Homeschooling

My friend aka pastor guy posted a great piece on why he and his wife homeschool their boys, which reminded me that I have never posted on the subject, even though Janell is in her second year and now has two pupils.

In his post, he gives his reasons for homeschooling. I'm going to list them here with some of his comments and my own. I'm prioritizing them a little differently to match our reasons. Home schooling was actually a hard sell for me (based on homeschoolers I encountered as a kid). I was leaning toward public school, but as we looked into it found these reasons to be compelling (my wife can also be very persuasive). We are also blessed to have a network of homeschooling families in our church who provide encouragement and collaboration in this endeavor. My father has also been involved with homeschooling over the past couple of years as a homeschool cooperative administrator.

1. Educational Quality: the chances of our [daughters] getting a high quality education are better at home (where the teacher:student ratio is [1:2]) than in a public school (where the teacher:student ratio is 1:20+). Our ability to choose curriculum to fit particular learning styles & needs is substantially higher than a public or private school. We can also use travel in ways that public schools can not to further supplement our [girls'] education. We were also concerned with the quality of education offered in the local school system - based on the testimonials from parents who did use it. Most folks we know are moving across the county lines for better schools.

2. Flexibility: I don't think a lot of folks realize that good quality homeschooling doesn't take 8 hours a day - if [our kids are] concentrating & working hard, [they] can do most of [their] work in 90-120 minutes. (Just think about how much time in school is spent moving people from one place to another, taking attendance, listening to announcements, etc.) That extra 5-6 hours per day allows [them] lots of time to read, to play outside... and that doesn't even figure in our family's flexibility to travel.... That last point is especially true in this particular season of our life. We can take school with us on the road.

3. School Bureaucracy: Where we currently live, school zoning is completely whacked. There are three elementary schools within a 3 mile radius of our home, but we are zoned for a fourth that is 5 miles away. While that school is "brand new", it isn't in our community. I'm not going to bus my kids unnecessarily. And this has nothing to do with "diversity". My kids would be a "minority" in our community schools - something we don't have a problem with. School overcrowding is also a big issue.

4. Jump Start For our Youngest: By homeschooling, we are able to start our youngest in Kindergarten a full year earlier than in public schools (she turns 5 in November). We made that decision because she was demonstrating a desire to learn and because she had already been exposed to school last year while observing and absorbing her sister's lessons.

5. Spiritual Training: We incorporate bible lessons and activities such as AWANA into their curriculum.

6. Being Kids: The pressure from popular culture is for kids to grow up so quickly now - to become little adults in the manner & content of what they consume. [We] really want our [girls] to be kids as long as humanly possible - they will have plenty of time to be adults later. This is especially true for our girls. We try to encourage imaginative (dress up, tea times, birthday parties for stuffed animals) as well as creative play activities.

7. Values: This is not just about kids - people pick up values from their environment, not from what they're taught. (Does any school teach that cheating is OK? No. Does that stop kids from cheating? No. The culture is stronger than the information... and even the chance of punishment.) By homeschooling, we're spending our [girls'] formative years with them in an environment where they are swimming in our value choices. According to research from The Barna Group, most individuals don't radically change their values & beliefs after age 13 - which means that the elementary school years are key!

8. Enjoying Family: Here's something weird & wonderful about homeschooling. Relatively healthy homeschooling families (there are unhealthy ones) seem to enjoy being together more than other families, up into & including their teenage years. I hope this will be true of ours.

My friend goes on to discuss the issues of socialization and sheltering - I encourage you to read it. He also lists the curriculum they use. We are currently using Sing, Spell, Read and Write along with Math U See.

Christianity is Practical

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." - Mt. 5:13-16

So much of the time, evangelicals present a Christianity that is concerned with spiritual needs and realities at the expense of physical, emotional and practical needs. Growing up I heard this salt and light passage of the Sermon on the Mount interpreted as a command to meet spiritual needs, share the gospel, evangelize, etc... It's not that I think this is wrong, just backwards. Salt and light are very practical. Salt preserves, cleanses, and enhances. Light illuminates, heats, and heals. I have come to believe that Christ followers should be as useful to the world as salt and light. We should be feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the sick, teaching the illiterate, advocating for the voiceless, caring for the environment, creating art, etc.... Christ then states that men will see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven.

God intends us to penetrate the world. Christian salt has no business to remain snugly in elegant little ecclesiastical salt cellars; our place is to be rubbed into the secular community, as salt is rubbed into meat, to stop it going bad. And when society does go bad, we Christians tend to throw up our hands in pious horror and reproach the non-Christian world; but should we not rather reproach ourselves? One can hardly blame unsalted meat for going bad. It cannot do anything else. The real question to ask is: Where is the salt?
John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount