The previous post dealt with some of the political motives of the public school system: things that are counter to the culture of the home as God would have it. In this post I would like to show some personal reasons that you may wish to consider when homeschooling your children.
*The school system was based on a military plan of dividing children into age groups and grade levels. This is certainly not a reflection of each child's maturity and ability, nor does it echo real life. It causes peer-group language and dependence as well as a herd intinct. In this kind of system, children eat in herds, play in herds and study in herds. It is hardly as effective as the private tutoring that goes on in the home from the mother and father. In real life, children are not born in batches of 20 or thirty all at the same time, but have exposure to different age groups. Grandparents, parents, older and younger siblings, as well as people they meet at the market or day to day moving about, provide a much more balanced socialization.
* The structure during the school day seems to imply that everyone will be an office worker, sitting at a desk all day. Boys are especially harmed by this method of teaching. Boys need to be moving around, tinkering with things, building, fixing, inventing, creating and subduing the earth. A smattering of sports thrown in does not build the character and strength that a boy needs to have in order to become a real man, husband and father.
*Girls are harmed by the school system because they spend 12 years in an instutition that does not prepare them for real life. It prepares them to be feminists, seeking employment. . When they do get interested in boys in that institution, it is not for marriage, but for fun. Twelve years of public school prepares them for nothing but further education. There is something wrong with a system that takes 12 years out of a persons life and when it is over they still need MORE education. These young people end up institutionalized for almost 18 years. By the time they are 22, they are still not qualified for anything unless they have work experience. Before you put your child in public school, ask them how they will end up. They always ask homeschoolers that question, so you might as well ask them the question back: If I put my child in your system for 12 years, does it guarantee that he will be qualified for real life? Add all the questions you like.
*Preferences in clothing, music, friendships, matters of faith, food, and other things, are developed in those crucial years of public schools. Parents have a right to raise their children with their own beliefs and tastes in things. Daughters should not grow up to differ extremely with their mothers, and boys should want to be just like their fathers. The public school will not create the strong bonds between children and parents that are essential for happy childhoods. There are many things that happen socially, in the schools that are detrimental to a child's sense of well-being. Children often come out of public school with a heightened sense of fear about everything, rather than the reassurance they can receive in the home from parents who teach them God's loving care and protection.
*The differences between male and female are not emphasized as much as they would be in the home. Boys do not learn about the real nature of girls, and girls do not learn how to understand boys. Girls and boys in schools are not educated with a sense of who they are and what their male or female role will be. The schools are now trying to blur the differences between male and female, rather than emphasise them and treat these differences as something unique and wonderful. This sameness creates confusion about their identity. Homeschool parents have the opportunity to raise their daughters as feminine women, and the boys as masculine men.
*Creativity, personal development and manners are stifled in the public school because they are limited to the courses that are prescribed to them, Although they claim there is choice of courses and subjects, those choices are limited to the things chosen already in the public schools. Homeschool helps the children find their own interests, as parents are more alert to their needs.
*Only parents can love their children the way they should be loved. Public schools and teachers can only give a tenth or less of the care that a child really needs. When you compare the enormous amount of things available to a child in homeschool, and the life skills they can acquire in the home, the public schools are inadequate to teach our precious children.
*People wonder what happened to our country, and how it was changed from being ruled by Constitutional Law, into a land where all the leaders did just what was right in their own eyes. Every year the schools graduate thousands of new voters, all steeped in liberal beliefs, prepared to usher in new social programs, and vote for candidates which destroy free enterprise and turn our country towards leninism, marxism and communism. The one who has the children will determine the future of the country.
*Special interests of the children can be cultivated at home. If your child likes piano or hockey or art, they can spend many more hours in that pursuit, and all other subjects can be taylored to that interest.There is a lot more time to develop talents.
*Building a relationship with your children takes time. The Bible says you should teach your children as you sit in your house and as you walk by the way. You cannot teach them if they are away in someone else's house or institution all day. It does not mean you will be reading books all the time. You can increase your social life, too, by learning about hospitality and inviting people to your home. Children have to prepare for it and there is greater joy in their lives from giving , rather than receiving.
