Why Parents Homeschool
We are asked often "Why do you homeschool?" This answer to this question can be very involved as it covers a wide spectrum of issues. Recently, Pastor Chris Davis prepared an outline of the top 12 reasons why parents homeschool. We believe these reasons mirror ours in this area, and thought they might be helpful to you.
Statistical information for this article has been taken from material produced by the Home School Legal Defense Association [www.hslda.org] and the National Home Education Research Institute [www.nheri.org].
Reason #1:
Social
The most common question asked during the early years of the homeschooling "movement"
was, "What about socialization?" For those unfamiliar with the concept of socialization,
the question was directed at the notion that children must spend a lot of time
with their peers so that they will grow up having learned how to properly interact
with others in various social contexts. If a child is removed from daily interaction
with other children his age-the kind of interaction typically found in a public
school setting-will not that child will grow up socially stunted and harmed
for life? This remained one of the major fears voiced by relatives of homeschooled
children.
In appreciation of this concern, researchers began to take a serious look at the well-accepted idea of the necessity of peer socialization. Homeschooling parents had already begun to write articles supporting the opposite contention: that spending a lot of time with one's own age mates actually made children peer dependant, unable to think and act independently, causing them to grow up with an unhealthy need for peer approval. The Bible seems to support the idea of peer dependency when it states that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; and that the companion of fools becomes a fool, himself.
What researchers found-and what homeschooling parents have long contended-is that children who spend more time with adults become better socialized than children who spend most of their social time with their age-mates. This is true mainly because, when a child spends a lot of time with adults, that the child is having modeled to him or her a far more mature set of social skills.
Researchers found that the homeschooled child is more involved with other children than most people assume. Homeschooled children are involved in an average of five activities outside the home for which they seem to have plenty of time since they watch only about 1/10th as much television as public schooled children. The homeschooled child will score will above his age mates in every available self-esteem and socialization test. Perhaps this is why two-thirds of homeschool graduates end up self employed, a direction that takes a great deal of self esteem.
The real question one should ask is not, "What about socialization?" All children will be socialized. The question that should be asked is, "In order for our children to best learn social skills, with whom should they spend most of their time: their parents or their peers?" Some homeschooling parents are even beginning to ask friends (who send their children to public school), "In sending your children to public school, aren't you concerned about their socialization?"
Reason #2:
Moral
One
of the reasons children should be socialized mainly by their parents is that
the moral foundation of one's life is laid through hundreds of small interactions
on a daily basis. This is true for the laying of either a good or a bad moral
foundation. Normally, the older the individual, the more he or she has acquired
a realistic life perspective, including the need for a life lived within the
boundaries of moral principles. Even a relationship with God can be immature
or mature, and spending time with mature, godly people is critical to establishing
a godly foundation in life. It just makes sense that children should spend most
of their time with their own parents if those parents want their children to
grow up with a godly life perspective.
The question is often asked, "If other children could be an improper influence on my children, shouldn't I shield my children from the influence of others?" This idea is a popular teaching in the Body of Christ today. I disagree with this teaching.
Having raised four children through the teenage years, I think the answer to this is an emphatic, "No." Our boys have had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time with other children and adults. Some of them have been downright ungodly people, adults and teens alike. But, the influence such people have had on our boys is 1). It has allowed our boys to clearly understand the consequences of sin because they have seen it in other's lives; 2). We see why none of us want to have to deal with such consequences; and, 3). We see the great need for Christ in the lives of those with whom we come in contact and how our lives can affect theirs for good.
As a father, I have always tried to go with (or take) my sons into whatever relational context they have entered, especially until I was assured they had internalized a strong moral foundation. I wanted them to know that the father's presence is always with them, no matter where they go. Also, the father's continual training in ways of godliness is crucial. One vital example is the necessity of training our children to responsibly relate to members of the opposite sex.
Reason #3:
Safety
This is a delicate issue. Suffice it to say that more and more parents are becoming
fearful for their child's safety in public schools. Although this was a concern
even when I was in high school in the 1950's, violence is increasingly becoming
a way of life in America, including in our schools. I know a superintendent
of schools who had been a principal in an upper, middle class neighborhood for
many years. Recently she told me that, when she began as a principal, a successful
day meant that her pupils had spent the day being educated. By the time she
left the principalship, a successful day meant that her pupils had made it through
the day safely.
