7) We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Even though we are made in the image and likeness of God, because of Adam's fall we are all fallen ourselves. This is where I part ways with secular unschoolers of the radical variety, who really follow Rousseau in that they believe children are naturally good and society is what corrupts them. Nope. I think children are capable of great and wonderful, lovely, generous things, but they also are prone to sin and selfishness. Plus, they are immature and simply don't have the experience and executive function to make all their own decisions. I think it puts too much on a child in a developmentally inappropriate way to just let 'em loose to do everything their own way.
8) Parents have natural, God-given authority. Children need parents to protect and nurture them. They need their care and love, they need their guidance and wisdom, they need them to help form their characters in the most loving way possible. I don't believe in authoritarianism, but I do believe in authoritativeness. Authoritativeness is using your natural authority justly so you can do your job as parent. Your job as parent is to form and guide the little soul entrusted to you by God. I think a lot of unschoolers have trouble with authority and see it as all bad. Except maybe when it comes to safety, but other than that they don't feel they have the right to create firm limits. But I disagree. I think children need limits as much as they need play! I think God created things to work that way. But the limits don't have to be harsh. They have to be reasonable and clearly delineated. Maria Montessori referred to this as 'freedom within limits.'
9) Common sense and neuroscience research should be part of parenting. Some of the things that radical unschoolers encourage, to me, do not make sense especially with current studies on things like habits and addiction. We know now that too much video gaming or screen time is indeed bad for your health. I know unschoolers who will not put limits on such things. I'm uncomfortable with that. I don't think it corresponds with the evidence on brain development. Radical unschoolers will talk about self-regulation, but not all children will self-regulate about every little thing. Bad habits and addictions can occur if you don't create healthy limits. Candy and junk food, we know, are addictive. Therefore I think it is a parental prerogative to decide to limit such foods. We know that we should sleep and wake according to our circadian rhythms for the best health. Letting kids stay up late all the time isn't good for them. How you limit these things though, when unschooling will look different than mainstream effort at control which tend to use artificial methods like punishments, arbitrary time limits, etc. Unschooling, to me, would use gentler, more creative responses.
10) Parents can discipline in a loving, firm way without becoming punitive. You can discipline through attachment parenting, humor, distraction, creating helpful routines, promulgating expectations, one on one conversation, firm and fair reproofs, family meetings, reading out loud stories that illustrate problems, modeling how to deal with an issue, saying their first, middle and last name in that 'tone' (LOL), giving them 'the look', etc. I do believe it is the job of the parent to discipline their children. I do not think this necessarily includes punishment.
11) Catholic Unschooling is based on warm, healthy family relationships; it is aimed to form the whole child centered on a loving relationship with our Triune God: God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. It trusts that God designed children to learn through conversation with parents and family, through being part of a family in terms of sharing, helping out, through books and stories (God gave us the Bible! And Jesus taught through parables!) and play and imitation and being in love with and filled with wonder at God's creation.
12) Catholic Unschooling has a different definition of freedom. A real difference I see between Catholic Unschooling and secular, radical unschooling is that Catholic Unschooling does not let pop culture be the dominant theme in expressing 'freedom.' Freedom is not about autonomy! In Catholicism, freedom is the opportunity to choose what is good. As St. Paul said in Philippians 4:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.I've noticed that a lot of unschooling children and teens looks rather trendy in their purple hair and nose rings, etc. Not that there is anything per se wrong with that! I mean, people are allowed to have fun as long as it is moral! But it seems to me to be a rather superficial thing that shows an unhealthy need to conform. And that's what happens a lot. Kids want to be free and cool and edgy and what they wind up doing is taking on all the tribal attributes of whatever tribe they, in their immaturity, aspire to be part of. That's not freedom! Longing to be cool or fashionable is actually being vulnerable and easy pickings for exploitation. I think Catholic Unschooling is talking about a deeper freedom. A freedom to be 'man fully alive' so we can glorify God, to paraphrase St. Ireneaus.
13) Catholic Unschooling believes in education for education's sake. A lot of secular unschooling seems to be very utilitarian in their view of education. Algebra is eschewed because they've never used it in real life. Handwriting isn't worth the effort to teach because in the future everyone will be typing on their cell phones or use voice recognition, etc. But Catholics shouldn't be viewing education this way. Education, again, is about glorifying God. It's about pursuing the good, the true and the beautiful. God gave us these wonderful faculties of analytical thinking, of reason, of curiousity, a capacity to design and invent. He gave us complex language with which to express our thoughts and with which to communicate with each other and Him! The study of numbers opens up to us the secrets of the universe! It is called by Christian scientists the language of God! It is worthy of study even if it is never used in 'real life.' The pursuit of knowledge is a godly pursuit and a life-long one. It allows us to grow closer to God and to appreciate the wonderfully mysterious and complex works of His hand.
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