*You dont have to be a professional teacher or know a vast amount in order to be a suitable teacher for your children. You just have to love them and be tuned in to them. You cant really perceive your child's needs if he is away from you all day. Mothers teach their children how to speak the language, how to behave in the family and all about good habits. Mothers training is very effective.
*Reading and writing are not such huge secrets that it should cost thousands of dollars a year to teach. There are 26 letters of the alphabet, with 44 sounds. You can easily make colorful flashcards with these letters and sounds and train your children to read phonetically. Numbers are not a big secret either. Any parent who can count to a hundred can teach his child how to use numbers and combinations of numbers. I have seen paents that I honestly had my doubts about, but today, their children can read and write and are upstanding young people, already developing their own businesses.
*Fathers need to train their sons in a business so that by they are grown, they can produce and sell and have an income so that they can have their own home. There are many ways to train boys in business so that they can earn a living for their own families.
*The school system is not a system "of the people." Once you are in it, you have to obey their rules, follow their standards and study their curriculum. There is never a vote on what is best for the children, as it is all decided higher up in the organization. There is no such thing as "independent school system" , although it says so on all their signs. They are all connected to one big government education complex. Changes are very difficult to make. In homeschool, you can fathom what your child is or is not responding well to, and change your approach. You have the liberty of trying an assortment of teaching materials, outings and activities.
*You have your children during the most teachable hours of the day and the most formative years of their lives. Why give your child's mind over to another system, when the system that is the most natural is the family? Public schools take our little ones and form their minds, leaving the parents to clean up the house, feed them, and clothe them. Parents are the best teachers for their children.
*In the end, parents hope to give their children an optimistic, can-do attitude toward life. They want to pass on their faith and their talents. They have a right to do this. Homeschooling provides the time that it takes to do that.
29 comments:
Thank you for your supportive and instructive comments on homeschooling.
well said!!
Amen!!!
I will be officially homeschooling my oldest (4 yrs old) this coming fall. I can't wait!!!
Anytime I start to feel internal pressure over whether I am teaching my children well enough, according to "standards", I stop and remind myself that anything I do will be better than giving a child over to a school, to figure out the world system by himself.
Even the children who "succeed" at public school, are, in the end, just succeeding at a system that is still going to chew them up in the end, in their future mindset, no matter how successful they appear in the job market.
I think classes are great for children - I put them in art classes, etc., but they understand that that is totally different than turning them over to a system, to live their entire young day taking all kinds of "classes" that are politically, religiously, socially set up wrong.
An idea that I encourage myself with everyday is, "It is not my job to school my children (to school people is to simply group them, as with a school of fish), it is my job to educate them". Education is a very broad, enriching experience.
Thank you for another encouraging post. I love it!
Dear Lydia, thank you for the encouragement. We would like to homeschool, but in Israel, it's barely legal and very unacceptable. Our daughter is just over a year old and already people are amazed that she is at home with us and not in daycare. It's so sad.
Another fantastic post. Thank you so much for the reminder!
Excellent post!
I have been torn for years about homeschooling my mildly autistic son. Medical experts say no to homeschooling and also no to public education.
We are at a small private school. I work there to afford tuition. I am there all day long, but he gets socialization.
I feel trapped in a situation where there can't be any real solution. I absolutely support homeschooling and homeschooling families, but I just don't know with my son. My other son would thrive at home, just as he thrives in school. But, the autistic one is a dilemma. Sigh.
We chose to homeschool in order to save our children from anti-Christian indoctrination. Our oldest started pubic school because we didn't realize we had a legal right to teach him at home. He was in preschool and half a year of kindergarten and he had become the saddest little person. At that point I found out he didn't have to legally be in school until he was 7 and I pulled him out.
I took a lot of abusive calls from the principle and had a lot of threats made toward me as well. His former preschool teacher actually was the person who gave me information about homeschooling and steered me in the right direction to find out how to go about it. She told me she had been inside the system only long enough to know that she couldn't support the system. I know she acted in the best interest of my child when she advised me to get him out of the system before he was more hurt than he already had been.
Over time we realized that in guarding our children from public school, we were preserving their innocence as well. I just can NOT believe what children are exposed to in that setting these days. It was bad enough when I was in school, but now it is horrible what they press onto younger and younger children.
I want to preserve their childhood and not allow that to be stolen from them by knowing certain things that their minds are not ready to know.
I am SO thankful for the blessing of teaching ours at home and love to see this way of teaching taught and encouraged!
I am a veteran homeschool mom who has mentored many, many young moms and knows many others. I want to encourage "Anonymous" with the autistic son--you can homeschool him!!! One of the most delightful families I know has 6 children, 2 with special needs, including what has been diagnosed/undiagnosed/rediagnosed, etc. (i.e. nobody knows what!) as on the autism spectrum. A lot of work, yes, to homeschool special needs, but he is thriving and very much loved (the key!) by his parents and siblings. Get on the website for Timberdoodle, a catalog company by homeschoolers for homeschoolers. They have materials for teaching autistic children at home. Medical "experts" don't know nearly as much about your son as does the Lord God who made him--trust Him to know what is best for your child. I think you know this already because it sounds as the the Lord has been speaking to your heart for quite a while.... My own son is "ADD," was very challenging to homeschool, but I AM SO GLAD I PERSEVERED because I absolutely love the end result! (He is almost 28, and we have a wonderful family relationship which we would not have had if he had gone to school elsewhere.) Go for it--you won't regret it!
I'm just kind of throwing this out there but, I have noticed similarities in US public schools, the US military and the US prison system. Juat the general way things are organized and conducted. Is it good or bad? I don't know. Just something I've observed.
They are all forms of regulation and control, for different reasons. There is no reason to take children by the thousands out of their homes at early ages and put them on buses to be put in classroom of other children their own age, day after day. These days it is expensive and unnecessary as we have our own resources: the web, libraries, bookstores, museams. Public school is a form of indoctrination.
There are SO MANY reasons why we're going to homeschool our children. I personally believe I can do a much better job than my state's failing school system. Though we live in a rural area, our children would be bussed to city schools, the same school where my cousins were threatened with weapons to the point where their parents transferred them to a different school.
Also, it is blatantly obvious that my son is a very kinetic learner and a very visual one. He's very mechanical and outdoorsy and is probably not going to grow up to have a desk job. I believe the public school system's method of learning will be a detriment to him. It will prevent him from learning the best way he can and expect him to conform to their methods. It's not about my son getting A's. It's about my son getting an education, and the best one he can achieve!
Good teachers have their hands tied behind their backs. They have little to no authority in the classroom anymore. They're subjected to the unions which oftentimes support bad teachers and even sweep criminality under the rug. They cannot effectively teach because they have to follow a set method set up by the Regent's Board that ensures students will pass standardized tests at the end of the year.
I also believe public schools are ineffectual because they're just babysitting services for parents. When I started Kindergarten in 1985, we were there for the day and that was it. When I graduated highschool in 1998, there were children who were sitting in "Morning Program" at 6am where they were looked after and fed breakfast. Then they sat through school and returned to the cafeteria for the "After School Program" where some of them sat until Mommy or Daddy picked them up at 7pm! So many parents just sign off on their children with the public schools, leaving teachers to do what little they can to fashion characters and discipline.
Oh, I could go on and on and on....
The regimental organization of schools, prisons and police forces, are not necessary when teaching children. God ordained parents to teach them in the home environment because he wanted children to have a first and foremost relationship with their parents. When you teach a child something you form a relationship with them. At homeschool we are not just pumping their heads full of facts and trying to get them to pass a grade. We are sharing wisdom and knowledge and understanding. It forms a bond. So a full grown homeschooled person has a strong feeling for his parents and their values. He looks and talks and walks and acts in the way he was trained, and is less likely to followt he herd.
I find dealing with public-school teens to be heart-breaking. Even the ones from the finest families are like zombies--that dull affect, the guardedness, the heavy makeup, the unwillingness to open their mouth and have a conversation, the distinct feeling I get that they are sided "against" me. Just sad. Give me my nerdy, inquisitive, friendly, compassionate, unsocialized children any day!
