As the official school year gets underway, as the yellow-orange school buses roam the streets across America, we homeschoolers watch sadly as many we know fall prey to the American myth that their local public schools are safe domains of clean-cut academia. But that nostalgic scene of an innocent five year old boarding the bus for his first day of kindergarten often turns into a nightmarish teen disembarking from that same bus after ten years or so, a hardened heart now fully “humanized” into the raunchiness of post-modern America.
Certainly not every child sent to a public school will wind up like that, but many do. But where will the majority of Christian kids sent there be spiritually after years of an education where God and biblical morals have been tossed out? I mean, what will a young person who does not fear God do behind the scenes, once the parents aren’t looking? Well, it isn’t so hard to guess if you look at the statistics and look around you. For example, the CDC announced earlier this year that at least one in four teens in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted disease. As a long-time pro-life sidewalk counselor, I can tell you that the abortion clinics that I have seen in various states in this country are jam packed every weekend with American youth. Teens today walk into the local Planned Parenthood to abort their baby or get birth control like the teens of the past walked into a burger place.
If you send your child to a school that discusses every subject as if there is no God and no absolute truth, when they get their independence, you will see what they really learned in that place. I am old enough to have friends who say with much regret, “I should have homeschooled” because their teen – whom they thought got the abstinence message or whatever other mini sermon they gave them in between all the hours of godless education – is now on drugs, shacked up, pregnant or just plain running from God.
“Johnnie loves school!” declares the mother of the five year old when challenged about the moral cesspool of America’s public schools. Since when did a child liking something mean it was good for him? Then, when you suggest to many modern Christians they should homeschool, it seems beyond their comprehension that anyone would be crazy enough to actually want to be with their children all day. “Are you kidding?” they say, “I can’t wait until he is school age, so I can have my life back!” School is, of course, the place where you unload your responsibilities into someone else’s lap, so you can get on with the American dream of making more money and having more fun.
Although I note such families often seem to come up with thousands of dollars for vacations, additional vehicles, new computers, plasma flat screen TVs, etc. – but when you mention private Christian school as a second best alternative, they seem aghast. “Christian school is just too expensive,” they rationalize. This, I know, stems from the view that there are things in life you must buy, but education you should get for free, free, free.
My family holds to the opposite view – you should pay for your own education. If you are a family with many children that has to juggle a lot to make it on one income, like my family does, you get creative in order to homeschool without taking government funding. You learn to get all kinds of unique items for your homeschool from garage sales and other places that have used items. You barter for music lessons, etc. You become entrepreneurial. But, you are free. When you allow the government to control your child’s education, whether it be in the form of public school or even signing up to be a government-funded homeschooler, it changes you. In the long run, you can do a lot more with freedom than you can with dependency. We recently read a biography of Louis Pasteur who, with just a low quality microscope and poor conditions, made abundant, absolutely breathtaking findings that saved millions of lives and rescued whole industries. At the same time, famous scientists with vastly more resources did not make the discoveries he did. My point is, Pasteur was motivated and that not having all the frills did not detract from that. Few things in life are as motivating as freedom and as Christians we must be free to do what God wants us to do.
Granted, homeschooling is no iron clad guarantee a child will walk with the Lord. Parents are human, kids are human and God has no grandchildren, as they say. There are and will be godly homeschooling parents who have a rebellious child; the prodigal son had a godly father. But, looking at the big picture and statistics, those who are homeschooled in a Christian home where the parents really live out their faith – showing mercy and love to all and not just talking the talk or being Christians for show – the children will have a better chance of seeking and finding Christ than those thrown into who knows what in a public school arena. Think about it – if you place a newborn in a Muslim home, you can pretty much figure he will still be a Muslim as an adult. The patriarchs of the Old Testament would have thought that a no-brainer – they would have never considered letting their children be raised by the pagan peoples around them.
It so breaks my heart to see loving Christian parents who should be sacrificing all to give their children a real Christian education, taking the public school route because it is free and easy. If you have little ones or if you have school-aged children and you can create a safe, loving, wholesome Christian environment, please consider homeschooling.
A few years ago, I stood with some other Believers outside one of the nation’s most prestigious public schools in a very wealthy area. We were handing out Christian and pro-life literature. The parade of teens that came out of that revered institution – and what many of those teens said to us – was eye opening. Harry Potter-looking fellows with demonic T-shirts cursed us out. Scantily clothed girls gave us the bird. It was obvious in our conversations with them that many were post-abortive. High SAT scores, but innocence shattered. Minds blenderized. Souls lost. How did these kids ever get like this? It is all part of the public school culture that started with that first innocent bus ride at five.
If you are considering homeschooling and want to find likeminded families in your area, please contact Exploring Homeschooling.
Posted by: Considering Homeschooling