religion and the (home)school

 

 

It’s almost August. I plan to spend the month of August preparing for our first ever school year – Chloe’s PreSchool/Kindergarten year.

In most areas, I’m pretty firm on what I want to teach, how I want to teach it, and what I’d like to accomplish by the end of the year.

However, I struggle with the idea of teaching religion.

As a parent, it makes sense to me, on one level, to bring my children up to believe what I believe. Not because I believe I am right and that my beliefs are the be-all-end-all of the truth about Divinity and the origins of the universe, but because my beliefs bring me comfort during hardship, joy during happy times, and guidance when I really do seem to need it. Ethics and morals seem to be more effective when taught in the context of spirituality, not only the "what" we should do, but the "why" as well. It would be easy for me to work "Circle Time" into our daily schooling, and to pair our nature/science activities with stories and mythos of the gods and goddesses. And, I think Chloe would enjoy it tremendously.

But still, I struggle.

I remember being a child forced to participate in a religion that I had no belief in. Being present for many of the standard Christian rituals made me extremely uncomfortable. Witnessing several people at a church camp (children included) speaking in "tongues" stands out in my mind as one of those defining moments. I never could reconcile what the Christian church taught with the things I knew in my heart, and that led to several difficult years of soul searching and questioning myself. It was also a source of anger. Anger at my parents for forcing me to participate, anger at the institution itself for consistently proselytizing and making me feel like an outcast because I didn’t believe.  Even anger at myself because I couldn’t force myself to believe the way so many of my peers seemed to.

Finding Wicca was a defining point in my life, and I draw an immense amount of comfort from my faith, even if I don’t outwardly practice it all the time. 

I know, 100%, that I would rather injure myself than to force my children along the same path I had to follow.  It was painful, and unnecessary. 

So, I don’t know how to reconcile these two sides of myself: the parent, who wants to share in the joy of her beliefs, and the former child, who can’t forget what it felt like to be a fraud sitting in a church pew. 

And none of this is even taking Aaron’s perspective into account.  I haven’t spoken with him about it yet.  I still have plenty of time before it needs worrying about.  But I still do worry, because I’m "Mom" and that’s my job. 

As always, opinions are welcome.  🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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