What if . . . Institutionalized Schooling Edition, Part 2

Part 1 is here.

And so on to the hypothetical: What if all the schools (public and private) in the US were closed tomorrow?

Well, let's ignore for now the uproar it would cause. Besides that, I think a number of interesting things would or might happen:

1) More parents would stay home with their kids and assume the responsibility of educating them. They would seek out other folks in a similar situation and collaborate to find the most effective way of doing it. Because of more parents leaving the work force, it would affect . . .

2) . . . unemployment. I have no idea how this would work, but it seems that unemployment would decrease, as more jobs would be open. (Though there would be an influx of unemployed teachers that would need to find new work as well)

3) No more tax money would be spent on these schools. These families going from two incomes down to one could get additional tax rebates to help keep the boat afloat, so to speak. This would be another incentive for a parent to stay home. I don't know about the rest of the money (presumably in the hundreds of millions(?) . . . could we keep it, perhaps? I'm not sure how the economy would be impacted by 2) and 3) . . .

4) Many children would thrive; many would not. I think that the learning that happens in a homeschooling environment (the way that our peers do it, at least) is far superior than it's public school counterpart. Thousands of children who did not find fulfillment in schools will be astonished at the wonders of exploring things in a way that's not mandated by the government.

There's no question that thousands of children with poor home lives would be worse off . . . I don't have a good answer for this. Maybe small schools could be set up for those children that need to get out of their houses for 30 hours a week? Just a few to a classroom though . . .

5) Non-governmental schools would be set up. With teachers out of a job, and parents who refuse to give up that second income, is it possible that new schools could be formed, without governmental regulations? Maybe it's just glorified homeschooling; a teacher with 10 kids, all exploring different things with an adult to guide them . . .


I don't know, maybe I'm on to something . . . what am I not thinking of?

What if . . . Institutionalized Schooling Edition

(Disclaimer: This post is just me thinking out loud and is purely hypothetical. I'm not ready to start a petition to start legislation for the following. I've though about the topic for a total of 10 minutes and have done hardly any research that would back up some of my thoughts. So there.)

As you know, I'm a big homeschooling advocate. For reasons that I'll lay out in a large upcoming post (yes, the one I've been promising for almost 2 years now), I am convinced that, all things being equal, it's the absolute best way to raise our children both academically, morally, socially, etc.

And as I was reflecting on the fact that our public schools (and many private schools, for that matter) continually struggle to crank out a "finished product", so to speak, this question jumped to mind:


What if we just closed all the institutionalized schools in the nation?


Sure, it sounds a little drastic at first, but let's explore it a bit.

First off, if I could give two main reasons for the struggles of the public schools, in my opinion, I would offer the following (there are many others, clearly, but these are two biggies):

1) Unbalanced Student-to-Teacher Ration (i.e. too many students in a classroom)

2) Decline of the American family and society


The first seems obvious enough; a teacher could instruct much more effectively if she had 5 in her classroom as opposed to 25. This of course would never happen in a tax-funded educational system, as it would be cost-prohibitive.

The second seems obvious to me and to all the teachers that are currently in the trenches. The home lives of many of our children now are very different than they were fifty years ago (or so I hear : ) A few factors:

1) Astronomical divorce rate; many single-parent homes

2) Double-income families; "day-care" children

3) Lack of discipline in the home; enabling parents

4) Parental indifference; children feel unloved

5) Small family sizes; more than 2 children seen as burden

6) Effects of "culture of death"; measures taken to insure no unwanted children

7) TV/Computer; "third parent"

. . . among many others. Imagine the difficulty of teaching 20-25 children that are coming from this "typical" American household. Nearly none of these things were the case 50 years ago . . . it's easier to imagine a nun maintaining control of a classroom of 40-50 when each child had a healthy respect for their elders (which is clearly the exception now) and none of the previous factors listed.

OK, this is getting long . . . let's make this a 2-parter.

Pelosi on abortion

Well, politics is (are?) on the forefront of many minds, mine as well. Unfortunately, another election in which I'm not passionate about either candidate . . . the frontrunners are men I would hardly trust to mow my grass, much less run our country. How depressing . . .

Anyway, I'd like to post further on some political topics in the near future, but Pelosi first. Our "Catholic-Challenged" House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, went above her "pay-grade" last week and tried to wax theological on the topic of abortion and its relation to Church teaching. The results were jaw-dropping; as if she wasn't detested enough by Catholics.

