Homeschool ho!

If I've been absent for a while, it's because a major turn in our life has just occurred  I needn't bring readers up to date with our continued frustration in trying to forge a stable life since we've been Catholic.  Seven years of upheaval and going strong.  Financial struggles continue and show no signs of abating.  At best, if things work out, we'll be able to eke out a living at this point, and hope someone we know and love wins the Powerball Jackpot someday.  Standing at the doors of the diocese doing my best Henry IV impersonation has gotten me nowhere.  So what was the logical course of action?  Why, pulling our kids out of public schools and homeschooling of course!

I know, it seems careless, reckless and ludicrous given our instability.  But here's the thing.  Our boys have been pushing for homeschooling for several years now, as the school system has changed, and as a couple of them have run afoul of the institutional school.  They have wonderful teachers, and that has not been a problem.  Nor is it the fear of mass shootings or flu pandemics.  Those happen anywhere.  It's simply our boys don't fit in the mold, so to speak.  They march to the beat of their own drummers, and in a culturally vacuous age like ours, that doesn't afford them many opportunities,  especially when the schools themselves seem to be herding kids along in ways that make schools 30 years ago seem open and diverse by comparison. It just seemed everyone knows our education systems are in disarray  but nobody knows how to fix them.  The schools continually zig when they should zag.

Are we scared?  Hell yes.  We have not clue one how we'll survive.  We don't know how we can make it work.  My wife and I are educators, but neither has taught that age group for decades.  How can we do it when things are in turmoil?  Well, here's the thing.  We've been looking for purpose again, something we've not had since we left Protestant ministry.  Fitting into the Catholic Church has been difficult, since our schedules have been topsy-turvy, owing, in part, to our inability to find solid employment (itself owing to our previous lives wrapped around religious life in an increasingly hostile-toward-religion society.  This is  not Scott Hahn's conversion to Catholicism generation).  We've never known what one month's schedule to the next will look like.  We've spent the last seven years more or less bouncing around like a pinball, always wondering if we'll survive another year, being unable to commit to things, not knowing if paychecks will come or if bills will be paid - and all along, watching our boys get year after year older.

So last Saturday night, our oldest, the one who held out against homeschooling due to his age, came out after the others were asleep and said he actually thought he might like to homeschool.  As he had held out for over a year, my wife and I sat there speechless.  Earlier that day, my wife broke our silence with her grandmother (people on my blog know more of our struggles than many extended family members), and asked that she pray right away for direction, for purpose, for meaning, for something.  I could clean toilets and flip burgers if I had some purpose in my life again.  And then it happened.  Out of the blue, the last hold-out caved that very night.

Right or wrong, we saw that as a prayer answered, and so plunged in with both feet.  We revamped an old notice to homeschool we had, added more information, and submitted it to the superintendent. Wednesday night, we sent a bulk email to the teachers informing them of our decision.  Today is their last day.  And God willing, we will survive somehow and this will be the start of a new adventure in our lives.  I hope so.  Faith-wise in our family, something had to happen.  Too many were beginning to grumble that we simply could not gain traction since our entry into the Catholic Church.  Despite overflowing generosity from Catholics, our ability to mesh with the Catholic Church and resurrect that feeling of purpose just wasn't happening  no matter how loving individual Catholics or even Catholic parishes were.  We wanted to fish again, not just enjoy fish given to us.

Are we right?   We don't know.  But we know our children needed us, we needed purpose, and on a day a genuine prayer warrior was asked to pray, the unthinkable happened.  So it's homeschooling ho!  The beginning of a brand new adventure as an old part of our lives comes to a close.  It reminds me of that mournful day when Bill Watterson wrapped up his wonderful comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.  For the first time in years, the world looks brand-new.  A day of possibilities. It's time we go exploring!  TTFN, and we'll be back soon!