tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post5897025964083684784..comments2024-03-27T01:57:19.605-04:00Comments on Return To Excellence: Responses - Government Schools - An Odd EnterpriseReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-82766788798477749072011-06-07T23:34:42.466-04:002011-06-07T23:34:42.466-04:002223. Parents have the first responsibility for th...2223. Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity and disinterested service are the rule (Unlike the norm in Washington DC!) The home is well suited for education in the virtues. (again unlike DC!) This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery - the preconditions of all TRUE freedom (emphasis mine - self mastery results in True Freedom because you are no longer slave to temptation or vice - e.g, a person with self mastery and practiced in the art of self-denial and making good decisions can not be enslaved by an addiction to smoking/drugs/gambling.). Parents should teach their children to subordinate the 'material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones.' Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide and correct them: "He who loves his son will not spare the rod...He who disciplines his son will profit by him." (Sirach 30:1-2) "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in discipline and instruction of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4) --- (Judging by the mayhem in most public schools, including the one in my town, seems like neither school nor even the parents are following God's instruction in this regard - self-mastery isn't showing up as a common trait among the students. There are never consequences, even when the teacher ---or occasionally the principal ---imposes them, the parents and even the mayor force them to be rescinded. In our town, anyway)<br /><br /> <br /><br />2224: "The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and communal responsibilities. Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies." (Sure sounds like we should keep em out of public shools and most colleges too!)<br /><br /> <br /><br />2228: Parents' respect and affection are expressed by the care and attention they devote to bringing up their young children and providing for their physical and spiritual needs. As the children grow up, the same respect and devotion lead parents to educate them in the right use of their reason and freedom. <br /><br /> <br /><br />AND THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE.....THE RIGHT THAT CATHOLICS --- AND ALL AMERICANS --- ARE BEING DENIED...YET NONE DARE ATTACK THE "GOLDEN CALF" of "FREE" EDUCATION! WHY? Are we living "on the waterfront" here?????<br /><br /> <br /><br />2229: As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible, parents have the duty of choosing schoools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators. Public authorities ahve the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise.<br /><br /> <br /><br />I'm not surprised that most non-Catholics, or those who abandoned their faith, do not know these tenets of our faith. But I'm very sad to find that most folks "in the pews" (and sadder still that even some clergy, and a few Bishops) have NOT read THIS Catechism....much less have the Chutzpah of an Archbishop Timothy Dolan or a Archbishop Charles Chaput to stand up for this article of our Faith. to paraphrase the great pro-life bumpersticker -- You Cannot be Catholic and Pro Abortion ---You can't be Catholic & PRO PUBLIC EDUCATION...or PRO BIG GOVERNMENT...or DEMOCRAT! (nearly the entire party platform, as stated in 2008, is totally at odds with the Catholic faith). <br /><br /><br />Well anyway, that's my 2 cents, for what it's worth. That & a $5 bill will buy me a gallon of gas!<br /><br /><br />After all, according to our "natural born" President, we are not a Christian nation anyway.<br /><br /> <br /><br />God bless you,Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-23851429792929598292011-06-07T23:33:42.036-04:002011-06-07T23:33:42.036-04:00Doug
**Not to mention the fact that the Federa...Doug<br /><br /> <br /><br />**Not to mention the fact that the Federal Govt has NO business UNDER THE CONSTITUTION sticking its nose into education.. the General Welfare clause doesn't mean "Welfare check" or "we force you to educate other people's children to the detriment of your own."<br /><br /> <br /><br />***Christian Homeschoolers know that education is a GOD GIVEN right of the PARENTS, not the government. See the excellent book "The Children Trap: <br /><br />Biblical Principles for Education" by Robert Thoburn, who founded a very successful Christian academy in Fairfax, VA...<br /><br /> <br /><br />***Also, did you know that the right AND responsibility of the PARENTS (NOT the state, NOR even the Church) to educate their own children is offically acknowledged by the Catechism of the Catholic Church? Officially anway. (Note: Published by U.S.Council of Catholic Bishops, this catechism is NOT the Baltimore Catechism, which is intended for a different purpose.) <br /><br /> <br /><br />To wit, Part 3, Chapter 2, Article 4, Section III reads:<br /><br /> <br /><br />2221: "The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation. 'The role of the parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.' The right and duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable." (Sure sounds to me like one of the things our Government, AS DEFINED BY THE CONSTITUTION/DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, should be DEFENDING, not INFRINGING UPON. It's on this basis that I oppose the "no child left behind" act. If anything, the Federal government should declare ILLEGAL any infringement of a parents' right and duty to educate their OWN children...which is what public schools do via school taxes and truancy laws. Ah, instant property tax relief -- and I have better uses for that money -- namely, the education of MY OWN children and, God willing, grandchildren, among other worthy, well spent causes.)<br /><br /> <br /><br />2222: Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons. Showing themselves obedient to the will of the Father in heaven, they educate their children to fulfill God's law. (as we well know, many public school evironments and rules do not back up the parents on this issue)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com