Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The Purpose for Homeschooling

One of my friends pointed out in a discussion about homeschooling that God was the perfect parent, and even He had rebellious children. This is true. But the purpose for home schooling is not to merely prevent rebellion, nor to keep one's children corralled so that they might never do anything wrong or be exposed to the evil in the world.

I am a homeschooling mom because I believe in the workability of God's command: He tells parents in the Bible to talk to their children all day long about His ways (Deut. 11:19). How can I talk to my children about anything all day long if I only see them at dinner time? And how can I turn them over to a humanistic and usually atheistic system for the better part of the day and then expect them to still live by the teaching they are getting in the evenings?

I am a homeschooling mom because I believe in a long training period, then LAUNCH! Even Jesus didn't start His ministry til age 30. He was taking care of family stuff, and learning, learning, learning from God the Father. Some would expect their child to begin evangelizing to his little atheistic peers at the age of five in kindergarten. The Bible favors more of a long training period in order to get intensely trained up before being released like a weapon! Note that priests were not allowed to serve as such until age 25 (Num. 8:24). And the story of St. Patrick also confirms the value of long preparation times. He spent 12 years preparing/training for his ministry after God had called him to go back to Ireland! Why should we  adult Christians put our charge to evangelize the world on our little ones before they are even at the "age of accountability?" God does want us to evangelize the world in part through our children, but it is a sad and widespread deception that causes us to want to be hasty in that aim. Of course many children can be sincere and fervent in their faith from a young age. But it seems that most children from Christian homes lose their faith (around 75%) unless strongly and constantly discipled through their teen years.  Isn't it better to launch a powerful, strong evangelist though it take more time to prepare, than to launch an early but unripe evangelist who will only fizzle and fade?

I am a homeschooling mom because i am a sheep mother, not a goat mother. God likens His people to--of all things--sheep! He doesn't want them to be like goats. Did you know that goat mothers will go off and forage alone all day, leaving their kids to fend for themselves? Ewes, on the other hand, never let their lambs get out of earshot. They keep their babies close! (This knowledge also makes me think twice before calling my children "kids!")

I am a homeschooling mom because God Himself put mothers in the heart of the home (ps. 128:3). I believe He did this in order to allow them to invest in the spiritual training of their children. Why would it be important for me to be in the recesses of my home if I were all by myself, with my children off at school? Naturally, if my children were gone, I would go out and work or get involved in big things outside the home. But that is not God's model. He wants the mothers in the home, to train up their children. He calls a woman the "mistress" of the home. When my children are about me, I have something to rule over. I am indeed the mistress of my home.

I am a homeschooling mom because I believe I can give my children a better education than most school options out there. Not only am I most attuned to my own child's needs, aspirations, learning style, and interests, but at home they will have opportunity to develop their God-given passions at their own pace. Not to mention the principle of redeeming the time, making the most of time. At home, one can learn the same thing in three hours that takes public school all day to teach. Consider the time traveling to and from school, lunch hour, time between classes, recess, and just plain crowd control. The more people there are, the harder it is to settle everyone and get their attention.

I am a homeschooling mom because I believe it is important to protect young minds from being plagued by unwholesome thoughts as absorbed through peers, worldly magazines, TV, etc. YES, there IS a protective element to home schooling, and that is nothing to be ashamed of... anyway, with a clean mind and good conscience, our youngsters will have less baggage to deal with later on in life/ministry/marriage.

I am a homeschooling mom because I believe that society has lost a major part of God's vision for healthy nations: instilling in our youngsters a love for home and family. The family is the basic building block of the nation. When the family is under-emphasized, society begins to lose its focus, to slide into confusion and all manner of ill health. It takes a LOT of home time to really cultivate in your children a love for home. Public schools couldn't care less about this value. American society tends to emphasize individualism/independence. God emphasizes service and mutual submission. Which education to choose for my children is really no contest.

No comments:

Post a Comment