Sep. 16, 2007
Why should Christians homeschool?
Posted in Homeschooling
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I know posting on this topic is like beating a dead horse, but this matter has been very deeply ingrained in my heart and I feel the need to write this post. This is our sixth year homeschooling, and I know more so today than I did six years ago when we began that this is the right thing to do. It is a knowledge deep within my soul that I am being obedient to the Lord and fulfilling His plan for this time in my life and the lives of my children. I have some very different opinions about homeschooling than most people do. I'll not stand in judgment of anyone who does not homeschool their children, but I do implore you to think outside the box of the philosophies of the world concerning our children's education. Just because children have been educated in public schools for as long as you or your parents remember doesn't mean that you have to give your children over to public education as well. There is another way, and it is a wonderful way to educate children. You will not mess up your children if you love them and keep them home to learn. Allow me to share some of my thoughts on the most popular arguments for public school and against homeschooling. #1 "Christian children can be witnesses in public schools."
As Christian parents we are in the process of training our children to be effective witnesses as they grow up in our homes. Our purpose is to train them to be able to effectively share their faith, disciple new Christians, and to live righteously before the Lord. This is a training process that takes many years. We must remember that most of our children that have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord are "baby" Christians. It takes time to mature in the faith. Their "baby" Christian status combined with the fact that children don't have the spiritual, mental, or emotional ability yet to reason or think through all the possible outcomes of their actions (because the ability to do so requires life experience and a greater knowledge of the world than they have at these young ages) is really an argument against the popular notion that kids from Christian families should go to public school to be a witness. Children who participate in extra curricular activities, go to church, or any other place where there are people will get enough of a taste of the world. These every day experiences will provide us as parents with opportunities to educate our children on the things that go on in the world that are against God's law so that we can adequately prepare them to face those situations as young people/adults from a Biblical world view.
#2 "Who will witness to all these lost children if all the Christians leave the public schools?"
My answer to this question is if we as the body of Christ would do what Jesus calls us to do...go out into our communities and seek out the lost to share the gospel with them we wouldn't have to be concerned about making our kids go to public school so they could be witnesses. Many churches of all denominations are failing to fulfill the great commission in our communities. One thing I've learned over the years of working with children in churches is that reaching out to children who are un-churched is a great way to reach their parents. Parents will often allow their kids to come to church activities, and will often attend special church events where their children are involved when they wouldn't darken the door of a church at any other time. I can testify to this in my own life, because through very similar circumstances my father was saved when I was 12 years old. Many Christian leaders have also called for Christian teachers in public schools to share their faith with students as they have opportunity. Most schools frown on this and a lot of them have rules against it, but we are told in scripture to obey God rather than men when obeying man's law would cause us to break God's law. Because we as the church (over the last 50 years or so) have gotten lazy about obeying God's Word and standing up for our Christian values we find ourselves in this mess of our government trying to take God completely out of the public life. Now that things are as bad as they are we have to fight more than ever to protect our children, and to raise up a godly seed to the Lord. For my family that means home education.
#3 "Public school is not so bad." Yes, it is! The government has taken God out of the public schools, and as Christians He should be at the center of our children's eduction. We are instructed to bring up our children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (see Ephesians 6:1-4). Nurture means: educate, to provide for growth of, upbringing, something that nourishes. Will the public schools nourish your children and educate them in the Lord's ways? Admonition means: a gentle or friendly criticism or warning. Will the the public schools gently warn your children concerning the consequences of failing to obey the Lord's commands?
Who created the world we live in? Who is sovereign and in control of this world working all things together to accomplish His purpose? The answer, of course, is God. Will your children be taught things like this in public school? No, they won't. In fact, they will be taught just the opposite....that there is no such thing as God or that all religions are equal except for Christianity, of which your children will most likely not be allowed to express their beliefs (while some schools teach classes on Islam and other "world" religions...and definitely not from a Biblical perspective). God has been stripped from schools. Public schools are teaching history but not including God, which really isn't complete history since the history of the world is HIStory. Science is taught without including God, which cannot be completely accurate science since all things were brought into being by God.
