Bridget, It is coming from the place of someone who has had kids in Catholic schools from PreK-college, but who was himself homeschooled and understands why parents would choose differently. It is coming from the place of someone who has little patience for people who want blanket rules and are supportive of cruel policy, while evincing …
Bridget, It is coming from the place of someone who has had kids in Catholic schools from PreK-college, but who was himself homeschooled and understands why parents would choose differently. It is coming from the place of someone who has little patience for people who want blanket rules and are supportive of cruel policy, while evincing little in their writings that they understand the perspectives of others. Read Fr. John L's response above, to get an understanding of that. In my experience, people who have raised kids understand how difficult it is and are much more tolerant of people who do things differently than themselves. Foremost among these are people who have successfully raised kids who kept the faith. Everyone I know in that category is horrified by this policy.
In my opinion, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and parishes should take a broad, liberal view toward supporting families taking different approaches to raising kids. However, if someone wants to be exclusionary and cruel, they had better have a darn good reason for it and show some evidence that they understand what families are going through and how difficult it is to educate kids to both be successful professionally and to keep the faith.
To LinMGM's point, the only people I've known who had this much hate towards homeschoolers also had no kids. To a person, their perspectives changed as they had kids themselves and saw the educational/life outcomes of homeschoolers they had previously condemned. Young people are usually idealistic and think their way is the only way. Age tends to make people more tolerant of those doing things differently than themselves (unless they are captured by ideology and never mix socially with people different than themselves, as is the case for many chancery staff).
Bridget, It is coming from the place of someone who has had kids in Catholic schools from PreK-college, but who was himself homeschooled and understands why parents would choose differently. It is coming from the place of someone who has little patience for people who want blanket rules and are supportive of cruel policy, while evincing little in their writings that they understand the perspectives of others. Read Fr. John L's response above, to get an understanding of that. In my experience, people who have raised kids understand how difficult it is and are much more tolerant of people who do things differently than themselves. Foremost among these are people who have successfully raised kids who kept the faith. Everyone I know in that category is horrified by this policy.
In my opinion, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and parishes should take a broad, liberal view toward supporting families taking different approaches to raising kids. However, if someone wants to be exclusionary and cruel, they had better have a darn good reason for it and show some evidence that they understand what families are going through and how difficult it is to educate kids to both be successful professionally and to keep the faith.
To LinMGM's point, the only people I've known who had this much hate towards homeschoolers also had no kids. To a person, their perspectives changed as they had kids themselves and saw the educational/life outcomes of homeschoolers they had previously condemned. Young people are usually idealistic and think their way is the only way. Age tends to make people more tolerant of those doing things differently than themselves (unless they are captured by ideology and never mix socially with people different than themselves, as is the case for many chancery staff).