“My son’s turning five next month,” the young mom explained, “and I can’t afford all that kindergarten curriculum I saw in the catalogs. But my friend told me about this new charter school where they’ll give me $1100 and a free computer. She says lots of Christians are joining it.”
Innocuous comments from a confused parent? No. If she never hears the Biblical reasons to avoid government homeschooling, she will wind up creating a little public school in her home, impacting her children’s souls forever. On a larger scale, her actions will aid in the decimation of the Biblical homeschooling movement.
Considering Homeschooling, a homeschool evangelism ministry we started three years ago, reaches out to the new generation of homeschoolers, specifically the Christian parents of babies, toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners. From my view down here in the trenches, I can tell you without a doubt that this new generation of Christian homeschoolers will make or break the private Christian homeschooling movement. But really what is at stake here is not a “movement” – but the souls of millions of children.
This ministry also brings us in contact with private Christian homeschool leaders -- from the local to national level. The word out there is that not only has “government homeschooling” blighted large areas of California, but the private Christian homeschool movement in whole states is being wiped out.
The rapid fire pace at which this is occurring has caught most Christian homeschool leaders off guard. Some are still oblivious to the monumental changes that have already occurred in the landscape of homeschooling. Others are just waking up to the crisis. And those who do realize that we are in an emergency situation are usually not sure what we can do about it. Like deer caught in the headlights, are we just going to stand here, watching in horror as we get mowed down?
There’s really bad news – and really good news. The bad news is that Satan is more clever than we are. Let’s not hesitate to state the obvious -- government homeschooling is an ingenious ploy of the Enemy to herd those who would otherwise do Biblical homeschooling into a system that is designed to undermine the Christian worldview and to simultaneously strengthen the public school system – a system that is responsible for the destruction of the faith of countless children. The end result? Masses of Christian homeschoolers will be silent dependents on the educational dole. With the Christian homeschool movement effectively subdued, the rights of privately homeschooled Christians can be quashed.
But there is wonderful news – God is infinitely smarter than the Devil, and whenever the Enemy throws a hard ball, God provides a way for us to triumph. But like David before Goliath, God wants us to trust Him to win the battle – and to step out and let Him use us to do that. I’m going to share an exciting strategy for victory with you –- but before I do, I need to give you the full dose of reality:
“I have a one year old and a three year old. I’m thinking about homeschooling, but I am putting them in preschool first. All my friends have their kids in preschool – in fact, a lot of them started when their kids were newborns. They say their kids get cared for by child care experts who not only teach them their letters, but also potty train them for you! After all, those commercials say that kids who’ve been in preschool have better self esteem...”
By now you have all heard those awful preschool ads – they are all over radio, TV, in the newspaper. Based on faulty research and outright lies, they are sponsored by a liberal group that hijacked the Prop. 10 tobacco tax, providing them with millions of taxpayer dollars a year to make government-mandated and funded preschool a reality in California. This, coupled with their legislative attempts to lower the compulsory education age, presents a hefty threat to homeschooling.
A lot of the “pioneer” and subsequent generations of homeschoolers who are now homeschool leaders have little idea of the intense pressure that moms are under to put their kids in preschool. When I say “preschool” you might be thinking of a four year old. Nope. The pressure is on to put infants into day care, euphemistically called “preschool”.
What does the current psychological and legislative push for universal preschool have to do with homeschooling? Everything! A mom who institutionalizes her babies will be much more apt to continue them in “school”. She gets used to the break and she never learns to handle multiple kids at home at once, the child does not receive consistent and Biblical discipline from a day care center, and the mother-child bond is severely undermined. A disaster in the making. Despite her original intentions, homeschooling will most likely seem too much of a lifestyle change for such a mom when her children become school aged. Christian mothers are in desperate need of being taught the divine value in staying home to nurture their own babies.
