Catholic homeschooling: parents teach their kids for a variety of reasons - mainly white middle-class religious-based home schools - Faith Education in the Home

National Catholic Reporter, August 29, 1997 by Pat Marrin

What makes homeschooling among Catholics particularly noteworthy is that it is a separatist impulse within a separatist movement. Catholic education has its historical roots in the decision by American bishops at the end the 19th century to push parochial over public schools because of the perceived threat to Catholic children from Protestant and secularist influences in the public system.

The abandonment of public education by Protestants was spurred by racial integration in the 1960s, during which "Christian academies" proliferated across the South, and, more recently, by the issue of prayer in the schools. Homeschooling was a further step apart for Protestants in the 19708, paralleling the rise of evangelical political power and its call for a "Christian revival" in America.

Why some Catholic parents feel they must devote the time, energy and expense to turning their own homes into private schools is a complex question. The answer to that question may determine if homeschooling can be mainstreamed, as the Pittsburgh policy hopes, or if, as others claim, it is yet another sign that social and religious conservatives are finding new ways to separate themselves from the post-Vatican II church.

Traditionalist protest

Gene McCaffrey proudly describes himself as a committed traditionalist Catholic and homeschooler. McCaffrey and his wife have seven children, the oldest now 15, and have been homeschooling since they moved from New York Colorado in 1992.

"My wife does all the nuts and bolts of instruction," McCaffrey said. "I'm the principal of the school. I correct all the papers and I read to the kids every night.

"Our main reason for homeschooling is that we want our children to be educated in their Catholic faith. This was not happening in the local Catholic school. They were not taught the 10 Commandments, the seven sacraments, and not introduced to the 2,000-year old richness of Catholic history and culture.

"The people who were running the Catholic school said they had a better idea, wanted to give the kids a more holistic education, but what they were doing was imitating the public schools. As a friend of mine says, why send your kids to the Catholic school when they can lose their faith for free at the public school?" McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey and his wife maintain a catalog of educational resources they send to 3,000 other homeschoolers. His send of how fast the Catholic homeschooling movement is growing is based on his experience attending national conferences. "The conference in Manassas, Va., this past summer had over 3,000 people at it. Another one in Long Beach, Calif., the same, plus lots of smaller conferences around the country attracting from 200 to 2,000 participants," McCaffrey said.

The McCaffreys drive 65 miles one way to Denver each Sunday to attend a Tridentine Mass conducted by a priest of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. a traditionalist society that left the breakaway Lefebvre movement to stay in communion with Rome and now operates with permission in some dioceses. (The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, an arch-conservative who opposed the reforms of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, was excommunicated by Pope John Paul II in 1988.)