Is Home Schooling a Burden or a Blessing?
Many parents work during the day, or they are simply not equipped to become the teacher their child needs. I would like to share a section of my upcoming book, and I hope it serves as motivation for those parents who find homeschooling a burden. Homeschooling is a blessing!
The Freedom from Religion Foundation actively supports restriction of any religion in public schools, helping to bar prayer or religious instruction. Sadly, it has been over 60 years (1960’s) since the U.S. Supreme Court banned religious instruction in public schools. In fact, religious instruction is considered evil. The Wisconsin State Supreme Court stated, “There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant (infectious) opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion. Let it once enter our civil affairs, our government would soon be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed” (emphasis mine).[1]
Also laws are being instituted that strip parents of elementary-age children from the right to opt out of curriculum that subjects their children to propaganda and promotes homosexuality, transgenderism, and encourages the acceptance of same-sex marriages. Being consistent in their efforts, they are rejecting curriculum that does not support or promote these lifestyles as normal and healthy. The education that children receive will shape their worldview. For children to form a Christian concept of reality that is full and robust, Christian schooling or homeschooling is the integral part in the education process. Gregg Strawbridge in Infants and Children in the Church wrote, “To overcome their exposure to a secular propaganda machine that spews a false view of reality daily, children will need more than a weekly hour of Sunday school. To truly shape their worldviews, we must engage in grammar and secondary education that imparts the culture (paedeia) of Christ (Eph 6:4).”[2]
So, keep fighting the good fight! It’s for the salvation of our children and the preservation of our Christian nation!
[1] https://religionandpolitics.org/2014/01/07/the-dangers-of-religious-instruction-in-public-schools/ cited 2/6/19
[2] “Infants and Children in the Church” in Five Views on Theology and Ministry, 141.
When I lived in Tokyo, a country that is most-decidedly a non-Christian nation, my faith was challenged and enlarged in many ways, spurring my lifelong desire to write stories that will help children and adults know that God is with them and saves them for an eternal life with him.
Now I work in a public elementary school library in a part of the country that has drawn immigrants from all over the world. While I am sure that families can be blessed (and I know some of these) by a homeschool environment, I am daily reminded at school that God has blessed me by putting the mission field at my doorstep. My family growing up, and my own family now, sends money to overseas missions on a regular basis. Yet, it has never been easier for me to personally love Muslim, Buddhist, and non-religious children than it is for me each day just by walking up to my neighborhood school. What a blessing!
God is in the public schools. I sometimes wonder where all the other Christians are who have cared, for generations, for the world mission field, yet fail to see the one God has delivered to their front door. My little Vietnamese student, Catherine, cried out to me one day that her seatmate, a Muslim girl, didn’t know Jesus. Did we have any books about Jesus? How blessed to be the person she asked, a Christian in the library, who could point her to right where they were on the shelf. How blessed to hear a child’s heart cry for her Muslim friend.
Whether homeschooling or not, this might be a timely reminder that it is not up to our government or school officials to save our children, and there are blessings to be found in both environments. May we have eyes to see and ears to hear where Christ leads each of us.
That is a wonderful testimony! I agree, not all public schools are the same and not all situations are the same. If we look at the California public school system, and the laws they have passed, I think it’s best parents home school if possible.
Each family has to make their own decision about whether or not to homeschool. Some of our family has chosen home schooling, others have chosen in person learning. I’m praying we all can learn from this time of uncertainty. One thing we can be certain of is that God is with us always.
Thank you, Melissa. Yes it is a personal decision. There is an informative document titled Education vs Indoctrination, written by Terri Podlenski. It’s an in-depth investigative research into the history of public schools and where they are heading. I recently I have read where parents feel inadequate to home school or they don’t have time to homeschool, and it’s causing them much stress. For those parents, I hope my article helps them to realize that homeschooling may be the best route to teach their children if it is possible for them to do so.