Not to get you totally down, but these trends are happening while the majority of Christians still have their children enrolled in regular public school. With worldview surveys revealing that the majority of public schooled Christian children are losing their faith in Jesus by high school graduation – in contrast to Christian homeschoolers who keep the faith—an organized effort is needed to introduce parents to Biblical homeschooling. The Considering Homeschooling ministry has found a simple, effective way to do this.
These parents have only heard one side of the story – as Proverbs 18:17 says, “The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.” We need to get them to hear about Biblical education – and before they commit their child to a mistake.
In a nutshell, the strategy to reach this new generation is simply this: get to them first and get them to think Biblically. When we say “get to them first” this means we need to reach out to Christian parents before they are tricked into institutionalizing their children -- when their children are less than school age. Ideally, we need to get them into the Christian homeschool movement when their children are babies. Yes, you read that right – babies. Those with toddlers and preschoolers are also our target group.
Second, to get them to think Biblically about their child’s education, we expose them to experienced Christian homeschooling speakers at our monthly meetings, we get them to read books, web pages and articles written by Biblical homeschoolers, and we recruit them to go to the CHEA convention and local seminars by private Christian homeschoolers. We continually educate them on the truth about the two biggest temptations they face, day care and government homeschooling. For example, we make sure we get a copy of the CHEA brochure “Why Charter Schools Won’t Work” into the hands of every family that attends our meetings. In our weekly email updates, we always include information about why not to become involved in public schools, including public school homeschooling. We also provide field trips and other activities for “homeschoolers” with babies, toddlers and preschoolers. We bridge them to local support groups and ISPs when their children come of age.
After being in contact with hundreds of these families over the last few years, we have found that there is something absolutely amazing about this generation – they are the most responsive, teachable folks we have ever encountered. While their current thinking about education is grossly unbiblical, they are greatly convinced when they hear Scriptural truth applied to education – something they don’t get from their churches and the media. Once they are trained as to what Biblical home education is, there is no stopping them. We are already seeing the Lord raise up strong leaders from this group. The scary part is, most of them would have been lost to the world’s education system if we had not had an outreach to them.
I want to you understand the kind of fruit that the Lord is giving to those who are engaging in homeschool evangelism. Keep in mind that when even one family is ministered to in this way, the effect on their children will impact generations:
When we get to them when their children are babies, by the time their child is school age, they have been a part of the Christian homeschool movement for years, they have read more books on homeschooling than most older homeschoolers, they have learned from many experienced homeschoolers things like Biblical discipline and how to organize their home, and they have made solid friendships with other Christian homeschool-oriented families. They are confident – and their main focus is on their child’s soul, on teaching all subjects from a Biblical worldview. They can list for you all the reasons why they won’t go near a charter school. And they know what curriculum they want to use.
Contrast this with a family that joins the Christian homeschool movement when their kid is five – the child has most likely been in preschool part of the time, the child has usually not had Biblical discipline and is hard to handle, the parents demand that we “just tell us what curriculum to use” since they have no time for doing research, and all their friends are sending their kids off to school. They are not exactly sure what homeschooling entails, they believe myths like the “socialization problem” and they are filled with doubt. All they seem to care about is “academics”. If a charter school promises them some greenbacks, they jump at the chance.
Every Christian homeschool support group, ISP, state and national organization needs to put a serious and immediate focus on reaching this new generation of homeschoolers. Unless the private Christian homeschool movement takes decisive action now, most Christians will continue to hand their families over to those who hate God, and those who choose homeschooling will choose the world’s way. As we watch the ungodly steam roll America with homosexual marriage and all kinds of other curses, can we really wonder why there is no army to rise up against them? Realize that the children God gave His people, they allowed to be put under teachers and curriculum that destroyed their faith in Jesus. Each of these children became, as the Lord Jesus said, “like his teacher.”
I look forward to sharing more information about this generation and ideas to reach them with you at the XXIst Annual Leadership Conference at the convention in July.