Questionable Catholic Identity Of Seton Home Study School

[dells_of_bittersweet]

Is anyone here familiar with the national Catholic home schooling group Seton Home Study School? I regret to say that I am a graduate. Academically, it is overall quite good (although I think they make some very poor choices in how they teach certain material-but that's another discussion). However, in some regards their high school curriculum reflects the opinions of the people who run the school rather than actual church teaching. For example:

 

1. Use of science textbooks printed by Abeka Books, printed by hardcore protestant fundamentalists. These state that evolution is a heresy and that all good Christians must believe in 6 day creationism. Furthermore, they are quite adamant that "theistic evolution" is unbiblical.

 

2. Use of economics and government textbooks printed by the same crazy people at Abeka. The economics textbook denies Catholic social teaching all over the place, and the lesson plans ignore the theological problems in it. The economics book has a libertarian outlook to it. The government text even has a big smiling picture of J. Strom Thurmond. 

 

3. Every single religion text was originally written prior to Vatican II. Purposefully ignoring a major church council should set off alarm bells. 

 

4. Several books expressly deny Vatican II's declaration on religious freedom. 

 

5. The religion text for senior year is written by someone without any formal theological training or credentials. 

[arfink]

Is anyone here familiar with the national Catholic home schooling group Seton Home Study School? I regret to say that I am a graduate. Academically, it is overall quite good (although I think they make some very poor choices in how they teach certain material-but that's another discussion). However, in some regards their high school curriculum reflects the opinions of the people who run the school rather than actual church teaching. For example:

 

1. Use of science textbooks printed by Abeka Books, printed by hardcore protestant fundamentalists. These state that evolution is a heresy and that all good Christians must believe in 6 day creationism. Furthermore, they are quite adamant that "theistic evolution" is unbiblical.

 

2. Use of economics and government textbooks printed by the same crazy people at Abeka. The economics textbook denies Catholic social teaching all over the place, and the lesson plans ignore the theological problems in it. The economics book has a libertarian outlook to it. The government text even has a big smiling picture of J. Strom Thurmond. 

 

3. Every single religion text was originally written prior to Vatican II. Purposefully ignoring a major church council should set off alarm bells. 

 

4. Several books expressly deny Vatican II's declaration on religious freedom. 

 

5. The religion text for senior year is written by someone without any formal theological training or credentials. 

 

I'm a Seton graduate. While I appreciated the academic rigor of the courses, I had issues too.

 

1. Yeah, 100% agree, this is a serious problem. I was very behind in science, and honestly, their arguments for 6 day creationism are bull.

2. Yes, also agree. Much too hardcore on the evangelicalism.

3. It would have been nice to see Theology of the Body as a teen. I think I may have missed this one back then though because of exceptionally good formation through the parish youth group and so on. But looking back, I see you're right.

4. I don't remember this one, but as I have all the books here, I'd be curious to see where you found that. Can you just say which books it was in, so I can look for it?

5. I don't see that as super damning in itself, but yeah, I thought senior year could have been done a lot better.

 

I don't think it's anti-Catholic, it's just very slanted.

[blazeingstar]

I wouldn't say anti-Catholic, but defiantly 100% backwards on modern science and about 50% on current theology.  Their high school science is inexcusable.  Fortunately, since my local schools carry the same accreditation, if I ever get to that point with seton my children will be transferring in the science classes from a public.  As much as I dislike the modern secularism and sexualization of high schoolers (even in Catholic schools) I'd rather them face that than be grossly misinformed.

 

While I love the rote memorization of learning your faith, I am deeply concerned about some of the incorrect theology displayed in even the most basic Baltimore Catechism that I do not want my future young children to learn.  Even those condemn unbaptized infants to "God's mercy" and deny them heaven, as well as pretty much deny that anyone who's not Catholic will not be admitted into Heaven unless they have a deathbed conversion.  A Setoner once told my mom (a DRE) that she just HAD to teach from the Baltimore Cat...and gave my mom Seton's materials...she was really disturbed by Seton's footnotes of this material, even to first-communion level children.

 

Their history is a bit revisionist, which is sad, because 90% of the time they have really good points.  However, it's totally lost by some really silly and bogus claims....like denying the intricate tie of Catholicism to the patriarchy of the old European nations' governing style.  I know my dad read it through and was concerned about the justification for state-authorized murder over "treason" that really was only differences in religious opinions/practices.

[add]

Seton Home Study School curriculum is based on the Baltimore Catechism. 

 The Baltimore Catechism was the de facto standard Catholic school text in the United States from 1885 to the late 1960s.

My elementary education was based on the Baltimore Catechism as was my parents and my grand parents before them.

I don’t see anything wrong or bad with it.

 My kids all aced there SAT’s, it was no accident

All my children where homeschooled, all when on to complete a college education of their choice.