It's funny because she's the second woman in a month (the other was on a local yahoogroup) that has believed, regrettably, that the abortion issue is up for grabs in the Catholic Church. It's amazing that in this Internet age, these two ladies wouldn't just google "catholic & abortion" and read a few items randomly. Lord knows the Church isn't trying to keep our stance a secret; geez, it's right in our Catechism for all to see:


"Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life." (CCC 2270)


Here's an excellent article setting things straight for those wondering why a self-proclaimed Catholic like Speaker Pelosi could be getting so much heat from bloggers to bishops. I'll use the same excerpt that Ignatius Insight used:

People — including apparently some “ardent” Catholics — seem to forget how central the pro-life issue is to Catholic morality and why that is so. We are not quibbling here about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It is no exaggeration to say that the inviolability and sacredness of innocent human life is to Catholic morality what the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is to Catholic dogma. Both are not only non-negotiable; they are foundational. I would challenge Speaker Pelosi to come up with any moral question on which the Church has expressed itself with greater clarity than on the intrinsic evil of abortion.

A solid core of beliefs or principles undergirds any human organization. These beliefs constitute the cement that binds the society together and determine its identity. Obviously plenty of issues fall outside this fundamental core, and there is a difference between legitimate pluralism of opinion and arrant contradiction. Environmentalists, for example, can disagree about many things — such as strategies, priorities, tactics, funding and the like — but devotion to the environment and its logical corollaries are not up for debate. If you sport a mink coat, you’re out of the club.

Being Catholic is no different. The title “Catholic” presumes a whole string of basic beliefs, succinctly laid out in the Apostle’s Creed. Catholics believe in one God, creator of heaven and earth, in Jesus Christ his only begotten son who became man, suffered and died for us, rose from the dead on the third day, and so forth. Along with this canon of doctrines, Catholics also embrace a body of moral teaching (summed up tidily in the Catechism of the Catholic Church) which governs their understanding of right and wrong, what is pleasing to God and what offends Him.

From the earliest days of Christianity, Jesus’ followers distinguished themselves from those around them both by their doctrinal beliefs and their moral code. The earliest known work of Christian antiquity outside the New Testament is called The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, known also by its familiar Greek appellation, the Didache. This catechetical manual makes no bones about what it means to be a Christian. It begins with the stark admonition: “Two ways there are, one of Life and one of Death, and there is a great difference between the Two Ways.” Included in the explanation of what it means to love one’s neighbor, as part of the “way of life,” first century Christians read the words, “Do not kill a fetus by abortion, or commit infanticide.” Such has been the consistent teaching throughout the history of Christianity and no amount of political posturing will change that.

Some people think that when Catholics compare abortion to slavery or to Nazi anti-Semitism they are engaging in hyperbole. They couldn’t be more wrong. Abortion is not only the greatest social injustice of our century; it is arguably the greatest social injustice of all time. Abortion circumscribes an entire class of human beings (the unborn) as non-citizens, excluded from the basic rights and protections accorded to all other human beings. In this way abortion mimics the great moral tragedies of all time, which always began with the denigration of an entire class of people as unworthy of life or freedom.

The evil of abortion is compounded by the magnitude of the problem. Though completely reliable statistics are unavailable, conservative estimates place the number of legal abortions performed worldwide each year at 25-30 million, a figure that alone makes abortion a social problem of staggering proportions. “Humanity today offers us a truly alarming spectacle,” wrote Pope John Paul in his 1995 encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae, “if we consider not only how extensively attacks on life are spreading but also their unheard of numerical proportion.” The legal, systematic elimination of the most vulnerable members of society is the most heinous crime known to man. To fail to oppose it is to make oneself complicit in it.

Summer's Winding Down . . .

So, it's been two months since I posted. Yep, pretty status quo around here. ;) Just wanted to post a couple of pics of the kiddos from earlier in the summer so I feel as if I have contributed something to this blog recently. It's pictures like this that would make you think life is peachy-keen around here 24/7. Ha, ha. Doesn't she look as if she simply adores him?!

In all honesty, these two do have some really cute, touching moments of hugging, sharing, instructing one another and exhibiting virtues we try hard to pass down to them (with varying levels of success). Then, we have those days where someone is squealing, hitting, pushing and pointing fingers at the other every other minute. I mean it too, they really do literally hold up fingers and point at one another with furrowed eyebrows and mean faces! When I am not angry about it myself, it is a funny sight.

Here's another one from that night on our deck . . .

Hopefully, I will have a few more after I download pictures from our camera. But who knows when that is going to happen. ;) Overall, we had a pretty fun and busy summer . . . I still can't believe it is the end of August!