If you've watched the news or read the newspaper you may have seen news reports about parents who objected to something that was being taught to their kids in elementary school, and the parents were made out to be the bad guy. If you haven't then you could visit http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54708 for an education on what is going on in schools all across this nation. I remember one particular story that was on FOX news last year about a Dad who was arrested because he tried to get the school to allow his kindergarten aged child to opt out of certain classes. His request was based on a book his child brought home (part of diversity training) that depicted children living in homosexual households. You can read the news article here . This is just one example of schools going beyond the limits to encroach on the rights of the parental authority. Another example would be a personal example that I will share. When my son was in public kindergarten he came home with a paper one day that was the result of an eye scan that a company I had never heard of had conducted on my son and every other child who was in school that day. The school did not send home a notice that this company was coming to do this, nor did they send home a permission slip to get permission from the parents to have this procedure done on their child. From my perspective this was a medical test for which I neither asked nor gave my consent. This may seem trivial, but it gets much worse as your children get older. Eye scans in kindergarten lead to sex education classes instructing kids how to have sex, giving out of condoms and other birth control, and encouraging young girls to notify the school nurse if they wants an abortion so that the girl doesn't have to tell her parents. In public schools your children will be taught the secular world view for 8 hours a day, and then come home to a Christian world view for a few hours a night while doing hours of homework that is saturated in even more secular world view. Remember that children are like sponges. They absorb what they hear, see, and experience at a phenomenal rate at these ages. How will you combat what they are being filled with in public school? Will they eventually reach a point that they will believe what they are taught at school because they see those philosophies lived out for more hours a day than they see Christianity? Sundays and Wednesdays at church are not enough...kids need to see Christianity as part of everyday life. Most young people leave the church when they leave home, rejecting the faith of their parents. I strongly believe that what their minds are filled with in public schools every day contributes to this problem. #4 "Kids need to see the real world and learn how to live in it now so it won't be such a shock to them when they are grown." Think about it like this: Would you send your 5 year old or 7 year old into a bar or an R rated movie so they can learn to face the things they would see there? Of course not. So, logically if you wouldn't send your children there, then why send them to school so they can learn to face the challenges in public school when they are not spiritually, mentally, or emotionally capable of combating these issues. Again, children don't have the ability to reason or logically think through some of the situations they will encounter. Some teenagers are not even able to do that...this is one reason they give in to peer pressure. When we homeschool our children we are able to not only educate them academically, but to also spiritually train them through God's Word on a daily basis. We train them spiritually by teaching them academically from a Biblical world view, teaching them God's Word, and leading them by example in the ways that God's Word says we are to live. Thus we are preparing them for adulthood. By the time our kids go off to college they will be well grounded in God's Word and know how God instructs them to respond to situations they encounter (rather than how the world says they should respond), and we have prepared them to face the world in a way that will honor God. We also have to remind ourselves that all adults (at some point) face situations where they don't know what to do. By training our kids to put God first and look to Him for all our needs or answers (rather than their peers) they will be prepared to go to God during these times. I wasn't homeschooled and I know a lot of Christians who weren't homeschooled, but we have a lot of regrets about the past. I truly believe that if I had been homeschooled by Christian parents I wouldn't have made the choices I made. I made them mostly out of ignorance. I thought I was supposed to live like everybody else did because nothing in my school education ever said anything contrary, and I was at school more than I was at home so my perspective on life gravitated to what I heard and saw at school. I truly believe that those in authority over me at that time didn't know what I was seeing and hearing at school. I think they would have been shocked if they had.
#5 "What about socialization?"
Kids model their own behavior and ideas about life from what they see and hear. So, if we want our kids to live like the world we should send them to public school so they can get a good education in the ways of the world. Remember the Bible says we are to live "in" this world but not be "of" this world. We are called to be separate unto God. James 1:27 says, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." So we have to learn to live for Him in this sin filled world, and we have to teach our children to do the same. We shouldn't depend on the church, the schools, or the baby sitter to do it because it is the responsibility of the parents. Read Deuteronomy chapter 6 to see what God commanded the Isrealites concerning teaching their children. Then read one chapter a day from the book of Proverbs and highlight any verses that speak about a father's or mother's instruction or a child listening to the teaching of his parents. I also want to make this one point about private schools. Please don't be deceived into thinking that because your child is in a private school that they are protected from all the things that go on in public school. The fact is that even the best Christian private schools have some element of these same things that are taking place in public schools. Sometimes it comes from the teachers, sometimes from the students, and sometimes from both. I experienced 2 private schools, and 2 public schools during my education. The only difference between the schools was that the Bible was taught and chapel services were held in the private schools. Many of the teachers in both schools loved children and had a great desire to see children succeed in their educational goals. But both types of schools had kids with bad language, kids that smoked, kids that drank alcohol, kids that were engaged in sexual activity, and some kids that did drugs. I implore you to think about how your decision about your children's education will affect your children long term. My proposal is to give homeschooling a chance. You may just find that it is a surprisingly refreshing way to education your children. If you have children who are or will be in school in upcoming years please prayerfully consider homeschooling, and be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Blessings! |
Comments
Oct. 3, 2007 - GRACE BAPTIST?
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Posted by Oct. 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment
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Posted by Anonymous
Oct. 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment
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