In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

Though the perceived lack of socialization is one of the most common objections people have to homeschooling, I am not concerned with it. Why am I so confident about my children having friends and learning how to “play nice” with others? Well, I have many reasons. That specific question can be summed up as follows: they do not need to be in a traditional school environment in order to have friends and learn to get along.

First and foremost, one of the reasons I do not want them in a traditional school environment is the type of “socialization” that goes on there. I mentioned it in this post, but it bears repeating: School, even Catholic school, is too often the place where children learn inappropriate ideas and behaviors. Rather, children should be sheltered from such things until they are properly educated so as not to be swayed by popular opinion. As Chesterton says in the book All Things Considered, “Right is right even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong about it.” Young children and even old children will have a hard time understanding this and respecting it when they are pressured by others or just want to be accepted.

Children feel a need to fit in. In schools, most children are ostracized if they do not have a cell phone, wear designer clothes and shoes, watch the latest TV programs or play the latest video games, possess the latest toys, or fulfill all other forms of materialism. This can lead to bullying and other major problems, especially when the child no longer feels accepted. Yet, this mindset of needing to have the latest and greatest is typical of the worldly, which is exactly what we as Catholics are called to avoid.

Finally, where else in life are we separated into groups based solely on age? It is certainly not done at work, church, or even college! These institutions are a mix of many different ages, races, and backgrounds; so, it would seem even to the opponents of homeschooling that proper socialization happens when the child is exposed to other children and adults of all ages. Children need to learn how to get along with and respect others of all ages. How is this being taught in a classroom of ten-year-olds?

My confidence comes from knowing children will learn proper socialization in the home and community. Homeschoolers are not shut up at home twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They are more exposed to their siblings, children of all ages from other homeschooling families, and adults from all over the community. So now the question becomes: how is it even considered proper socialization to expose children to materialism, peer pressure, and age-class?

For more information on homeschooling, please read the resources listed here.

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

After my last post, where I explained what makes homeschooling so important, I would now like to talk about the benefits that make it so different (and better).

As common sense would show, one-on-one tutoring is more beneficial than one teacher for a classroom of twenty to thirty or more students. The child receives individual attention and focus. He or she can ask questions or interrupt whenever there is a misunderstanding. The teacher will almost immediately know when the child does not understand the material. Therefore, the learning is at the child’s own pace.

All of us excel in some subjects and need more work in others, but in a classroom setting, the teacher must teach at whatever pace will benefit the class as a whole, not one individual. This can cause boredom and laziness in students who excel at the material. I can certainly vouch for that! The boredom I experienced from school turned me away from learning for quite a few years. Students who have trouble with the material will be left behind and some will never catch up. I experienced this through my “tutoring” of others in middle school and high school. In the home school, each subject is learned at the child’s pace so that he may be at a fourth grade reading level and a sixth grade math level in the same year.

The parent can incorporate the child’s own learning style into the lesson. This is especially helpful for visual or kinesthetic learners who have a difficult time learning from a lecture in a classroom. Many children lag behind in a specific subject only because they are not experiencing the material in the way they can absorb it most efficiently.

Homeschooling also allows for younger ones to be able to move around more when learning. Often times, young children, boys especially, need a break to “get the wiggles out”. You can even incorporate movement while learning if the child is really active. In a classroom setting, this would cause chaos! As I noted before, there are some schools that no longer allow recess. Many others, as discussed in this article, are trying to limit the opportunities for play. I cannot imagine the plight of those teachers!

With all the government regulation regarding school, it is no wonder why some children excel, while others are left behind. They are all forced to start school at the same age! Some children are ready to start earlier, but will be held back because they are too young; therefore, they will be bored in school, having to learn at a slower pace. Other children may not be ready until the next year, but must start at the mandated age, because that is what the government decided.

Homeschooling is also better for the character development of the child. I cannot count the amount of articles I have read regarding parents who say their children do not have time for chores because their schedules are so full—between school, homework, and extracurricular activities. To do their part for the family, children should be assigned chores according to their ability. When children stay home, they are also more exposed to cooking and shopping and will have a better perspective on true family life (as opposed to those children who are so busy away from home that they do not even have time to help).

