I went to my first Catholic homeschooling convention today.
I am not Catholic.
A friend of mine who is asked me to help her at her curriculum booth. She's a distributor for an awesomely rigorous writing program and since I like to write and I use parts of the program with my own children, she thought I'd be a good assistant.
When she asked me to help out, the first thing I asked her was, "Don't I have to be Catholic to get in?" She laughed as she shook her head.
Fast forward to today. . .
There was a lull in the crowd at our booth, so I told my friend I wanted to walk around and check out the other vendors. I've never met a homeschooling convention I didn't like what with the guaranteed smorgasbord of books and all. All around us was a ocean of book sellers and I wasn't about to just work and run. I had to browse!
Given the nature of this particular event,I figured most of the materials for sale would be geared specifically to Catholic families. As I started to wander the auditorium, though, I realized how wrong my assumption had been.
There were vendors offering everything from educational toys and games to books, art supply kits, and religious items. Within the latter category there were, of course, things particular to the Catholic faith such as rosaries. But there were many more things relevant to the Christian faith in general, stuff that no Protestant could possibly find objectionable.
It's no secret that many homeschoolers choose to teach their own children for religious reasons and that socially and politically conservative Christians of all kinds make up the majority of educational do-it-yourselfers.
Knowing that, I had to wonder why the auditorium wasn't packed. Where were the crowds?
After I returned to my friend's booth, a woman affiliated with the coordinator for the convention approached us and began chatting with my friend. She mentioned that the turnout was not as great as she'd hoped for. At that point, I butted in and asked, "Was this event advertised outside of the Catholic community?" The woman looked at me oddly as I continued. "I'm not a Catholic, but I was interested to see what a variety of vendors you've got here today," I said. "I'll bet if more homeschoolers knew about this, they'd come, too, regardless of their religious affiliation."
The woman began nodding enthusiastically and said, "You know, I've never thought about it that way. I'm going to pass this idea along to the woman who sets this up."
Right before my friend and I started to break down the booth at the end of the day, another woman came up to me and introduced herself. She was the coordinator for the event and said she'd heard about my suggestion and wanted to know more. I was pretty surprised, seeing as how I thought my idea was so obvious it couldn't possibly be revolutionary.
As we talked and she asked me to email her with my ideas, she casually remarked, "You know, we've been doing this conference for 20 years and from time to time we've tried to advertise with other non-Catholic homeschooling groups and they wouldn't post our information." I must've made a face because she went on. "It's true. Some Protestant groups are really polarized and they don't want anything to do with Catholics. It's a shame we can't come together as homeschoolers," she said.
I had to agree.
"You know something else? If non-Catholics want to come to our convention we'd welcome them," she said. "They wouldn't have to pay the admission fee because we would consider them to be our guests."
The admission fee for the day was $25.
I promised her I'd send her some ideas to help her publicize the event next year, not because I think a bunch of Protestants oughta crash the Catholics' party for free but because I think attending a Christian homeschooling conference offered by a group you may not know much about can actually be very educational.
On a side note, I am hugely embarrassed to learn that some of my fellow Protestant Christian homeschoolers could be so petty and stupid as to rebuff an invitation from another homeschool organization or refuse to share its information. What are they thinking? What are they so afraid of?
Last time I checked, being in the presence of a picture of the pope or in close proximity to the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas wasn't exactly the equivalent of being exposed to radioactive waste.
The world is full of Catholics. The world is full of Protestants. But the world is NOT full of homeschoolers. For that reason alone, we ought to be sticking together even as we choose to worship apart.
2 comments:
Wow, Marjorie, thank you! As a Catholic and homeschooler I appreciate your article. Rene and I talked about this issue last year in CC. You just got a little glimpse of how Catholics are treated by SOME Protestant homeschoolers. I have to say though I don't think most non-Catholics will come to the Catholic Homeschool Conference, there is a big stigma there. I have been to that conference and it is practically dead quiet. I wish everyone was as open as you.
Hi, thanks for your post and your insight. I was obviously very naive about the whole Catholic vs. Protestant issue in the homeschooling community. Silly me, I thought this was Texas, not Northern Ireland. At any rate, I hope Catholic homeschoolers who are also trying to stay afloat with homeschool-related businesses will figure out a way to make themselves known to the "outside" world. Meanwhile, seems like prayer is much needed within our own ranks (on both sides) if we are to be the change we wish to see.
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