As many schools are deciding to keep children home this fall, using Zoom or Google Classroom to interact with their students directly, it means that parents are being forced to be more involved in their children’s education. This is an added stressor, especially to parents who feel ill equipped to teach their children. Social media is filled with people sharing their experiences of what it is like to stay at home during this pandemic.
I will not use this space to tell you how to educate your child, but rather look to the lives of the saints to see how they took responsibility for their child’s growth. What an opportunity parents today have to form their children in the faith.
I recently came across a young man on our island, visiting his grandmother. The father of three young children and getting his master’s in special education, he is concerned that we return to giving our children a path of morality and spirituality, which builds on their faith- faith that can take care of them in times of crises- such as pandemics.
We can take some advice from St. Benedict who in the prologue of The Rule of Saint Benedict writes:
Listen carefully, my child, to my instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from one who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice. Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from the heavens that every day calls out this charge: “If you hear God’s voice today, do not harden your hearts (Psalm 95:8).”
Therefore we intend to establish a school for God’s service. In drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome. The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love. … But as we progress in this way of live and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.
Parents right now already have a lot on their plates, so even if they simply see this time at home as a way to pray together as a family or to talk about God at the dinner table, that’s important. But this is a chance for parents to educate their children in more than just the "three Rs". I do not pretend to think this is easy. Many parents have left the education of their children, especially spiritually, in the hands of others so are unsure of how to proceed in this. For me the most important part of education, especially in young children, is to develop a love of learning. They can do the basics later, but if they are given the chance their rapidly growing minds can absorb more than we can dream of giving them.
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I have stressed in this Blog the saints. Now is the time to read about and discuss saints with children of all ages. Find a theme. Find the modern saints who have something in common with your child’s interests. Stretch their minds. Inspire awe and wonder, knowledge and appreciation of Jesus and His saints.An interesting article I found recently was Jerry Windley-Daoust “What does the Rule of St. Benedict offer families?” A good example of a parent thinking! (Teaching Catholic Kids.com). In the past I have also recommended the videos of Father Mike Schmitz for teens.
Jacob Tate writes: …some of our greatest saints would be appalled at the thought of randomly assigned teachers, who may or may not be qualified, educating our children according to arbitrary, anti-religious government standards. St. Thomas Aquinas, for one, wrote that early childhood education should be a sort of “guided discovery” for the child. That phrase could be unpacked quite a bit, but I think anyone can admit that an army of six-year-olds in desks all day being taught what the current educational regime deems intellectually and morally appropriate for them looks quite different from “guided discovery.” (5 Reasons to Keep Homeschooling after COVID)