Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Catholic Living in the Modern World => Topic started by: Geremia on January 12, 2024, 08:57:41 PM
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Could someone here please recommend a good book defending the superiority of homeschooling over classroom schooling?
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John Taylor Gatto & Maria Montessori both have several books that would fit this description. Gatto is more directed at how bad public school is; Montessori is more about best practices for early childhood education.
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If you want to go WAY back, this one is interesting. Most of the book is an argument against public school but the alternative presented is Catholic schooling.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Public_School_Education/ywQCAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA7&printsec=frontcover
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If you want to go WAY back, this one is interesting. Most of the book is an argument against public school but the alternative presented is Catholic schooling.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Public_School_Education/ywQCAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA7&printsec=frontcover
Some very inspiring reading there, very good!
Since it is difficult even to find Traditional Catholic schools nowadays where the spirit of the world and bad influences are absent, it is easy to apply his logic and conclusions to home schooling rather than Catholic schools.
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John Taylor Gatto & Maria Montessori both have several books that would fit this description. Gatto is more directed at how bad public school is; Montessori is more about best practices for early childhood education.
After reading an article on Maria Montessori in a 2022 edition of The Broken Wheel (starting on p.31), a periodical publication supervised by Fr MacDonald (attached), I wouldn't recommend anything that comes from her. Here is the conclusion of that article:
In conclusion:
I strongly recommend, for those who like to watch videos or listen to podcasts, the conference
entitled “Resistance Podcast 122: The Problems of Maria Montessori Part 1”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yOjmxoesTE.
I only watched the first five minutes before I wrote this article, but I would have saved myself a lot
of time and research if I had watched it all. A lot of the quotes I put in this article are also found in
this podcast. However, it is very complete and goes much deeper than I am able to intellectually. Do
not be discouraged by the first 9 minutes. If you prefer, go straight to minute 9.
Part 2 is entitled “Resistance Podcast 125: Catechesis of the Good Shepherd: a Wolf in Sheep’s
Clothing”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-byCCn6RuA
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After reading an article on Maria Montessori in a 2022 edition of The Broken Wheel (starting on p.31), a periodical publication supervised by Fr MacDonald (attached), I wouldn't recommend anything that comes from her. Here is the conclusion of that article:
Thanks. Yes, I've read before about some of her problematic ideas. I certainly wouldn't be recommending her for theological direction. But, I'm not the sort to need something or someone to be 100% perfect to garner some valuable information from it. I think anyone here should be able to survive a paging-through of The Montessori Method. But, it's probably not a good fit for what the OP is looking for as it doesn't point toward home education as the solution to failing public schools.
Gatto is a homeschooling advocate, but I think he takes it a step further and promotes "unschooling" -- not 100% sure. I also don't believe he addresses religious concerns at all.
More homeschool-specific books that come to mind are Educating the WholeHearted Child by Sally Clarkson or The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer.
I'm interested to see if anyone knows of book that is a complete argument for Catholic homeschooling.
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This looks like a solid resource:
https://www.amazon.com/Catholic-Home-Schooling-Handbook-Parents/dp/0895554941/
It's an out-of-print TAN book by Seton Homeschool director Dr. Mary Kay Clark.
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Yes, I do remember Seton's book. At www.Joyfulcatholic, also known as refuge of sinners, a book titled "public education". This one will go an angle on Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ that brought the public schools in to teach no God.
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I wouldn't recommend anything that comes from her.
Supposedly Pope Leo XIII endorsed her, but she certainly is not a homeschooler. She was the founder of maternity schools (where mothers with their young children would both be away from the home and in her classrooms).
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[Catholic Home Schooling (https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_details&book_id=9785) is] an out-of-print TAN book by Seton Homeschool director Dr. Mary Kay Clark.
Nice credentials! Thank you!
I wonder if any founders of other homeschool groups (OLV (https://www.olvs.org/), Kolbe (https://www.kolbe.org/), QoH (https://queenofheavenacademy.org/), etc.) have written books on homeschooling.
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Yes, I do remember Seton's book. At www.Joyfulcatholic, also known as refuge of sinners, a book titled "public education". This one will go an angle on Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ that brought the public schools in to teach no God.
