The Holy Spirit moves slowly.

I worked for a year at a Catholic high school. At the Open House (which is in the spring, for prospective students), a principal from a school where I'd subbed attended with his wife and daughter. What a hypocrite, I thought. He works in the public school, but he's considering Catholic school for his own? No wonder he was so unpopular with the staff.
I was certain my own kids would attend public school. I wasn't going to be a hypocrite; work in a system that wasn't good enough for my kids? Not me. My sister, though, was committed to homeschooling of all things. I thought she was completely off her rocker. She maintained her view until the summer after her son turned 5, when he started asking to attend school. Then she found a charter school that she loves, and she sings its praises at every opportunity.
I stuck with my "public school" pretty unwaveringly for more than three years. (Remember the first time we met, Zach?) Then the first cracks started to form.
What about religious education? I wanted better than I'd had, that's for sure. An hour a week plus mass on Sundays ain't enough. I asked a friend who had pulled her kids from Catholic school if their program allowed for just one subject. "Of course. Are you thinking religious ed?" she guessed promptly.
But I kept thinking. If she were going to school for six hours a day, how would she handle another half hour or so of additional class when she got home? How would I? It didn't make sense.
Somewhere in there I met my neighbor. She introduced her family as, "Your friendly neighborhood homeschooling family." They certainly seemed normal, going so far as to let me keep my teaching chops the year I took off after Dale was born by teaching her oldest son some French. [The longtime reader will remember that I got pregnant with Rachel halfway through said year, which was the death knell for my public school career.] They never lacked for neighborhood kids in their yard, either.
Last in chronological order is another Heather, who has used the term "mega-Catholic" to describe me and I think it more applies to her. It came out that they were going to homeschool at a parish book fair where she purchased Lives of the Saints #1-8 or so. We get along like a house aflame (as do our kids, which is nice), so when I asked, "Are you going to homeschool?" and she said, "Oh, yeah," I wondered. What was I missing? We seem to have so much else in common, including leather jackets.
And those other folks in Ann Arbor were so normal and friendly, too...

TO BE CONTINUED...