Reason #4:
CONTEXTUAL
John
Gatto-former New York City and New York State teacher of the year-states that
education separates a child from the daily context of life. By this he means
that to live life successfully, one must, in the process of growing up, gain
an appropriate set of "life-preparing" experiences. Public education not only
does not provide enough of these experiences, but it fills a child with information
and experiences that actually must be overcome for the child to become a success
in life. Says Gatto: "Schools school; life educates."
Most education is theoretical knowledge. "You will need to know this one day, so you'd better learn it now," works for some children. If a child is able to catalog thousands of pieces of information for future use, has a great memory, or simply has a learning style that fits the way public schools teach, that child will do well. Other children do not do well at all. These are the children who need to interact with what they are learning (feel it, touch it), or interact with other learners, or need the information to have some realistic application.
One reason why homeschoolers do so well in college-and why more and more colleges are aggressively recruiting homeschoolers-is that children taught at home tend to have a more real-life approach to learning. They have not spent large amounts of time doing busy work. Learning has real meaning to homeschoolers. Here is a somewhat lengthy quote from John Gotto which says it all,
"...the natural sequence of learning is destroyed without experience-a sequence in which hands-on experience, "primary data" to give it an academic title, must always come first. Only after a long apprenticeship in rich and profound contact with the world, the home, the neighborhood, does the thin gas of abstraction mean much to most people. ...Only a few of us are fashioned in such a peculiar way as to thrive on an exclusive diet of blackboard work and workbook work and bookwork work and talkwork work of all sorts. When we fail to take into account how most children...learn-by involvement, by doing, by independent risk-taking, by shouldering responsibility, by intermingling intimately into the real world of adults in all its manifestations...-we have created the mise en scene where a mathematical bell curve seems to describe a human condition in which only a few children have any real talent."
Reason #5:
IDENTITY
"Due to its emphasis on competition, institutional education leaves a large
population of losers, damned to the self-concept that they cannot succeed no
matter what they have a heart to do."-John Gatto
God gives each of us an identity: a specific "who we are" as well as "what we are to do." There are no "generic" children. Public schools function as if there were no other kind.
Many seem to succeed in a public school setting. But what is this "success" that they attain? Is it the ability to attend a college of their choice? Do they learn what they need to know to succeed in life?
It now takes almost six years for a college entrant to obtain a traditional four-year degree. The average college student changes majors more than twice. He enters college not knowing why he is there and, while there, tries to find out what he wants to do with his life.
40% of college entrants drop out. They discover that college cannot give them an identity. They have no reason to be there.
Only about 15% of all who do graduate college end up working in the area in which they got their degree. What a waste of time, energy and money!
What's wrong here? Is it possible that we are trying to educate children to do something other than what God created them to do? If we are honest, can we admit that we are really focused on training children to get jobs? Is that all there is to education? Dr. Joel Spring, Professor of Education, has written, "The educational goal of preparing citizens for participation in a democracy has been replaced by that of preparing them for employment."
And, what about those who do not succeed in public school? Why don't they succeed? Could it be that we are trying to run children through an educational process created for the "Every Child" when there is really no such person? We give each child a name. But, why not just call every boy, "Boy," and every girl, "Girl?" Better yet, why not call every child "Person" since this is the way they are going to be treated in their institutional school setting: "You are Person; and, like all Persons of your same age, you will be offered a generic education created for Everyone."
There are two things a child must be given in order to become truly good at what is in his heart to do (translate: what God has put in this child to be manifested to his/her generation). They are Time and Resources. Public schools cannot make education specific enough to treat students as other than "generic children." Yes, public schools offer Electives-the opportunity for an individual to take courses that have specific interest to him or her. Yet, if each person is uniquely gifted for a specific life work, that individual must be given some very specific "tools of the trade" as well as a lot of time to spend becoming good at his/her talents or callings.
In Paul's letter to the Ephesian church, Paul says that we were created to accomplish certain works which God, Himself, planned, in advance, for us to do. None of us are generic human beings.