Anna in Israel: I was reading about the days of Moses and Elijah, both prophets who thought they were all alone in obeying God. The Lord assured Elijah with these words: " I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." To Moses, He responded by reminding him of the job he was supposed to do. Both historical accounts made me think of the homeschool Mamas in the late 1970s who thought they were all alone. It was a big surprise to them to find that across the country there were many more homeschool families, just keeping quiet about it. You may think you are all alone, but you may also be picked out by God to be a pioneer in that field there. You never know if someone will approach you years later and ask for tips on raising and teaching your own children at home. Your blog has a big influence, too! The law here in the US was against the homeschoolers but they did it anyway. Our belief was that man cannot legislate where God has already mandated. The scriptures are our ultimate law, and manmade law cannot supercede it. The government has limited powers. The powers are there only at the consent of the governed. Today our government has become totalitarian, ruling in place of God, and where God already has laws, they have no busines interfering. I believe the laws for parents and children are clearly stated in the scriptures and we cannot allow government to overcome them. It takes a lot of prayer and courage to step out on faith and do what is right no matter what. I think many 1980's homeschool parents have stories to tell that include threats from the schools and from people around them. You have to ignore it all and continue on the right course. Most of all I think it is good to have prepared literature to give to people who question you about it. Save your breath and your nerves by saying "I dont have time to tell you every thing about it but here is something you can take your time reading." I believe that reading causes more thinking and that it gels better in their minds than talking to them. They dont see the young mother as an authority but somehow, paper brochures and books seem to impress them more. There might be some things online you can print out, regarding some basic things about homeschooling.
It is heartbreaking indeed to see how socially backwards the public school children become, as a result of too much socialization!! They learn only to communicate with their own age group. GOd designed children to interact with all age groups and to communicate with a variety of people at different stages in life. The schools regulate and relegate them into groups of their own ages and grades, which makes them develop their own language and prejudices against other ages.
"Reading and writing are not such huge secrets that it should cost thousands of dollars a year to teach. "
Isn't that the truth. I can't understand why the school system just can't keep it simple. My child was slow to read and write, and we managed to teach him with simple materials at home. He's way ahead now, but I'm convinced he would have been illiterate had we placed him in school outside the home. It takes very little money, but it does take time and attention.
"There is something wrong with a system that takes 12 years out of a persons life and when it is over they still need MORE education. These young people end up institutionalized for almost 18 years. By the time they are 22, they are still not qualified for anything unless they have work experience."
Wow! What a thought provoking statement. I'm a big supporter of homeschooling and I've never thought to look at it from this viewpoint.
Thank you,
Trixie
Wonderful post~so, so true!
I too am a veteran home school mom. My youngest might be what some would call a genius at this point. But at six he would have been labeled as ADHD. We worked and worked with him to develop habits to overcome his deficits and build his strengths. He loves God, loves to work and study hard, loves his parents, and wants to be a missionary in Africa or Haiti or somewhere like that.
The other day at his friend's house, they were playing a board game. The younger brother(13) started having a tantrum. When he was calm, my son asked him about it. He said he couldn't help it, because he has ADHD and can't concentrate around noise. My son explained that he had that problem as a child. He used ear plugs and head phones while practicing easy math computations. After a week, he turned on soft Mozart still with the ear plugs and head phones. After a week, he removed the ear plugs. After another week, he removed the headphones. After another week, he turned off the music. Now he can concentrate in any environment.
This idea came to us as a matter of prayer. We can train our brains to get rid of ANY mental illness or handicap with effort and faith. We have free will. Although some believe that the personality and so forth are formed by age 5 or 6, I've read plenty of research that shows neuroplasticity is present all through life. We can trow off the natural man and change to a life of peace and charity.
I know a family that home schools 9 children with 2 autistic, possibly 3. Aspergers is the name of the problem they have. The oldest daughter used many of these ideas to faith and will away the social fears and OCD tendencies. I saw her transformation. Only God and the free will can accomplish these things with parents who are with their children 24/7.
Trixie, the things that are essential for basic education really take only a few years to teach them, and can be taught at home. The reason they are kept there for 12 years is to culturally immerse them in another belief system. Teachers who are honest will tell you this is true. Public school is a huge babysitting program but they want your children because they believe children belong to the state and they will educate them to believe in evolution and other things that will make them useful tools for the totalitarian, leninist, socialist state.