As I discussed in my last post, teaching our children about Catholicism is one of the most important duties we have as parents. We should not be relying on schools (whether CCD classes or Catholic schools) to teach our children doctrine. This allows error to be portrayed as truth through other people’s opinions, views, and beliefs being interjected into the teaching or from answering questions. Also, religion must be avoided in public school because of the difference between religions and the “need” for tolerance, and a weekly CCD class from first through eighth grade instills very little catechesis—I say this from experience. The ability to add our religious teaching to the yearly curriculum, without the outside influence of others, sets homeschooling apart from all other types of learning environments.

Classroom settings offer pretty much a one-size-fits-all approach. To offer anything else would be out of the teacher’s ability. Homeschooling fits the material to the child, instead of the other way around. Is it any wonder why most homeschooling students have better test scores and are even preferred by colleges?

For more information on homeschooling, please read the resources listed here.

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

Even though I am not currently writing for this series, I wanted to add another article I found today regarding labels (which was my last "true" post on the series): 10 Food Label Lies

There is not much we can truly rely on anymore, but if we are eating whole foods (real foods) that don't require labels (fruits and vegetables; meat, milk and eggs from the farmer) we won't have to worry so much about a label trying to sell us a product on false information!

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

Although not everyone has the ability to homeschool (because of financial or other concerns), it is important for so many reasons and I will try to address as many of them as possible in this post; so it is rather long.

As emphasized by a declaration from the Second Vatican Council and by Blessed Pope John Paul II in two different writings, we as parents must keep in mind that we are not only the primary but also the principle educators of our children. This duty was not given by the Church but by God himself and as such this right is completely inalienable. (See Familiaris Consortio, 40.) In Proverbs 1:8, the child is told “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and reject not your mother’s teaching.” We must teach our children from the beginning about the world and about God. It is our duty and our right to be the principle teachers of our children, not to surrender our responsibility to someone else.

Whether we want the duty or not we are the primary teachers of religion. Our attitudes, actions, beliefs, and words will form the child in his or her view of religion. Catholic schools are not designed to be the only or even the primary teachers of religion, because the child will follow the parent, not the teacher. Therefore, homeschooling fulfills the duty for us as parents to educate our children, especially where religion is concerned.

Along with this, I must emphasize the principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity is a principle of Catholic social teaching which states that all institutions exist for the sake of the individual/family so that whatever the individual/family is able to do, society should not take over and what small societies can do, larger societies should not take over. Below are two excerpts from writings of Blessed John Paul II.
Thus, when parents have the ability to teach their own children, it becomes important that they do. They have the ultimate responsibility as primary and principle educators of their children to teach them the ways of the world. As Chesterton says in What’s Wrong with the World, “How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone?” Governments cannot usurp this responsibility from parents, although many states try. Parents have an obligation and a right to decide what is important for their children to study and to teach it to them. The government’s role is to make sure children are being taught, but not to tell the parents what to teach.

We must also heed the warning from Chesterton in one of his Illustrated London News articles when he says, “The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.” Looking back at my old education post, we recall this quote from the HSDLA. We must be careful sending our children away for nine months a year, twelve to fourteen years of their young, moldable lives, especially when there is plenty of evidence of schools keeping parents out of the loop. How many children are graduating today, after twelve years of school, without the ability to perform simple math problems or to write articulately? As parents, it seems by giving up our responsibility to the government, we have ourselves allowed education to decline.



Children (and adults) have a grave need to be kept away from temptation so as not to fall into sin. Both public and private schools (secular and Christian) are full of foul language, materialism, sexual information, tolerance and encouragement of sin, and false religions. All these things can cause children to succumb to sin and turn away from their family even with a Godly, religious upbringing. The large amount of time children spend in school, school activities, and transiting to and from (seven to eleven hours on school days, nine months a year) as well as the strong urge to fit in can easily allow children to be led down the wrong path. This article shares a similar perspective: Parents: Beware the Danger of Peer Orientation.

We must always remember that even though we live in the world, we are not of the world. As Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of God.” Cultures, society, sometimes even laws must not keep us from living as true Catholics. The popular opinion, government mandates, and even “majority rule” do not imply goodness or Godliness. Let us look at James 1:27. “Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one's self unspotted from this world [emphasis added].” It is clear that we must not live as if we are of this world and it follows that we must not allow our children to live as if they are of this world as well. Looking back at the previous paragraph, we can see that the influence of others can and most likely will greatly exceed our own as parents when the children are sent off to school.

