Tuesday 5 February 2008

Parents-take back your responsibility!

Friends With Christ and other places around the blogosphere have picked up the increasingly sinister and bullying tactics of this Government to undermine the welfare of children through pushing morally abhorant propaganda into the classroom as well as attacking Catholic schools for being 'Catholic'. While the acedemic standards of schools has plummeted so far that Universities have been setting up basic literacy skills sessions for first year undergraduates, and while young people are faced with massive difficulties finding work when they leave school-the Govt is obsessed with sex.
When my children were in school I felt powerless against the tide of stupidity that they were faced with. I spent a lot of time and energy re-teaching them at home, correcting mistakes in science and history or filling in the gaps so they got the context of some events. When it came to sex ed I had to teach the Truth because the Catholic school the boys attended offered contraceptive advice and a film that had a cartoon of a couple having sex while on the black board the words "The Church says sex is for marriage" was the full extent of the Catholic teaching.
Then I spent ages putting right what they were learning from ICONS the RE programme and that peeked with my oldest who was taught to refer to the Holy Spirit as 'She'!!!
Meanwhile most of the parents I knew didn't care that this was the standard of education their children were receiving. It was no worse than anywhere else. The children could jump through the acedemic hoops by doing their homework (regardless of whether that homework taught them anything or not) and sitting exams.
'Caring' parents were those who no matter how badly behaved or utterly miserable their child was at least ensured he got the correct grades at GCSE. If he stopped going to Mass and was getting involved with drinking, telling lies and being dishonest, so what? It wont affect him getting into Uni. These were the parents who complained about every holiday and loathed the summer ones.
The Govt has been able to take over our children's lives because WE the PARENTS have handed our children over!
This quote from Friends with Christ:
"So, it is already late in the day, but how can we rebuild a climate and a culture in which parents recover their primary role as educators of their children? First of
all, I think that quite a bit of personal interest and initiative by parents is necessary; an interest and initiative whereby parents actively seek to build a culture and a way of life for themselves and their families in which they embrace their God-given
mission to form and guide a family."
How can we?
A lot of parents are taking personal interest. A friend of mine has done much the same as I did. She has a tutor to help undue some of the damage of poor teaching in the school and she knows enough about the faith to have kept all four of her boys Catholic so far. The older 3 are in University now and are a credit to her and her husband.
Many of us homeschool-and that choice is increasing rapidly in this country. It is something the Govt is unhappy about and there are moves to either stop us or try and force their propaganda on us. Bizarrely the first thing they want to force on us is...yep, sex ed! Are they just weird or what?
As some of you may have noticed I am a great fan of Dr Ray Guarendi who on more than one occasion has said the 'cult of the expert' has stripped parents of their strength and sense of responsibility. He wrote "You're A Better Parent Than You Think" partly in answer to this. Meanwhile Dr William Coulson is out there apoloising for the devastating effects his work with Dr Carl Rogers had on schools and the monastic institutions of the Catholic Church.
Parenting is about SACRIFICE not 'How does it feel for you'. Even at the height of my career with 'Warm, empathic, non-judgemental, unconditional positive regard' ringing in my ears, I never believed a word of it. While idiots wandered around complaining about 'Catholic guilt', I was nursing a bunch of people with no discernable mental illness who were simply wrapped up in 'How does it feel for MEEEEE' rather than how does my horrible behaviour feel to the other poor sod?
Guilt! Ha!
My generation of parents need to learn from this mess. We have to take back our responsibilities as parents; face up to the mistakes we may have made and try and put things right. We need to remember that if we produce kids who cheat, lie, steal, fornicate, get drunk and throw up in the street etc. that WE have produced those children; we are still parents and we need to do something about it. We need to remember that our children's bad behaviour effects others for good or ill.
There is simply no point in complaining about the Govt trying to nanny our children in the worst possible way if we let them-because we aren't bothered enough.





12 comments:

swissmiss said...

Excellent WSNS! I agree whole heartedly. Many of today's parents are too busy working to improve their lifestyles and seeking their own personal fulfillments to trifle with their children. Some have the attitude that only the government knows how to properly educate our children. Where I live there is a Catholic school around the corner. My Catholic neighbors are proud to send their kids to this trendy school because it has the appeal of "keeping up with the Joneses" despite it teaching wishy-washy Catholicism. The kids come out of the school knowing the latest song by Hannah Montana, but couldn't tell you much about the Faith other than you should do what your conscience tells you!