That link doesn't work. When I typed in .com, I was redirected to this:
https://www.traditionalcatholicpublishing.com/ (https://www.traditionalcatholicpublishing.com/)
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That link doesn't work. When I typed in .com, I was redirected to this:
https://www.traditionalcatholicpublishing.com/ (https://www.traditionalcatholicpublishing.com/)
I'm pretty sure she's referring to Public School Education by Muller which I linked to above (public domain).
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[Catholic Home Schooling: A Handbook for Parents (https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_details&book_id=9785) is an] out-of-print TAN book by Seton Homeschool director Dr. Mary Kay Clark.
Thanks again for this work. I'm only about ⅛ of the way through it, but right off the bat it covers the advantages of homeschooling:
Thomas Nelson's preface lists 8 advantages, pp. xvii-xx:
- "You do not waste the students’ time."
- "You do not re-teach what the student already knows."
- "You can give your own children more individualized attention."
- "You can gear the work to a pace your children can handle and that will keep them interested."
- "You can (and should) eliminate the option to fail!"
- "You can build in automatic consequences for failure to perform."
- "You can emphasize reading."
- "Home schooling eliminates the silliness and nonsense picked up from peers."
and Dr. Clark's ch. 1 (pp. 1-22) argues homeschooling's advantages:
- no sex-ed (indoctrination into ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity; cf. Fr. John F. O'Connor, O.P., "The State of [']Catholic['] Education (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE9ntWFj17k)," who told parents not to send their children to "Catholic" schools)
- character formation
- academics
- public (& "Catholic") schools "the training camps of the enemies of Jesus Christ and His Church." (p. 9)
- raising "cradle Catholics"
- benefits for the
- student: socialization
- mother
- father
- family
- community
- Church
- nation
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"You can (and should) eliminate the option to fail!"
It takes a long time for many to wrap their heads around the idea that grades are pointless in homeschooling. A grade is a reflection of how well a student does compared to the other students. In homeschooling, there's no point in moving on if the student hasn't learned the material.
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Douay-Rheims Bible (https://biblehub.com/drbc/mark/12.htm)
And Jesus answering, said to them: Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.
Children belong to God and parents; not the government.
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Years back I remember some trads recommending The Trivium (can't add Amazon link for some reason) by Sister Miriam Joseph (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Miriam_Joseph). Though she was a fan of Mortimer Adler and Jacques Maritain.
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[Catholic Home Schooling: A Handbook for Parents (https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_details&book_id=9785) is an] out-of-print TAN book by Seton Homeschool director Dr. Mary Kay Clark (https://www.setonhome.org/teams/mary-kay-clark/).
Thanks yet again! This is one of the best works I've read on Catholic education! It does an excellent job refuting all the errors of modern public, private, and parochial schooling, and really convinced me the value of Catholic marriages and families for society.
I liked the section on socialization, that true Catholic socialization is the works of charity, and the family is the best way to train children how to practice fraternal charity.
And that socialists deem schools "necessary" for socialization (but there wouldn't be any issue if families weren't so small due to contraception!).
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Any other good books on homeschooling?
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Years back I remember some trads recommending The Trivium (can't add Amazon link for some reason) by Sister Miriam Joseph (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Miriam_Joseph). Though she was a fan of Mortimer Adler and Jacques Maritain.
https://www.amazon.ca/Trivium-Liberal-Logic-Grammar-Rhetoric/dp/0967967503
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www.Joyfulcatholic.com is the same as MOS Mother of our Son, Refugee of Sinners.
Dr. David Allen White of the Naval Academy spoke to home schoolers in the 90's. An 18 year old young man convert Dr. White to the Catholic Church. Dr. White said at that time, the students he was receiving could not read well, so he could not teach them til they had a remedial class for reading to be able to progress. That bad!! He said he would rather have students home schooled, even it it were to play cards, they are learning!! those students that were home schooled, he had no problems with their reading skills. He saw the difference.
I was taught my mormons of the dumbing down. They directed me to the enemy's books and the USCCB also was appalling! Not only did we home school but we also saw the lies of the New Order and went traditional, AMEN! We all had a lot to learn!!