Making the "Leap" to Homeschooling

Susan M. asked:

I'd like to hear from parents of elementary aged students about why you decided to homeschool. We live in an area with the highest scoring public school system in the state. Now, saying that, we are in the lowest performing state in the nation, so I guess it's a dubious distinction. However, I still feel that the public schools here are inadequate and the private schools are not much better—only much more expensive. How did you make the leap from a "decent" public school system to taking/keeping your kids home to teach them yourselves? And what sort of reaction did you get from family and friends? Thanks, and God bless you.

I would like to answer your specific questions, and then offer a couple of additional comments:

Making the "leap" to homeschooling:

When we began homeschooling, we were in Texas and it was the beginning of kindergarten for my oldest son. We simply never enrolled him. No great leap for us.

That's Texas, though: one of the freest states in the country regarding homeschooling. Check with the Home School Legal Defense Association (hslda.org) for the laws in your state. Some states (and especially countries) are much more restrictive than others.

In addition to the legal requirements, there are also lifestyle and financial adjustments: perhaps changing from two incomes to one, creating a home environment for learning, radically re-organizing your schedule to include instruction in your daily routine, to name a few. There are also relational adjustments (in addition to the reactions from family and friends, addressed below): the family dynamic changes if you have had your children in an institutional setting (public or private), educating your child at home (or more precisely, within the context of your own family) will change the way your children perceive you. Your children may resist the change, at least at first. And the longer they have been in an institutional setting, the more they may resist.

It can be a big paradigm shift that Mom and Dad are teachers, "too." Though it is generally accepted that parents are a child's "first" teacher, the idea that they can be the "primary teacher" throughout childhood is a novel and radical idea to most. "Teachers" are professionals, they reason. The parents' role is to feed, clothe, and financially support. All training happens "at school." This perception is false, of course. Training and learning are life-long endeavors, and many of the important things we need to know in life are learned outside of "school."

Reactions from family and friends
Reactions vary. Some (in many cases, most) family and friends are offended by a decision to home educate. People homeschool for a variety of reasons: some because a child has special needs, some for academic reasons, some for religious reasons, some for political reasons, some for lifestyle reasons. And of course, many choose it for a combination of all of these. If your family and friends don't agree with you on your convictions to homeschool, then the reaction will be predictable. Homeschooling changes everything! Though there are (by 2005 estimates) between 1.7 and 2.5 million children in these United States who are educated primarily by their parents, the percentage of the population in any given area may still be pretty small. So the decision in some circles is a radical one: one that is not as "politically correct" as being "green" or giving to your favorite cause or working at a soup kitchen or staying on top of the latest technology trends or working 90 hours a week to climb the corporate ladder.

For some reason, when you decide to homeschool your children, it appears to most as one of the most extreme examples of living out your convictions. I suppose it is because it is such a visible manifestation and testimony about your convictions. Your children are "on display" whenever you are in public, or at a family gathering, or at the park with friends. So, observers will be trying to judge what they see on several levels. They may be watching to see if: a) they should make the same lifestyle change, b) it is as difficult as they think, c) it is worth the sacrifice. On the negative side, they may be: a) contrasting the things they value with the things you value; b) looking for a flaw in your convictions or their outcome to justify sticking to their own; or c) thinking (in the case of parents, sometimes) the fact that you are doing something different from what they did is a negative statement about the way they reared you.

Be prepared for the relationship strain that may come from this decision. If you are convicted to begin, stick to your convictions. But, also remember to be loving and patient with your family and friends.

Additional thoughts about "public" school

1. The "public" school is not called that because it is "owned" by the public, but because the public pays for it by government decree. However, it is run and regulated by the government—local, state, and federal—and therefore the government sets the goals and agendas of the training that takes place there. Parents get one small vote (IF they vote) regarding the education of their children. But, because it's "public," majority rules and the public has the most say in the rearing of our children.


2. The cost of government school is actually much greater than most private schools. We just don't see it because it's wrapped up in our property taxes. And not just ours; everyone pays property taxes, whether they have children in the government school or not.


3. Who tests the government schools to determine how they score? The government does. And what do they test on? The things they have taught. If you are in the highest-scoring school district in the lowest-performing state, you might want to check the criteria by which the schools are scored. It is an extreme example, but if you went to business colleges and gave a test how well they taught deep-sea diving, you might expect very low performance. The "highest-scoring" school is irrelevant. The values it scores on aren't necessarily your values.

Whom Shall We Then Vote For?

A friend was recently lamenting over who is actually qualified to govern a nation. Anyone? Can anyone actually claim expertise, experience, and valor to do so?

Zaphod Beeblebrox, in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy said "Anyone capable of getting himself elected should by no means be allowed to serve."

Some of the best leaders we have had have actually been chosen by others, rather than themselves. Especially when those "others" have considered what the Scriptures say about who is qualified to govern.

George Washington resigned at Commander-in-Chief, resolved to spend the rest of his life as a private citizen. He was called back into public office and offered the title of King! He refused that title and argued for a representative form of government. Again, he attempted to return to private life, but as our constitutional republic was formed, he was unanimously voted to serve as its first President. Many have argued that none who have followed him have come close to serving as well, including Jefferson and Lincoln (especially Lincoln, but that's another post!).

Four years ago, William Einwechter wrote the following and it's still valid today: http://tinyurl.com/biblical-standards.

The most difficult job we have as voters is determining how God would have us vote. No other consideration matters. He is the Judge of the world and He will do right.

