases; or composing music that can be performed again and again. Beyond this core group, the creative class also includes 'creative professionals' who work in a wide range of knowledge-intensive industries such as high-tech sectors, financial services, the legal and healthcare professions, and business management. These people engage in creative problem-solving, drawing on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems....What they are required to do regularly is think on their own. They apply or combine standard approaches in unique ways to fit the situation, exercise a great deal of judgment, perhaps try something radically new from time to time."

Traditional schools focus primarily on the "knowledge" and to a lesser extent the "comprehension" competencies of Bloom's Taxonomy. Success in the "creative class" jobs requires mastery of the "application", "analysis", "synthesis", and "evaluation" competencies. Traditional schools typically rely on "drill-and-kill" rote memorization followed by regurgitation on multiple-choice, true/false, or fill-in-the-blank exams. After taking the tests, students promptly forget the majority of the material. Is it any wonder that most graduates of traditional schools are ill-prepared for "creative class" type jobs?

Awesome Article on 9 Reasons to Homeschool

Thanks to Mimi Rothchild's blog for providing a link to an excellent article in the Archdiocese of Boston's paper, The Boston Pilot, by Professor Michael Pakaluk of Clark University on the 9 reasons he homeschools his daughter. They are:

1. Time efficiency
2. A fraction of the cost of private schools
3. Promotes good reading habits
4. Strengthens family bonds and reduces the risk of developing a "peer orientation"
5. Promotes getting the father involved in the child's education
6. Allows religion to play central role in the child's education
7. Promotes patriotism
8. Allows children to remain innocent longer
9. More positive socialization

I would personally add to this list the following additional benefits of homeschooling:

• Allows the student to work at the optimal challenge level for him/her. No more boredom waiting for the rest of the class to catch up or frustration that the class has moved on before he/she is ready. Homeschooling is particularly beneficial for the student with uneven abilities, such as one who is advanced in reading but struggles with writing. The typical "honors" English class likely requires too much in the way of writing but the regular English class is probably not challenging enough in terms of reading. Homeschooling gives the flexibility to work at the appropriate level in each area.
• Provides the opportunity to really engage the student by tailoring the curriculum to his/her own unique interests and preferred learning style.
• In many states, homeschooling frees the student from having to waste significant time taking standardized tests. I seriously thought it was a typo the first time I saw the calendar for my local public school where it said "STAR testing April 23rd-May 21st". That's correct- almost one full month out of nine is devoted to standardized testing!