Teaching and Learning (#30)

One of the most unique aspects of homeschooling, and even parenting in general, is how much parents learn and grow in the process. Pope John Paul II explained this quite succinctly in his 1994 Letter to Families:

Every individual born and raised in a family constitutes a potential treasure which must be responsibly accepted, so that it will not be diminished or lost, but will rather come to an ever more mature humanity. This too, is a process of exchange in which the parents-educators are in turn to a certain degree educated themselves. While they are teachers of humanity for their own children, they learn humanity from them. All this clearly brings out the organic structure of the family, and reveals the fundamental meaning of the fourth commandment.

This implies that humility and docility are needed by both teacher and student because they are, in reality, seeking the truth together.