Decision One: To Include or Not To Include Jesus

Now that Michael and I were more or less on the same page regarding our kids’ education (or rather, we had started thinking concretely about it and were coincidentally happy to be on the same page), I was excited to start researching how I would homeschool them. I had never come across homeschoolers. The only time I remember seeing homeschoolers in the media were the two kids that Nicole Kidman taught in movie “The Others.” And it seemed as if that was the norm back in the early 20th century if you were affluent ... and British ghosts (kidding. :P ). It turns out that when people think of homeschoolers, they think of ultra-religious freaks who want to shelter their children from the sight of female ankles. Who knew? I didn’t!

I do know that I don’t want to talk about Jesus! I talked about him, his father and his holy spirit enough during my childhood. While my friend in public school was taking cool classes in hand-drawn animation, I had to learn about the 7 sacraments. Sacra-what is what I’d answer if you asked me today what the seven were. My philosophy on religion is that the only message I need to take from it is, “Be nice.” No need to kneel when the priest says “Hey” and no need to clap your hands when he says “A hi dee ho.”

My daughter Simone, now age 4, has asked me about Jesus. She likes going to church with my parents whenever we visit them. She even asks for it! She likes dressing up and seeing other people, I think. One Sunday mass, she saw a statue of a tired, bloody, young man whose hands and feet were nailed to a giant lowercase “t.” “Who’s that, Mommy?” she asked. Unprepared, I took a few seconds before uttering a few “umms” and a “let’s see how do I explain this …” I finally said, “That’s Jesus. He was a nice guy that some other people beat up.” Luckily she was quiet as she soaked in this information. And even luckier for me, the choir started singing and the priest and his entourage walked down the center aisle - enough entertainment to distract Simone.

I think that’s about 75% of what I want to tell Simone about Catholicism. The stories detailing Jesus’s kindness are the other 25% I wouldn’t mind telling her. Like his inclusion of the dregs of society and how he healed people. I want to ignore the whole “It’s harder for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle than to enter heaven” thing.

So decision one in our homeschooling curriculum. No Jesus or Mohammed or Buddha as revered authorities on how one should act.