Finally as mentioned above, the bible stresses the importance of parents passing on their faith. Blessed Pope John Paul II in his Letter to Families says, “Certainly one area in which the family has an irreplaceable role is that of religious education, which enables the family to grow as a ‘domestic church’” (16, emphasis original). We cannot send our children off to Catholic school and expect any faith teaching to stick if we are not practicing our faith and setting the example in the home. In the Second Vatican Counsel’s declaration Gravissimum educationis, Pope Paul VI states, “Since parents have given children their life, they are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators. This role in education is so important that only with difficulty can it be supplied where it is lacking” (3).

Public schools, especially, cannot teach religion to children when there are children from twenty different religions present in the classroom. Yet, Chesterton says in What’s Wrong with the World, “It is quaint that people talk of separating dogma from education. Dogma is actually the only thing that cannot be separated from education. It is education. A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.” Even when the schools are trying to avoid religion, they are still actually teaching it. They just choose, willingly or unconsciously, to teach atheism.

As you can see, there are so many immensely important reasons to homeschool our children. If you can make the sacrifice to teach your children, you should do so, for their benefit and the benefit of this country and the world. Where the family goes, society will follow.

For more information on homeschooling, please read the resources listed here. The purpose of compulsory education today is quite different than when it first came into law. In the 1800’s, its main purpose was to keep children out of the work force and teach them to become good citizens. Today, it seems to be solely about test scores—teachers teach to the tests as well as teaching test-taking skills. Many schools have gotten rid of recess time and some have even gotten rid of the playground. (Yes, it is true. I have read the news articles.) The authorities think more time sitting in a classroom will somehow make better students, but many of the boys are being drugged with ADHD medications in order to keep them still (more on that later). Meanwhile, many young homeschooling students are finished before lunch and have higher test scores!

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

What we consider “traditional education” today, is actually not traditional at all. As seen from my regulation of education post

The Catholic missionaries set up schools to teach things such as reading and Catholic doctrine, and some missions even taught math and astronomy, but these schools were primarily for adults who would then go home to teach their children.

Between the 1920s and 1970s, because of the compulsory attendance laws, it was illegal to teach children at home. Homeschooling during this time still existed, but was underground and mostly in rural areas. Some parents set up small private schools as a way to overcome academic and doctrinal issues in public schools.

During the 1970s, radicals helped push for homeschooling and by 1982 three states recognized the right to homeschool. Today, homeschooling is legal in all fifty states, but more than half have moderate to high regulations.

For more information on homeschooling, please read the resources listed here. , compulsory attendance did not come into law until 1852 in America. Before the 1800s, homeschooling had been the main approach to education since the beginning of time, only the methods and subjects have changed. Some children, mostly those of the wealthy, were taught by tutors while most children were simply taught basic life skills and religion by their parents.

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

Although it may seem like a proper education, as defined by my last post, could be achieved in any educational setting as long as those points are followed, I hope to show you with this post and the rest of this series that a true education can only properly be achieved by homeschooling and with the classical education method.

The same reasons why homeschooling students are better achievers are exactly the opposite reasons why traditionally schooled children (in a classroom) do not perform as well or even fail. I will give you two quotes from college admissions personnel to defend it.

Here is a third example from The Well-Trained Mind:

Traditional schools (public and private) are obviously not teaching children the skills they need for either college or the job market. The system needs to change, and in the upcoming Homeschooling sub-series, I will explain the reasons for this. Later in the series, I will explain exactly what the classical education method is and how it is imperative for a proper education.

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

A proper education can be defined by many things, but most importantly is the retention of facts learned and the ability to speak and write coherently. To achieve these things, a few basic principles and subjects must be employed.

Similar to the way unit studies connect multiple subjects to one basic theme, a proper education should be connected across the curricula so as to help the child better connect ideas and remember them. The way to achieve this is through the proper study of history. Almost every subject can be connected to history: music, art, science, literature, writing, even math problems. And the best way to study history (and consequently, the other subjects) is chronologically so that the child can place events in their proper context and also better remember past events that may be connected.

Rote learning, a technique used to memorize facts is a simple way to retain information. The major practice is repetition. One way to accomplish this through history is to break the chronology of history into four parts and repeat them through the school years. In the Well-Trained Mind, Susan Wise Bauer breaks history down in this way: ancient times, Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, and modern era. As history is repeated, more details are learned and since history is learned chronologically, events such as wars are better understood.

A proper education also includes phonics, instead of whole word (or sight word) reading. Children are better able to read and learn new words faster and easier when they know the proper sounds for each letter or group of letters. I do not understand how the phonics method could have lost its appeal in the school system!

