I have never really been an advocate for home schooling or even private school for that matter. I am still not convinced but I might be changing my mind. If I do change my mind it probably won't be for the reason most Christians might think.
A few weeks ago my daughter (who currently attends a Spanish immersion charter school) came home with a project related to a United Nations document about children's rights (she is 7). I don't much care for the U.N. and I still don't understand why the school is bothering with the U.N. I didn't have a problem with the information in the document itself, but I made my objections known for other reasons. I was also a little miffed because of the way in which a family tree project was described. The school expressed its desire to not make any kind of value statement about any particular family structure, but then proceeded to say that they affirm all family structures (that is a value statement). They did this in one sentence. I made my objections known regarding that issue as well. If you don't want to make a value statement, then don't make any statement.
That said I was still not considering home schooling or private school. My daughter loves Jesus and often talks to her friends about Christ. I don't want her to grow up in a stale environment where she does not have the opportunity to share Christ that she does in school. There is something healthy about being challenged in your belief's. I am not out to protect my daughter from what I think is clearly an non-biblical world view. It is up to my wife and I to help her discern what is of God and what is not. I take that job seriously. Her and I have frequent conversations about what she is learning in school, especially regarding social issues.
Still something happened this past week that caused me to question whether I should keep her in public school or not and it had nothing to do with the previous two items. I helped her with her math. I don't often help her with her homework. More often then not my wife does that. As I was helping her I quickly realized she didn't know how to do math. I know she is only 7, but it was not quadratic equations, converse angles, or tangents; it was subtraction. The chips cost $.69, you paid 3 quarters, how much change do you get. This is the exact problem that took 10 minutes to finish. It took so long because I thought (stupid me) the teacher would have taught the class subtraction so my daughter could do her homework.
My daughter is smart. She can read very well in both Spanish and English at 7 years old. She does very well on her spelling tests, she rarely gets any wrong. I spent about 25 minutes working with her on subtraction, how to borrow, and even a little bit of decimal points. She was able to do all of it with very little help by the time I was done. Needless to say, I was a little upset. Not with my daughter, with the education system. To my knowledge she has never been graded on her handwriting, her math, or her reading (other then the state standardized tests). I am new at being the parent of a grade schooler and I am still learning, but I am very disappointed. We could accomplish more then the school does all day in half the time at home. Currently the only thing keeping her in the public school system is the Spanish.
If there is a good reason to home school it is the quality of education. The spiritual side of things should be taught primarily by the parents no matter what school the kids attend. Sure the school might be able to help (depending on the school) and the church may be able to help, but that is the parents job. It is my opinion that parents can over protect their kids. Certainly they can under protect as well. I imagine the amount of protection needed depends on the individual kid. Still I have never been convinced that Christians schools foster love for God. They sometimes foster biblical knowledge, legalism, and negative attitudes toward anyone who disagrees with them. The kids who love God and go to Christian schools usually have parents who love God and have influenced the kids with their love. Private schools generally have higher academic standards as well.
I am beginning to wonder if the public school experiment is a failure and we should just scrap the whole thing and go back to neighborhood schools. I don't know what the long term answer is, but I do know I am not willing to sacrifice my daughter to an education system that doesn't teach.
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We have decided to homeschool our son Timothy this year, starting with kindergarten. He can already read at about a fourth grade level (with comprehension) and can do some simple math. Frankly, the local public schools have nothing available that can challenge my son. They don't have talented & gifted classes, because they are afraid of ruining the self esteem of the kids who are not in them.
I understand your desire to present your daughter as a witness in a dark world. But you yourself acknowledge that no matter what, schools are teaching values - all day, every day - and they are often values that evangelicals find unbiblical. Say whatever you want about how careful you are to counter the school's message when she gets home, but the school has her for seven or eight hours a day. Clearly, they are not teaching her math! :) What are they teaching her? And how much time are you willing to spend each day trying to counter the message the public school is trying to teach her? And in the end, does it make sense to go through that constant "programming/deprogramming" cycle?
I'm not a homeschooling zealot. But for us, the choice was clear. For a whole lot of reasons.
Our kids are in public school. My wife would prefer they be in private school for a better education. I want them to be in public where they can come in contact with lots of lost people. It has been hard lately to keep wanting that though because at their public school the principal is pushing universalism. At the end of last week and a couple days this week my kids will spend time learning about other religions and how they celebrate holidays. This kind of bothered me at first until my wife reminded me that one of the things I do all the time is study other religions so that I can know how to witness to them. So I just have to keep telling my kids that these other religions are false.
My wife says that there is a benefit to them learning about the other cultures and thier gods because we can show them how those other gods are not gods at all, and how easy it is to disprove those faiths.
The last comment I want to make about homeschooling vs. public is that most kids that I have met who are homeschooled are socially inept. I spent last summer at church camp and I proved this to the youth minister at our church. We took every student at camp and marked them as homeschool/private, or public. I was right I think on about 98% of them. Most of the ones who are homeschooled and most of the private schooled don't know how to interact with people. I think the reason behind this is because most kids are homeschooled because mom and dad want to protect them from the big bad world and not because of valuable education. We had a friend who was homeschooled and when he joined the Army and got to his first duty station he bought a motorcycle with a 34% interest loan. Why? Because while being homeschooled and protected from the world he had no experience with people trying to take advantage of him. He just trusted blindly. Please don't anyone who reads this get mad, I just am pointing out the dangers from my experience.
crimson, Iunderstand your arguments. The difficult part of the equation for us is the spanish immersion. We have invested 2 1/2 years in the Spanish and we can not offer that at home, at least not the same way the school can. The verdict is still out, I had to teach my daughter some more math tonight. She catches on quick which tells me either the teacher is not doing her job or the curriculum is inferior.
Jerry, While it is true that homeschoolers are usually easy to spot, it is also true that they tend to reflect their parents. I have seen both good and bad.
Well, I will figure it out eventually.
Jerry, if I had a choice between my son being indoctrinated in false values for eight hours a day, not being taught academics effectively, and eventually becoming bored, restless, and (as a result) acting out, versus maybe some day being taken for a ride on a motorcycle loan, I'd choose the latter every time. Call me crazy...
What is our standard for judging social ineptitude? I have met hundreds of homeschooled kids, and they have been (largely) respectful, kind, intelligent, responsible, and mature. They have not been fad-followers, gossip-mongers, or suffered from the low self-esteem fostered by the bully culture in schools. They strive to achieve, and often do. They are often not as up on current culture as their public-schooled brethren, and yes, are not as tough-skinned. But they have an infectious joy, and an attractive innocence.
Homeschooling is not a cure-all, but I am frustrated with the "all TRUE Christians will school their children through X system," where X = public, private, OR homeschooling.
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