The only think I see wrong here is:   The OP appears to be unappreciative of  love and devotion of her parents give their children to provide one on one teaching and special undivided attention in there upbringing…

.

[Deus te Amat]

Seton Home Study School curriculum is based on the Baltimore Catechism.
The Baltimore Catechism was the de facto standard Catholic school text in the United States from 1885 to the late 1960s.
My elementary education was based on the Baltimore Catechism as was my parents and my grand parents before them.
I don’t see anything wrong or bad with it.
My kids all aced there SAT’s, it was no accident
All my children where homeschooled, all when on to complete a college education of their choice.
The only think I see wrong here is: The OP appears to be unappreciative of love and devotion of her parents give their children to provide one on one teaching and special undivided attention in there upbringing…
.

Their* were* went*

The underlined doesn't make sense. Sorry.

Edited December 22, 2013 by Deus_te_Amat

[Winchester]

 

My elementary education was based on the Baltimore Catechism 

 

 

special undivided attention in there upbringing…

.

Well, there you have it.

Edited December 22, 2013 by Winchester

[Deus te Amat]

Well, there you have it.

Missed one. :hehe:

[Winchester]

Missed one. :hehe:

I made a style choice. Do you not see what I did there?

[Deus te Amat]

I made a style choice. Do you not see what I did there?

 

 

I see what there was in the postulate made by their attempt to secure that they're perceived to be correct. 

[AnneLine]

CHORTLE!!!!    :hehe2:

 

I wasn't homeschooled (wasn't even an option, frankly, back when young dinosaurs roamed the earth...) but what do those of you who ARE / were / are thinking about homeschooling make of this:

 

http://www.kolbe.org

 

Was set up by 3 families in the Napa Valley of California who wanted a better option for their kids in the 1980's.   The school and now this homeschool version continue.   Original founding people were advised by Fr. Fessio (Ave Maria University, Ignatius Press) among others.   Very traditionalist and VERY Catholic in identity.

 

I'd be curious to know what you think of it.... certainly seems to have current science, and the lit and english areas seem solid... as does the theo & philo.

 

They don't seem to have accreditation, but they will document a transcript.

 

Thoughts?

[AnneLine]

And.... did you notice you can take a single class?  Might solve some of the science issues?    

[Basilisa Marie]

Seton Home Study School curriculum is based on the Baltimore Catechism. 

 The Baltimore Catechism was the de facto standard Catholic school text in the United States from 1885 to the late 1960s.

My elementary education was based on the Baltimore Catechism as was my parents and my grand parents before them.

I don’t see anything wrong or bad with it.

 My kids all aced there SAT’s, it was no accident

All my children where homeschooled, all when on to complete a college education of their choice.

The only think I see wrong here is:   The OP appears to be unappreciative of  love and devotion of her parents give their children to provide one on one teaching and special undivided attention in there upbringing…

.

 

The Baltimore Catechism is a wonderful tool, when used thoughtfully.   There are some answers that are either blatantly wrong or (more often) are just really, really poorly worded. 

 

Example: 
 

 

 

8. What do we mean when we say that God is the Supreme Being?

When we say that God is the Supreme Being we mean that He is above all creatures, the self-existing and infinitely perfect Spirit.
 

9. What is a spirit?

A spirit is a being that has understanding and free will, but no body, and will never die.

 

 

This creates problems when you add Jesus to the mix, because Jesus certainly has a body, and Jesus is certainly a member of the Trinity, and is thus God.  IF they had just written God the Father, or left off "spirit" from question 8, it would have been fine.  As-is, there's some sloppy writing that leaves room for bad theology. Using an edition of the Baltimore Catechism published prior to Vatican II can be problematic if you don't account for theological developments that happened before and during Vatican II.  It's an ecumenical council, it's kind of a big deal. :) 

[AnneLine]

I think that to exclusively limit one's theological background to Baltimore Catechism would set one up to NOT be able to explain many nuances of the faith to others.   It is as good as it goes... but the Catechism of the Catholic Church was developed for a reason.

 

Now I am not 100% behind Kolbe, because like every school & program, I think it has some flaws, but I look at this HS Theo curriculum and it looks pretty solid to me.....   

 

http://www.kolbe.org/academics/curriculum-grade-level/high-school/theology-curriculum/

 

What do you think, after looking at it?

[add]

I made a style choice. Do you not see what I did there?

Nice

[add]

Their* were* went*

The underlined doesn't make sense. Sorry.

Please pardon my poor grammar, The belabored point I was trying to make was that the parents deserve respect in their choice of the school curriculum. Edited December 23, 2013 by add

[Cherie]

As someone who is about to enroll their oldest child in a homeschooling curriculum (likely Seton), this is of great interest to me.

 

It is my understanding that there are TWO science curricula to choose from; one is the more literal Creationist based, where the other is more based in modern science. That's what I was told by a mother who enrolled her young children there, though. I haven't contacted the school regarding that yet.

