Homeschooling is a valuable, sometimes necessary alternative to public schooling. It is a way for parents to eliminate the garbage that is being passed off as "education" today and to connect to our children in ways that the more traditional "school house" approach can offer. It provides for highly individualized instruction, far better attention, and a much better approach to education at all. Further, studies have shown that homeschooled children are better equipped to face the world than their "traditional" counterparts. Their education is better. Their conduct is better. Every aspect seems to be a vast improvement over those who went to a classroom environment. Homeschooling is a valuable, sometimes necessary alternative to the standard school approach.
There are those who would tell you, based on this information, that homeschooling is "the answer". This fails to take into account the pitfalls. In any plan one undertakes, it is important to consider all the variables. Or, as Christ put it, to "count the cost".
What kind of pitfalls are there in homeschooling? Well, there is obviously the time demand on the parent doing the schooling. They need to prepare as a teacher prepares ... along with all the other requirements of life. It is one of the general complaints of those doing the homeschooling that it takes so much more time than other schools require. Be prepared. Perhaps the most commonly named pitfall is socialization. Absolutely there are remedies for this one, but a parent contemplating homeschooling needs to take this danger into account.
I've seen one other pitfall for which I cannot fully account, but one that a parent contemplating homeschooling must consider. There is something about homeschooling that seems to attract bats. I don't mean winged rats. I mean those people who are prone to conspiracy theories and wild ideas. I can't fully explain it, but they seem to be drawn to homeschooling. Why is that? So in amongst the serious Christians who want their children to be trained up in the training and admonition of the Lord, you'll find those who believe that it is an abomination to use the word "October". "Those months are named after pagan gods, so you can only use Hebrew months." You'll find those who are confident that the government is trying to read their thoughts, so they teach their kids while they're all wearing foil hats. You'll find those who are sure that the unpardonable sin is sending kids to public school ... or, just as bad, Christian school.
Beware, parents. Homeschooling can be a valuable, sometimes necessary alternative to the standard school approach. On the other hand, it can bring you into the realm of influences on you and your kids that can be devious, misleading, and even destructive. Along with the other pitfalls, be on your guard for that one. That apple might have a worm in it.
10 comments:
You've hit on something here Stan, something I have seen firsthand and thought much about.
I send my children to a Christian School, have since Kindergarten and plan to through graduation. My reason, plain and simple, is that I desire a Christian education for my children. As you suggest, there are some other benefits to this type of education, the primary ones being that they get a first-rate education and they are not being schooled by our increasingly intrusive and meddling government.
Now, let me tell you the reasons we have not sent our children there. We haven't sent them there to shield them from non-Christians, we haven't sent them there to interact only with other Christian children, and most importantly we haven't sent them there to protect them from "the world." In fact, these are they primary things that concern me about their education. One day they will both go off to college, God willing - and the last thing I want is for them to leave this little Christian cocoon and enter a world that hits them like a truck! The world is real, we can't and shouldn't hide from it. Jesus, in fact, went to it - and I hope my children are equipped to do the same.
What I have seen from many, if not most, homeschooled families that I know is the very approach that I hope to avoid above. I would venture to guess that the "protection" issue is first and foremost in their minds - with quality of education being the additional benefit. And I'm not pointing fingers at anyone here, either. I'm just sharing the experience I have with many, many homeschool families that have moved in and out of our school from year to year and that I know very well.
Finally, of these families - what are they protecting their children from? In my opinion they are simply protecting them from anything and everything that they don't want their children to learn. Like you said, they often have off-the-wall beliefs in some areas, beliefs that can't or won't be reinforced in the public or Christian school setting. So they withdraw to their homes, both from and education and a social standpoint - raising their kids in a vacuum. Again, I'm not saying this is universal - it's just the experience I have had with most homeschool families I know.
You are right to point out the dangers - they are very real.
Yeppers. We have the extemists. We have those devout followers of Michael and Debi Pearl that think they are the gods of homeschooling, even though they teach they never sin and walk in perfection and many other very dangerous lies. When I had the nerve to speak up against their teaching, I was raked over the coals by some, as if I was the most evil woman who ever lived besides Jezebel. Yikes! So I have to watch the influences around my children even when I am trying to protect them from some of the "public" issues. Good point Stan!
I've noticed the bats out there, as well. I think it goes with the territory. If you have an irrational fear of government, you are going to do what you can to hide from that system. I "know" people who refuse to get SS numbers for their children, and see conspiracy theories around every corner. I read so much conspiracy garbage on homeschooling message forums, you'd think perhaps some of the critics are correct. We are a bunch of whackos.
But they tend to also be the most vocal in the group. So in a list of 300 members, one is a conspiracist. But said commenter has something to say on virtually every discussion.
I bite my tongue and wonder why it is they feel safe to have an online identity at all. After all, I have their IP address, and my brother can usually figure out quite a bit more with that info. I'm sure the evil government could do much more with it, if they chose.
Especially if they did have the power to orchestrate 911, cause autism, create and proliferate cancer and AIDS and whatever else I've been forwarded recently. I obviously have disagreements with many of our government's policies, but is a matter of principle. I do not think ill of most of our representatives. While some are perhaps motivated too much by power and money, I don't see any of them as motivated by a desire to turn our republic over to an evil tyranny as part of a grand scheme that has been going on since the founding of the illuminati.
Sorry...I try to be a compassionate person, but I have little patience left for the conspiracy theories.
