Scotland’s First Catholic Home Education Website Launched…
At the request of one of our readers, Catholic Truth is proud to mark the Feast of the Holy Family with the launch of what we believe to be the first Catholic Home Education website in Scotland. Catholic Home Education Scotland aims to support parents who are home-educators as well as parents who have concerns about the education system but who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to home-school.
Click on the image of the Holy Family to take a tour of this beautiful new website and share your thoughts with us about the whole concept of home-education. Note: this is a website launched by a family determined to hold fast to the entirety of Catholic Tradition, allowing no compromise with Modernism in any way – catechesis, liturgy, you name it. It’s all or nothing.
But, are they right? Doesn’t every Catholic parent have a duty to support the Catholic school system?
Comments (14)
I think this is a very well designed website and will be a tremendous resource for Catholic parents. Well done to those involved in setting it up.
The parental duty is first and foremost to transmit the Faith to their children in order to help them save their soul. The normal way for this to happen is through partnership with the home, school and parish. Unfortunately, the parish and school are now likely to cause children to lose their Faith, so the home is all that is left. No Catholic parent can morally send their child to a Catholic school these days.
Petrus,
I agree that this new website will be a tremendous resource for Catholic parents.
However, there is one link – to Home Education UK – that ought to have a mild health warning attached. It contains a lot of good information – the articles section in particular is very good.
However, there are at least a couple of statements about the “rights of the child” that are incompatible with the duty of Catholic parents to form and instruct their children. One statement asserts the right of the child to control their own medical needs: “Even though the law expresses the right to home educate as a parental right, it is my belief that in the same way that young people have the right to decide upon medical procedures” and the other states that the writer of the website will always allow the child’s view over the parents’ wishes – words to that effect. At a quick scan I couldn’t find this to quote verbatim but with a little time, anyone can find it and read it for themselves.
Home Education UK is not a Catholic site, of course, so it’s unsurprising that there will be material up there which is to be “handled with care” – as well as the excellent information provided.
Hopefully, the Catholic Home Education Scotland site will grow and develop. It’s certainly impressive and is being launched on the perfect Feast for the purpose.
I personally am a strong supporter of homeschooling, for several reasons, but main two are is that it will enable a child to be educated according to a well-grounded Catholic faith and also it will strengthen the basic family unit, due to greater interaction, as parents can teach at their own pace and children can at their own pace.
However, I do have some concerns. What if a Catholic family can’t afford to homeschool, if one parent has to give up work. The government doesn’t provide any support. I’m also concerned that some parents might not have adequate qualifications in a particular subject. If I was a homeschooler, woe betide my sons and daughters if they took a liking to maths or science- these are my weak points. History, or English on the otherhand…..
For some parents it might be better to send their children to state schools and withdraw them from certain lessons, such as sex education.
Catholic Convert,
Did you visit the new website? You would see (and hear if you viewed the video on the links page) that there is plenty of help for non-professional teachers. It can be done, with proper resources.
This is a great new resource. Thank you Catholic Truth! I am a Catholic home educator in Scotland and have lots to say on the subject but no time at the moment. I just wanted to begin by saying thank-you. Such a website is fantastic and much needed!
PerpetuaFelicitas,
Welcome! I’m delighted that you have made history as being the first Catholic home educator in Scotland to comment on the first Catholic home-education website in Scotland!
Very pleased that you like the new site. The parent-reader behind it is not feeling well today – she has a bit of an infection so is lying low, but she is delighted at the positive response to the website so far.
I can’t help smiling at the irony – like school-teachers – our home-educating reader, now website administrator, has been taken ill during the school holidays! Staffrooms post-holidays were always full of tales of woe of who was laid up with what when they should have been enjoying the break. So, for those of you thinking of abandoning the quiet life for home-education, be warned 🙂
Editor,
I think that accolade (the first Catholic home educator to comment on this thread) belongs to me! ;). My five year old son always says I’m the Head Master of the house!
Oops! Sorry! I completely forgot. But are you sure your son isn’t saying “the Head Case of the house”? 🙂
PerpetuaFelicitas,
In light of Petrus’s comment, asserting HIS right to the historic title of first home-educator in Scotland to comment on the new website, I ought to amend my “welcome” to you as being the first female Catholic home educator etc…
I need to start paying attention or I’ll find myself in detention 🙂
Editor,
Come to think of it – that probably is what he means!
Well, he IS a very bright lad! You brought it on yourself! Should have sent him to the local Primary 🙂
I greatly admire home schoolers but I want to be a bit of a devil’s advocate by saying there’s one bit in the ABOUT section of the new website that might puzzle some people. It says this is a reason why some parents choose to home school:
“•Concerns about the lack of rigour in the academic education provided in the school system, despite the largely excellent teaching force in Scottish schools.”
But if the teachers are “largely excellent” how can there be a lack of rigour in the schools? I think I know the answer but would like it to be confirmed by those “in the know”.
The new website is really beautiful, BTW. I love it being “in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary” and I am sure that will being lots of graces to the parents running it.
I’m sure others will give their own explanation, Josephine, but basically, a good teacher can only do what he/she can with the syllabus. If the system is demanding that pupils are taught certain things, then it’s difficult for teachers to ignore it. It’s also true that teachers themselves have imbibed much, if not most, of what Catholics would reject, e.g. the theory of evolution, and so would not think of offering any other idea about creation. Indeed, they are likely (in good enough faith) to mock the idea of any other explanation. That’s what they’ve been taught to believe – to believe in the absolute truth of the theory of evolution ! And so they consider anyone who doesn’t believe it, to have been indoctrinated. The irony of it all totally escapes them!
Also, e.g. in English, books are usually prescribed and that narrows a teacher’s options. If pupils have to be prepared to answer exam questions on particular texts, then obviously the teacher has to read those books with the class. This is related to the “lack of rigour” – some of the textbooks in use in English departments leave plenty to be desired. The aim is more that pupils will immediately understand what they are reading, rather than stretching them to expand their vocabulary, reference points etc. It’s got to be immediately “relevant” so if most of them come from broken homes, for example, no point reading a story about a rosy faced mum who bakes cakes and has the fire lit to welcome them home at the end of the school day. Even though such stories would expand the child’s horizons and give them hope that there are more and better ways of living out there than what they have so far had the misfortune to experience.
So, I think it is possible for someone to be an excellent teacher but to be constrained by the system – i.e. the syllabus, resources and Government demands.
Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
That’s a really beautiful website and it’s wonderful that it’s been launched on the Feast of the Holy Family. I’ll be praying that it does a lot of good. I’m sure it will. Congratulations to all involved in setting it up.
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