Reason #6:
THE GOAL OF EDUCATION
Today,
the end product of all education is a job. Let's be honest. When asked why we
are putting all this knowledge into our children's heads, the real answer is,
"We are preparing our children for employment."
Most homeschooling parents are expecting their children to end the education process either by moving right into the job market or on to a college where the degree obtained will provide them with a "better job." A few days ago I received an email from a homeschooling mother. In part it said:
"My son graduates from home school this year and I wanted to know what your son did after graduation. We have a local Jr. college, but my son doesn't really know if this is what he needs to do...he is an outdoorsman...loves animals and hunting...I need some advice on what some possibilities are for a godly young man who has been homeschooled since 1st grade. He 'dreads' taking the SAT I...."
Can you hear the concern? This child is about to graduate and he hasn't yet declared what he is going to do in life!
The day before receiving this email, my wife and I had a conversation with our middle son, James. James had "graduated from 'high school'" the previous year and was still not sure what he wanted to do with his life. James is a serious-minded, godly young man who works part time for the local community playhouse and for our family business. James had been sharing with his mother how he was struggling with being 18 years old and still in the process of discovering who he was in the Lord and what God wanted him to do. At this point my wife said, "Son, very few people are ever given the freedom to take time to find out what they really want to do in life. Most just get a job, only to discover later that they have spent years doing something that is not really what is in their heart to do. What your Dad and I want to do is give you a most precious commodity: Time. You will leave us soon enough and we will never again have the kind of relationship with you that we have now. We are not in a big hurry for you to grow up and leave us. What we do want is for you to come to terms with what the Lord has placed in your heart. For most people this takes some trial and error. The best gift we can give you right now is time. There is nothing magical about graduation from high school. It doesn't mean that your education is over. What education means to us is finding out what God has created for you to do and having enough experiences to be good at that."
Does education have a goal or is it an end in itself?
Reason #7:
ESCAPING THE MYTHS
It's not that we are taught the myths, it's more that we eventually make them
our own because they are the driving asumptions on which public education is
based. We live them out day by day and they become part of our nature. For a
more thorough development of the mythology of public schooling, you will need
to read John Gatto's book, A Different Kind of Teacher. But, here I will share
two myths that our family has tried to overcome in our nearly 20 years of homeschooling.
Myth 1: A student's success depends solely on his own abilities and accomplishments. Public schools are set up as if each student were running in a track meet. The course will take 12 years and, if completed, there is a diploma at the finish line, and, perhaps another race if he is one of the top finishers. The rules of this race are that he must always remain in his own lane. This is not a cooperative effort; he doesn't stop along the way and get help from the other runners on how this race should best be run.
This is a myth because it does not in any way mirror real life where those who succeed do so because, throughout their lives, they find ways to learn from those who are running-or have already run-the same race. Therefore, to forbid students from interacting with one another in the learning process (including the taking of tests), is to teach them that success in real life is a solo flight. Learning is a cooperative endeavor and noone gets to the end having done very well who relies solely on his own abilities.
Myth #2: Failure is permanent. Every test is a one-time event and the results are permanently cataloged as if our very future depended upon the downloading of short-term memory.
This myth also does not mirror real life. Yet, so many adults are driven by this untruth that risk taking has all but disappeared in our culture. We may say that we know failure is the road to success; but after 12 years of School, we avoid failure as if it meant that we could actually fail.
Reason #8:
FINANCIAL
The government estimates the cost of providing a year of public school education
to be about $5,500.00. The estimated cost of a year of homeschooling is less
than $500.00 per child. This cost difference is made the more remarkable when
reading Reason #5 & 6.
Reason #9:
EDUCATIONAL
There is a great disparity in the educational outcome of homeschoolers and public
schooled students. Here are a few examples:
On nationally standardized tests, the average public school student scores at the 50th percentile. Taking the same test, the average homeschooler's score will be at the 85th percentile. A public schooled student's standardized test scores are affected by certain issues in the child's life. Among them are the educational level of his/her parents; the income of parents; the gender of the child; the child's race; and whether or not the child's teachers are certified and/or college trained. None of these factors affect a homeschooled child's test scores, which will remain around the 85th percentile even if the child is a poor, minority male whose parents are neither educated nor certified teachers.
