Homeschooling

I understand that many people reading this do not home school their children, so first of all I would like to say that while I believe that it is the absolute best form of education for my children I would never advocate that everyone should homeschool.  To say, “Yes, you should homeschool” or “No, you should not homeschool” would in fact be too easy.  As a parent, especially a Christian parent it is your duty and yours alone to search out God’s will for your life and the education of your children.  Whether you decide on homeschooling, a private Christian school or the public school system you will have to answer to God for the education of your children.  With all of that said the following reasons are why our children are educated at home.

Homeschooling may be the fastest growing form of education in the United States with approximately 2 million home schooled students.   The reasons for this are numerous.   The reason I hear most often is because of the deterioration of the government school system.  While there are many good teachers in our public education system the system itself is anti-God, anti-patriotic, and humanistic.  The lie of evolution is taught as fact, the propaganda of the homosexual community is forced into the minds of our impressionable children and the teaching of our country’s true Christian heritage is no longer.  Prayer isn’t allowed but sex education is encouraged.   The 10 commandments are forbidden but you can pass out condoms.  You can’t teach from the Bible but you can teach any other form of spirituality, especially New Age beliefs.   With school violence, drug abuse and a list of other concerns it’s no wonder that American Christians are pulling their children out of schools in huge droves.  The most common argument against this is:  Christians are to be salt and light in this world and if all the Christians were pulled out of school it would leave the system a very dark place.  To answer, let me quote Voddie Bauchman, author of Family Driven Faith, “Let me be clear  -  I applaud men and women whom God has called to teach in government schools.  These people are front-line warriors, and they need to be right where they are.  However, there is a big difference between sending fully trained disciples into enemy territory and sending recruits to our enemy’s training camp.  If we do the latter, we shouldn’t be surprised when they come home wearing the enemy’s uniform and charging the hill of our home while waving an enemy flag.”

Another reason for home education is that we can choose a Bible-based curriculum.  It is my responsibility (not the churches) to teach the commands of God diligently to my children (Deut. 6).  The church is to come alongside and compliment what is already being taught in the home.  Therefore, as parents, we will take every opportunity to teach and train our children in the ways of God.   If my children learn all the wisdom of the world yet I fail in bringing them up in the admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4) I have failed in this area.  If they learn the world’s view of Science, History, and Math yet I do not teach them from God’s perspective I have failed.   By instructing them in all subjects based on the foundation of the Bible every concept we teach is shown through the light of God’s ways and glorious truths.

Another reason for homeschooling is because my children can receive one on one customized teaching.  They are not pushed to be standardized.  My children can excel in their strong areas and we can focus harder in their weaker areas.    This would probably explain why home educated children typically score 15-30 percentile points above public school students on academic achievement test.  And why home education has produced many prominent men and women in our country including ¼ of our nation’s presidents, famous religious leaders, scientists, statesmen, writers, U.S. Supreme Court Judges, inventors, educators, composers, artists and many more.

Homeschooling allows for our family to develop a strong family bond and it allows us to be flexible.  With my husband in ministry we can have some very unusual schedules.  But nevertheless, we feel blessed to be able to take off in the middle of the morning for a late breakfast together when we know that every night that week will be consumed with church activities, visiting, meetings, etc.   We have on several occasions taken our schooling with us as we travel in the middle of the week with my husband for meetings or seminars.

This list is not exclusive; there are many, many reasons to homeschool my children.   But, I would say that by far the most important reason to homeschool is because it is a calling.  My husband and I have prayed about and sought God’s will in this matter.  Will we always homeschool?  I don’t know.  But, I do know that for right now at this point in our life, if we didn’t we would be going against God’s will.  And, being in the will of God is where we want to be.