Confronting Prejudice in Catholic Homeschool Curricula

Confronting Prejudice in Catholic Homeschool Curricula | Heritage Mom

source: https://heritagemom.com/index.php/2020/09/24/confronting-prejudice-in-catholic-homeschool-curricula/

When I was first approached about doing an interview regarding the lack of diversity in homeschool curricula, I was totally on board. I enjoy shedding light on the need for all children to have a multicultural education, and I was especially excited to delve in and learn more about an area I've heard about but never fully explored - Catholic homeschool curricula.

The article, "Catholic Homeschool Curricula Has Whitewashed World History. Is It Too Late to Fix It?", was published this week in America: The Jesuit Review - a weekly magazine containing news and opinion about Catholicism and how it relates to American politics and cultural life.

Patrick Tomassi, the writer, was homeschooled along with most of the children in the Catholic parish where he grew up. In the article he explores the idea that "many of us who grew up in the home-schooling world have started to ask whether our education failed us when it came to understanding racism and our country's troubled history with it."

It was discouraging to learn of the texts that have traditionally been included in Catholic curricula, yet I know that the Catholic community is not alone in their lack of diverse perspectives and history. Changes, or rumbling of changes, are occurring across the entire homeschooling world, and I find much hope in the apparent shifts away from the one-dimensional incomplete texts many families have historically used.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to be interviewed for this article, and I feel like I have a heightened awareness of the not-so-unique ways Catholic homeschool curricula can and should be improved.

You can catch up with me on Instagram at @heritagemomblog.

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