Why I want to Homechool
A pediatrician asked me why I preferred homeschooling my son. The answer I gave was somewhat scattered, so I thought it beneficial to blog a better response as to why I want to home-school my offspring.
1 and 2) I want to home-school my son because I want my family and my son to be God-centered and Scripture-centered.
3 and 4) I find homeschooling to be the direction which is most pleasing to God and most beneficial for my son.
5 and 6) Homeschooling allows for an environment which is more explicitly and comprehensively God-centered and Scripture-centered. We want to be ambassadors for Christ every hour of every day. I am not aware of any public school that is God-centered, Scripture-centered, and in a manner that is explicit and comprehensive. It is not sufficient to seek God merely one hour on Sunday. Likewise it is not sufficient to tack on God in the morning and evenings at home, but allow an 8 hour gap of famine through the day.
We would not send a child to a room of 20 foreigners to remember his Grammar lessons in English while they all speak a foreign language. So attempting to teach a child Scripture and expecting him to mature in Scripture while isolated in an environment which is void of Scripture is a manner of cruelty. This is like sending a kid to the play ground and forcing him to read his Algebra lessons while everyone else is playing kickball. Point being, homeschooling allows for an explicit and comprehensive presentation of God and Scripture which is reinforced hour by hour, instead of 8 hour gaps which include multiple distractions.
I would like my son to have 20 minutes of daily music and that which is explicitly Christian. Will the public school system teach songs about the wisdom of God, the power of God, the grace of God, the goodness of God, the standard of God, the purpose of God? I did sing religious songs in the 11th and 12th grade, but that should have started in kindergarten. We do not wait until the 11th grade to teach spelling.
I would like my son to have 20 minutes of daily Christian Ethics taught. Will the public school system teach my son the standard of God for daily living? Again, this is not something to leave off until 6 p.m. and with that mindset, I would likewise leave “reading, writing, and arithmetic until 6 p.m.” If the school is not competent to teach eternal things, then why should I entrust them to teach earthly things. The school may teach, “Be honest, and Be nice, Do not slap Johnny, and Do not pull Susy’s hair.” but they never teach adequately, “Why” Without pointing to Scripture and to God, social morality is doomed for failure, even if you end up with “nice students”.
7 and 8) Homeschooling allows for more bonding and more personal instruction. I would much rather have golf lessons as the only student, then have a golf instructor attempt to teach 30 people in mass. I have had personal lessons in golf, piano, voice, and guitar; I am extremely grateful for the focus that the 1:1 ratio allowed. Yes, some families have 5-6 kids, but that is still a much better ratio than 1 to 30.
Yet this ties in to the next point, of bonding. If a child spends 7 years learning from 7 different people, and 6 years learning from 36 different people, that is just a big disadvantage for the child. Yes, these teachers can specialize in topics, and I am sure the students create healthy bonds with the professors; but overall there is a tax on the teacher to see a child as another cow in the field to just push from one field to another. Maybe the teacher has 4 rowdy students and is underpaid and is overloaded with Bus Duty, Sports, and after school programs, which leaves him drained, and in the end a child is overlooked.
I can recall numerous times in my public education experience where this happened. It may have been on a field trip, in the lunch room, at the playground, on the bus, during a fire drill, or through the rush of a busy day. I knew that I was just one of 200 students in the gym watching a magician, and my teacher needed time to gab with other teachers, and I was supposed to “hang out”. I am not suggesting a child needs to be stared at and talked to directly every single minute, but I fear the opposite error happens too often.
The bonding is also important on another level, that of loving, trusting, and respecting the parent. How many parents work 50 hours because after all there is a school system full of teachers and sports to help the child “learn”, and at the end of the day the kid eats 30 minutes of supper, and is off to do homework, with essentially zero interaction with the parent. Yes, there are many parents who make 5-9pm a special time of catching up with their kids, but most are so tired from work, and kids are already conditioned to expect to be marginalized after 8 hours of playing back seat at school. Instead of “catching up” on Saturday or for 4 hours in the evening (when everyone is already tired from a long day), it is better to spend 8 hours homeschooling for the bond to develop.