I love Dr. Ray and like I said before, wish he was my neighbor!

LizzieD said...

Hello WSNS. Thankyou for your comment on my blog.
When I first met my husband, he was "doing" the 15 prayers of St Brigid of Sweden - they seemed to take ages, but they showed me how Catholic, and marriageable he seemed to be! (And I was proven right, after nearly 13 years of wedded bliss!)
You're so right about Catholic schools, and parents - I think that many are just afraid to be counter - cultural, home educating seems to them just Weird! (The wife of a married priest that my husband once met, said to him, after he'd mentioned his son was being home-educated, "Aren't you afraid you'll be raising a monster?" I wasn't there, or I might have replied, "don't you know, all children are monsters, it's just that ours won't have lost his purity by the age of eight" !!! There are plenty of people who will tell you you have to "engage" with society, but this is just an excuse to do nothing about the filth that is polluting young people's minds. If the price is that their purity is ripped from them, then my answer is I'll go for weird, thankyou, and keep my child away from the filth, so that it doesn't seem like the norm, at an early age. That way, when he has to confront it, he'll have the spiritual weapons to deal with it, please God. And as to our Gov't, and their agenda, well, don't get me going on that one!!
God Bless, you.

WhiteStoneNameSeeker said...

Thank you dear fellow homeschoolers!
I think there is a real fight on here, not just for those of us who homeschool, but for parents who feel they have to send their children to school. It's not just Catholic parents who need to take back their responsibility either; I have friends who are of other Christian demoninations and Muslim friends who want their children to grow up with proper innocence. We need to stand together against the tide.

God bless

Anonymous said...

We are managing to keep sex ed out of our Catholic Primary & have an excellent series of talks for parents...so there is some good news!

gemoftheocean said...

The Holy Spirit as "she?" Bad grammar. In Greek the Holy Spirit is an "It."

gemoftheocean said...

I've tagged you for a Bloggers of the World Award.

Marie said...

And society has the audacity to say that the Catholic Church is obsessed with sex!!! Spare me!

What you mothers go through..gosh *shakes my head*.

By the time children have reached ten they really DO 'know it all'. How sad:(( Enough to make one weep!

No wonder Jesus sweat blood in Gethsemane....Really it is getting TOO much!

Yes, take a stand parents and TAKE back your children so they can be just that...children and NOT mini adults.

Peace & wishing you a Holy Lenten Season:).

Marie xoxoox

EC Gefroh said...

This is a keeper. Thanks! BTW, I have something for you on my blog.

Adrienne said...

Great post! I have no children of my own but have taught the 7th -12th graders for 8 or 9 years. It is appalling how little the kids are taught about their faith in the home. And, it gets worse every year. The PARENTS are responsible for their religious education but they don’t know anything either. They just want their kids to have fun and not bother them. Sad, sad, sad!

Kate said...

My nine yr. old's class is due to visit a mosque as part of their P.H.S.E curriculum.I would argue that at the age of 9 you need to find out more about your own culture and faith as a priority over that of others.(especially when you have special educational needs).Most of the children in my child's school(Catholic)are either not Catholics or not practicing Catholics.To the best of my knowlege there are no muslims in the school, though I am sure they would be very welcome.

WhiteStoneNameSeeker said...

Miss Book- I too believe young children need a firm grounding in their own Faith before taking a look at other people's.
One of the problems faced-particularly with children with special needs is the issue of confessional language. If the children are not being taught their faith as 'our faith' but rather 'they believe', how will they differentiate between Catholic, other Christians and other faiths?

Kit said...

Outstanding post! I am catching up everyone due to my crazy work schedule the past week or so, or I'd've given you huge KUDOs sooner!

I am in the early stages of wondering if I should let the older ones finish out school and keep the baby home when his time comes. Which means giving up active law practice and teaching full time (better flexibility).

Hard to decide, but I cannot in good conscience keep wasting my money on the so-called Catholic schools in the Diocese. My kids are outsiders because they actually practice the faith and follow the rules, and are confounded by the majority of their peers' behaviour.

Keep us in your prayers my friend!