 

AnneLine, I'm curious to hear your critiques of Kolbe. I narrowed down my choices between Seton and Kolbe, and some days I still go back and forth.

 

We are a very science-oriented family. A 6 day literal interpretation of creation in Genesis will NOT cut it for my children.

[blazeingstar]

I think that to exclusively limit one's theological background to Baltimore Catechism would set one up to NOT be able to explain many nuances of the faith to others.   It is as good as it goes... but the Catechism of the Catholic Church was developed for a reason.

 

Now I am not 100% behind Kolbe, because like every school & program, I think it has some flaws, but I look at this HS Theo curriculum and it looks pretty solid to me.....   

 

http://www.kolbe.org/academics/curriculum-grade-level/high-school/theology-curriculum/

 

What do you think, after looking at it?

 

I've only heard that the younger grades are dry and simplistic, allowing parents to supplement a lot, but then BOOM grade 9 is a ton of reading and college level work.  From my understanding its less appealing as a "whole family" curriculum as its really for a certain type of student.  I think Seton has a much more "open" philosophy when it comes to learning...even though in their religion, science and often history they don't really practice what they preach as far as making learning accessible and opening up new topics.

 

I do think that their insistence on Baltimore Catechism based religion probably adds to the fundamentalism of some of the TLM crowd.  They truly believe they are justified keeping out the Ordinary Form and the post Vat 2 teachings.  They do not feel it is detrimental for children to learn the errors in Baltimore Cat (or the 6-day creationism model) because it's "safer" than them learning other error.  However, error is error, and I think it would be better for children to be exposed to more modern theology to be better equipped to deal with the world today.  They don't need to be learning historical error, scientific loonacy and the errors of religion that were corrected 50+ years ago.

 

This means they not only need to learn the correct teachings but also need to learn apologetics or even facts in a meaningful way in their older years.

 

I'm a big advocate for "right sized schooling"  I think that homeschooling is not for every child nor private and that even for a good Catholic SAHM family public school could be the right choice.  In some respects, if I'm going to supplement my children's schoolwork, I'd rather supplement liberal works with conservative material, rather than using materials that lend themselves to fundamentalism.

[blazeingstar]

As someone who is about to enroll their oldest child in a homeschooling curriculum (likely Seton), this is of great interest to me.

 

It is my understanding that there are TWO science curricula to choose from; one is the more literal Creationist based, where the other is more based in modern science. That's what I was told by a mother who enrolled her young children there, though. I haven't contacted the school regarding that yet.

 

AnneLine, I'm curious to hear your critiques of Kolbe. I narrowed down my choices between Seton and Kolbe, and some days I still go back and forth.

 

We are a very science-oriented family. A 6 day literal interpretation of creation in Genesis will NOT cut it for my children.

 

You may want to review Seton then.  Perhaps things will be better when your child reaches HS, but as of 3-5 years ago (when my mom was DRE and talking to a Setoner) they were far from good.  Their history is very sketchy at points, and even their "alternative" science has lots of loaded and misguided topics.

 

For a young child Seton may be better....although if your child is 5-7 and a boy you may be better off staying away from the curriculum for a while.  Seton's should be light enough for kindergarden/first that you can have more free time to play and learn through tactile senses rather than books.  In one of the nordic countries don't teach their kids to read until 7, but by age 9 they test as high or higher than most of the globe including the US.  They actually match the scores for some of the asian countries who push reading at 3 or 4.  However, the children report incredibly far less stress and anxiety at age 9 surrounding school despite being at the same academic level as their peers.

[Quid Est Veritas?]

Although I was homeschooled, my parents did not use Seton. Rather they used Calvert (the oldest homeschool program in the nation) and then later, Indiana University's online high-school. Neither is affiliated with any church.

However, much of my religious education as a child was based in the Baltimore Catechism and I have found as an adult that a solid background in rote learning can be very helpful from a moral standpoint as well as a basis of Church teaching from which to read deeper and more subtle discussions.
I am surprised that so many of the commenters seem willing to repudiate a Catechism curriculum that was heartily endorsed by so many clergy and used so widely with acceptable results.
Is there some other age-appropriate and doctrinally sound curriculum that you prefer, or that your bishop promulgates?

[NotreDame]

I'm really curious why the evolution/creationism aspect plays such a large role in these curriculum (or perhaps that is just my mistaken impression from this thread.)  To be prepared for college science classes you need math (preferably through calculus), a basic chemistry course and probably a basic biology course (cells, photosynthesis, etc.)  Physics wouldn't hurt, but the math is more important.

 

I was an engineering major and worked in hard-core engineering for a bit.  Thinking back to high school, I don't remember any talk about evolution or creationism.  Reflecting on what's necessary to pursue a college degree in the sciences, I don't see evolution/creationism as necessary in any way.

 

So how much time are these courses spending on the topic?