I am sure home-schooled kids keep secrets from their parents, but it is 10x easier for a child already shoved into 8 hours of strangers for 10 years of their life, to not bother busy parent with issues.
9 and 10) Homeschooling allows for better overall safety and protection. Teachers and students may be verbally abusive, sexually abusive, or psychologically abusive. Some teachers and students are reported and reprimanded, others are not; and either way, it is better for there to be no abuse at all, as if reprimands actually restored the trauma given to the child. I personally experienced abuse in the school system, which haunted me for 10+ years afterwards. One memory was from a coach, and I could name numerous moments from fellow students who bullied me. Yes, I survived, but in that environment it was difficult for me to thrive.
Yes, in college and in the “real world” our children will eventually be exposed to the same nastiness, but just as we do not send 14 year-olds into the army, I find it unwise to send a child into a room of chaos, when many hardships go unreported and unresolved. If someone finds these hardships as “beneficial for toughness” then they might as well standardize it, to “10 daily insults, 10 daily cuss words, 10 daily threats” so no student is given “too easy” of a sheltered road.
A child’s education, whether he be 8 or 18 is for NURTURE, not “testing and fighting”. People new to martial arts or boxing use fake knives and padded gloves. They are both aware that in the “real world” that may be exposed to real knives and hard knuckles, but that must be trained and skilled first with the rubber knife and padded gloves before a genuine “test and fight” is faced.
In the real world a car may brake down and they are forced to change the tire, or walk 7 miles home, or hitch hike. I do not want the school system taking my 12 year old out driving so he can be “accustomed” to changing a tire, walking home, and hitch hiking. Just as a 12 year old is not ready to drive, I find no reason to subject a 9 year old to ten kids who will cuss, tell dirty sexual jokes, mock his stance of sexual purity, or his denial of evolution. I can remember distinctly 1-2 field trips in high school, where I noticed several students fondling each other on the bus. It was a joke to them to see how they could fool the teachers the whole trip. I have seen other kids be forced to have a wedgie, school fights with large clumps of hair being pulled out, marijuana use in the 11th grade, a punch which broke a students jaw (I was 6 foot from the student injured), prevalent cheating, pressures to help others cheat, stories of wild parties which were not exaggerations, students catching a ride home with a classmate and dying in a needless car wreck, and a long list other matters. Two different bullies threatened to beat me up and attempted to start a fight though I offered zero provocation, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. One of them twisted my arm severely and was on the verge of tearing tendons in my elbow joint. I just grimaced in shame as a bus load of students saw me cower.
A 14 year old should not be placed in these various environments, nor the burden of being forever mocked and branded for “tattle-telling” to the teachers. There are plenty of adults who are too coward to be a whistle-blower at work when financial cheats are noticed, maybe they were already conditioned to turn a blind-eye because of the intimidation forced on them as a child and teen.
11) Homeschooling allows for better Curriculum.
a. Evolution. I was exposed to Evolution in High School, but not to Creationism. I remember being asked by a teacher why I rejected evolution. She was polite, and I didn’t mind explaining. However, it is not fair to ask a 15 year old to counter a 30 year old who comes across as “having the credentials”. If my parents had 40 hours a week for 3 months to prepare me I could have given a much better answer.
b. Sexual Ethics. I do not want my child to be given books, videos, discussions that homosexuality, divorce, cohabitation, abortion is “normal, acceptable, an option.” I do now want this from a teacher or from 7 students who may gang up in debating my son to ridicule him of his values. I do not want the school system to make condoms available or counseling for private abortions. While I currently do not have a daughter, it is immaterial, if a school cannot be trusted with someone’s daughter, on what basis do I think they are going to be trustworthy with my son, when as it stands they have never exposed him to Scripture, Prayer, worship songs on a daily basis.
c. Pointless Literature. I was completed turned off of my literature classes in high school. Who decides that these books and stories are important, and how and why? Why not read the Bible, or church history, or the basics of Informal Logic, or anything of real value. I found zero correlation between my literature classes and the Verbal Section on the S.A.T. A child can learn vocabulary and reading comprehension without wasting his time on pointless and worthless pieces of fiction.