Fabulous post! :)
"Give me my nerdy, inquisitive, friendly, compassionate, unsocialized children any day!" I agree wholeheartedly.
I've noticed that when I have encounters with "the professionals" they are greatly impressed that my children know how to make bread, do many various chores, talk to any age group, etc, yet they are stilled so very concerned that my children be tested to be sure they are on grade level. They can't seem to make the connection that it really works! My husband says that our children are tested constantly anyway. Every time the "professional" family members are around they are testing them constantly. We always seem to be "observed".
As a homeschooling mom, who enjoys having the company of her children, I often look around and just think, "Where are all the children?". They've been taken away from society, people that could be enjoying them and put away where it's more convenient for them to be "held".
I taught school for 25 years and can attest to a number of the points you have made.
I am getting ready to make a new post on another subject, but before I do, I want to make a few more points
No child is armed and forewarned enough to fight adult spiritual forces that will assail him in public school. It is like sending raw recruits into battle unarmed. The Israelites would not have put their children in the schools of the Philistines or the surrounding enemies of God, for 9 months out of the year, 8 hours a day. They were to be taught by their own people their own ways and culture and religion. The public schools are not supposed to be doing parents job for them. They are a long arm of the government designed to churn out voters for the new socialist society that is being pushed on us. Those children will be thoroughly indoctrnated in the socialist system and will not adopt their parents values. CHurches are full of change agents that try to soften the message, and many of them came from their public school back ground. It takes a homeschool parent to discover just how much they have been indoctrinated. When you start teaching your own children a good curriculum, you find out how many errors have been taught to you. You see the inconsistencies. You see the lies about history and science. You see the politics in it. Public schools are also not safe places for children--not enough security, too many bullies, etc.
Parents are qualified to teach their children. Any good curriculum will train them well enough to see that they can teach reading, writing and arithmetic. But intellectual things are NOT more important than the heart mind and soul, all three which belong to God. The most important thing is character and honoring the parents. The learning will follow. Some of the Psalms and Proverbs are heavy with commands for the parents and children to have a strong relationship, and many warnings to stay away from peers.The best psychology book in the world is Proverbs. A close study of it will reveal the kinds of things children are supposed to know, and no public school can teach it as well as the mother.
Dear Lydia, thank you for your encouraging reply. Certainly nothing will stop us from doing what we believe is best for our children, unless we are actually sent to jail for it. Homeschooling is not illegal here, but you need to apply for permission every year, and you're sure to be closely watched by social workers. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. There are still several years to go until our daughter reaches the age of compulsory education.
We are living in such a mixed-up, backwards, and plain out evil culture. Our children are constantly assailed with unrighteousness at every turn. Their innate sense of right and wrong is challenged all the time.
It is just as if someone is blind folding your child spinning him around and around and then asking them to find their way. That is what is spiritually going on in our school systems.
Wrong is right, and right is wrong. They say it with such passion and conviction, yet their minds are completely turned over to insanity. Your child must be extremely strong and powerful to overcome such extreme perversion.
I say look at the results of these insane people's lives. Don't listen to their rhetoric. THEY ARE LYING! Their personal lives are a wreck! Many are changing spouses, live in partners, etc. like you change a pair of shoes. Their poor children are shuffled here and there; at the mercy of people who are totally given to lust and other disgusting habits.
The children are hurting and being abused while the adults are sneering in the face of God. They are sacrificing their children to the evil gods of this world. The children grow up unloved and unloving; doomed to repeat the same awful cycle.
I live in an area where this is so painfully obvious. I can't make a difference in all of the kids lives, but I will work to make a difference to some of them. I hurt for these children and God will judge the ones who are responsible for these atrocities.
You better believe I homeschool. I will protect my children from Bible hating atheists. The children are worth it.
Lydia,
My husband is watching the Australian Ladies' Open golf championships currently going on at the Commonwealth Golf Course, Melbourne.
One of the top players is a young lady by the name of Thompson who, commentators have noted, is homeschooled!! She has scored 3 over parr which is a brilliant result for a player in her late teens!! Proof that homeschoolers can and do achieve anything!! More power to the home educator!!!!!! And back the American lass, Thompson, who is both an excellent advocate for golf and an equally excellent advocate of home education!!
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