When people ask me why I believe in home education I actually find it a difficult question to answer – NOT because I don’t have any justification for it, but because I have SO MANY reasons!
So this article is my attempt to finally offer my definitive reasons for homeschooling. You may not agree… and I respect your right to disagree… but I hope at least that once you read this you might have a better appreciation of my reasons, and the reasons why so many other home-schoolers have chosen to accept direct responsibility for the education of their children.
1. I have seen the good fruit.
Home-schooled kids impress me. That is to say, they REALLY impress me. From what I have seen, there is something qualitatively different about them, they way that they think and the way that they relate to other people. I love the way that they accept personal responsibility for their learning and I like the level of maturity that I see in their social interactions… especially in the way that they relate to adults.
I clearly recall the first time that I visited a home schooling family and the children answered the door. Instead of running off to get Mum and Dad they made eye contact, politely introduced themselves, invited me in and engaged me in intelligent conversation throughout my visit. Instead of running off to their rooms they were interested in me, my questions and what I had to say. And I was also impressed by the way that their parents involved them in the conversation and valued their input and opinions. That extraordinary family, I later discovered, was one of many impressive families that I would encounter and I came away from that first visit clearly desiring that kind of social and relational dynamic for my own family.
Of course there are always exceptions. I have not been impressed with every single home-schooling family, or every home-educated child or young adult that I have met. I believe that there are ways to do home schooling right and ways to do it wrong. And I am especially concerned about those families where the parents approach to home education comes with a cultural siege mentality. Some families isolate their children from every aspect of evil popular culture. Whilst I think it’s very good and valid to be protective and to seek to impart your family’s values to your children, that valid goal of protection is not served well by strict and rigid isolationism. Sooner or later your children must interact with the outside world, and the purpose of home education ought to be to prepare them well for that day and to help them understand the broad range of beliefs, behaviours and lifestyles that they are likely to encounter, to know who they are and what they believe (and why) and how they can respond and interact with people who hold different world views. Fortunately from what I have observed, most homeschooling families do that very well.
2. Flexibility of lifestyle.
Homeschooling offers a flexibility of lifestyle that just isn’t possible with conventional schooling. It allows education to fit in and around other family commitments, such as holidays, sick days, spontaneous days off, work commitments, as well as permitting the family to enjoy a wider range of experiences as part of integrated way of learning. Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly and you will find rest for your souls”. There is no reason why education has to be stressful. It can actually be enjoyable!
Modern life is a crazy rat-race that is driving more and more people to the edge of nervous breakdown. And more and more our children are also feeling the pressure to compete and this is evidenced by higher suicide rates among youth following Year 12 results. It is a shameful indictment upon our culture and our education system that we would subject our young people to such stress and harm. Home education provides an alternative approach to our toxic stressful culture by allowing children to learn at a natural pace and explore the wonders of our world.
3. Beyond Segregation.
With few exceptions, formal education gathers children into peer groups based on age, and sometimes based on gender. Whilst this may prepare them well for life in the military, there is nothing about this that contributes to the formation of well-rounded social skills that are required in the real world. In fact age segregation directly contributes to a generational divide based on peer group conformity and popular culture and a situation where children begin to look to their youthful peers for the formation of their values rather than their parents and elders. How many times have you walked through a crowd of school children as if you were invisible? The fact that children continue to interact with their own age group whilst ignoring an adult in their midst is not natural… it’s the result of quite unnatural social conditioning, and it’s the result of age segregation. Similarly, how many times have you seen a younger child ignored or ostracised from older children in the playground? This too is not natural, but a direct result of social conditioning and age segregation in the school system.
4. My children, my responsibility.
As a follower of Jesus I do not believe that God blessed me with children in order to abdicate that responsibility and delegate a significant portion of their upbringing to strangers – no matter how qualified those strangers may be. On the contrary, I believe that the formation of godly values is the primary responsibility of parents for which God holds parents wholly responsible. Sadly, that this is a responsibility in which many parents in Western society have tragically failed.