12.) I do not know the 40 teachers my child will be placed under. Yes, there is “open house” and “parent teacher meetings”, but how much is learned in 60 minute discussion, when the teacher is getting 40 hours a week with my son. What is their view of God, prayer, Scripture, ethics, creation? What is their private life like? Have they had 4 divorces? Has their own 15 year old shown gross rebellion, disrespect, and attitude problems? Yes, I am aware there are many Christians in the public school system, who have solid marriages, and polite kids, and great respect for the Bible. I know many of my own teachers had that testimony; however, there are those who don’t, and why go through the hassle of having to interview 40 teachers to find 20 good ones, and 20 bad ones and telling my child, “You are going to have to settle for 50%”. Teaching a child is not merely about knowledge, if it were then all teachers should have a Ph.D.
13.) It is a parent’s joy to home-school their child. Some parents love golf, soccer, baseball, football, and vacations; It is just as likely that a parent can love teaching. Why do public school teachers teach? Hopefully because they love teaching, and they love kids. Well, as a parent, I love teaching, and I love kids, and I love my own kid especially. I have taught piano, guitar, and Bible lessons to kids and adults. I have enjoyed teaching my son his alphabet and numbers and answering the numerous questions, “Papa, What’s that?” My son is free to ask me 50 questions a day, but it is very difficult for a teacher with 25 students to answer 50 questions for each child.
Yes, there may be 2-3 subjects that will be struggle for me to teach when my son becomes a Junior and Senior, but I have 10 years to prepare for that, I am confident I can find the resources and fellow home-schooling families to help us when that time comes.
Audio Post
DISTINGUISH
Always distinguish between seeking Heaven and seeking God, between shunning Hell and shunning sin. For any hypocrite will desire Heaven and dread Hell. But only the sincere hunger after righteousness.
- C.H. Spurgeon (sermon no. 2103: The Hunger And Thirst Which Are Blessed”)
via: Kim P. Nejudne
GREAT TWITTER
If you use twitter, here is a set of great twitter accounts that solely post quotes from the puritan/reformed quotes: (Great Idea, thanks to whoever is behind it)
http://twitter.com/Thomas_Boston
http://twitter.com/RevMatthewHenry
http://twitter.com/Richard_Baxter
http://twitter.com/RevJohnOwen
http://twitter.com/HoratiousBonar
http://twitter.com/John_Calvin
http://twitter.com/JohnFlavel
http://twitter.com/PuritanEdwards
http://twitter.com/DavidBrainerd
http://twitter.com/CHSpurgeon
http://twitter.com/ThomasManton
http://twitter.com/John_Bunyan
10 or more other great accounts can be found by going to those links and seeing who they are following. It is neat to know John Calvin is following Johnathan Edwards. I have not seen any accounts for Pighius, I don’t guess Calvin is going to follow him.
TORCH
Knowledge without repentance will be but a torch to light men to hell.
-THOMAS WATSON
via: Monergism
MISCELLANY
ff. UNION WITH CHRIST.By virtue of the believer’s union with Christ, he doth really possess all things. That we know plainly from Scripture. But it may be asked, how [doth] he possess all things? What is he the better for it? How is a true Christian so much richer than other men? To answer this, I’ll tell you what I mean by “possessing all things.” I mean that God three in one, all that he is, and all that he has, and all that he does, all that he has made or done—the whole universe, bodies and spirits, earth and heaven, angels, men and devils, sun moon [and] stars, land and sea, fish and fowls, all the silver and gold, kings and potentates as well as mean men—are as much the Christian’s as the money in his pocket, the clothes he wears, or the house he dwells in, or the victuals he eats; yea more properly his, more advantageously more his, than if he [could] command all those things mentioned to be just in all respects as he pleased at any time, by virtue of the union with Christ; because Christ, who certainly doth thus possess all things, is entirely his: so that he possesses it all, more than a wife the share of the best and dearest husband, more than the hand possesses what the head doth; it is all his.