If America ends up a tyranny, it is because the character of her people deserve it. Just like Israel crying out to God for a king. Too many people (and I fear this seems to widely affect Christians) are looking for Satan in the wrong places.
Look up the Pearl's ministry (No Greater Joy). Not everyone who follows them is a nut case, but they are a head of their own little segment of homeschooling that tends toward exclusion, and what you describe. Mr. Pearl even mentions the New World Order in his child training book.
OK, this is going to end up longer than your entry. But this really does irk me, and, while I defend the rights of people to be nutty within certain bounds, they do lend fuel to the anti-homeschooling fire.
Do you mind if I just keep coming over here and venting my frustrations? I was looking for some information regarding an ongoing discussion I've been having and realized how little there really is. Of course, in some ways it probably is pointless. The discussion runs a predictable pattern. Some point is raised. A counterpoint is made. And somehow the counterpoint is part of the conspiracy.
Popular Science and its rebuttal of the conspiracy theory, I recently "learned," is nothing but a CIA front for espionage. And questioning the overall logic of certain things inevitably brings me, "Hitler did it." Hitler burned down his own government building and not every group was silenced immediately.
I suppose the lack of rebuttals I have found is perhaps due to the fact that it can be pointless to try to have this discussion once someone is enmeshed in it. But then, it seems to be affecting the Christian Church. The DVDs I looked at are all products of some ministry or other. Shouldn't we have some answer?
Geesh...I even just realized that I had linked to a site promoting this stuff. After searching for over an hour for what I thought I was linking to, I gave up and just deleted the section.
I hope the issue is just that those into this are more vocal than most, not that the thought is spreading that rapidly. It is no surprise that a lot of it originated with some French writer. Now there is a conspiracy I am interested in...all the money flowing from France and Germany into Iraq? And who is trying to prevent us from doing anything? Not that I think it has anything to do with the illuminati, the Free Masons or any grand plot to overthrow the world. Just old fashioned power and money where it is to be had : (
I share your frustration. I don't understand what it is that makes some people so prone to "conspiracy thinking", but it seems like there are too many out there ... and too many in "Christianity".
I was told once (and it appears to be the case) "The proof of any conspiracy is the complete lack of evidence." When conspiracy thinkers suggest that any logical approach and all negative evidence are all part of the conspiracy, we are without grounds for dialog. It's more at "Oh, well, my mistake. I thought there was room for rational discussion. I was wrong. I'll leave the looney bin to you." (Yeah, I never say it, but I sure think it.)
I understand your frustration.
Lack of evidence = proof. Isn't that the truth!
The last round actually had to do with the income tax. Just for the sake of the argument, I conceded every point and got down to the 16th Amendment being illegally passed. Said person presented the case and I read through the documentation which stressed continually the importance of this stuff being passed in identical form in the house and senate of the various states, including spelling and capitalization.
I asked if she really wanted to risk going to jail, having her kids put in foster care, and damaging her Christian witness because the house and senate in some of these states did not use the same spelling and punctuation to pass an amendment. Wasn't the intent clearly to pass? Does she hold her children (and herself) to the same standard of 0 error in even the minutest of details? And doesn't scripture imply pretty regularly that we are to be submissive to those in authority over us, at times going out of our way to follow even unfair laws?
It doesn't go anywhere though. I'm just too worldly and indoctrinated into what "they" want me to think, whoever "they" are.
I don't suppose the command to obey the government would play in that kind of mindset? Jesus told us to "render to Caesar what is Caesar's", as if Caesar offered a "fair and reasonable tax structure"?
But, I suppose I'm too indoctrinated with what the Bible would have me think.
I don't suppose the command to obey the government would play in that kind of mindset? Jesus told us to "render to Caesar what is Caesar's", as if Caesar offered a "fair and reasonable tax structure"?
But, I suppose I'm too indoctrinated with what the Bible would have me think.
I have a family member who attempted to "fight" the illegally passed tax amendment that was never properly ratified. They had all the "proof" and honestly they were right, but it does not matter when you judges and courts are funded by tax dollars. You see they went to court and the judge was not going to allow them to present their proof. They thought they were ready to go to jail to prove their point until they found out that is exactly what was going to occur. They had to go into hiding. Finally in time they figured it was better to pay the taxes and have a life than live like that. Now they are back in the system and yet I still have other family that actually believes in all the "conspiracy" theories. I just don't open their emails...LOL! After all they also claim President Bush is keeping my family's fortune from us. Hee hee! Whatever happened to working for a living???
Conspiracy theories are scary. Maybe they are true, but if so...then I would be a nutcase in fear. It is easier for me to just deal with the platter I have before me than to look into all this other stuff. It is easier to trust in the Lord to ultimately be in control than to get hung up on the "what if's?"
My platter got enough extra toppings on it when I dared to mention the Pearls as having some messed up ideas in my homeschool email group. LOL!
If the conspiracy theories are true, I wonder why there are so many conspiracists running around with their blogs, podcasts, radio programs and public speeches. If Bush had the power (and desire) to orchestrate 9/11 to herald in some fascist tyranny, certainly he could silence Alex Jones?
But that is just part of the conspiracy, too, I'm told.
Maybe the real conspiracy is behind the conspiracy theories...the scientologists seem to have a lot of advertising up over on Jones' site and I've always wondered about those people. (Don't mind me...my husband used to be in to this stuff although back then the illuminati were controlled by alien lizard people. Conversion to Christianity seemed to bring with it a measure of sanity!)
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