Statistically, the longer a child remains in the government school system, the less well he or she will do academically. By the time the average American child graduates from high school, he or she will do less well on standardized tests than his or her peers in almost every other industrialized nation in the world.
Reason #10:
SPIRITUAL
The contemporary homeschooling movement began largely as a religious movement.
As public schools were forced to ignore, and then remove references to, the
spiritual foundations of our nation, godly parents sought other venues for educating
their children. As courts required a separation of Church and State not fathomed
by the Founding Fathers, parents realized the need to take possession of their
children's upbringing not experienced since pre-Industrial Revolution days.
For obvious reasons, most government leaders want their populations to be healthy, happy and educated. When America was a young nation, its populace was industrious and hard working, and education was a high priority.
In the 1840's, as the Industrial Revolution began, a flood tide of emigration began which concerned our government because many of those seeking the "good life" in the U.S. were not very well educated, nor did they consider education a high priority. American educators and government officials became alarmed for the future. If an educated population is one of the main reasons a country is successful and prosperous, what would our nation's future be like if its population were not well educated?
Enter the concept that the State has a responsibility to consider its youth as "children of the State." The rationale is that children become the adults who will make the country weak or strong. Not everyone understands what it takes to raise a child who will end up contributing positively to the country. Parents don't fall into this category, especially if they are raising children within the outmoded concepts of Christianity.
In the model that emerged in the middle 1800's, parental roles began to be seen either as a subset of governmental parenting or simply in conflict with how children should really be raised. Compulsory school attendance laws were aimed at separating children from their parents so that new experiments of child rearing could be tried.
Government education is perceived to be driven by a benevolent motive: To create and maintain an educated populace.
For the people of God, the question that should immediately come to mind is: Do the children of God's children actually "belong to a higher authority," the government; an authority which is not their own parents (simply because the government considers that it has the right to decide how we are going to raise and educate our children based on its definition of what an educated child is)?
Many homeschooling families believe that the Bible is clear about who has the authority (actually, the mandate) to raise children. This is not the job of the State, no matter how compelling is the State's argument to the contrary.
Reason #11:
RELATIONAL
Not long after my wife had written the book, "Going Home to School," our family
was attending a homeschool conference as book vendors. In her book, Ellyn had
explained some of the history of public schooling in America and shared why
we, and so many others like ourselves, came to the conclusion to homeschool
our children.
During the conference, a man walked into our booth. He was frustrated, confused and not a little agitated. He approached Ellyn and blurted out, "Tell me: just why you are homeschooling your children!"
I was standing behind Ellyn and smiled at the man's question. I thought, "Of all the things Ellyn wrote in her book, what would she pick out to say to this guy?" I quickly thought of what I might say had he asked me instead of Ellyn.
What Ellyn told the man that day has never left me. She didn't say anything from her book at all. Here is what she said: "Well, I don't know if I will be able to pull this off; but, when it's all said and done-when my boys are all grown and have left home-what I really want is to have had a relationship with them. It seems to me that if they are gone from me all day, every day, the chances of that happening are not as good as if they are at home with me".
Reason #12:
FOR THE FUTURE
In every city and town across America a little group of insecure parents is
raising their children while asking Government to keep away. Their work is mostly
hidden to the rest of society which, anyway, is largely indifferent to the effort.
These families think they have found where the gold is buried and wonder why
so few others are even looking. But, as in the distant past, when a silent voice
directed just two of each species to enter a huge wooden structure made by Noah
and his family, that same voice has directed us to join with the most unlikely
folk in entering an ark known as homeschooling.
As the world grows darker and more dangerous by the year, God's work is being done in a corner, as He prepares a generation for a day too difficult to imagine. We parents may be taking it "a day at a time," (always wondering if we are raising a bunch of misfits); but the truth is that God is giving us just enough faith so that, if we are willing to hear Him and do something not done before, this generation will emerge from our families with an uncomplicated faith in their God, an unmoveable disagreement with Darkness, and an unmistaken sense that they were born for such a day as this.
Used by permission - The Elijah Company
Name:
Fay Clegg
Email Address:
cleggseggs@q.com
Date:
July 21, 2008
Time:
12:16:51 PM
Awesome article. Thanks so much!