WHAT WOULD YOU DO? Your older child would enter the first grade next year, but you didn’t want her in the poorly-rated public school system she would be assigned when the time came. So you looked into a private school’s pre-first program at a nearby Christian academy—a school documented as academically excellent. The law requires taxpayers to pay for public schools! (Something new? Hardly. Did you know that the concept of tax-supported schools began in 1635? And the US Department of Education was established in the late 1890s.) As a taxed citizen, paying additional private school tuition on top of that was irritating at best. Powerless to do anything about that, we believed the additional cost for the Christian influence and proven academic enhancements would be worth it.
Like most young parents, we thought of no other options than to turn our children’s education over to “the professionals” without question because, well, that’s the way things are done. Both of my parents retired from the Fulton County (GA) Board of Education. It was in my DNA to drop off my kids at the schoolhouse door—to do the expected. And my parents wanted me to put their grandchildren in a public school although they didn’t interfere with our decisions! The unspoken message from practically everyone in our culture was/is, “You want your children to be normal and socialized properly, right? You want them to succeed.” And that can only be done in an institution of learning, right? So what would we do? We had the income, so we decided to try a year of Christian preschool for her and evaluate afterward what we should do next.
But life can bring challenges to parents and families, and we were certainly that now. We were about to learn that learning is a lifetime thing. As my friend and long-time coworker, Mario, reminded me through our work years together, “Wisdom comes with age; sometimes age comes alone.” My wife and I discovered that when the path isn’t clear, the wise (and panicked) must clear a path for themselves to travel. We saw that boys were favored over girls in the Christian school. Children are sensitive to this, though they often don’t know how to express it. We didn’t want our two girls to be trained the life script that somehow men are in charge, and, as females they should learn their place.
Beyond that, we saw no critical thinking skills training, rather, spoon-feeding. We observed though our daughters discussions during “Tell me about your day” time that, just like public schools, following rules emerged as more important than learning things like, say, ‘reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic.’ Lining up and marching to the restroom as a group when it is time for EVERYBODY to go—with no talking or chewing gum—was more important than going to the restroom when nature called. Having a little girl’s hippopotamus face turned incrementally toward a frown (for not following rules) turned out to be the most creative challenge our daughter had during her educational time, and she nailed that task with aplomb. No need to go on. There was plenty more!
When parents pay significant money for training, we expect results. I believe that is reasonable. When we didn’t get what we asked for, we received “the attitude” from the teacher (not in a mean way—it’s just that, “This is the way we do things.”) and eventually the administration condescended their ruling in official letter form. Cold. Formal. Evidently, WE didn’t understand the rules or . . . who rules. And we, like our children, were expected to comply. The professional is paid to run school, you see, and if you don’t teach there you are unqualified to demand. The church school wasn’t more excellent, except that somehow Jesus had something to do with their advertisements.
It was time for us to explore alternative educational opportunities.
My wife discovered a book written by a California couple,, Homeschooling for Excellence, written by David and Micki Colfax. Click on the link and get your copy! Not long afterward, they came to the Atlanta area (a large church in Fayetteville, GA hosted) and gave a lecture on what they had learned from homeschooling and stories/successes of their homeschooled children. Our journey is not documented—yet—but we are quite pleased with every outcome a parent would ever want. There is much behind that last statement, and best reserved for one-on-one discussions.
We began our homeschooling in1990. Homeschool resources were there if one diligently looked for them. Times have changed, true, but some things never change. Information is more available now than ever before. In our present era we are beginning to see disturbing things taught in schools, a disgust for God and his teachings, institutions requiring police and the ever-present danger of deadly violence—and, even more importantly, seeing the fruit of minds trained to blindly follow; to do what they’re told and don’t ask questions. “I will tell you what you need to know.” To parents, THAT is a most dangerous statement from (particularly) government-funded institutions of learning! Years ago, as a public service during the late evening news, television stations would pause and announce something like, "It's eleven o'clock; do you know where your children are?" Today I would announce, "It's school hours. Do you know what your children are being taught?" In public institutions, teachers now teach social dogmas developed by political movements or special interest groups. What if I do not wish for my children to be indoctrinated? I'll leave that discussion for another time.
At home, our children were taught to respect legitimate authority. Most parents do that. Parents are a legitimate authority. Because of this, kids in institutional learning situations can find themselves in a strange dilemma. They should be respectful to their teachers and other authorities. We want them well-mannered. We also believe the world needs strong leaders who ask excellent questions. What happens when the rules say, "It isn't question time," or their questions are handled as inappropriate or offensive to someone else? Again, what did WE do? Since we still lived in a free country and state that respects individual rights, we chose to clear our own path and know first-hand how our children were trained. And yes, part of our curriculum included the Bible.
The pandemic of 2020 (and beyond) has provided an opportunity for parents of school-aged children to see alternatives. Choices in the way we educate our kids are not the easiest paths to pick. But when, if ever, has the easiest path been the best? The Romans had a popular saying we would do well to consider in our time: Ad astra per aspera. It literally means, "To the stars through thorns" but was understood in its day as, "To exceptional through difficulties." Life brings difficulties to our children and us anyway. Why not train them with your wisdom, experience, and one-on-one expertise? No one knows them like you. No one knows how they learn like you, their parent. And no one will ever want them to succeed the way you will.
Thank you for your time. Check out Homeschooling for Excellence I recommended in this article—while you still have that option.
Epilogue:
End of January 2022. Flexibility is one of the hallmarks of schooling children at home. Homeschooled children and parents learn quickly the value of being organized to leverage their time and plan activities such that they can make the most out of every day. Doing so helps create a baseline for critical thinking skills and routine human life. We learn, for example, that we can reframe a simple trip to the food market into a time of learning about the family P&L, i.e., how to plan a budget and stick to it, practice simple math, how to discover value vs price, or learn how to find items we want to purchase and how to ask for help when necessary, also to make prudent choices about diet and nutrition, etc.
When my wife and I began our homeschool journey in1990, personal computers were just emerging. I still recall our first dialup internet service speed was 2400 bps! But in 2022, there are numerous services that offer GB speed and excellent search engines like Google that offer exceptional research capability.
One of the topics that I see need to be studied and understood well yet is not offered in secondary school learning is Civics. But there is a great need at this time in history for homeschoolers to become knowledgeable—not only of the rights and duties of citizenship—but of how our government works. How laws are made. How to communicate with state, local, and federal representatives.
Why? I’ll give one example as quickly as I can: The congress in my home state of Georgia has still not considered a way to eliminate or refund the school tax burden of homeschooling families. That is to say, they still must pay tribute (taxes) to public schools and then pay for their children’s education costs. It’s a travesty. I bring this up as I was listening recently to a pundit (who is a lawyer) and has a radio program and knows many of our state representatives. His simple explanation is that these representatives have no motivation to correct the wrong for homeschool families as they are married to public school teachers.
Do you see the opportunity? If you teach your own children, I wish you much success and want to encourage you, as I personally have seen the excellent results schooling at home has produced for our children. I’ve no doubt you will be well pleased as well. I would love to hear your stories! All the BEST, gary@mypericope.com
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