Catholic Homeschool Quotes
We offer a lot of practical advice on this blog to help you in your vocation as a Catholic homeschooler. Today, however, we thought it would be nice to just send you some inspiration in the form of a miscellany of quotes on homeschooling, education, and the vocation of Christian parenthood (in no particular order). Enjoy!
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“Catholic Homeschooling in the United States is the necessary result of a culture in which the Catholic Church is being opposed on every level of her existence. Given the widespread secularization in our country, homeschooling is not only valuable and useful, homeschooling is absolutely necessary for the survival of the Catholic Church in America. The purpose of Catholic homeschooling is the teaching and training of children at home in order to preserve the Catholic Faith in the family and to preserve the Catholic Faith in our country.” ~Fr. John Hardon
“It should be the objective and is definitely the responsibility of every rational Catholic mother and father to see that the child is educated, so that he can be truly Catholic with the consent of all his faculties.” ~Francis Crotty, Implementation of Ignatian Education in the Home
“So often people say that we should look to the elderly, learn from their wisdom, their many years. I disagree, I say we should look to the young: untarnished, without stereotypes implanted in their minds, no poison, no hatred in their hearts. When we learn to see life through the eyes of a child, that is when we become truly wise.” ~St. Teresa of Calcutta
“When married couples and their children show their human and supernatural affection for one another, they personally encounter Jesus Christ, who has said, “Believe me, when you did it to one of the least of my brethren here, you did it to me.” ~Javier Abad & Eugenio Fenoy, Marriage: A Path to Sanctity
“… in the Divine solicitude for children was the affirmation that there are certain elements in childhood which ought to be preserved in the highest manhood; that no man is truly great unless he can recapture something of the simplicity and humility of the child.” ~Archbishop Fulton Sheen
“Who does not know that to teach a child to feed himself, to wash and dress himself, is a much more tedious and difficult work, calling for infinitely greater patience, than feeding, washing and dressing the child one’s self? But the former is the work of an educator, the latter is the easy and inferior work of a servant. Not only is it easier for the mother, but it is very dangerous for the child, since it closes the way and puts obstacles in the path of the life which is developing.” ~Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method
“When one teaches, two learn.” ~Robert Heinlein
“If children see that their teachers despise what their parents desire, there is and must be a conflict of authorities. And there is, and must be, in the modern State, a monstrous discovery; that it is the more new and unnatural authority that has the power.” ~G.K. Chesterton, New Witness
“The beauty of home education is that it gives a family more time together–time to solidify relationships, to communicate values, and to focus on each child’s individual needs in a consistent and unhurried atmosphere.” ~Kimberly Hahn & Mary Hasson, Catholic Education: Homeward Bound
“What use is it to pile task on task and prolong the days of labor, if at the close the chief object is left unattained? It is not the fault of the teachers–they work only too hard already. The combined folly of a civilization that has forgotten its own roots is forcing them to shore up the tottering weight of an educational structure that is built upon sand. They are doing for their pupils the work which the pupils themselves ought to do. For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.” ~Dorothy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning
“The world wants your children, so hold them close.” ~Maureen Wittmann
“If I were to have to label much educational material today, I’m afraid a large percentage would definitely be twaddle. How colorfully and scientifically our generation talks down to the little child! What insipid, stupid, dull stories are trotted out! And we don’t stop there. We don’t respect the children’s thinking or let them come to any conclusions themselves! We ply them with endless questions, the ones we’ve thought up, instead of being silent and letting the child’s questions bubble up with interest.” ~Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, For the Children’s Sake
“Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to discover the child’s natural bent.” ~Plato
“Love begins at home.” ~St. Teresa of Calcutta
The most basic element [of education] is parental love, which finds fulfillment in the task of education as it completes and perfects its service of life.
~Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio
“It’s true there is just not enough hours in a day to teach children, clean the house and cook well. The difference between me and other mothers is that I’d rather hire out the cleaning than the children’s learning.” ~Theresa Thomas
“Talk to your children about their academic work. Conversation with you is the most formative part of their intellectual life.” ~Laura Berquist, Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum
“It has always therefore been one of my main endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that first-hand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than second-hand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.” ~C.S. Lewis, Introduction to On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius
“When the atmosphere encourages learning, the learning is inevitable.” ~Elizabeth Foss
“I can understand how [mothering] might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about arithmetic, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.” ~G. K. Chesterton
“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.” ~George Washington Carver
“An eternal question about children is, how should we educate them? Politicians and educators consider more school days in a year, more science and math, the use of computers and other technology in the classroom, more exams and tests, more certification for teachers, and less money for art. All of these responses come from the place where we want to make the child into the best adult possible, not in the ancient Greek sense of virtuous and wise, but in the sense of one who is an efficient part of the machinery of society. But on all these counts, soul is neglected.” ~Thomas Moore
“Part of being a good homeschooler is knowing when to ask for outside help. It’s okay to use resources outside of the home but as a home educator I can tailor pick that help based on my unique child’s individual needs.” ~Maureen Wittmann, Co-Founder HomeschoolConnections.com
“The same ones who brought the children physically in the world have the natural obligation binding in the natural law to provide for the mental, moral, and social upbringing of their offspring.” ~Fr. John Hardon
“No amount of pious training or pious culture will protect the faithful, or preserve them from the contamination of the age, if they are left inferior to non-Catholics in secular learning and intellectual development. The faithful must be guarded and protected by being trained and disciplined to grapple with the false systems of the age…. They must be better armed than their opponents – surpass them in the strength and vigor of their minds, and in the extent and variety of their knowledge. They must, on all occasions and against all adversaries, be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them.” ~Orestes Brownson, Catholic Polemics
“Living is learning and when kids are learning fully and energetically and happily they are learning a lot, even if we don’t always know what it is.” ~John Holt
“The answer is a balance between structure and non-structure. But this balance must be reached after a consideration of various factors. These factors include the age of the student, the learning ability, the best learning style for the student, the teacher-mother’s ability, and the subject matter itself.” ~Mary Kay Clark, Catholic Home Schooling
“The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained and he only holds the key to his own secret.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We teach our children more effectively when we develop our interior life with God, learn the Faith better through ongoing scriptural and catechetical instruction, and grow in virtue.” ~Kimberly Hahn and Mary Hasson, Catholic Education: Homeward Bound
“I really didn’t consider it proper for my child to spend a year of her life learning how to be an eleven year old, then another year of her life learning how to be a twelve year old….(etc.). She has a mother at home. I’d rather she learn to be like her mother, and have plenty of time to do it.” ~Damian Fedoryka
“… the rights of the family and of the State, even the rights of individuals regarding a just liberty in the pursuit of science, of methods of science and all sorts of profane culture, not only are not opposed to this pre-eminence of the Church, but are in complete harmony with it. The fundamental reason for this harmony is that the supernatural order, to which the Church owes her rights, not only does not in the least destroy the natural order, to which pertain the other rights mentioned, but elevates the natural and perfects it, each affording mutual aid to the other, and completing it in a manner proportioned to its respective nature and dignity. The reason is because both come from God, who cannot contradict Himself.” ~Pope Pius XI, On Christian Education
“[Homeschooling]…recipe for genius: More of family and less of school, more of parents and less of peers, more creative freedom and less formal lessons.” ~Raymond S. Moore
“If you’re struggling with the decision whether or not to homeschool, or to continue to homeschool, I encourage you, I implore you… Take it before the Blessed Sacrament. That’s the answer for everything: Jesus in the Eucharist. Open yourself up to God’s will. Listen for His call. Pray a Novena as a family. Pray the Rosary. If you’re considering whether or not to homeschool, or you’re just trying to decide what Math curriculum to use next year, pray over it. And find the joy—joy is the key ingredient to a successful homeschool.” ~Maureen Wittmann, The Catholic Homeschool Conference 2022
“You must pray…without prayer, all the schooling in the world will not produce the effect God wants homeschooling to give.” ~Father John Hardon
“The education of a child belongs properly to the parent, and not to the State.” ~Hilaire Belloc
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” ~Galatians 6:9