Western history is replete with examples of how formal education has undermined parental influence, either through direct indoctrination of the school curriculum, or through moral subversion and social decay within the school yard. I know, for example, that I did not learn sexism, racism, filthy language, pornography, drugs, alcohol, abuse, bullying or cruelty from my own parents. What I learned of these things as a child I learned directly from my peers in the school ground during times when I and my peers were left unsupervised. And this is the norm throughout most public schools and, sadly, even in many religious educational institutions.
Of course it is impossible to shield a child indefinitely from the evils of the world and I do not believe that this should even be the goal of home education. But the goal should be to shield children until their values are formed and until they are mature enough beyond the stage of vulnerability. Teachers, no matter how high their ideals, no matter how lofty the aspirations of their school, simply cannot guarantee that children will not be exposed to abuse, bullying, or moral subversion during unsupervised times. That is practically impossible. But within the home a parent has absolute control of the environment and is able to supervise and oversee every aspect of that which influences a child’s development.
5. The End of Production Line Education.
Prior to the industrial revolution most education of minors happened within the home. Mothers educated their daughters in the skills that they would need in adulthood and boys would be educated by their fathers in the skills that they would need. That is why so many western surnames are based upon occupations… Butcher, Goldsmith, Blacksmith, Cooper, Fletcher, etc., etc. It was only with the industrial revolution when factory workers were needed that educational institutions became necessary to take the place of absent parents. So in terms of the span of human history, formal education of children as we know it today is a fairly recent social experiment.
Formal education is, by practical necessity, largely generalised and impersonal due to class sizes. Formal education within the school system is also compartmentalised, with learning divided into different subjects rather than being an integrated learning experience. It’s quite ridiculous that students can be required to learn mathematical formulas and yet have no idea how those formulas will ever find a practical use in the real world. (In my case, at my school, not even my teacher knew!) And it is equally ridiculous that so much effort can go into cramming to pass exams, only to have all of that information forgotten just a few days later. This is production line education, where instead of imparting a love of learning to a child, along with practical skills, school becomes a series of tests to be passed just to get through. That serves neither the individual or society well.
6. The impartation of values and the development of character.
Education is far more than merely absorbing and regurgitating facts. It is also about deciding what kind of beliefs and values will be your guiding principles throughout life. Secular schools are pluralistic in their philosophical base, which simply means that they aim to be tolerant of everything but, ultimately, succeed only in standing for nothing in particular other than some vague set of social values that is constantly being reviewed according to the latest politically correct trend. Home education seeks to develop character as well as impart skills and knowledge. And whilst many good schools may share this goal, in the home it is being implemented by the very people who love the child the most and who always have their best interests at heart.
7. Strengthening the Family.
Whether due to deliberate design or not, educational institutions have evolved to become tools of the State for control and social engineering. Where once family and elders were the principal influence in the formation of beliefs and values, today teachers and state-sponsored curriculum routinely usurp, undermine or minimise the role of both God and parents. In conventional schooling, children are conditioned and taught to be willing conformists to a system that expects them to become parts of a much larger machine… to be workers and consumers in a global economy (ahead of society) that ultimately cares very little for them as individuals. Individuality is often suppressed and crushed in the education system as social and behavioural norms are enforced through peer pressure and the day-to-day timetable-led routine of getting to class, sitting through lectures, obeying the rules, meeting the deadlines, competing for positions and chasing society’s vague and illusive goals of distinction through success and prosperity. But it is actually outside of the classroom, in the schoolyard, where much of the most potential harm is often done. Children left unsupervised are regularly exposed to talk of drugs, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, pornography, violence and relentless bullying. (And if you think that this is overstating it, hey… I have a very good memory of my own experiences in the schoolyard!!!)
Ultimately, sadly, there remains today very little in the public education system that affirms faith, personal conviction, honouring God, biblical morality, respect for parents, or the central and important role of family as the basic building block of society.
