WHY I HOME SCHOOL by Gary L. Morella
he central issue of the debate regarding OBE GOALS2000 programs as
implemented in public schools boils down simply, for Christian parents,
as "who do you trust?"
I've provided evidence locally and nationally that many parents like me
don't trust the public schools because of the abuses our children suffer
due to the above programs lending themselves to those promoting special social
agendas counter to our Faith. This problem is not unique to public schools as
many of the same problems occur in private and parochial schools who
erroneously feel that they must model the public school curricula with the
obvious exception of religion. Sadly, the religion that is taught is often
a "watered-down" version of the Faith geared more to "self esteem" than
salvation.
I frankly could care less about a public school claiming to be "world class"
such as the case with those in my district when that same public school
presents programs to my children which my Faith holds in anathema, programs
mandated by the state. I don't care if the Calculus taught in School A
is of a level Einsteinian in proportions when that same school trashes
the Commandments of God and tells the students that Easter is just another
holiday with no meaning for many people. It's not necessary to tell that to
the youngest of children such as what happened in my district. You don't see
that happening with Kwanza. Nobody says Kwanza doesn't mean anything to
the majority of the world's population but rather that pagan Kwanza is an
honored tradition and must be respected It is not demeaned as Christianity
was in that same school district.
I am not impressed with schools who rewrite our history to accommodate changing
demographics because that history was written in blood. I don't care what
the nationality of current students are, they should be required to know the
roots of their country, in particular, the Judeo/Christian roots without
apology to ANY multiculturalists. I am a Civil War reenactor. At a recent
event, I had people come up to me and ask me "what my uniform was?" "Was it
the Revolutionary War?" Here was one of the defining moments of our country
and our children don't have a clue as to what it was about, when, why or how
it happened. The current emphasis on "multiculturalism" is polarizing students
instead of bringing them together for the common good. Why is it necessary
for Gary Morella to go around saying, "hey, look at me, I'm an Italian
American." This country used to be a melting pot where diverse cultures
learned of the sacrifices of our forefathers to give them the freedom that
they now enjoy, in particular, freedom from the tyranny of the state. Yes,
we were and should always be proud of our heritage, our ancestry, but in the
end, the contents of that pot were AMERICANS with a proud, Judeo/Christian
tradition, a tradition that made this country what it was before the
secularists were able to turn it into something unrecognizable to the founding
fathers. We don't have a melting pot anymore, we have a witches brew where
racism is encouraged.
When I was in parochial school in the 50s, the teachers weren't satisfied
with saying that "Johnny or Mary can read at seventh grade. They wanted
Johnny or Mary to read to the best of their ability and pounded that into them
daily with emphasis on the total understanding of English, reading
comprehension, diagrammatic form of sentence structure, and phonics, especially
phonics. When those kids got out of school, they almost all read at levels
far exceeding their grade because those dear, unpaid nuns wouldn't stand for
any less. A little fear of the Lord was put in us to do it, but that's a gift
of the Holy Ghost, much forgotten nowadays. There was nothing demeaning about
doing workbooks, it was a pleasurable experience and a clear way to monitor
your progress toward achieving the goals set for you by those nuns who would
not tolerate laziness in any way, shape, or form. We may have not had all of
the subjects available to us as the public schools did, but our math curricula,
two years of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry could stand up to the best
the public schools could offer. And we had religion, a religion that was
respected as opposed to one to be avoided if we disagreed with same. We had
priests who came in weekly to insure that we were taught the truths of the
Faith. Woe to that lad who could not answer when being called on by Monsignor
Stremel. Fear of the Lord, again! Do you ever notice that there is no fear
today. Is that why discipline is not part of the lexicon of our schools? I
actually had my superintendent ask me, "Mr. Morella, what do you think of
discipline in the schools?" I could not believe what I was hearing. I
replied, "without same, anarchy reigns, you have the inmates running the
asylum." Could that be the reason why a student authored poetry book
containing unimaginable filth was given the imprimatur of our school district?
Homework? Students today don't know what homework is. If they get too much
from keeping them playing Nintendo or watching Pokeman, they complain.
In our district, I've learned that abusive language is common between students
and teachers because that's all part of the learning experience and we wouldn't
want to hamper little Johnny or Jeannie by having the audacity to suggest that
there is such a thing as manners. I recall homework on the order of 2-3 hours
a night and you'd better have it finished before meeting Sister Anacleta in
the morning who stood for NO nonsense. Yes, those were hard old nuns but they
commanded your respect. They demanded discipline and got it because our Church
demands the same due to the love of a caring God who knows what's best for us.
I'm not interested in having our children in a school-to-work program for any
global reason determined before they reach the age of ten, I'm interested in
having them get the best education possible to use the God given talents that
they have for His glory, recognizing that what we do in this finite life is
likened to a babe in the womb compared to the eternity that awaits us. I'm
interested in getting our children to have an appreciation that what they do in
the here-an-now in terms of their dealings with their God and their fellow man
directly determines what they will be doing in the here-after.