When Catholic School Is at Home
It’s 2 p.m. on a fall Thursday, still a little while before yellow school buses will lumber homeward on city streets. But for the kids occupying the rows of lanes at the bowling alley, the day’s lessons of spelling and Latin and geometry have given way to creating screen names for their bowling identities and helping the younger children fasten their ever-fashionable bowling shoes.
Herein lie two of the benefits to homeschooling, an option becoming more feasible and popular in Catholic circles every year: The potential for shorter school days (your day is done when your work is done), and a fostering of natural interaction among all age groups since grade distinctions are much less evident in group settings.
The North Carolina Department of Non-Public Education recorded nearly 65,000 students as home-schooled last year. Of these, 43,461 attended homeschools classified as “religious.” In the Raleigh/Cary area, 88 families – with 234 students – are members of TORCH (Traditions of Roman Catholic Homes), a national support network that promotes homeschooling among Catholic families. They converge frequently at parks and churches for social, academic and spiritual activities.
But 20 years ago, the face of homeschooling looked nothing like the large groups of today. According to state statistics, in 1986 just 809 students were homeschooled. Catholic homeschooling numbers were equally low. In 1991, just three families in the capital area stepped up as homeschooling pioneers. Three years later, at a meeting at St. Raphael Church in Raleigh, 26 families formed what would later become the local chapter of TORCH. Two years ago the group grew so large that out of necessity it expanded into separate Raleigh and Cary TORCH chapters, among whose members come from places like Greenville and Benson.
One of the earliest Catholic homeschooling mothers was Lynn Kovacs. She began in 1986 in New York when her oldest was entering eighth grade. Despite the large number of Catholics in their area, their family was one of only two that had made the decision to homeschool.
There were no Catholic curricula at the time, either. While today Catholic families have their choice of Catholic materials from several outlets, when Kovacs started most religious-based curriculums were Protestant. Then her family moved to Raleigh, where Protestant homeschooling families outnumbered Catholic families eight to one, a ratio that still stands.
This spring, Kovacs “retired” from homeschooling as her youngest daughter headed to St. Thomas More Academy in Raleigh.
“With the numbers come greater support,” said Kovacs, reflecting on the difference 20 years has made in homeschooling. “People have begun to see the value in it, and to see how families are very much involved in their parishes, in volunteering. It’s much more accepted.”
TORCH is part of that acceptance. “It’s a support group,” said Debbie Tomasko, co-leader of the Cary chapter and a five-year veteran of homeschooling. Among the TORCH activities are those both Catholic and secular: First Friday mass and breakfast, May Crowning and All Saints Day parties, but also an annual spelling bee, a science fair and trips to the art museum. The middle grades have their own book club, the older students meet for a basic apologetics course, and two co-ops instruct students in specialized subjects like Latin and biology.
And then there are the purely social get-togethers, like the weekly afternoon at the park and a night out for adults (“Where we talk about school… or not school,” said Tomasko).
Homeschooling, say parents, allows them to tailor a curriculum to each student’s strengths and weaknesses while heeding the Church’s call to be the primary educators of their children. Some choose homeschooling because, exhausted by eight-hour school days followed by homework plus whatever activities pepper the calendar that night, they want to refocus on the importance of the family.
For Sabrena Goldman and her five children, the extra time together has meant more chances to attend daily mass, as well as the opportunity to travel on pilgrimages and to the ordination of a family friend.
It has also meant the freedom of creativity: On a recent Friday, the children used their free time to create a play about third-century martyrs.
Abby Steele finds that creativity is one of the blessings of homeschooling her two sons. “If you’re learning something and you hit a tangent, it opens a door that we didn’t plan,” she said. These doors – both planned and unplanned – have led to Roman parties, trips to the Shakespeare Festival in High Point and reenacting battles at Gettysburg in full regalia.
TORCH’s numbers are growing every year, with some families joining before their children reach school age. To them and others considering homeschooling, besides attending the yearly information night, Sue Tracey gives this advice: “Be not afraid, and jump right in.”
When Lynn Kovacs jumped in 20 years ago, she worried a little about her oldest son, who was less than thrilled about being homeschooled.
Now, that son and his wife are members of TORCH and homeschool their three children.
“They’re second-generation homeschool,” said Kovacs. “You didn’t see that 20 years ago.”
-- Dana Lorelle