The Church cannot approve schools which exclude religion from the curriculum, both because religion is the most important subject in education, and because she contends that even secular education is not possible in its best form unless religion be made the central, vitalizing, and co-ordinating factor in the life of the child. The Church, sometimes, tolerates schools in which religion is not taught, and permits Catholic children to attend them, when the circuмstances are such as to leave no alternative, and when due precautions are taken to supply by other means the religious training which such schools do not give. She reserves the right to judge whether this be the case, and, if her judgment is unfavourable, claims the right to forbid attendance"
--(Letter of Gregory XVI to Irish Bishops, 1831).


•"…Those parents who allow their children to frequent schools where it is impossible to avoid the loss of souls… according to Catholic moral teaching, such parents, should they persist in their attitude, cannot receive absolution in the Sacrament of Penance."
--Instructions Of The Holy Office To The Bishops Of The U.S., Pope Pius IX, 1875


•“It is, then, incuмbent on parents to strain every nerve to ward off such an outrage, and to strive manfully to have and to hold exclusive authority to direct the education of their offspring, as is fitting, in a Christian manner, and first and foremost to keep them away from schools where there is risk of their drinking in the poison of impiety”
--Sapientiae Christianae, Pope Leo XIII, 1890 Pope


•“First, Catholics should not choose mixed schools but have their own schools especially for children. They should choose excellent and reputable teachers for them. For an education in which religion is altered or non-existent is a very dangerous education”
--Militantis Ecclesiae, Pope Leo XIII, 1897

•“Obviously the need of this Christian instruction is accentuated by the decline of our times and morals. It is even more demanded by the existence of those public schools, lacking all religion, where everything holy is ridiculed and scorned. There both teachers’ lips and students’ ears are inclined to godlessness. We are referring to those schools which are unjustly called neutral or lay. In reality, they are nothing more than the stronghold of the powers of darkness.”
--Editae Saepe,** Pope St. Pius X, **1910

•"Duty of Attending Only Catholic Schools.
Catholic children may not attend non-Catholic, neutral, or mixed-schools, that is, those which are open also to non-Catholics, and it pertains exclusively to the Ordinary of the place to decide, in accordance with instructions of the Holy See, under what circuмstances and with what precautions against the danger of perversion, attendance at such schools may be tolerated.
--1917 code of Canon Law(Canon 1374)

All when Catholic schools were actually real options...i.e. really Catholic.

I have a dream. The abolishment of the public school in America. There are no institutions that I think have done more harm than the public schools except perhaps for the television stations and the government in general. I know my dream will never be realized unless society falls apart. But one can dream. I just watched a video by a libertarian advocating the abolishment of public schools. It is not a common position to hold so I was happy to see someone who shares my idea. I wish there were some possibility of it ever happening. To think that there are billions of people around the world who think it is a good idea for parents to give up their God-given responsibility to educate their children and hand it over to the state? Especially when the state is godless. Imagine there are tens of millions of conservative Christian parents who hand their children over to the public schools to be indoctrinated by leftist atheists and then they act surprised when they come out in favor of gαy marriage and abortion and most of them are sɛҳuąƖ perverts.

I mean I cannot understand how a good trad Catholic can believe the government and society are controlled by evil Jєωs and Freemasons and then hand their children over to be indoctrinated by those same evil Jєωs and Freemasons. If eating meat on a Friday is a mortal sin, I don't see how sending your children to a modern public school in America is not unless perhaps there is no other option and if you don't the government will take your children away. That is just my common sense, I cannot quote some obscure encyclicals to back up my common sense. I mean public schools today promote mortal sins. How can that not be scandal? Masturbation, fornication, birth control, sodomy, atheism, evolution, just for starters without even thinking about it or even getting into politics.

I told my husband about Matthew's OP and he said what you said, LT - Good question!

I actually answered this. Sorry my answer wasn’t blowing his money, and living like a fat cat wife with a cocktail I just like to keep up on baking, cleaning, and making sure my other two are entertained/learning.

