Aug. 29, 2008 - The Trend in Homeschooling
The last couple of days, I have found a couple of great blogs. Voddie Baucham linked to his daughter Jasmine's blog. She is a very beautiful young lady and a gifted writer. Yesterday my google reader recommended Kevin Swanson's blog (we were so blessed 3 years ago when we visited his church outside of CO Springs). I have quickly added these 2 blogs to my google reader.
So I was reading Pastor Swanson's blog today and found this entry.
July 7, 2008
Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt?
I am the Executive Director of a large homeschooling organization in Colorado, and our database of home schooling families would be among the largest in the country.
Several months ago, we contracted a single mom who home schools her son, to call a list of a sampling of 1000 families on the database (most of them, on the list for a few years).
Incredibly, she found that 86% of those families who started home schooling their children, have quit!
This means that for 100 families participating in a home school support group somewhere in America, only 14 will capture the vision and continue the mission 3, 5, or 8 years from now. Of the 2.4 million home educated students in America, barely 330,000 will survive. And of the 5,000 that attend a major conference, only 750 will finish the course. This means that the movement has a huge front door and a huge back door, not unlike most churches in a post-modern society. Few people stick around long enough to get a vision. A T-shirt maybe. But a deep-seated, long-standing vision that will actually make an impact on their families for future generations? I don't think so.
As leaders who are fighting valiantly against the massive failure of the national character, academic rigor, family solidarity, and the Christian faith itself, we press for radical change in the thinking and life of families. We want a radical world and life view change. We feel it's the only hope to stem the hemorrhaging flow of blood.
The reality of it, is that most families don't want to make much of a lifestyle change - and so they will just live with the rapidly-declining social, academic, and spiritual trends.
If any meaningful change will ever come about, it will come by the commitment of a principled few. The majority sits on the fulcrum of social change, while those who are most committed on the wrong side or the right side produce the real influence that changes society. It is always the 14% that bears the majority of the influence, and shifts the direction of social systems as human history unfolds. Therefore, the focus in our conferences, our support groups, our news magazines, and our radio broadcasts is not to water down the message for the 86% who are going to quit. We want to encourage the committed, and solidify the base of faithful men and women who embrace the vision, and will ensure a generational continuity that will yield even more fruit in future years.
Folks, this is a terrible trend. Many of the blogs here at HSB are people that started homeschooling and didn't get the vision, because one of if not all of their children are back in government school.
I see or hear of homeschooling families quite often who have children that are not trained up in the way they should go. And they are scratching their head as to why said children are not in submission to them, why they are running off with boys, or why they are dealing with issues of rebellion.
Here's my theory: These parents have the government school mentality. They have not taken Deuteronomy 6 to heart. They are not training their children in the way they should go. They are giving them guidelines and letting these children "follow their heart" just as the government schools do. No training going on there. Oh, maybe I should say it's the wrong kind of training going on there only selfish, humanistic, evolutionary stupidity. I should say no heart training going on there...
Oh us homeschoolers are all worried about academics. And we forget the real reason why we should be homeschooling. Yes, some of our children may be Called to go to college, but what if they aren't? I was just reading someone else's blog (sorry I can't remember who's,please comment and tell me if it was you) that had the statement that only 4 of the 18 world billionaires have college degrees.
What is the true measure of success??
Yes, the children need to know the 3 R's, but really what is more important? That they've taken Algebra 3, Biochemistry and started taking classes at the local community college by the time they're 12 (okay, I'm exaggerating here) or that they are God-fearing, Bible-believing, Truth-loving Christians????????
Getting down off my soapbox now 
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