I've been asked by a local group called Leadership Ashland to be part of a panel discussion on home education. I thought I would post my reflections on the first question they are going to ask. Q. Why choose home education, as opposed to public schooling? Each family will most likely have their own reasons. For my family there are many, but I'll give you the top two. The primary reason was because, as a Christian, my chief duty is to train my kids in the fear of God and pass on to them a distinctly Christian worldview. The government schools have as their basis a distinctly un-Christian worldview. When I say that, you have to recognize that it is much more than teachers not being allowed to say a quick prayer with the kids before school starts. It is much more systemic than that. I'm saying that we have completely different philosophical basis. Government schools approach education from a Darwinian and atheistic viewpoint So when it come to basic questions of the nature of reality, ethics, and the nature of man, we are headed in completely different directions. I came through the public education system, and I can honestly say that when I graduated I was a better atheist than Christian. I don't want that to happen to my children. I could flesh that out more if you would like, but I think that it is enough to say that the main reason why we educate our children at home is that I want my kids to be nurtured in the fear of God. The second reason why we home school is simply because we really love our children. It is hard for us to imagine being away from our kids for 7, 8, 9 hours a day. We love being around them. We learn together, we play together in the afternoons, we do almost everything with each other. I remember that we were talking with a college age girl once. She said in an almost bewildered way, "You are with each other all day and all evening? You must really love each other!?" She was right. We do!
1 Comment
deshanna kennard
12/26/2012 11:11:56 pm
nicely said & i couldn't agree more:-) i taught public school for 4 years prior to having children and i thought of my students as "my children" which is what they were for over 40 hrs a week--after all, i saw them and had more conversation with them than anybody else did for 5 days a week. when my own children were born, i couldn't fathom giving that precious daily time to another--the joy of influencing my children, watching them grow & learn and develop emotionally, spiritually, physically--i had taken part in that precious time with other's children when i taught and couldn't voluntarily miss out on it all with my own. and as we are a military family, i can honestly say that with my husband's schedule, homeschooling allows us to keep our family together when the army schedule would not have worked around the school schedule and would have divided our family. as a teacher, i have grown so much researching methods and curriculum and from teaching my own kids from the very beginning up to where we are today with our oldest taking her first high school courses, that it is scary to think i was hired to teach others as a "professional" all those years ago--compared to the knowledge base and wisdom i have gained in home educating my own. truly, a college degree does not prepare one to grow children's hearts and minds like being a mother can! anyway...didn't mean to ramble so long--thanks for sharing and allowing me to do so! :-)
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