The use of logic and rhetoric are extremely important in a proper education. This gives children the ability to organize information properly and express their thoughts articulately, while making a sound argument. It also gives them the ability to see through fallacies and propaganda.

A study of Latin will complete the education by giving the ability to increase vocabulary and spelling. Latin words and derivatives comprise close to fifty percent of the English language, and English grammar is based upon Latin. French, Spanish, and Italian are also related to Latin and will therefore be easier to learn. From the Catholic standpoint, Latin is important in the Church and many documents, prayers, and songs, as well as the Tridentine mass and the Vulgate are in Latin.

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

I found a couple articles today that I wanted to share with you, even though I am taking a break from writing new posts for the Food series.

1. Eater's, beware: Walmart is taking over our food system
A few tidbits from this article include:
* Walmart's share of the whole nations grocery market: 25%
* Walmart is short changing farmers and "charging consumers inflated prices" which has helped to drive up the food prices!
* Walmart's "local produce": "Walmart is doing industrial local," not buying from local small farmers.
* Walmart's low prices are supposed to help reduce the problems of poverty but, If we had a distributist society, we wouldn't have this problem, but here in the US, capitalism is king, and along with it comes all these problems.

2. Asian Honey, Banned in Europe, Is Flooding US Grocery Shelves
Beward of Honey sold in US supermarkets. China is laundering honey and it's making its way to the US. Most of the honey is contaminated with antibiotics that are dangerous for children, heavy metals including lead, and some of the honey isn't even honey at all! Read the article to learn more.

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening.

I know you are thinking this title sounds a little odd, but when I finish with this series, I hope to show you that the reasons we need an education are not why compulsory education is in place today and children are not learning much in school anymore – hence the recent article in the newspaper about “No Child Left Behind” and its failure to increase performance.

Education is immensely important, and the education system we have today is severely lacking. Why is it that children not long ago were prepared to attend college at the age of 14-16 and were able to speak, read, and write in multiple languages, including Latin, by their teens? How is it that children today can graduate high school without even being able to read properly or do more than simple math? The proof comes in the form of this quote from the article linked above: “Critics say the law carries rigid and unrealistic expectations that put too much of an emphasis on tests for reading and math at the expense of a more well-rounded education.” How is an emphasis on math and reading a bad thing, when those are two of the most important subjects taught in school and reading especially is essential for learning all other subjects! After 14-15 years of school (including pre-k and kindergarten), our school system has effectively worked more like a babysitter than an educational institution.

The old teaching techniques such as rote learning (memorization) and phonics have been cast aside in favor of new ideas like “whole word” learning. Teaching a child to read by sounding out the letters that make up the word is apparently a bad idea.

So, to answer the question, what do we need an education for? Well first of all, we need to be able to read and write properly (and we already know that our schools are lacking on this), but we also need to think logically, critically, and connectedly and be able to express ourselves clearly to others. Most importantly we need to learn how to continue learning.

To better understand this post, I recommend reading (at least the beginning section) of Dorothy Sayers’ essay “The Lost Tools of Learning”.

You may think that my series title sounds self-evident, but throughout this series I hope to show you not only how important education really is, but how our current educational system and even most homeschooling methods are completely lacking the ability to teach children how to learn. I will also talk about homeschooling: how unoriginal it is, how Catholic it is, and how necessary it is for a complete education. Lastly, but not of least importance, I will introduce you to the idea of “classical education”.

As Dorothy Sayers says, “we have lost the tools of learning,” and with them, our ability to think, reason, speak, and write articulately and logically.

Posts in this series are as follows, but as always, I am sure this list will grow by the time the series is complete.

Post Topics:
Why do we need an education?
What is a proper education?
How do we achieve this?

Homeschooling (sub-series):
A Brief History of Homeschooling
Why is homeschooling so important?
What makes homeschooling different?
The Dreaded “S” Word
Homeschooling and Catholicism
A Short Look at "Unschooling"

Classical Education (sub-series):
What is Classical Education?
The Trivium
The Quadrivium
What All This Means

References: Browse for more information. I will add more as I find good sources.
The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise
Catholic Education: Homeward Bound by Kimberly Hahn
The Catholic Homeschool Companion ed. by Maureen Wittmann
The Read-aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

Dorothy Sayers’ 1947 essay “The Lost Tools of Learning”
The Well Trained Mind (website)
Homeschooling Catholic (website)
Five J’s (a homeschool blog)