Tuesday, October 02, 2007

A Catholic Education for Every Catholic Kid: Educational Choices

This is the 2nd in a series of articles at Catholic Exchange about giving children a solidly Catholic education.

In her first column, Neidi Bratton established the foundational presumption that all Catholic children deserve an authentic and thorough Catholic education and that parents are primarily in charge of making sure this happens.

She maintains that:
As Catholic parents our one, common factor is the responsibility to make sure the essential areas of Catholicism — heart, hand, and head knowledge of the Faith — are somehow incorporated into our children's learning.

It seems to me that one of the reasons a parent sends a child off to a Catholic school is to supplement the child's knowledge and understanding of the faith, as handed on to us from the Church - from the time of Jesus and His apostles to the present.

Naturally, this would seem to exclude those things which are, at their source, pagan, gnostic, or "new age" and lead children, away from a deeper understanding of Christ and what the life of a Christian should be, but into a valley of darkness and confusion in which many may become entrapped. This is not to say that knowledge of these things is to be avoided, but they should be presented at the proper time, and for what they are: obstacles and hindrances to one's faith and authentic spiritual development.

It may be interesting to read another's experiences and thoughts on Catholic education, especially having recently witnessed in the comments section here; the wholehearted support for and encouragement of a very problematic curriculum for high school freshmen together with the denigration of those who questioned the appropriateness of things such as the enneagram and neo-gnostic 'teachings' as a means for a 13-14 year olds to grow in their faith.

Article here.

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