I was in the process of modifying my last entry, when I discovered your post Vintagewife3.
I was writing:
We did have one person answer though, if you read back over the thread. I'm pondering ...

The issue of 

"can't homeschool" (a malady which is nebulous, seldom adequately explained, and usually self-diagnosed)

needs to be dealt with.

I believe that anyone who is literate and not suffering serious chronic health issues (as Cera pointed out) can homeschool. In my experience, possibly the worst candidates for homeschooling Mums are trained teachers, though there are exceptions.

Vintagewife, I hope that your child remains pure and innocent, though I fear for his/her chances. I hope that you will consider the benefits to be gained as a family by keeping your family together as a family unit - something you miss by sending one to school and a 3 year old to preschool. The best education for children (esp infants) is with their own parents and siblings. Nothing can replace that at such a tender age.
May God bless your efforts to make a happy holy home

I’m not gonna lie and say I always planned on sending my kids to school. I didn’t.. homeschooling was a big part of my parenting plan.
My husband had other ideas, and refused to pay anything towards homeschooling. That being said, I support him. I get involved in the schools so I know exactly what’s going on, and I support my kids love of faith any/every way I can. I’m not slacking here... life just handed me different cards.

P.s.  Many US states have very strict homeschool laws which makes it extremely difficult to do, unless you're a lawyer who can navigate the laws and figure out how to comply with regulations.  Even if you figure out how to do it, the costs and paperwork make it an awful experience.

I'm confused then.  Are you for homeschooling or against?  If against, where should Catholics send their children if there are no true Catholic schools available? 


By the way, I have no children.

I have 3 kids (5,3,17 months) when the oldest is at school I take the other two in play dates, and yesterday it just so happens I met a friend of mine in a cute little town for coffee, and shopping. When my middle is in school I spend those mornings with our 17 month old for some quality time, and some good snuggles. My house is cleaner then any moms house I know. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. I have my daily chores, cooking, and I go to a mom workout group. When the kids come home we have home work, and extra studies for them. The school isn’t responsible for their whole learning we are...

So, you have only three children under 5, and you send the 5 and 3 year old to daycare ("when the kids come home"), and you go shopping and restaurant and gym with your friends. You clean the house and cook.

Let's imagine that the roles were reversed and it was your husband who did your work, he would drop off the children at daycare, go to the gym, then lunch with his friends then come home and clean and cook. A good prescription for losing a husband to a younger girl. No?

Yes, you need the support of your husband to home-school. But cards can change.
.
Modern schooling sets parents against children, except maybe in rare cases (for example, an SSPX school, but I'd even have doubts about them). I hope that he will discover the damage that can be done before it is too late to repair.
.
Don't kid yourself that you know exactly what's going on.
.
Pray, hope and don't worry.

This is one of many reasons not to send children to public schools.
There are just too many stories out there of parents finding out too late that the teacher snuck in some kind of sick lesson (we all know the gαy agenda is #1 these days) and then it’s too late the child was introduced to some satanic perversion. Some as young as kindergarten. Things too sick to even mention here as an adult.
And of course this is their intention. Get em while they’re young.
It breaks my heart that children are being attacked in this heinous way, and as far as my own children are concerned, they need to be unavailable, out of range, and off-limits to these perverted psychos.

And then there is the problem of only having pagan, Protestant and agnostic friends to associate with at public schools.  
I personally know someone who had a friend at school tell her how her father had molested her. The girls were both 6 years old when this conversation took place, and that was over 20 years ago.  

For me Homeschooling is not something that comes easy by any means. I have many obstacles and challenges that make it very difficult. 
I am blessed though that my children are very artistic (I can barely draw a decent stick figure haha) and I know that these talents would be suffocated right out of them with 8-10 hours away from home, having to waste valuable time learning false history, false science, and that there’s many different religions. It would be so not-fun having to undo all that indoctrination. 
I ain’t got no time for that  ;D