We have to decide whether we choose the "lesser of two evils" that are presented to us as our "only" choices, and thereby choose "less" evil. Or do we vote for a godly man who is not considered popular enough to win the election?

If we are still concerned about the lesser of two evils, we will probably capitulate and not vote for the godly man because others will accuse us of allowing the "more evil" of the "two" choices to win.

If this is where you are, then consider whom God has used in Scripture to lead his people: Moses, a murderer, polygamist, stutterer; David, a runty, smelly, adulterer, the least of the least; Joseph, a boastful slave-turned-prisoner; Gideon, with only 300 men; Deborah, when the men all abdicated.

One sows, another waters, but God gives the increase. So that neither the sower or the waterer are anything. Don't worry about who can win; vote for who should win and leave the rest to God.

Vote for God's man and let God be God.

"Useful" reviews?

I got an email today telling me that 78% of people who have read my reviews on Amazon find them "useful." I'm not sure what that means.

But it did get me to click over and see what I've said there. I found this review of Lamplighter's reprint of The Spanish Brothers that I particularly like. I really liked the book, too.

If you're not familiar with Lamplighter Publishing, I recommend checking them out. Tell them I sent you.

Look What I Found for $2

In a box marked $5 $3, I found all of these books! They said they were willing to deal, so I offered $2 and they took it:

Fireproof, the Trailer

Never Leave Your Partner Behind

Action Items:

• Watch the trailer


• Contact your local theatre to bring Fireproof to your city


• Read the interview with Kirk Cameron and Producer Stephen Kendrick in the September/October issue of Homeschooling Today™ magazine


• Go see the film opening weekend


• Fireproof YOUR marriage!

Education is Discipleship

What do you think of when you hear the word education? Most people think of subjects or a classroom. You may also think of a scope and sequence, of a start and end date, of matriculation and graduation.

What do you think of when you hear the word discipleship? Most people think of helping others in their "walk" with Christ. That may involve encouragement to attend church, pray, read their Bible, have a "quiet time," get involved in "ministry."

What does the Bible say about these two terms?

I recently received an email from a young father who is "getting ready" to homeschool. (His oldest child is "only" three.) I encouraged him that he has been homeschooling already, so there was no need to "get ready," just to keep doing what he's been doing. He replied:

...[O]ne of the arguments I have used with folk is that most Christian
parents separate education from discipleship whereas with homeschooling
both can happen simultaneously. And we have certainly been reading to and
praying with and for our children from the beginning, along with Scripture
memory work.

But I think we need to continue to reform regarding even this manner of speaking. We certainly agree that it is unbiblical to separate education out from discipleship. In fact, education as it is defined today is nowhere in the Bible. But there is a lot in there on training, teaching, and discipleship; and almost always in the context of parents and grandparents training up their children and grandchildren.

So we would do well to remove the contemporary notion of "education" from our vocabulary as much as possible and only speak in biblical terms. Rather than disciple and "educate," we simply want to disciple our children in grace, math, home maintenance, mercy, science, balancing a checkbook, esteeming others, writing, menu planning, worship, history, budgeting, prayer, biology, diaper-changing, justice, reading, marriage, etc. All of those "subjects" belong to God. There is not one that is outside of His creation, ordination, or interaction. Therefore, separating them is putting asunder what God has joined together. Too often, that means separating "God stuff" from the rest of "life." But Jesus said He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

Let us think God's thoughts after Him by speaking His words after Him.

Liberty Bell

by Anonymous

There was tumult in the city,
     In the quaint old Quaker town,
And the streets were rife with people,
     Pacing restless up and down;—
People gathering at corners,
     Where they whispered each to each,
And the sweat stood on their temples,
     With the earnestness of speech.

"Will they do it?" "Dare they do it?"
     "Who is speaking?" "What's the news?"
"What of Adams?" "What of Sherman?"
     "Oh, God grant they won't refuse!"
"Make some way there!" "Let me nearer!"
     "I am stifling!" "Stifle then!
When a nation's life's at hazard,
     We've no time to think of men!"

So they beat against the portal,
     Man and woman, maid and child;
And the July sun in heaven
     On the scene looked down and smiled,
The same sun that saw the Spartan
     Shed his patriot blood in vain,
Now beheld the soul of freedom
     All unconquer'd rise again.

See! See! The dense crowd quivers
     Through all its lengthy line,
As the boy beside the portal
     Looks forth to give the sign!
With his small hands upward lifted,
     Breezes dallying with his hair,
Hark! With deep, clear intonation,
     Breaks his young voice on the air.

Hushed the people's swelling murmur,
     List, the boy's exultant cry!
"Ring!" he shouts, "Ring, Grandpa,
     Ring, O, ring for Liberty!"
And straightway at the signal,
     The old bellman lifts his hand,
And sends the good news, making
     Iron music through the land.

How they shouted! What rejoicing!
     How the old bell shook the air,
Till the clang of freedom ruffled
     The calm, gliding Delaware!
How the bonfires and the torches
     Illumed the night's repose,
And from the flames like fabled Phoenix,
     Our glorious Liberty arose!

That old bell now is silent,
     And hushed its iron tongue,
But the spirit it awakened,
     Still lives—forever young.
And when we greet the smiling sunlight,
     On the fourth of each July,
We'll ne'er forget the bellman,
     Who, betwixt the earth and sky,
Rang out OUR INDEPENDENCE,
     Which, please God, shall never die!