The home-schooling phenomena in the United States has grown into a bona fide movement, with nearly 1.5 million families involved. Fr. Welch outlines a series of strong arguments in favor of home schooling for Catholic families, including a better education, a deeper Catholic Faith, the fostering of priestly and religious vocations, and a dramatic strengthening of family life as parents exercise their duty and gifts as "first educators of their children." A balanced, reasoned view, not prejudicial against public or Catholic schools.

Alan Guttmacher, the late head of Planned Parenthood, once said that the only thing needed to secure the “right” to abortion would be to win the battle for sex education.  By sex “education,” of course, he meant the pro-sin training that the anti-lifers use to destroy children’s innocence, conscience, and ideals—and to undermine their love and respect for their parents, for life itself, and for the Faith.

A key tactic of the Culture of Death is to use wedges such as sexual sin to alienate children from their parents, from other people, from their Church, and from their God.  The defenders of the Culture of Life need to counter these insidious tactics.  One of the best ways is through home schooling.

I realize that not every family can or should home school.  Every family’s circumstances are different, and home schooling might not be the best option for a given family.  There is no reason to feel guilty if you do not home school.

But more and more families are deciding that home schooling is the best way for them to follow the Church’s teaching that “parents have the duty and the right to be the first and the principal educators of their children” (The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, Pontifical Council for the Family, 1995).

Let’s dispose of a few myths about home schooling.