The universe is [his], only he has not the trouble of managing of it; but Christ, to whom it is no trouble, manages it for him a thousand times as much to his advantage as he could himself if he had the managing of all. Every atom in the universe is managed by Christ so as to be most to the advantage of the Christian, every particle of air or every ray of the sun; so that he in the other world, when he comes to see it, shall sit and enjoy all this vast inheritance with surprising, amazing joy. And how is it possible for a man to possess anything more than so as shall be most to his advantage? And then besides this, the Christian shall have everything managed just according to his will; for his will shall so be lost in the will of God, that he had rather have it according to God’s will than any way in the world. And who would desire to possess all things more than to have all things managed just according to his will? And then besides, he himself shall so use them as to be most to his own advantage in his thoughts and meditations, etc.
Now how is it possible for anyone to possess anything more than to have it managed as much as possible according to his will, as much as possible for his own advantage, and for him himself to use it [as] much as possible according to his advantage? But it is certain, so much shall the true Christian possess all things; ’tis not a probable scheme, but absolutely certain. For we know that all things will be managed so as shall be most agreeable to his will. That can’t be denied, nor that it shall be most for his advantage, and that he himself shall use [it] most to his own advantage. This is the kingdom Christ so often promised—they shall be kings with a witness at this rate! This is the sitting in Christ’s throne and inheriting all things promised to the victors in the Revelation and the like in many other places.
Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 13, The “Miscellanies:” Entry Nos. a–z, aa–zz, 1–500, ed. Thomas A. Schafer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 183-185.
STOLEN FROM: http://adivineandsupernaturallight.com/2009/07/miscellany-mondays-miscellany-ff/
MISCELLANY
ff. UNION WITH CHRIST.By virtue of the believer’s union with Christ, he doth really possess all things. That we know plainly from Scripture. But it may be asked, how [doth] he possess all things? What is he the better for it? How is a true Christian so much richer than other men? To answer this, I’ll tell you what I mean by “possessing all things.” I mean that God three in one, all that he is, and all that he has, and all that he does, all that he has made or done—the whole universe, bodies and spirits, earth and heaven, angels, men and devils, sun moon [and] stars, land and sea, fish and fowls, all the silver and gold, kings and potentates as well as mean men—are as much the Christian’s as the money in his pocket, the clothes he wears, or the house he dwells in, or the victuals he eats; yea more properly his, more advantageously more his, than if he [could] command all those things mentioned to be just in all respects as he pleased at any time, by virtue of the union with Christ; because Christ, who certainly doth thus possess all things, is entirely his: so that he possesses it all, more than a wife the share of the best and dearest husband, more than the hand possesses what the head doth; it is all his.
The universe is [his], only he has not the trouble of managing of it; but Christ, to whom it is no trouble, manages it for him a thousand times as much to his advantage as he could himself if he had the managing of all. Every atom in the universe is managed by Christ so as to be most to the advantage of the Christian, every particle of air or every ray of the sun; so that he in the other world, when he comes to see it, shall sit and enjoy all this vast inheritance with surprising, amazing joy. And how is it possible for a man to possess anything more than so as shall be most to his advantage? And then besides this, the Christian shall have everything managed just according to his will; for his will shall so be lost in the will of God, that he had rather have it according to God’s will than any way in the world. And who would desire to possess all things more than to have all things managed just according to his will? And then besides, he himself shall so use them as to be most to his own advantage in his thoughts and meditations, etc.
Now how is it possible for anyone to possess anything more than to have it managed as much as possible according to his will, as much as possible for his own advantage, and for him himself to use it [as] much as possible according to his advantage? But it is certain, so much shall the true Christian possess all things; ’tis not a probable scheme, but absolutely certain. For we know that all things will be managed so as shall be most agreeable to his will. That can’t be denied, nor that it shall be most for his advantage, and that he himself shall use [it] most to his own advantage. This is the kingdom Christ so often promised—they shall be kings with a witness at this rate! This is the sitting in Christ’s throne and inheriting all things promised to the victors in the Revelation and the like in many other places.
Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 13, The “Miscellanies:” Entry Nos. a–z, aa–zz, 1–500, ed. Thomas A. Schafer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 183-185.
STOLEN FROM: http://adivineandsupernaturallight.com/2009/07/miscellany-mondays-miscellany-ff/
