Objective: Sainthood
For a couple of years now my wife and I have been contemplating to homeschool our youngest son, Jason. After much deliberation we have decided to go ahead and homeschool him with Seton Homeschooling in September 2008.
One of the reasons we decided to homeschool is because we believe that homeschooling will provide a Catholic education for Jason. Why is this important to us? We believe that our sojourn on Earth is in preparation for us to enter Heaven. Since Heaven is the abode of saints, our objective basically is to form Jason into a saint! Hey, it'll look great on our resumes that we formed a Saint.
Can't normal Catholic or secular schools produce saints? Of course they can too, but it'll be tempered by the influence of the teachers and syllabus that could be hostile to our objectives. We also believe that homeschooling forms a person with a more sociable character.
Besides this we have also enrolled him into music classes as well as a kiddies science program that should stimulate his creativity and develop his curiosity.
We are currently residing in Malaysia and we have also discussed about moving to the USA when it's time for Jason to enter a university. We have also joked about living in Ave Maria, Florida and my wife could open a pharmacy there and practice as a Catholic pharmacist. She opened a pharmacy five years ago with the intention of practicing pharmacy while being faithful to Catholic values. She eventually shut it down and we could never practice our faith while operating the pharmacy.
Some months ago, I read a report on Catholic Exchange about there being several tens of thousands of Catholic servicemen and women in the military services of the USA and that only a few hundred chaplains were able to cater to their spiritual needs. I used to serve the Malaysian Army as a reservist and one of my early ambitions was to be a priest. So I suggested to my wife that it would be great if Jason could become a military chaplain and serve these Catholics in the US armed forces. Her reaction was a polite smile.
Two nights ago my wife and I watched a rerun of The Rock, starring Ed Harris, Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery, on HBO. I commented to my wife that if Jason became a Marine chaplain he would look charming in the uniform of a Marine. She responded that I was trying to dictate Jason's career and that it may not be what God has in mind for him.
This got me thinking for a while and I came to realize that our whole five years as Jason's parents, we have made decisions for him to become a certain type of individual. For starters we aim to make him a saint. Are we deciding his path - for sure. We intend to homeschool him so that he will develop a strong Catholic character - that too would be creating a specific path. I suppose every decision we make for Jason will be with a predetermined objective that will hopefully translate into him being a God-loving person.
I think all parents have a certain vision or dream for each child to achieve and put in place plans to help the child achieve that goal. However, I don't agree that parents can dictate to their children what career they should pursue. Having a Catholic plan for our children is how we adhere to our marriage vows as well as those we professed during our children's baptism that we shall nurture them as Catholics.