#55 Curriculum Overload

One aspect of homeschooling that many seasoned mothers will caution you about is getting carried away in purchasing curriculum for your children. It's easy to overestimate the importance of the books themselves in your children's education and spend too much money and waste too much time and energy trying to find the perfect fit. The fact is that there won't be a perfect fit.

I thought this quote from Gretchen Rubin, writing in Real Simple magazine, made a useful distinction about how we choose things...

There are two types of decision makers. Satisficers... make a decision once their criteria are met. Maximizers want to make the best possible decision. Even if they see a bicycle of a backpack that meets their requirements, they can't make a decision until they've examined every option. Satisficers tend to be happier than maximizers. Maximizers expend more time and energy reaching decisions, and they're often anxious about their choices. Sometimes good enough is good enough.

Docility (#50)

In his book Authenticity, Fr. Thomas Dubay explains the traditional intellectual virtue of docility: “We are to welcome instruction, yes. But this is not enough. We are to welcome correction as well, being told that we are wrong. This is living the virtue of docility.

As the word indicates, docility is the capacity to learn, a willingness to be taught. One is docile when he recognizes his own lack of information and expertise, on the one hand, and the superior knowledge and skills of his teacher, on the other. In this context a synonym more acceptable to modern ears is receptivity…

Like other moral virtues, docility lies in a mean between two extremes. One extreme is the more or less arrogant refusal to accept the thoughts of another. The other is an exaggerated credulity that has lost a sense of proper discrimination and healthy criticism.”

What Students Need (#49)

Fr. James Schall had the following to say about what qualities are necessary in a student in order to learn…

“...To be a student requires a certain modicum of humility.

Yet to be a student also requires a certain amount of faith in oneself, a certain self-insight that makes a person realize that he can learn something that seems unlearnable in the beginning. This trust in the teacher also implies that the student, if he has trouble understanding, makes this known to the teacher… A student does a teacher a favor by saying, "I do not understand this". But the student should first really try to understand before speaking. To quote Augustine again, students should ‘consider within themselves whether what has been explained has been said truly.’

The student ought to have the virtue of docility. He owes the teacher his capacity of being taught. We must allow ourselves to be taught. We can actually refuse this openness of our own free wills.” (Fr. James Schall, Another Sort of Learning)

God's Saving Pedagogy (#44)

Pope John Paul II explained in his Letter to Families that:

...experience shows what an important role is played by a family living in accordance with the moral norm, so that the individual born and raised in it will be able to set out without hesitation on the road of the good, which is always written in his heart.

This is another great reminder of what a powerful impact that "Who we are" has upon the education of our children - especially in the long term. The Holy Father further elaborated:

Through Christ all education, within the family and outside of it, becomes part of God's own saving pedagogy, which is addressed to individuals and families and culminates in the paschal mystery of the Lord's death and resurrection. The "heart" of our redemption is the starting point of every process of Christian education, which is likewise always an education to a full humanity.

Maturity and Protecting Innocence (#28)

Society has a tendency to frown upon the idea of "sheltering" our children from negative influences. And yet, most people, at least when pressed, would agree that some lines need to be drawn. After all, most would accept that watching a frightening movie, like Jurassic Park, would be detrimental to a two year old!


Maturity is one of the most important factors we need to consider in choosing books and movies for our children. The church distinguishes the first seven years of life as a time in which the child's innocence needs to be protected. After that, distinctions need to be made by parents based on the child's understanding and maturity and the influence a particular book or movie is likely to have on the child.


It is right that teens and adults will read and watch more mature things. Many great films and works of literature wrestle with important and complex concepts like the consequences of sin.