discerning: education

It's been a good year or so now (maybe longer, as I think I was still expecting our lass), but one morning the bambini and I had to make an early morning trip past the local elementary school.  The parking lot was full of parents lined up dropping their kids off for the school day.  Tears welled in my eyes as I drove past.  I could barely breathe.  It took me a more than a moment to collect myself and respond to my elder lad's inquiry "what's that, Mama?"  "That's the elementary school, babe.  It's time for school."  Maybe the pregnancy hormones had something to do with the uncharacteristic surge of emotions.  Yeah.  We'll go with that...

On the first day of preschool, I managed to hold it together fairly well in spite of great anxiety and a certain sense of loss as we bid our elder lad farewell in his classroom for the day.  It was a tough one.  We have all emerged stronger from the experience, though, and now he is thriving in his preschool environment.

As our elder lad approaches kindergarten, we are discerning God's will for school options.  We feel it is our duty to give him an education informed by our Catholic worldview, as it is that which guides every aspect of our lives, especially that which compels us to seek the will of God in everything and to be focused on fulfilling it.  The manner in which we accomplish the procurement of this education is still not entirely clear -- be it Catholic school, public school supplemented by parish-based faith formation, or home school with a Catholic curriculum.  In the end, my beloved and I are our bambini's primary teachers no matter what method of education we discern is the one in which they will thrive. 

I feel a lot of pressure to make the right decision for our children's education.  I know I'm not the first parent to feel this way.  We are trying to approach this decision faithfully, discerning God's will as we have for other major (and minor) decisions throughout our lives together. 

Whatever decision we come to, it will not be without much prayer and careful consideration of both the spiritual and academic aspects of the arrangement.  By God's grace, I trust we will make the right call.  Not that we can't change course down the line if we come to realize the situation isn't working out, but here's hoping we will remain open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to recognize God's direction for the formation of not just the minds and souls of these children whose care he has entrusted to us, but their whole selves.

So maybe next year he'll be at that elementary school that brought on the drive-by water works.  Wherever he is, we hope to foster within him and his siblings a lifelong love of learning and a quest for the will of God for his life.