I almost feel as if I have something to confess. I don’t really, but I just want to be honest and let you know that my husband and I opted to send each of our children to a traditional high school instead of homeschooling them during those years. There. Now I feel better. And now I will answer your question of “Why?” The simple answer is we felt called in a different direction. We considered every option from homeschooling to Catholic school to Christian school to public school. I traipsed all over the Lansing area and spent countless hours observing classrooms and pouring over curricula. One school was too out of control with discipline. One was way too small with not enough offerings. Another was sorely lacking in good theology. Yet another had a faith statement I couldn’t sign as a Catholic. There were days when it seemed it would be easier to just homeschool high school and, yet, we felt called not to. It was strange. We ended up finding a gold mine at a Protestant school recommended to us by some good Catholic friends. Not only did the school teach a classical curriculum, but it believed that parents were the primary educators of their own children. Imagine that! In fact, on graduation day, it was the parents who presented their own children with diplomas, not some member of the school board who did not know the child. After much prayer, we applied to this school, and our daughter was accepted. Our pastor had a fit. He’s over it now that he has seen our daughter become a Catholic leader at her university and in the Church. Sending her to that high school was a great decision for our daughter. Not only did she get to do all the things she wanted to do like sports and the arts, she also was able to explore in depth her Catholic faith. This can happen at a Catholic school, too, and certainly in homeschooling. BUT, how many Catholic school kids or homeschooling kids get to present their Catholic research papers to a bunch of Protestants? Our daughter able to present the facts on The Revolt, The Eucharistic Miracle, and the Primacy of Peter to the faculty and students in her school. What an awesome lesson for a confirmed young soldier of Christ! And, just for fun, imagine what was running through the minds of those Evangelical Protestants. One even bought a Catechism! The next child was different, so we let her go to the local public high school. Again, it was a great decision for that child. Not only did she get to explore her talents in the pool and become a high school All-American in swimming and water polo, and earn a huge college scholarship, but she was able to witness to the lost and broken and give them something to shoot for. She was able to write papers on the things found in The Theology of the Body, even though no one knew that’s where they came from. Her teachers always wrote comments on her papers about how well-grounded she was as a person. The first question her high school friends asked her when she returned from her first year at college was, “So, did you drink?” They were so certain that it was her controlling parents who were going to make her rebel in college. When our daughter answered. “What for?” they just looked at her and said, “Wow! You’re the real deal. You know who you are.” Out third child, a son, is currently at our Catholic high school and continuing in the same solid fashion, giving his peers a run for their money in academics and faith formation. Again, it’s been a great decision. Our fourth is still at home and, who knows? Maybe he will be the one we homeschool through high school. You see, some who homeschool high school think that those of us who don’t are one of two things: scared or lazy. Maybe it’s a little of those, but God isn’t so narrow-minded that He thinks there is only one way to do things. Most homeschoolers aren’t narrow-minded either, or they wouldn’t homeschool. Our hats go off to those dedicated parents who have chosen to keep their kids home all the way through 12th grade. Their kids are very blessed, and we hope they know it. Homeschooling through high school is certainly a calling, but as our friend Maureen has said, “No matter where kids get their academics, all parents teach at home. They just might not be aware of what it is they are teaching.” For us, it is all about God’s will, not our own. For whatever reasons, we truly felt called to let our kids go out of the house for high school, and we’ve been at peace with that decision. It isn’t all about them or us anyway. It’s all about God, and we firmly believe it is all just part of His plan. And just like every other good parent, we pray that we make good decisions based on a correctly-formed conscience. And we pray that while our kids are out there, they use what they have been taught at home about faith and family and fortitude. And that’s why we sent them. Now you know.

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