Western society has succeeded at creating institutions to sanitise almost every important human aspect of human life and activity. Babies used to born at home, children used to be educated at home, mothers and fathers used to work at home or in the field, the sick were cared for at home, the elderly were cared for, and eventually died, and sometimes buried, at home. And today young people in western societies appear eager to leave home as soon as possible, which begs the question: Could this be because nothing important ever seems to happen at home anymore?
Western society has succeeded at creating institutions to sanitise almost every important human aspect of human life and activity. Babies used to born at home, children used to be educated at home, mothers and fathers used to work at home or in the field, the sick were cared for at home, the elderly were cared for, and eventually died, and sometimes buried, at home. And today young people in western societies appear eager to leave home as soon as possible, which begs the question: Could this be because nothing important ever seems to happen at home anymore?
Certainly you can argue that many institutions (hospitals for example) are much better resourced to meet these needs than your average home, and that is mostly true. But not necessarily when it comes to education. Never has there been more high quality educational resources more freely available than today to empower parents and families to accept responsibility for the education of their own children.
8. Socialisation
The lack of socialisation is without question the single most common objection that is raised to home education and, on the surface, understandably so. Yet, paradoxically, the high levels of social maturity that I have frequently observed among home-schooled children is something that continually delights and impresses me. And I think that this exposes a fundamental flaw in our thinking about socialisation. We tend to think that MORE socialisation is always good, right? But we often forget that not every aspect of school social life is at all positive, affirming or uplifting. The fact is that schools are frequently hotbeds of unhealthy social pressure to conform and battlefields of relentless and merciless bullying. If your child is unfortunate enough to be exposed to this kind of abuse it can leave emotional scars and psychological damage that can last a lifetime. And if we think that children need to be thrown into that environment in order to become strong, I think we need to think again. Children only become well-rounded and resilient adults through experiencing love, support and regular affirmation. A young person who becomes confident in who they are and who know that there is a supportive family community standing behind them will be much more likely to venture bravely out into the world to make their positive mark on society.
9. Affordability.
For those parents wanting a higher standard of education for their children may consider either secular or Christian private schools. These are obviously prohibitively expensive for lower income families or for families that have experienced unemployment. Home education is a very affordable alternative to private education and one that arguable can deliver equal or even better educational outcomes. Obviously one of the hidden costs of home education is the fact that at least one parent needs to commit to being home with the kids. But I have also seen many examples where parents share the task of home education be alternating the days that they work. Ultimately, the decision of home-school is not an economic one… most parents who choose to home-school would still do so even if money for education wasn’t a problem. But all things considered, home education is not expensive… especially when educational resources and activities can be shared by more than one child.
10. Love for my Child.
Finally, my overarching motivation for home-schooling is that I simply love my child. That is not to imply that parents who do not home-school do not love their kids, but simply to say that MY love for MY child motivates ME to choose home education.
The very first homeschooling family that I met related their neighbour’s comments to them as the end of the school holidays approached. They had said something that I am sure many frazzled parents have said, “Oh, I can’t wait for my kids to go back to school!”. The father in this family looked at me and said, “I really can’t understand that attitude. My children are my best friends… I love to be with them!”
There is no doubt that homeschooling is a serious and demanding commitment of time. It’s actually not difficult, but it is a full-on commitment of time and there is no denying that it is sacrificial and other self aspirations need to be put aside. But there is no-one else that I would be prepared to make that level of commitment to than my own child. We as parents brought him into the world and we have a God-given responsibility to prepare him to live as successfully as possible in this world. So while we are able, while we have strength, we will make that commitment because we love our child. And there is ultimately no other task more worthy of our time and our energy than to prepare our child for their adulthood. Personally I would only relinquish the responsibility of education if circumstances prohibit it or if I became convinced that a school was able to meet my child’s specific needs better. And so as we proceed on our journey of home education, we simply take it one year at a time, fully reliant upon the grace and providence of God.
